Good friends, money not always a good combination

My fishing buddies and I get along for the most part. Oh sure, there is the good-natured ribbing when someone loses a fish, or makes a bad cast, or gets hung up and makes the rest of us stop fishing so we can go back and get his prized lure. But most of the time we enjoy ourselves and have a good time, whether we are catching fish or not.

I’m not too sure how well my friends would like it if one of us cost each of the others a share of a million dollars.

Not that that would ever happen around here. Unless we all went in on a Lotto ticket and won, and then one of us lost the ticket. Which, I guess, could happen in my circle of friends.

But it did happen in North Carolina a month or so ago.

Here is what happened: A group of guys were fishing in a prestigious marlin fishing tournament and they were lucky enough to catch an 883-pound blue marlin. That, in itself, is quite a reward. I mean, how many of us have caught a fish anywhere near that big?

I’m sure my medium/heavy steelhead rod would be a tad light for a fish of that stature, and I know I don’t have a net big enough for a behemoth like that.

But I digress.

After what I assume was a lengthy battle with the gargantuan fish, the team on the boat took their monster marlin in to have it weighed. At that point it was determined they had, indeed, caught the biggest marlin of the tournament and were the winners of the first prize monies equaling $999,453.

Cha-ching!

But wait. After considerable celebration there was deemed to be a minor glitch.

Because the prize money was so big, and because there have been some shenanigans in other big fish tournaments, all of the members of the million- dollar winning team had to submit to a lie-detector test to help verify the fish was caught under all of the rules and regulations of the tournament.

During the questioning in the post tourney lie-detector session it was determined one member of the team failed to purchase his $15 North Carolina fishing license prior to the tournament.

Tournament rules state that all team members must have a valid fishing license. And, because one of the members didn’t possess his license, even though he wasn’t the one who actually caught the winning fish, the team was disqualified and the prize money went to the second place team!

Now, how ticked would you be if your buddy either forgot, or was too tight to buy a license and because of this small infraction, it cost you a sizable chunk of change? My guess is he might just be left off of the Christmas card mailing list this year.

As it turned out, the guy did purchase his fishing license, but it was after they arrived back on the docks with the giant fish. That’s a no-no, no matter where you live.

Besides not getting his portion of the million-dollar first prize, and costing all of his team member fishing buddies their portion of the money, the big moment was tarnished even more when local law officials laid a little ink on the angler. He received a $35 fine for fishing without a license, and he had to pay court costs of $125 more. Ouch. Talk about salt in the wound.

We don’t have any of those big-dollar fishing tournaments around here. Sure, there are the local bass tournaments and walleye derbies, but none even come close to offering a $1 million first prize.

Which is probably a good thing, because no doubt there would be problems of all kinds popping up as anglers did what they could to grab that golden ring. The least of which would be failure to buy a fishing license — or so you would think.

I’m sure there is a moral to this story. Maybe it’s this: “If you are going to scrimp on $35 when you might win a million, you had better be a good liar.”

Or, more likely, this: “Obey the rules. You, and your friends, will be glad you did.”

• Rob Phillips is a freelance outdoor writer and partner in the advertising firm of Smith, Phillips & DiPietro. He can be reached at rwphillips@spdadvertising.com.