Tuesday morning was filled with promise. We were on our way to my favorite alpine lake, north of McCall, Idaho. The day was overcast, good for fishing. The walk in was just over one mile. And we had an early start.

Somewhere about 3/4 of the way to the lake Mikey realized that he didn't have his rod and I didn't have it, either. He ran back to the truck. I waited with my faithful companion, Champ.

Champ is my three-year-old yellow Lab. For the past three summers Champ has accompanied me to the mountains of central Idaho.

Once Mikey returned it didn't take us long to be in the lake ready to fish. Actually, Mikey is much faster than me at getting into the lake. Champ hates to sit on the shore, so he swims.

Well, I was a bit slower than Mikey. Champ followed him into the lake. My back was turned and after just a few seconds Mikey was yelling at Champ, threatening to kill him. I could tell by Mikey's tone of voice that he wasn't kidding. I turned to see what had caused this altercation.

I saw the tip of Mikey's fly rod poking up out of the water. The other 8 feet and the reel were obviously submerged. Champ was swimming away from Mikey's float tube with a paw wrapped in Mikey's fly line. Mikey lunged for the rod tip, just catching it before it would have sank out of sight. I could see by the look on his face that he was still agitated.

Then I laughed. I pointed out to Mikey just how ironic it would have been for him to run all the way back to the truck only to lose his rod in the first few seconds on the lake. By that time he had his hands firmly on the grip and had recovered both his rod and a bit of his sense of humor.

This only points out that there is no such thing as a good fishing dog. Yes, they make great companions, as long as you don't try to bring them along on a fishing trip.

Over the course of four fishing days Champ was in the way an untold number of times. He tried to round us up and get us back to shore at every opportunity. He jumped into the stream right where we were trying to fish. He did this often. He stepped on my fly line when I was fishing from shore. He tangled in my fly line as he swam by my float tube. He did this many times. He never seemed to get tired of being in the way.

Champ tried hard to make my fishing life difficult. Still, we caught fish. He is a great dog, just as long as you don't have to take him fishing........
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