A cell phone began singing a catchy tune, while we were fishing many miles out at sea. At first, cell reception at sea seems to surprise people. On a fishing trip, a cell phone going off usually elicits a comment from a fellow angler like, “Throw that thing overboard. We’re fishing.”

Fact is, we often get cell phone reception even at the Channel Islands. Well, on the front side anyways. The backside doesn’t get reception, and I’m going to call that one of the reasons why I enjoy the back (south) side of the islands.

Here is how this particular phone fumble went down. The somewhat embarrassed owner of the agitated phone switched his fishing rod to his other hand and dug into the pocket of his fishing jacket. It was a two-finger extraction, destined for disaster.

His two cold fingers lost their grip, and the phone bounced on the gunwale of the boat, threatening to take the plunge. The owner grabbed for it, and in the process he bumped hard into the person fishing next to him causing that person to lose his grip on his fishing rod. This was a case of foibles all around.

Everyone on board watched in disbelief while the phone and the fishing rod (he was using one of my fishing rods, by the way) splashed into the sea. The rod sunk out fast, but the phone went down slowly, though too fast to save with a long-handled net (we tried valiantly) and undulated erratically in the water as we all watched sadly.

First there was silence. Then there was a pandemonium of laughing, cursing, name calling and shoulder-slugs. The guy let me know that he would pay for the replacement of my lost rod and reel. Cool… that’s about $450. Losing the phone bummed him out because he hadn’t copied down all of his contacts. (Note to everyone: Always back up your contacts list!)

My suggestion was, “Someone call his cell phone quick! If a fish answers, ask to speak to his granddaddy. Then make a deal with the big fish, ‘If you will bite the bait on the lost rod and swim up here so we can haul up the rig, we promise not to fillet you. And if you bring up the phone in your teeth, we’ll give you the biggest sardine in the bait tank.”

I’ve seen way too many phones dropped into the sea from boats. I’ve also seen them go off piers, into lakes and streams and even over a waterfall once. What gets griped about the most is lost contacts and text messages.