My brother-in-law and I were on a bed of crappie several years ago. The fish were holding under a willow tree and we had to shoot the lines under the branches. He went to set the hook on one and missed, his line tangled in the tree and broke off at the tip of his pole. We paddled into the tree, he retrieved his line and let the jig fall in the water. As he was pulling the line back in another fish hit his jig. He pulled the fish in and when I realized what had happened he just laughed at me. I told him he couldn't do that again if he had too. I was wrong. He preceeded to drop the line back in the water, still holding the line in his had and bam he caught the biggest crappie of the day. Then he tied the line back on his pole. We still laugh about that every time we get in a boat together.
Birddog,
I pray that I may live to fish until my dying day. And when it comes to my last cast I then most humbly pray. When in the Lord's great landing net and peacefully asleep. That in His mercy I be judged, BIG ENOUGH TO KEEP.