Whilst fishing last Friday and just as it was just getting dark, whilst making a cast and changing direction something clonked into my rod halfway up and fell in the water. It just looked like a piece of weed not moving in the surface. Being a bright boy though and knowing that weed doesn't fly, I dipped my rod in to lift out and have a look at it. It started to move and I realised that it was a bat. It tried to grip my rod, so I pushed to towards the platform I was on. It half swum and half dragged itself across the surface and climbed up where it stayed. I had been told that bats need a four foot drop in order to take off so was concerned that it was only a foot above the water. When I tried to lift it however from it's drying point using the handle of my net, it took off no problem.

So have any of you knocked out a bat? Also is the impact likely to have damaged the blank of my rod?

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Location - Ospreylia

I've hooked a bat but never knocked one out. You would be very unlucky if the bat did any damage to your rod. It's got a soft body and it will have absorbed some of the impact. A lure on the other hand, particularly a gold head, can do some nasty impact damage if it collides with your rod.

BK