Hanging on to the wrong end?

How many of you have done this I wonder?

Wading up to my waist last night my reel spool seemed to get jammed for some strange reason? I removed it and inspected it with my torch on red but couldn't see anything wrong. I put it back on but still it wouldn't turn. The second time I took it off I dropped it! Shit! There was no way I could reach down in 4ft of water and I was stood in a very wide section of the river so the bank was a long way away. To retrieve it I had to painstakingly draw all the line and backing off the reel before I could get the spool to the surface! Good job no one was watching!