Too close?....let's see.....it was a number of years back. I was down in Seaside Park NJ.....a few hundred yards into Island Beach State Park. I went out at like 3 AM on a November morning. Being mostly a chunk guy, I set up on the beach and had one rod out with a chunk, the other plugging rod in a spike for when I decided I wanted to do that. All is well...caught a few small ones, etc. My stuff is up a bit on the beach, as the tide was coming in, but not that far up.
Come about dawn, these three guys in their early 20's come down. The were obviously still pretty well "lit" from the night before. So, they get there stuff together, walk RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME, and start casting plugs. The one guy, on his first cast missed my chunking line by about a 1/2". The other two are fumbling and tumbling around.
I tell the one guy "What are you doing? Can't you see I'm set up here? You missed my line on your cast by a 1/2", and if you hook up, you are definately gonna tangle with me" I get a dirty look.
Of course, his first cast he hooks up with a fish about 18". And of course crosses me and gets in a tangle....and then gets pissed at me!
We both reel in, fish flopping on the beach, our lines a mess, and he tells me to cut my line! I go down and unhook this poor fish, and send it on it's way. We are still tangled, and he's still asking me to cut my line. I told him "yeah, right", proceeded to untangle the mess. Meanwhile, his rod and reel are buried in the sand, he's sitting on the beach trying to untangle his backlash or whatever.
At that point, steam coming from my ears, I took my knife and cut off his rig, and left it in the wash. He gets PO'd "You cut my line!". I told him that he was lucky I wasn't a local, or his rod would have been broken in half over my knee, and tossed in the surf.
Aggrevated, I packed up my gear to head elsewhere up the beach. While doing that, I was watching him and his buddies, and as luck would have it, two of them get knoocked over by a wave, falling down drunk, and are soaked to the skin.
I walked away snickering.
Time wounds all heals........
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