Dog at Sea

By Mike Zlotnicki, Staff Writer Comment on this story
Dean Lamont is a professional fishing guide, plying the waters around Cape Lookout. Depending upon the season and local conditions, Lamont guides anglers to red drum, speckled trout, false albacore -- whatever species presents the best opportunity.

He can add Labrador retriever to the list.

On Nov. 8, while guiding Tim Wilson of Raleigh and Shingo Mutoh of Durham, Lamont and his party caught (and later released) a yellow Lab more than a mile from the nearest dry land.

Lamont and his party left his dock in Atlantic Beach about 7 a.m. intent on catching false albacore, small sporty tuna common to the area this time of year. They motored to Beaufort Inlet.

"It was real rough," said Lamont, who spends time in Raleigh when not in Emerald Isle. "The other guides took a look [at the seas] and didn't go out. We got out and looked for birds."

With no birds working bait pushed to the surface by marauding albacore and facing tough angling conditions, Lamont turned his 23-foot Hydra-Sport toward the Cape Lookout bight and then the rock jetty.

When the trio arrived, they targeted speckled trout but started catching bluefish despite 6- to 7-foot swells. The conditions were not worth catching blues, so Lamont headed back to the inlet.

Halfway between Harkers Island and the middle marshes, the trio moved along, no boats, no land, only water and waves. The next sighting was a first for Lamont and his crew, including Wilson.

"I'm a boater and fisherman, and I'm always looking for fish," said Wilson, who owns a construction management company in Cary. "I saw something big and blond and thought it was a person."

It was a blond all right, but it had four legs instead of two.

"It was unbelievable," Lamont said. "My whole life I've been on the water, and I've never seen a dog like that. I said 'Good grief.' "

Lamont said the dog headed for the boat when it spotted it, then veered off. Lamont and his party immediately decided to rescue the dog, but the pup had other ideas.

"You think the dog would just jump right in the boat," Lamont said. "When Tim reached for him, he started snarling and growling. When I tried, he did the same thing. At that point, I didn't think we'd be able to get him."

Wilson then picked up a mooring line, pulled one end through the cleat loop and created a makeshift lasso. His aim was true, and the rope tightened as the dog swam through it, snugging down behind its front legs.

They pulled the dog over the transom, and once on deck it, the pup was unsure of its situation.

"He was really disoriented," said Wilson, who owns a golden retriever. "When I did finally get him in the boat, he could hardly stand. He was so disoriented."

Lamont started searching for the owner immediately. A VHF radio call to the U.S. Coast Guard was fruitless, and only one boat responded, to the negative.

Lamont decided to go find the owner. A call on VHF channel 68 ("the local, everyday fishing channel") yielded nothing, so Lamont went cruising. The closest boat was a mile and a half away and was no help.

The next boat they found was a big cabin cruiser anchored in the sound.

They asked a woman aboard about the dog. She indicated that she wasn't sure but that the dog looked like "Jake."

"Once she said 'Jake,' I bent down to him and said his name and his whole facial expression changed and he let me pet him," Lamont said.

It turns out the woman's husband (Lamont did not ask her name) was with the dog's owner. The two men had gone fishing, taking the dog and the yacht's dingy with them. Lamont guessed that they left Jake in one boat while taking the dingy in the shallow marsh water. Jake evidently got bored or lonely or needed to answer the call of nature and swam off.

"We got lucky," Wilson said. "It was a feel-good story. It was one of the most emotional stories I've been around.

"The moral of the story is don't leave your dog unattended in the marsh."

Not every dog will be as lucky as Jake.