Bull Redfish Pulls Rod Holder Off of Ice Chest, Son Goes Off Pier After It

[MathGeek]

Bull Redfish Pulls Rod Holder Off of Ice Chest, Son Goes Off Pier After It

There comes a time when every dad realizes that he's now got a spry athletic teenager rather than a tender tween. My son and I debated whether or not self-tapping screws would be strong enough to hold the rod holders to the ice chest or if we needed to make a trip to the hardware store for machine screws that could be held on with a washer and nut on the back side. The big redfish we were catching last week taught us we had made the wrong choice.

Due to stiff S winds stirring up the surf, when the rod holder failed and the bull redfish pulled the rod into the water, we were on the boat dock just N of the ferry fishing the ship channel rather than on the beach. I was sitting in the car escaping the drizzle and talking with my wife while my son was fishing on the dock and jumped off the pier after the rod (they are expensive).

I hadn't realized that there were horizontal boards at the waterline, I just saw my son jump off the end and assumed the worst. When I ran out, my son handed me the rod with the bull redfish still fighting and proceeded to climb back up. He had managed to save the rod from a watery grave without getting anything more than his feet wet. Time to beef up those rod holders!