Taking Your Labrador Retriever Fishing

The first year I had my johnboat, I took Libby, my black Labrador retriever, fishing with me at Lake Musconetcong. 

Fortunately, I was not too serious about fishing that day because Libby took to the lake like she had canvasback in her A.K.C. lineage. 

All Labrador retrievers, Libby included, have webbed feet and what is described as an otter tail that acts like a rudder to help them swim. 

I should have realized Libby would enjoy the water and mud, after all, Labradors are used to retrieve ducks from half frozen marshes in winter. 

Libby was having the time of her young life. 

I regretted showing her, or, I admit, throwing her, out of the boat and into the water. 

I tried to row away from her but she swam faster than I rowed. 

When she climbed into the boat, she got even with me for trying to leave her behind. 

I remember seeing a doggy boat ramp in a catalog, but I hadn’t ordered it. 

Libby got her monstrous front paws on the side of the boat and looked at me to help get the rest of her seventy pounds of fat, smelly, wet dog into the boat. 

How could I resist that look? It was the same look she used on me at the puppy store to make me pick her out above all the other pups.

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It's Not Where You Fish, It's The Bait You Use

My friend Stinky used to catch all the fish. I never got many bites besides the ones from insects.

All I ever wanted to do was catch a fish, then throw it back without getting too much fish slime on me or my clothes.

Stinky was the fisherman among us. He had learned everything he knew from his Uncle Harry. With what Uncle Harry taught Stinky, he put a kernel of corn on the hook, cast it in the water and caught a trout.

Or Stinky sliced a bit of liver from a stash in his mom's old Tupperware container, put it on the hook, cast it out, and, wham, another trout.

There were times, I swear, that Stinky could put a hook in one of my old G. I. Joe dolls and catch a lunker.

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