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  1. #1

    Default Animal Encounters

    Over the years, I have had some close encounters with wild animals while flyfishing. <br>
    I once was fishing a great looking pool in a small wild brookie stream, when I looked up and saw a black bear standing on the far bank (only about 10 yards away), just watching me. I guess I stole his favorite spot. <br>
    <br>
    That same stream on another occasion had 4 bears (a Mama and her 3 cubs) blocking my path to the stream (a well marked trail). They were so focused on eating that they failed to notice me. I had to blow my "bear whistle" to get them to spook and run away. <br>
    <br>
    Another time (same stream) I hooked a small brookie, when a snake grabbed it while it was still hooked. It was a real tug-of-war, with the trout the obvious loser. The snake won..... Nice fight though....<br>
    <br>
    Does anyone else have any strange or humorous animal encounter stories?
    For a real challenge, try ice fishing with dry flies.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Liberty Lake, Washington
    Posts
    3,566

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    If fishing one of my favorite rivers in North Idaho you could quite possibly have encounters with Bears, Blue Grouse, Turkeys, Deer, Elk, Moose, Rattlesnakes, Mountain Lions and Wolves. I've even seen Rocky Mountain Goats on one occasion. But my favorite is the Native Westslope Cutthroat.
    Where you go is less important than how you take the steps.
    Fish with a Friend,
    Lotech Joe


  3. #3

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    I have fished in IA, the Isle Royal NP, the Smokey Mountains NP, the Yellowstone NP and the Grand Tetons NP. I had encounter elk and many deers crossing the river at a short distance, snakes taking a sun bath on a branch a barely couple of feet away from my face, Grizzlies fishing down stream in the Becheler river, otters cleaning the pool of fish in front of my eyes (they are better fishermen than me...). Beavers coming back to the dam (while I was on top of the dam). I hook a 3-4ft alligator in FL and he cut me off at the eye of the hook. That was a hell of a fight. I had a 5wt rod and he took a leach. I sneak close to a fox in an Iowa stream. He was just taking a nap in the sun at the side of the stream.
    What I love most is the birds that come close to you when you are fishing quietly...
    M
    "And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world" Satchmo

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    NE Gwinnett Co., GA
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    5,933

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    I was fishing a favorite lake here in the burbs of Atlanta in my float tube with a rope stringer tied to my float tube. I had several bluegills on the stringer when they become agitated. I pull up the stringer to find snapping turtle clamped onto the last fish. In another lake with a friend in our float tubes, we encountered a couple of "pond turtles" making baby turtle. They were huge, the largest pond turtles I have ever seen. The male (I' guessing here but judging from common animal behavior) was either irritated or attracted to my buddy's float tube and started swimming toward him, an advance my friend resisted by exiting the area.

    Snakes on the section of the Chattahoochee River I fish are rare I have seen 2 in the last 20 years. I flushed one of the bank who headed across the river and looked like the cool water was going to sap his strength before he reached the other side. One day I was holding in place working a favorite spot when a group of Asian teenagers in yaks floated by. Behind them was what I thought was a rubber snake from it's lack of moment until it was past me and decided to swim to the bank. The coloration was similar to a copperhead, but I think it was a banded water snake, which is not venomous.
    Want to hear God laugh? Tell him Your plans!!!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    Lakeland, FL USA
    Posts
    2,186

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    Encountering wildlife while fishing is always a real treat for me as well. I see all varieties of birds, Great Blue and Great White heron, Green heron, hawks, and owls, turkeys etc. I was fortunate enough to see a Cooper's Hawk snatch a songbird out of the air about 10 feet from my kayak and had a kingfisher snatch my floating mylar minnow off the surface only to run out of line after about 20 feet. Thankfully, I didn't hook him. Snakes (all the time). Turtles (too many to mention except one time when I caught a medium sized snapping turtle on a streamer. There's also an enormous snapping turtle that lives in the lake that I see several times each year. His head is 2/3rds the size of a football and his shell must be 2 1/2 feet long. He usually surfaces right next to my kayak and exhales sounding like a small whale. When I turn to look to see what made the noise, we scare the crap out of each other every time. There are a number of beaver that live in the lake that I encounter at least every other time I'm out fishing and way too many muskrats. There's also a pair of otters that I've been fortunate enough to see once in a while. I also see deer quite often and even had one swim by me while I was fishing in a larger impoundment. Also, while fishing off the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia for Salmon, Orca, dolphin, humpback whales, Sea Lions and eagles were very common. The Sea Lions were a real nuisance. As soon as they heard the drag on the reel start screaming with a fish on, they would plop into the water and very soon, you’d feel a tremendous tug as the rod doubled over to the water, then the line would go slack. They would steal your fish as fast as you hooked them.

    Jim Smith
    Last edited by James Smith; 01-29-2014 at 06:51 PM.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    neither here nor there
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    5,342

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    Can add snakes, mountain goats, mountain sheep, turkeys, eagles, and assorted others to my list of fishing buddies, but think my favorite was this "little" guy... he roamed in to the water not but a few yards from me, and stood there watching me ... while I watched him. That's my fly line cutting through the pic 'cuz I raised the tip of the rod to take the picture. He only turned his head and left, just as quietly and slowly as he arrived, when he heard Cary "commenting" on the situation. Kaboom and Jack would know where this is!!
    Trouts don't live in ugly places.

    A friend is not who knows you the longest, but the one who came and never left your side.

    Don't look back, we ain't goin' that way.

  7. #7

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    I was in Singapore last year, fishing at a small reservoir. I had some fruit in my bag, and left it setting on a park bench. Heard some commotion behind me. There were four monkeys raiding my goodies. They took off with their loot before I could get the camera out.


    Lower Peirce Reservoir


    A couple of the signs there:




  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Frostburg, Maryland United States
    Posts
    118

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    This happened a couple of years ago along the savage river in Maryland. This critter acted just like someones pet dog.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    cheyenne OK
    Posts
    133

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    While fishing the Baptism River in MN I worked my way up to the natural barrier where there are 3 falls dumping into a holding pool. I caught a couple of decently fleshed salmon and a couple of black ones. I kept the fresh ones to smoke and started back with them on a stringer. Heard a splash and there across the river was a kind of skinny looking black bear (and this was fall). He must have thought my salmon would help him with his winter fat storage and was looking for a place to cross the river. He started in a couple of times but deeper current would drive him out. I started out of there at a good clip and the first path out is up a good hill. The bear worked down to the outlet of the pool and got about half way across the river. I decided if he came across I was going to toss the salmon down the hill to him and get my butt in gear. He hit the current again and backed to the other bank. I walked along and he followed me on his side about halfway back to the car until he hit a spot he couldn't stay along the river. He tried crossing again but chickened out again. I lost him and got back to truck and he wasn't there in the parking lot waiting for me so I beat it out of there.

    We had some great smoked Chinook Salmon the next day and he left me a good story to tell. Had he ever got across the salmon were definitely not worth arguing for and he would have had his meal and I'd have gone home and changed shorts.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Mojave Desert CA
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    I think I've shared this tale here before on a different thread. Oh well, here goes.
    Fishing Green Creek in Mono County, I hooked a small spotted owl on a backcast. I had the bird hooked under the wing. It landed on the side of an oak tree and hung on while I walked toward it reeling the line as I came. It flew off, went in a circle, and landed on the trunk of the next tree. I was able to get close enough that time to cut the tippet about 6 inches from the wing. After a few minutes it flew off. Jim
    I'm either going to, coming from or thinking about fishing. Jim

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