Its actually fairly common among a number of guides I know up there, I always had a rod ready but never had to use it.
A guide I worked with once tied a buoy off to a rod and tossed it over while he was fighting a large butt, came back to the rod and ended up reeling in the largest king of the year for the resort, 64 lbs. He swears to this day, he was sure he had doubled up on big butts.