Ash, Misty and Brock are sitting on the bank of a river, fishing. Ash says this is a boring way to catch Pokémon, and Brock thinks perhaps they're using the wrong kind of bait. Misty and Ash trade barbs about not being quiet enough, then Misty gets a bite! When she reels it in, her "catch" turns out to be a teakettle and Brock jokes that she should try for a coffeemaker. She gets mad and tells them that she'll do whatever it takes to get a water Pokémon and produces a fishing lure that looks like a miniature of herself wearing a cape. She casts it into the water and goes into a long speech about how beautiful water Pokémon are and that as a girl she made herself a promise to learn all she could about them.
Suddenly, what should pop out of the water but a Totodile! It stands on a rock and does a little dance. Misty goes starry-eyed but Ash vows that he'll catch it. She beats him to the punch by throwing out her lure, which the Totodile snaps up, but spits out in the next moment. Ash gloats and has Pikachu Thundershock the Totodile before throwing a PokeBall. Totodile has been captured - or so it seems. As Ash and Misty argue about his underhanded tactics, the Totodile comes out of the PokeBall and continues to dance around as before. Ash won't have any more of this and orders Pikachu to shock it again, but Misty shoves him out of her way and throws her own PokeBall. By now the Totodile has had enough and sprays them all with a Water Gun and jumps back into the river. Both Ash and Misty run off to search for it and Brock follows: looks like this one is going to need a referee.
Totodile climbs back onto the shore; it's hungry. It hears voices and goes to investigate. Team Rocket is nearby having a snack. Meowth is worried that the boss will boot them off the team if they keep messing up. J&J try to cheer him up by dancing, but it doesn't help. Then Jessie offers him a snack, and the Totodile jumps out of the bushes and chomps it, hand and all! Jessie freaks out (and has to put her escaped Wobbuffet back into its PokeBall again). Totodile eats the rest of their snacks in one gulp, and when they all try to grab it, it sends them blasting off with its Water Gun. Pikachu spots it and runs to tell Ash. Both he and Misty are determined to catch it, but Misty plans to increase her chances by using the Lure Ball that Kurt made. Ash gets his own Lure Ball out and they argue over who's the better trainer. (Totodile is still dancing merrily during this whole thing.) They throw their Lure Balls at the same time and the Totodile is finally captured, but the trouble is they don't know whose Lure Ball actually caught it! Both of them grab the one containing the Totodile and begin to fight over it, and Brock finally intervenes, saying that the only way to settle this is with a Pokémon battle.
Brock decides on a best-of-three match. Ash knows that Misty uses only water Pokémon, so he chooses Pikachu. However, Misty sends out her "secret weapon": Togepi! Pikachu becomes very nervous, not wanting to attack his friend. Misty tells Togepi to use its Charm attack, and Pikachu retreats and hides behind a rock. Round One goes to Misty.
Next Ash chooses Chikorita, a grass type which is stronger than a water type. Misty chooses Staryu and tells him not to make any more predictions about who's going to win because her Staryu has more experience than Chikorita. Staryu dodges Chikorita's Vine Whip and proceeds to give Chikorita a hard time. Chikorita manages to Tackle but Staryu retaliates with Water Gun. Chikorita digs in its heels; although the Staryu dodges its Vine Whip again, it leaps high and wraps the vines around the Staryu and slams it into the ground. Round Two to Ash.
Both adversaries are confident that they'll win, because they both have reputations on the line. Third round is Bulbasaur versus Poliwag. Team Rocket is floating down the river on a log, hoping they won't meet the Totodile again. Meowth has a plan to catch the Totodile and bring it to the boss. They see Misty and Ash on the shore having their battle, and decide to wait until their Pokémon are tired, then grab them.
On shore, Bulbasaur and Poliwag seem to be evenly matched. Poliwag blows a Razor Leaf attack away with its Water Gun but Bulbasaur jumps up and takes Poliwag by surprise and knocks it down. Brock is about to declare Ash the winner when Poliwag suddenly evolves into Poliwhirl! Ash still believes he can win and sends Bulbasaur in for a Tackle but Poliwhirl's Body Slam puts it at a disadvantage. A quick Razor Leaf gets Poliwhirl off but Bulbasaur is tired. Ash orders it to use Solar Beam but Misty knows this takes a while and tells Poliwhirl to use Bubble to keep the pressure on. Finally though, Bulbasaur powers up its Solar Beam and takes out the Poliwhirl. Misty consoles her Poliwhirl while Brock awards the Lure Ball containing the Totodile to Ash.
At this point they are interruped by Jessie and James in disguise, but Wobbuffet comes out again and blows their cover. TR threatens to steal Pikachu but Ash releases Totodile which immediately grabs onto Jessie's hair! Furious, she tells Arbok to attack it, but it bites Arbok's tail and whips it around, sending it crashing into Meowth. Then James sends Weezing but Totodile easily takes care of it with a Scratch attack, then uses its Water Gun to send TR blasting off a second time.
As Totodile dances around with Pikachu, Brock comments that it looks as happy and energetic as Ash is. Misty gracefully concedes defeat and fawns over her new Poliwhirl.