Unlikely Savior
I walked to the far end of the lake, where no other human being was within sight. It is at this place of the lake where I often happen upon some very strange occurrences. Once I was standing next to the lake fishing when I heard some very heavy breathing in the forest behind me. I turned to look, expecting to see another fisherman with his faithful dog panting in the thin air. Rather than a dog scampering through the woods, I saw a buck deer running directly towards me with a full head of steam. His tongue was hanging out of the side of his mouth and his breathing coming fast and furiously. Fortunately, he noticed me and stopped so suddenly that he nearly skidded. He quickly spun around and ran back into the forest.
Fishing near this same spot, I was fortunate enough to trick a small brook trout into grabbing a hold of the imitation fly that was attached to the end of my fishing line. I was reeling the fish in when the line suddenly felt very heavy. Like most of the high-mountain lakes, this lake was crystal clear with the lake bottom easily visible. At this particular moment the fish was only six feet from shore so I was able to recognize that the fish itself was struggling against something on the bottom of the lake. Apparently, as it attempted to release itself from the hook it swam to the bottom of the lake and wrapped the fishing line around some object. I made several attempts to release the fish by pulling on my line and trying to loosen it from the object but nothing was working. Eventually, while attempting to free the fish, my line broke. I figured that now the fish would be free but that was not the case. The fish was still hooked to my fly and the fly still attached to a length of line which was still held fast to the bottom of the lake. It sure seemed that the fish would meet his end through starvation or lack of oxygen unless he could free himself from the hook. But I have lived in this world long enough to know that salvation will often come from the most unlikely of circumstances, so I stuck around to watch.
If there was any doubt about the demise of the trapped trout it was soon erased when I saw a large cutthroat bearing down on the helpless fish. The brookie also recognized the danger and was furiously trying to break free. His futile effort increased the urgency of the large fish and the little brookie was soon in the mouth of the cutthroat battling for his life. I marveled as I witnessed the drama between life and death that is constantly happening underneath the surface of the water but rarely in a place where we can see. In a way, I felt sorry and a little responsible for the brookie’s shortened life, but I was fascinated to witness such a battle for survival. In a fish eat fish world, it seems that it is the larger and stronger fish that wins.
The cutthroat had the brookie in his mouth and attempted to turn and swim off with his meal, but was stopped by fact that the brookie was still held tight to the bottom of the lake. I suppose the 4lb test line provided a little more resistance than was expected from a 6 inch fish. The cutthroat released the brookie and tried once more to carry off his prize, but to no avail. Perplexed, the cutthroat released the small fish for good and swam off to find an easier meal. So I turned my attention back to the brookie and to my amazement and joy, I recognized that he was no longer fastened to the bottom of the lake. Apparently, when he was released by his captor, the fish was also released from the hook. Recognizing his new found freedom, the brookie quickly swam off in the opposite direction of the cutthroat trout and very likely to a nice safe hole under a rock. I know that fish cannot reason the same way that we can and the little brook trout probably has no idea why he is now a free fish. I, however, found it ironic that the large predator which appeared to be certain destruction for the fish actually turned out to be his savior.