stlhdh20,

Hopefully you are seeking discussion not and justification here. Only you can know if this was the safe or wise thing to have done. And if you didn't know it at the time, I hope that you know by now, especially if others are floating with you.
I am sure all of us have found ourselves in some very compromising, difficult or otherwise just plain bad situations before. Some perhaps that we would certainly not want recommend to others or ever want to repeat. I know have been there one too many times myself. One thing I do know is that any captain worth his salt would never intentionally put others, his craft or himself in harms way without accessing the need to take such risk. I quess your question comes down to whether getting first water or catching a fish is worth such risk.

Maybe instead of a Piscatorial Pursuit decal, we should have one made up that says "WWBD" (What would Bob do?).