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Book I Clance The Wonder Dog The Greatest Dog On Earth My Formative Years or How I Earned My Name
Chapter VI Bubba takes me out fishing whenever he can. I love when he catches bluegill or little sunfish. Bubba usually drops them on the ground and I get to chase them around as they flop around. The bigger fish don't usually flop around as much as the smaller ones. Bubba eventually makes sure the small ones end up back in the water before they die. You may think Bubba catches the fish and I just benefit from what he reels in. But that's only partly true. I don't have opposable thumbs so I can't work a fishing reel, but I still have my natural instincts. There are times when Bubba sets his pole in a holder and is not paying attention. At those times I keep an eye to the bobber and an ear to the reel. If I see a fish hit his line I let Bubba know and nine times out of ten Bubba sets the hook into a fish. One time when Bubba and I were fishing along the Indian River and Bubba wasn't paying attention, I saw the bobber go down. I let Bubba know and he ended up bringing in stingray. The thing swallowed the hook so Bubba had to set his pole down and go get some pliers out of his tackle box before he could land the ray. While Bubba had his back turned I waded out into the water and started dancing on top of it. Boy did that give Bubba a scare. He came running into the water, took his knife out of its sheath and while he grabbed me with one hand, he cut the line with the other. Bubba got pretty mad at me. He said I was dancing on my own grave. The big red house on the lake is probably my favorite place to go fishing. If Bubba's fishing off the dock and nothing's biting, I can go hunt chipmunks and squirrels in the yard. I always keep my ears trained to Bubba's fishing reel. If I hear it click, I can be by his side before he sets the hook. Sometimes Bubba lets me have a minnow if he doesn't catch anything else I can sink my teeth into. One morning in the late fall Bubba was sitting up on the deck drinking his coffee and reading the newspaper. I was just sniffing around in the yard when I noticed a stick floating by in the water. After taking closer look I realized that wasn't a stick. It was a fishing pole and there was something at the end of it pulling it through the water. I tried to let Bubba know we had a fish on the line, but he wouldn't listen to me. So over the sea wall I went and trying to grab that fishing pole unfortunately I couldn't reach it. I started calling Bubba more forcefully this time and he finally came down to help me land that fish. By the time he got over the sea wall he had to wade out in the freezing water about fifteen feet to grab the pole. But it was worth it, at the end of the fishing line was a good sized highbred bass, definitely a keeper. For a bonus Bubba ended up with a pretty decent fishing pole too. We also fish on the St Johns River when we're in Florida. Sometimes I'm not so sure about these adventures. You see we go out in a fifteen-foot canoe and at any given time we can surrounded by a dozen alligators as long or longer than the canoe. I don't like to drink a lot of water when I'm in a boat. To make sure I stay cool Bubba ties a nylon rope to me and drops me in the river. Then he starts singing Amos Moses and laughs. I don't get the joke, but I sure am happy when Bubba pulls me back in. |
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