Love this! The 3 worse for me when I was fishing someone is they got it caught on the TM prop several times, trim tab and on the prop.
For non-flyline mishaps, the worst thing that ever happened to me is back about 20+ years ago I was fishing a guy from TX that was a bass guide and a conventional fisherman. He insisted he wanted to catch a giant tarpon by any means possible. Back then, we had a no-moon night and the giants were eating in Boca Grande Pass at night. We were in the flats boat but the weather was rough and sporty in that pass, with 4ft peaks on the waves at times with a 30mph wind and a hill tide blowing all the water from Charlotte Harbor out that pass. So winds and waves were colliding in the pass. Probably the roughest I've ever experience there in all the years I've fished it.
He insisted he was going to use his rod he bought to giant tarpon fish the TX coast, which had about 400yrds of 130lb test Spiderwire spun up on it (apparently, he didn't want to loose a fish). We were drifting baseball bat size ladyfish thru the pass and actually hooked a few good ones, including he had a monster that I estimated went about 180lbs up right near the boat and it straighten out a heavy Owner hook before I could grab the leader. So I re-rigged him and set off to start another drift.
So here's the fun part.... The wind started howling (maybe 35mph+) and the tide was ripping so fast, that it spun the boat around to the side and we were taking some water over the gunnel. I told him to reel in and I'll put the motor in gear and spin the boat back in place and told him this was the last drift. So as I had the OB in neutral, I watched to make sure he had the bait reeled in, then I goosed the 200 VMax and starting doing a long turn to nose the boat into the wind. What I DIDN'T realized, is he hit his free spool and that 130lb test braid started spinning around the prop so much and so tightly, that it locked up that big outboard and shut us down (maybe 50yrds of it). Meanwhile, the tide was blowing us out to sea in pitch dark blindness, in one of the nastiest passes and in the nastiest conditions ever, on a low profile 20ft flats boat. He insisted that I didn't "cut" his "expensive" Spiderwire. And so, I spent the next 15 mins hanging over the outboard, in pitch black darkness while the raised motor was bouncing up and back underwater while I was hanging over the back of the motor, being dunked head first (in giant shark waters I might add) trying to unwrap his precious line from around the prop. (it almost felt like I was riding a bull backwards and upside down being dunked in a tank of water each time his rear legs hit the ground!)!
Finally, I reach back by the center console, grabbed the filet knife, looked at him with "that look.....
" and proceed to cut that shitzzit off the prop.
People who know me knows that I'm a very easy going guy, intense fisherman, but relaxed. But THAT day was "
one of those days" and I don't think I said another word to him after that.
Ted Haas