CLEAR LAKE TALE
One beautiful sunny day in 1964, a buddy and I are fishing a clear mountain lake in Jasper National Park, Canada. We are anchored off a weed bed, casting nymphs to feeding trout. Looking back to the road and the parking area, we see another fisherman studying us through binoculars. We keep fishing and very soon “The Peeper”, in a canoe, approaches and hails us: -
“What are they taking?”
“The Pope”
“What the hell is ‘The Pope’?”
“Long story, er, we invented it, try a Black Gnat”
“OK, I’ll be right back. I see I need an anchor. Leave some fish for me”
At this point “The Peeper” heads back to shore, yelling to his wife to look for an anchor rock, Shortly we see him stagger back to his canoe with a substantial chunk of granite and, as he is leaving the shore his dog jumps into the canoe.
With the dog as a figurehead, he speedily paddles out to join us. He stays an appropriate distance from us and we watch as he crab-walks the rock to the front of the canoe. The lakes in Jasper National Park are very clearand his anchor rope is proving to be very short. He muscles the rock into the water. The canoe, consequently, stands on its head, The Peeper goes down like King Arthur holding his 8½' Browning like Excalibur perfectly on the vertical. His fishing vest balloons out, momentarily acting like a life preserver The dog, which must not have seen water before, was also perfectly on the vertical dog-paddling away madly, going nowhere and in grave danger of clawing a hole in its own throat. Soon items are popping to the surface: - Two aluminum fly-boxes, a seat cushion, a very nice wooden handled yuppie small-mesh net.
We hear laughter from shore. The Peeper’s wife, Marjorie, is rolling around on the grass laughing so hard tears are streaming down her cheeks.
Of course, we rescue the poor fellow (Don), the dog and his gear, secretly thinking that it’s a good thing we know these mountain lakes. Years later, Marjorie (We keep in touch.) still cannot help but tell this story at the dinner table much to Don’s chagrin.
