# Stupid Move



## phfstuart (Nov 26, 2021)

I saw a post on here and it made me think of one of my dumber moves. Last spring I took my son on his first bonefish trip in the Bahamas. On the second day, we were off the skiff wading one of the flats. He and the guide were chasing a fish and I was flanked out to the side trailing behind.
This little lemon shark was pestering me. Swimming in close then turning away. I guess he did this 2 or 3 times. I wasn't scared of him, but I new I wasn't going to see any bones with this shark swimming around me. Finally, when he came in close again I slashed at him with my fly rod. Kind of whipped him. Problem was he got tangled in my fly line and bit the line in half about 20 feet from the end. ... I had no replacement fly line. 
The rest of the day, I shared my son's rod alternating shots at fish. We caught some fish, but I learned my lesson. Fortunately, one of the other guest at the lodge had a back up line which he kindly loaned to me for the rest of my trip. 
Anyone have any similar stories?


----------



## MikeChamp12 (May 17, 2021)

Not with a fly. But I was wading in the keys with my girlfriend. We were fishing big paddle tails. About 6 little bull sharks were making a stink so I decided to cast to one and it took my hook. My girl felt bad we could see the hook in its mouth swimming around so she cast to the same fish using the same pattern and it ate. She fought it till it got tired and was about to put a hand on it when it kicked one more time and cut the leader. Now the poor thing had two hooks hanging from its mouth. The shark was so wore out I ran over and grabbed the thing by the tail and took both hooks out and revived it and released.


----------



## Snagly (Dec 17, 2019)

Lots of Bahamas shark stupidity stories, but to start I'll say that in my experience the bones do bite even with sharks around. If you are fishing to big schools, it's rare that there aren't blacktips or perhaps lemons (or the odd bull) on the periphery. Once you have more than one in sight, it's tough for hooked bones to evade pursuit unless you back way off the drag.

One memorable dumb-dumb episode involved the guide and me fishing to a small group of 3lb-6lb bones that held in 2' on either side of a 6"-deep sandbar. 4'-6' blacktips circled the school: when they got close, the bones would skitter over the sandbar and the sharks would have to take the long way around. Because the fish were good-sized and we couldn't follow in the boat (same problem as the sharks), the guide and I got out to fish. I landed one 3lb'er in knee-deep water with the guide using his push pole to keep the big blacktip off the fish. The big bones paid us no attention and just kept feeding and moving back-and-forth as the tide bottomed. I had another fish on and after a long run on light drag, my plan was to horse him past the biggest shark and unhook (or break him off) in a hurry. Everything was going well until my guide yelled out, "Behind you!" Swimming up the blindside maybe 10' behind me and closing fast was a 5' blacktip. The fish was maybe 20' out and still resisting while the biggest shark was on its tail. The hook pulled, the bone dashed away and the sharks followed it. After that, we waded back to the anchored boat and decided to fish elsewhere.


----------



## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

My favorite shark story on the fly... was one I heard about at the old Tropical Anglers Club in Miami years ago... Back then everyone I knew was either chasing big fish on light gear (remember the old Miami Herald Met Tournament?) or trying and occasionally succeeding in setting world records - that club owned a bunch of them... 

At any rate it was a strong spring day - the wind that is.... and our intrepid angler was with a guide chumming up sharks to toss a fly at. Not little sharks either... A really good sized bull came up out of the channel, the angler made the cast and began stripping that big shark fly - with that bull right behind it - all the way to the boat - but it only struck just as the fly was nearing the rod top... You guessed it - the big fish not only ate the fly - it also ate about six inches of fly rod... and that was that... 
The big question at the club? Just how would he go about sending the rod back with a warranty claim... By the way my favorite shark fly.... is the exact same color as a regular Coast Guard approved - life jacket... Here's a pic








I call it the Bloody Rooster and at six to seven inches long it's like casting half a chicken -even with a 12wt rod...


----------



## kjnengr (Jan 16, 2018)

I have a story that blends the experiences of @phfstuart and @lemaymiami. A buddy and I were fishing some shallow ponds for redfish and came upon a 4 ft alligator gar. I cast a few times at the gar with no reaction. As the skiff was moving, we came within 9 feet of the floating fish. Being that I can't leave sleeping fish lie, I tapped the fish on the top of the head with the tip of my rod. 

Not taking too kindly to being rapped on the head, the gar lunged up and bit my rod tip. He broke 4" off the rod tip, but managed to bite on the fly line in the process and began to swim off without letting go. He took off and began ripping line out of my hand burning the line through my fingers. As he came tight, still holding on to the fly line, the fish swam to the other side of the skiff. Once he felt the resistance of me holding onto the fly line, something spooked the fish yet again and it jumped 2 ft out of the water. Up to that point, I had never had a fish that size jump out of the water, much less, so close that we could feel the splash from when it came down. 

Needless to say, I don't poke fish anymore no mater what it is. Thankfully, G. Loomis didn't ask any questions and replaced the tip on my CC GLX.


----------



## Drifter (Dec 13, 2018)

I was about 10 miles back on a SUPER windy day in the mountains, and was having a hard time casting. The water was crystal clear and you could see some really nice fish. I almost caught one on a streamer but ran out of line before he hit it, then further up I saw this monster, and I had already caught myself, pulled myself out of multiple trees and so on. I put a perfect cast on this fish and my streamer sinks down and I strip it and he nails it. I set. But a second to early. I just stared off in the distance and dropped my rod and grabbed my head. 

Well my reel hit a rock and broke right on the spool. No working reel and a ten mile hike back by myself to think about how stupid I am.


----------



## Brett (Jul 16, 2008)

I used to indulge in cheap flyrod antics....K-mart bargain bin all in one blister-pak fly combos.
Everything ya' needed, flyrod, flyline and a box of ridiculous "rust if you breath on 'em" bits of
fluff with hooks. My favorite entertainment was houndfish in extremely shallow water on the
grass flats of Shoal Point, east of the old Cutler Ridge Power Plant in Biscayne Bay.
Hard bottom made for easy wading and the glass minnow schools made for plenty of
needle and houndfish. Lure of choice was 4 inches of yellow polyester yarn surgeon knotted to 20 lb mono leader, no hooks. Didn't have to be quiet or sneaky and as long as the bit of yarn
was moving it would get slammed. Yarn would tangle in the beak/teeth and allow for catch and
release with minimum effort. Made for very enjoyable mornings of tailwalking tug of wars with
almost continuous action. Unless you caught the attention of the juvie lemon sharks that were
summoned by the thrashing. More than once a lemon would grab hold of a needle or houndfish
and take off. Gotta tell ya, those inexpensive flyrod combos with the plastic no drag reels and
no backing aren't really up to resisting a 25 to 40 lb lemon in ankle deep water as it headed for
the drop off.

Paid for an awful lot of replacement flyrods at the local K-marts.
Took some doing to gather up all the broken pieces of rods and reels from the sandbar.


----------



## jay.bush1434 (Dec 27, 2014)

Slow day redfishing in the marsh so my buddy pokes at a big blue crab with his fly rod. Crab grabbed the rod tip with a claw and broke the rod tip clean off. Scratch one Hardy Zeph rod...


----------



## Fliesbynight (Mar 23, 2020)

Ok, here's my stupid move from years ago. It was one of those learning moments that is funny now.

In this area, you need a 4x4 to drive on the beach and my brother and I were fishing in a state park so beach access is limited. It was a perfect fall morning. Low gentle swells, moderate temperatures and you could actually see the stripers chasing peanut bunker in the rollers backlit by the rising sun. Sight fishing in this area is a memorable event and blind casting is the norm.

I had already landed two shorts so I was set up, line in the stripping basket and fly in hand, ready for a quick toss when I saw a cow sliding in from my right, just cruising and looking for a snack about 50' away. Line went into the air, two false casts to make sure I was on target and laid it out 10' in front of her and about 5' further out. Two strips, she charged my fly and it was on. I don't know if I anticipated the strike or she just missed the hook but the rod bent and then went slack. I watched the fly come up as pretty as if I was lifting it for a cast but on the wrong trajectory. I lowered my head to try and take the impact on my hat when felt the fly slam into my face. There was no pain at all but when I tried to pull the fly out of my moustache (thought I had lucked out), my upper lip went with it. Schucks and other comments.

I walked over to his truck and tried to back the fly out by looking in the sideview mirror. No good. The 1/0 hook was sunk halfway into the bend. The lip is too meaty for the push-down-and-back trick. I was holding the rod under my arm, so to get the full use of both my hands, I called my brother over to hold the rod while I worked. That was mistake #2. I should have cut the fly off but, well, I didn't. He turned when he saw birds working over bait and yanked the fly and my lip. I said Bad Words.

Neither of us could work the hook back out so I settled on the only other thing I could think of: Shove the point all the way through and cut off the barb. That hurt a bit but he cut the barb off and finally backed the hook out of my face. Through all of this, I am also fending off a stream of comments from my brother, most of which made me laugh and that only made matters worse.

He actually did the concerned thing and asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital for stitches. Hell, no I didn't want to go. This fish were here and co-operating. We stay and fished. I spit blood all over the beach for a while and wound up with a huge fat lip that I had to explain to my wife. We caught some nice stripers and had a good time anyway.

As I said, it was a learning moment. Since that incident, I have mashed the barb of every hook for every fly I fish. I also learned to be more patient in setting the hook.

I thought that was the end of the incident, except for the memory and some new fishing wisdom until I got a hockey goalie mask from my brother for Christmas with the fly glued in the correct position (he kept it, unbeknownst to me). I still haven't paid him back but his time is coming.


----------



## MikeChamp12 (May 17, 2021)

@Brett I still call it Cutler Ridge too.


----------



## captgeorge (Jan 2, 2022)

Always bring extra fly lines and rods. Reels rarely malfunction but lines and rods usually do. Just my.02


----------



## redchaser (Aug 24, 2015)

Poking a large blue crab with your fly rod can result in the tip being snapped off. Also on multi day trips that are far from home a backup push pole is a good idea.


----------



## finbully (Jan 26, 2013)

I was 8 years old, in fact it was my 8th birthday. My dad and I were on a head boat out of Charleston, SC when I caught a puffer fish. I was very intrigued about this spiny fish with a beak of a mouth that was on the deck all puffed out. The deckhand told me not to touch the fish because of that beak. Well the next thing you know there’s a chunk of meat gone from my left thumb that you can see missing to this day. While that was dumb of me and I’m sure I cried at least a bit, I believe that event was what got me hooked on saltwater fishing in particular. Which if you added up all of the money I’ve spent on my addiction surely seems dumb to many folks (present company excluded) too.


----------



## BM_Barrelcooker (May 4, 2011)

A Buddy of mine and I were drifting across a bar/flat with good current and clear 2-3’ of water. 
we kept spooking redfish as we drifted and we started seeing a lot of bull sharks so I got my 10weight out.

one big one got pretty close and I stripped it right in his face and he ate it. I was into the backing in two seconds. 
I was trying my best to slow him down and turn him when he turned on his own. 150-180#’s .

as he turned and came towards us I couldn’t get the slack line in fast enough. The backing got wrapped around my rod and he turned again. He snapped the rod then spooked me and the backing broke when It got to the bottom of the spool.

and it all happened so fast.


----------



## redchaser (Aug 24, 2015)

Fliesbynight said:


> Ok, here's my stupid move from years ago. It was one of those learning moments that is funny now.
> 
> In this area, you need a 4x4 to drive on the beach and my brother and I were fishing in a state park so beach access is limited. It was a perfect fall morning. Low gentle swells, moderate temperatures and you could actually see the stripers chasing peanut bunker in the rollers backlit by the rising sun. Sight fishing in this area is a memorable event and blind casting is the norm.
> 
> ...



Your brother is a true blue fisherman to get so excited at seeing birds that he reflexively tries to cast the fly that's buried in your lip.


----------

