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Thread: Animal Encounters

  1. #41
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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.

  2. #42
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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.

  3. #43
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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

  4. #44
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    Quote Originally Posted by vicrider View Post
    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.
    Please excuse me if I seem short and ill-tempered here...

    It is exactly this attitude which has killed people! NEVER FEED A BEAR FISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is so far beyond stupid there are no words to describe how strongly I feel about it. In AK you will get ticketed if found... and you should simply be shot instead.

    Nothing encourages a bear toward being aggressive quite like feeding them. A friend was dropped off for a week of fishing at a remote Kodiak Island Lake (Uganik) and after setting camp they went fishing and almost immediately ran into a very large, very aggressive Kodiak brown bear. At powder burn range my buddy shot the bear with a large pistol.

    The couple the pilot picked up while dropping off my buddy proceeded to tell the pilot how they had been feeding a particular, very large bear for the previous week. The pilot reported them to the Troopers on landing and the Troopers immediately sent out a chopper to warn them.

    By the time they arrived the bear had already shown up and been shot. With the Troopers they were unable to find the bear that had been shot, though they knew it was wounded.

    As someone that frequently fishes among lots of bears all the time the idea of tossing fish to bears is far worse than giving cocaine to school children, IMO&E. I have no respect for anyone that would do such a thing under any circumstances. I have been in the situation many, many times and there are way too many options to take the easy, but deadly route out.

    A fed bear is a dead bear, you are just making someone else do the dirty work.

    Oh, I have been the one doing the dirty work more than a few times... If anyone has Scott Haugen's book on fly fishing AK take a look at his notes on the Russian River...

    I was working on the deadly encounter I had on a Terror Bay, Kodiak Island, beach when I ran into this and lost the whole story. But it included danger (over 100 Kodiak bears within a half-mile of me), sex (surf smelt spawning in the gravel), intrigue (it only happens in the dark of the moon in October), food (the bears were there to eat the smelt buried in the gravel dropping DNA packages), and humor (the young bear that could not understand why Momma would not let him eat from the holes she dug).

    Please refrain from any attempt at defending this action as I am having a great deal of difficulty restraining my comments...
    art

  5. #45
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    Hap,

    While I completely understand your perspective on never feeding bears in the wild (or any animal for that matter), I'm not sure that what vicrider described would have constituted feeding the bear in the same sense that you mean. If I read his story correctly, he stated that if the bear had managed to cross the river and started after him to get his fish, he would have tossed the fish to distract the bear while he got the heck out of there. I can't say that I blame him in the least. If I thought a bear or any critter was chasing me for the fish I had caught, I'm going to ditch those fish ASAP to avoid a confrontation with the animal. I suspect that most people would do the same.

    To your point however, it sounds quite possible that that bear had been fed by past fishermen and that was why it was so intent on getting to virider to get his fish. I worked for NH Fish and Game when I got out of college and 99% of the unfortunate animal/people encounters seemed to stem from ignorant people trying to interact with the animals by feeding them or even trying to pat them. People seem to forget that they are wild animals and as such they will behave like wild animals.

    A question to you. Since vicrider left the area as soon as he saw the bear and was attempting to get back to his vehicle to leave; given the same situation and assuming that the bear had managed to cross the river and start after him to get his fish, what should he have done?

    Jim Smith

  6. #46
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    I've been attacked by otters... twice
    They don't like float tubes
    The simpler the outfit, the more skill it takes to manage it, and the more pleasure one gets in his achievements.
    --- Horace Kephart

  7. #47

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    Quote Originally Posted by AllenOK View Post
    Last Fall I got to see one of our resident Bald Eagles chasing the resident Osprey for a fish it had just caught. The dogfight lasted about 20 seconds.
    I've seen that too. In my instance, the eagle had caught the fish and was flying back to its nest. The osprey showed up, they fought....and to my surprise the smaller Osprey WON!
    I'm curious...who won the encounter you witnessed?
    David Merical
    St. Louis, MO

  8. #48
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    Quote Originally Posted by James Smith View Post
    Hap,

    While I completely understand your perspective on never feeding bears in the wild (or any animal for that matter), I'm not sure that what vicrider described would have constituted feeding the bear in the same sense that you mean. If I read his story correctly, he stated that if the bear had managed to cross the river and started after him to get his fish, he would have tossed the fish to distract the bear while he got the heck out of there. I can't say that I blame him in the least. If I thought a bear or any critter was chasing me for the fish I had caught, I'm going to ditch those fish ASAP to avoid a confrontation with the animal. I suspect that most people would do the same.

    To your point however, it sounds quite possible that that bear had been fed by past fishermen and that was why it was so intent on getting to virider to get his fish. I worked for NH Fish and Game when I got out of college and 99% of the unfortunate animal/people encounters seemed to stem from ignorant people trying to interact with the animals by feeding them or even trying to pat them. People seem to forget that they are wild animals and as such they will behave like wild animals.

    A question to you. Since vicrider left the area as soon as he saw the bear and was attempting to get back to his vehicle to leave; given the same situation and assuming that the bear had managed to cross the river and start after him to get his fish, what should he have done?

    Jim Smith
    Tossing the fish to distract is indeed feeding the bear and bears are smart enough to "get it" that harassing fishermen leads to food. It is likely the bear had been so fed previously...

    I doubt the bear truly wanted to cross the river or it would have simply done so. Bears are extremely good swimmers and would have little trouble crossing any river short of incredible whitewater. I have watched them from above in clear pools as they fished for salmon and they are fast and agile and can stay under for long periods of time, many minutes. And I have seen them swimming across very large rivers like the Kenai with ease. A commercial fisherman friend had a large Kodiak bear try repeatedly to board his boat many miles offshore in the Shelikof Strait.

    There have been a very large number of times when bears came around when I had various kinds of food on me that they wanted. The incident Scott Haugen mentions in his book happened on the Russian River and Scott and I had our red salmon stolen by a black bear we did not see until much later. It sneaked in and took our fish while we had our backs turned.

    Just keep your fish and walk away. Look at the bear as constantly as you can, eye contact is good. As long as the hackles do not come up on the bear and he does not lay his ears back you will be all right. If he does show true aggression signs it is time to pull out a firearm and advance on the bear to make him back off. Failing that it is time to remove the threat...

    Feeding the fish to the bear at any point is only going to pass an even more serious issue off to the next person coming down the trail.

    I have had many bears come far closer than most folks would want to see; blacks, browns, and grizzlies. They seldom even begin to act aggressive.

    This is not to say that Alpha males do not get my attention immediately and I move out of their way and usually just leave the area. Younger bears, especially males are far more likely to cause problems but they are much easier to "read" and I will let them get closer.

  9. #49
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    All valid points taken from experience I am sure, feeding any wildlife is just asking for trouble.
    but..........

    The game always looks somewhat easier from the bench.

    With nothing to "remove the threat" , as a last resort I might have tossed the fish. jus sayin.

    Catch and release limits my potential encounters.

  10. #50
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    FishnDave, the "dogfight" went on until the Osprey called No Joy, and I assume it dropped the fish. The Osprey dove, leveled out about 10' above the water, and headed to the south. The Eagle dove and hit the water, then flew off to the north. This was at 1/4 mile distance; I couldn't see the fish, but I'm assuming the Eagle got it.

    Saw a Bald Eagle today, sitting in a tree about 20' away from a nest. Well-known spot near a highway intersection; I've seen local photographers park their vehicles on the shoulder, and set up a tripod to get pics.

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