I’ve been told if you never see the fish you hooked into, you get dramatic license to speculate as to its size and species. Mary Lee’s last ping was just outside of Charleston on 6/27. I’m saying its plausible she’s responsible for tonight’s broken rod…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8e_ATsylVA
Whatever it was spit the hook during the confusion of what to do next.
All you can do is point the reel at the fish and try to gain line when/if you can.
Lets you know immediately, just how important the physics of the rods’ stopping power is during the retrieve.
You were horsing it a bit, right? 
My friend once wedged a rod in a hole in a dock and we immediately joked how it would get destroyed before he could grab it. About a minute later the rod bent over, the drag screamed, the eyes popped off, the rod broke and the real ripped off the nub that was still stuck in the dock all in a blink of the eye, it was down right awesome.
17ft Key west
I could not help but notice that is not an Uglystik.
Oh yeah, iFly, I’ll admit to horsing it a bit. Just got a little excited!
Mikeyloo, you’re right, this was a 9’ Penn Spinfisher. I’m a lifelong Ugly Stik user and this rod was one of my rare strays from the brand. This was also my first fish-induced rod failure. That said, I’m looking at the Ugly Stik Bigwater rods as a replacement if anyone has any experience with these.
As for the report, my sister and brother-in-law are visiting from Illinois and wanted to go shark fishing. On the way to the beach, I told them about the OCEARCH site and Mary Lee. We got everything set up and the bait out (fresh croaker), and they asked how we’d know when we got a bite. I just said, “don’t worry, you’ll know.” Not five minutes later, the rod doubled over and the drag started screaming. I told my brother-in-law to grab it, but I think the violence of the take startled him a bit and he told me to take it. After fighting for about a minute, the rod snapped in two places. The shark was still on and taking line, but spit the hook while we were trying to figure out what to do. I’ve caught 6 blacktips between 4’-6’ on this rod/reel setup and this one felt substantially heavier and took more line than any of the others. I wish we could’ve landed it, but this makes for a good fish story, too.
I understand about straying from Uglystiks. I got a Penn Battle combo as a gift and I use it regularly, but I always go back to my Uglystiks.
Check out the ugly stick tiger lite jigging rods. I use them for big sharks and reds and they work fine. Economically priced also.
http://www.uglystik.com/Ugly-Stik?-Tiger?-Lite-Rod/1285731,default,pd.html
Charleston City Papers Best Guide of 2014
woops! id say yup you now have a license to blame mary lee and prove right any fish story you feel like telling. the only fish induced failure ive had was the tip of a lightning rod break on a 16" saugeye, but the fish before that was a 30"+ carp and im convinced that one was a lemon since ive landed many bigger fish than that with the same rod no problem. when i bought my 9/0 senator…ill give everyone 1 guess as to what kind of rod i put it on in the 40-80lb class for well under $100 
takes a beating just fine too!
Something tells me she isn’t interested in a croaker. Sure you weren’t really fishing with a 30 lb chunk of pilot whale?