Now that Brisky Bear had successfully landed his first fish, it put a little more pressure on Trooper Dog to do the same. He sat on top of the Scotty down-rigger and diligently watched the tip of the rod for the telltale movement that might signal a fish biting the bait. Brisky, feeling that he was now the resident fishing expert, kept saying "There's a bite!", whenever there was a slight movement of the rod tip, but Trooper stared carefully at the rod tip and would say "No, not yet. That was just some weeds touching the line", or "No, it just moving because Uncle Matthew just started turning the boat".
Trooper never took his eye off the rod tip. Even when a big wave came over the back of the boat and splashed him, he didn't budge one little bit. If that rod tip moved, he was going to see it.
Suddenly, there was a loud bark and Trooper yelled "Fish on!" so loudly that I'm sure that the other boat's nearby heard it. I nearly jumped out of my boots, it was so sudden. Even Brisky didn't see it. We all looked at the rod tip and, sure enough, there appeared to be a very small, but very true "fish twitch" happening. "Are you sure?" I asked. "Yes!" Trooper yelped, "Hurry, Grandpa!"
I quickly put Trooper into my shirt with his head sticking out so he could see all the action up close. Unlike Uncle Andy, I didn't have a pocket in my shirt to put him in. I grabbed the rod out of the holder and wound the reel in a few times to take up the slack and pointed the rod tip down low so that it touched the water.
"Ready?, Trooper asked. "Ready", I said in response. "Okay, set it!" Trooper yelled and I pulled the rod back hard and set the hook deep into the fish's mouth so that it wouldn't come out easily. The hooks we use have to be barbless, so a good "set" is important. Up until that point, there was very little evidence that a fish was even on the line since all we saw was a little "twitching" movement of the rod tip. But, as soon as I set it, the reel started peeling off line as the fish tried to get away.
Brisky yelled "Yippee!", but Trooper remained quiet and focused. The fish kept pulling line and rather than coming up to the surface, it went down deep. "Might be a Spring" Trooper said very matter-of-factly, "it's going down instead of up". "Is the tension set properly?"
"Yes", I said "The tension is good and you might be right about it being a Spring". I was surprised that Trooper knew so much. He is a very observant dog and paid good attention when we were playing the other fish. Normally, a Coho salmon comes up to the surface and tries to flip and dance and hopefully have the hook come out of it's mouth, but a Chinook salmon (Spring and King are its other names) tends to go deep and pull hard.
In time, the fish stopped pulling hard and started to come up. I played it a few more times as it pulled line to get away from the boat. Unlike Brisky Bear, Trooper Dog was fairly quiet the whole time. He focused on the rod tip and the most he said was "Whoa, watch out!", when the fish turned from the boat and took off for another run.
Finally the fish came close to the boat and Uncle Matthew got the net ready. "Are you going to coach Matt on how to net the fish, Trooper?", I asked.
"Pshaw!", Trooper whispered, "Uncle Matthew has forgotten more than we'll ever know about netting fish".
A minute later and the fish was in the net and then in the boat. We were overjoyed at getting a small, but fat Chinook salmon and high-fived each other. Trooper, on the other hand, remained calm and serious.
"Come on" he said, "let's get that line back into the waterand catch another one!"
Trooper, it seems, is a natural born fisherdog.
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