SFTP Message: Received message too long

Using sftp to access a remote server I had access to, I was presented with the below error message:

  prystasj@prystasj:~/workspace$ sftp somehost
  Received message too long 1231953966
  prystasj@prystasj:~/workspace$

However, I was able to ssh just fine:

  prystasj@prystasj:~/workspace$ ssh somehost
  In .bashrc
  In .bash_profile
  prystasj@somehost:~$

The key was that my login scripts, .bashrc and .bash_profile produced output as shown above, which was intentional as I was trying to once demonstrate the difference between a login and non-login shell to myself to see which files were sourced. After removing the output-producing commands from the files, I was able to sftp like normal.