Caught a fish... 5 days later

Had some kids over at the house last weekend and had a pole out with a hotdog on it for the catfish. Well nobody's watching and the pole goes missing! oops. Of course I looked all over for the pole, tried to snag the line but no luck. Just today, five days later, I see a fish swimming around about 20 feet out from the dock but not going anywhere. He starts fighting some invisible force and I think there's my pole! I jumped in the lake and swam under the fish, grabbed my line and pulled the cheap rod/ reel out of the water. Then came the catfish, not much of a fish really, about 3 pounds, but he was healthy, not tangled in the line at all. I popped the hook out and he swam away. All is good again :)

Note. I was always told that hooks would readily rust out in a fish's mouth. This hook was not rusted, looked brand new. Line was 10lb fireline.

Neat little story there, I just got done cutting up some hotdogs to soak in garlic powder for a while. Going give it a try sometime this week I hope.

we were catching one about every 5 minutes before the scoundrel ran off with the works. We were using plan raw dogs. I have marinated them in strawberry cool-aid & garlic before and it does seem to work. Good luck to you!