Thanks for the comment Cobolt! There are quite a few bugs so I am not surprised you ran into one. It happening twice is a surprise though... unlucky I guess. Anyways, the physics for the rod was a bit of a struggle to get right. The rod itself uses inverse kinematics.
The rod bends from the tip load generated by line tension. The line is a chain of point with adjustable-length constraints, advanced with Verlet integration. Because tension can point in any direction, forces are computed per segment of the line and summed at the ends to get the tip load. That tip force drives the rod-bending inverse kinematics. I solve in both directions so force also get applied to the lure. I did a few extra cleanup steps to have the line straighten out faster. I wouldn't recommend doing something like this for a jam... It took almost 600 lines of code and I spent days writing the script... In addition to the rod bending I also had a rotation script that uses the tip force to determine the max allowed angle of the rod. Meaning more force = more angle