This story came to me by way of a reader, Jason McFadden, the dude who lost his finger during a battle with a massive shark during a fishing tournament in Ocean City, Maryland. After seeing yesterday’s article about the dude in Mexico that lost out on a yellowfin tuna world record because he prematurely chopped up his fish Jason decided to send in his story, and it’s a pretty good one. Before we get to him losing a finger though let’s check out pictures of the swordfish weighing just below 200-pounds that was good enough to earn Jason and the rest of the crew a win worth $15,000+ in the annual Ocean City Big Fish Classic (this took place last Summer):
So here’s this dude’s story, and there’s a bonus pic at the bottom of him and his lax bros ‘rat fishing’ using their lacrosse sticks. via MDCoastDispatch:
The Big Fish Classic features boats and teams of anglers fishing in one of two 32-hour windows with the largest fish of any species taking home the top prize. When Captain Austin Ensor and the crew on the “Sea Prowler,” a 1967 31-foot Bertram owned by David Bradley, set out early last Friday morning for its overnight trip in the tournament, they didn’t anticipate the ups and downs they would experience over the next 37 hours.
Around 4 a.m., the crew hooked up another big shark, estimated at around 200 pounds, but the shark exacted a little revenge on behalf of the sea against the “Sea Prowler” crew, which had enjoyed a wildly successful first 24 hours. Ensor said the shark made a run at the vessel’s bow. McFadden was standing in the cockpit with his hand on the rail when the shark made a dash at the boat and the wire caught his hand and “took the greater part of the tip of his finger off like it was hot butter,” according to Ensor.
“I saw it coming and tried to stop it, but it was too late,” he said. “Jason lost the tip of his finger and I got some slashes across my hand from the wire, but my injuries weren’t nearly as severe as Jason’s. So we were standing there bleeding all over the deck and we could see the bone in Jason’s finger. We tried to look for the finger to no avail and now it’s somewhere in the Washington Canyon.”
“He was starting to lose feeling in his hand and was turning white and was in a lot of pain, so the only thing to do was start to head in,” said Ensor. “I was really concerned about infection and the cockpit of an offshore fishing boat isn’t the healthiest environment for an angler that just had his finger ripped off, with fish and blood all over the place, so I made the decision to get in and get him medical attention.”
They hauled ass back to shore, running 2.5 hours in, Jason went to PRMC in Salisbury to get his hand fixed up. The crew then filled up on ice and gear and went back out, eventually hauling in enough fish to take home the top prize in last year’s annual Ocean City Big Fish Classic. This bro can sleep well at night knowing part of his finger floated to the bottom of the ocean and probably helped fatten up a baby grouper or snapper, the circle of life and all that. Anyways, here’s that rat fishing pic I was telling you about:
That’s a damn fine fishing story right there. If any of you bros ever want to send in your best fishing stories you can fill out the ‘TIP OFF‘ line here on BroBible and/or hit me up on Twitter!