Your Worst Day of Fishing

[Ol Pedro]

Originally Posted by CODCHALY

Old Pedro is a Trip. Legendary, like Bat Matterson of Fishing.
I never even heard of that Trip He Posted.

Charlie, surviving a long time and being a legend are two different things. You told me that I could write a book. That was the short version of what happened. It would take two chapters just for that incident , what led up to it, and what happened afterwords. I keep telling myself to write it all down in a book now that I'm retired.

[Duffman]

Holy **** Pete that’s gotta be the craziest shit I’ve ever read!!!!

Just curious…. Who pays for the air lift ? Your med ins ? Theirs? That’s shit can’t be cheap !!

[Ol Pedro]

Duff, the Coasties don't charge for rescues. In the begining my work insurance covered part of it. It didn't get me far. On my third visit to an Oral Surgeon he informed me that " My insurance was tap city" and I would have to pay cash to continue treatment. I called my sister Sylvia who was a lawyer and she gave me her lawyers ph#. I called him, he came to my house, took my case, made one call to the Surgeon , and I was set to go back. He also said that he had all the medical personnel that I needed and he would set me up if I chose. I should get to healing and not worry about a thing. I called the Surgeon and told him that his services were no longer needed and to send my records to my Lawyer. Two days after the wreck the boats insurance co started calling the house. I couldn't understand why the Capt. or anyone other than a lawyer ever even tried to contact me to see how I was doing. I saw 25-30K in hospital bills that I passed off to my Lawyer. I also had Dental/Oral. Surgeon work for around two years. Ultimately we settled out of court and I got 46K after everything. Their fault they pay.

[BigRock44]

Took a vacation to the Cayman islands a while back with my wife, daughter and friends. Decided we would rent a boat and spend the first half of the day all together, then me and Al (my wife's friend's boyfriend) would drop all the girls/women off and spend the 2nd half of the day fishing. Boat was a 26 foot center console and VERY expensive to rent - this guy i think was the only show in town so he was getting top dollar, but we figured what the hell, let's do it. Spoke to guy on the phone and set it all up, and was told we would be responsible for any damages. Wasn't too thrilled about that but figured I'd be careful driving the boat and what could go wrong?

Had a nice day out with everyone and soon enough it was time to go fishing! Dropped off all the girls/women. Been waiting for this moment for days now and off we went out past the barrier reef and the drop off, into the blue water. We cut the engines and drift. 15 minutes into fishing and Al boats a nice spanish mackerel. I've got my line in the water waiting for something to hit and turn to Al and he's not looking too good. Looks pale and says he feels like he's gonna toss his cookies. Dammit! I can't believe this, we just got out here and there goes our fishing trip. He says he'll try to tough it out, but not wanting to torture the poor guy, I make the decision to head in. Go to start the engines and when I turn the key the whole key ignition falls back into the console. WTF?!!! Finally able to fish it out, got the boat started and we head back in. Getting closer to the dock and we hear a bang come from the back end of the boat. Another WTF moment. I throw it in neutral and we go to the back of the boat to take a look and see the swim ladder is still down. Must've just banged against the transom as we were running we thought, so we put it back up and throttled back up but one of the engines was revving real high. Hmmm, that's weird. Ah well, we were almost back so I throttled that engine down and we eventually tied up to the dock.

Guys come with trailer to get boat and Al says he'll go back and settle up with them while I pack the stuff from the boat on the dock into the car. Before I know it he comes back in a panic and says they found something wrong with the boat and we need to go back there immediately. Get there and the owner says the lower unit on one engine is severely damaged. Oh crap. Trying to negotiate with the owner the cost of repairs I sense Al getting tense/nervous and before I know it Al bursts out and says "Can we just give you a thousand dollars and call it a day!" In disbelief he blurted that out and before I could get another word in the Owner says "Sure!"

Turns out we hit a coral head. Ended up costing us two thousand dollars that day for rental/repairs.

[Gumada]

Back when I was a young buck, a few friends and myself played cards drinking homemade wine all night. One of the guys gets this great idea to jump on a party boat out of belmar to do some fluking. Get there, get on and out we go. There was a slow significant swell that day, nothing crazy. We fished, I didn’t feel my best as I would expect. It was the Big Mohawk I believe that gave free hotdogs to the fares. Well once I got a whiff of those hotdogs I projection puked the rest of the day, never have I hurled like that until then or since. Only time I ever got sick at sea. Hit the dock felt fine and stopped at the diner on the way home.

[Capt Sal]

Originally Posted by Gumada

Back when I was a young buck, a few friends and myself played cards drinking homemade wine all night. One of the guys gets this great idea to jump on a party boat out of belmar to do some fluking. Get there, get on and out we go. There was a slow significant swell that day, nothing crazy. We fished, I didn’t feel my best as I would expect. It was the Big Mohawk I believe that gave free hotdogs to the fares. Well once I got a whiff of those hotdogs I projection puked the rest of the day, never have I hurled like that until then or since. Only time I ever got sick at sea. Hit the dock felt fine and stopped at the diner on the way home.

Big Marie S was the hot dog boat.

[Pennsy Guy]

Originally Posted by Ol Pedro

Charlie, surviving a long time and being a legend are two different things. You told me that I could write a book. That was the short version of what happened. It would take two chapters just for that incident , what led up to it, and what happened afterwords. I keep telling myself to write it all down in a book now that I'm retired.

Pete, WRITE IT--Key West, San Diego, here. Everything! That'd be a volume and a great read. Learned so much from you and you never realized you were teaching!!!

[Ol Pedro]

Originally Posted by Pennsy Guy

Pete, WRITE IT--Key West, San Diego, here. Everything! That'd be a volume and a great read. Learned so much from you and you never realized you were teaching!!!

It's a two way street Chuck. We feed off each other. You have a goldmine in your journals. You could print them. My grandson Chris is helping me get the right program and a way to print/store it.

[Pennsy Guy]

Originally Posted by Ol Pedro

It's a two way street Chuck. We feed off each other. You have a goldmine in your journals. You could print them. My grandson Chris is helping me get the right program and a way to print/store it.

But mine have some fantasy or a mixture of various trips in them and written out of boredom when the snow flies...some are all fantasy... You have lived it all!!
I just go on "Word" with a blank page, start and see where it leads...print it and file it with the others..At any rate, have fun with the memories.

[beachwhistle]

Last Friday!