My wife and I took the dog to the Des Plaines River for a late afternoon ride. The plan was for her to relax and for me to fish a little bit.
We went to the first spot and saw a sunken boat. It was a small aluminum row boat that was heavily damaged and and had a least one hole in the hull that we could see where it was sticking out above the water line. I didn't catch a thing there even though we saw plenty of shad around.
Sunken boat floating in an eddy
We went to the next spot and I had a couple of good hits pretty quick, but no hook ups. I spotted a bird sitting on a branch right above the water line and asked my wife to take a couple pictures of it. As she picked up the camera, the bird jumped into the water and ran about halfway across before it stopped and started swimming.
The Bird that could walk (or run )on water
At this point the dog saw it too. He was intrigued that it could run across the top of the water and he thought if the bird could do it, so could he. He jumped over the side and disappeared out of sight under the water. It was the longest three seconds of our lives. It seemed like forever but he came up and started swimming along side the boat. He swam to the back of the boat where my wife was calling him to the swim platform and we were able to get him out of the water fairly quickly. Bear is a very good swimmer and loves to swim in the pool at home. Good thing!
The Dog who thought he could walk on water
The air temperature was in the mid 60s and falling so the poor wet dog was getting cold and started to shiver so we dried him as best we could and my wife put my jacket on him. He was fine then. After we got home my wife gave him a good bath.
And did I mention all I caught was an 8 inch Smallmouth and 3 inch Shad?
You gotta' give it to the dog for making an effort to "Walk on water". Silly dog! I am happy that he is a good swimmer, though. Sometimes it is not the fishing that makes the trip or is filed in the memory bank.
ReplyDeleteBill - That's a great picture of Bear in the jacket!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, came across your site from a feature on Mel's Idaho Fishing Notebook. Plan on checking back frequently.
I remember my dog's first experience with water. She too tried to run on it, when she came back up she had already turned around back towards shore.
ReplyDeleteThanks to Mel for pointing me to another Illinois fishing blog. You'll find a link on my blog.
I found you through Idaho Fishing Notebook. You have a great blog here and I have added you to my blogroll.
ReplyDeleteTight lines