Eric's black Labrador retriever, Goose, went with us each day. Eric would say get in the boat and Goose would hop up in the casting well in the bow and ride there until we anchored downstream. If Goose was on the wrong side so the boat listed, Eric would simply say "Goose, move over" and Goose would get up and switch sides of the boat. Sometimes Eric would say "Goose, get in your seat" and Goose would hop up into one of the chairs. If he got in the wrong one Eric would say "The other one" and Goose would look at him as if to say, "Make up your mind" and then wander over to the other chair. Every day as we rowed toward the take out, at precisely the same spot along the river, Goose would suddenly get up and start whining. Finally Eric would say "Go ahead" and Goose would leap overboard, swim ashore, and then run the shoreline trail down to the take out to see what kind of food he could bum from people at the take out. Goose never went near the water unless Eric would tell him it was okay. Goose was one intelligent dog.

As I handed my rod to him, Eric noticed there weren't any more rising fish and said so. About that time a nose poked up about 25 feet upstream and I said "There's one, catch him". So Eric casts about 20 times to the spot where we saw the rise without a nibble. Figuring he?'d spooked the fish, Eric began reeling up when the fish pokes his nose out again. Again he lays about 20 floats over this fish without a touch. Again Eric begins reeling up the fly line and once again the fish rises. Now this is getting sort of humorous. Eric casts about 10 more times and finally the fish takes the snowshoe beattis. And like a rocket the fish jets across the river and then takes off downstream. Eric is standing up as high as he can with his arms and the rod straight up over his head to reduce the line drag. Finally the fish stops with only a few turns of backing on my little reel. Slowly Eric begins working the fish back upstream but he's still on the opposite side of the river. A drift boat comes down but ethically pulls over to watch so he doesn't run over Eric's line. In the end, this fish turns out to be a 5 pound rainbow - the largest Eric has caught. Even Goose came down to give the fish a look before we let it go. I was as excited to watch Eric catch that fish as if I caught it myself.