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>
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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>
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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>
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Does anyone else have any strange or humorous animal encounter stories?
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. 
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
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.
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
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” :shock: on the situation. Kaboom and Jack would know where this is!!
Catching bats is almost as much fun as catching pelicans. Pelicans are more fun, because of the flips they make when you set the hook as they fly away.
" Kaboom and Jack would know where this is!!"
Sure do Betty! Still have dreams of catching fish there…
I met up with this fella on the Selway at the Fish In…
Brad
The most dangerous encounter I had with wild animals while fishing was on the Yakima River in Washington. We had stopped out float at a small island for a lunch break when the island became inundated with these wild creatures. They were a group of local ski patrol members from a local ski resort out for a fun time on an extremely drunken river float vacation. One of them almost drowned while trying to land his inner tube on the island. Another one, who was trying to save the first one, almost drowned in the rescue effort. We pulled up stakes and left, wondering if any of them actually survived.
Being located in Montana and close to Yellowstone National Park, over time I’ve had encounters with most or all of the wlld critters common to the region. Last summer, however, we were able to add another, certainly anything but common, animal the list.
While floating down the river late one afternoon, we looked up on the ridge above us and saw a man riding camel. I should have taken a picture. It would have been a good one for the local Chamber of Commerce. “Come to Montana and take a camel ride along the Yellowstone.”
It seems that a fellow from Texas bought a home in Paradise Valley and brought several camels with him. We later saw them multiple times over the course of the summer.
I forgot about bats…I’ve had much luck with them while matching the hatch (they prefer dries)… My friend hooked one solidly and held it in the water until it drowned to save the only fly he had that was working on trout.
In saltwater, seagulls are a real blast…they prefer bait, though… but it is illegal to harm them so you must practice catch and release.
Brad, that looks like a garter snake to me.
Over the years I’ve run into my share of bears, deer, elk, bobcats, rattle snakes… The most startling was on the Yellowstone. I was working my way along the bank, focused on the river, when I turned around and was face to face with a bison about 10 feet away, staring me down. I backed out of there quickly. I’m just glad I didn’t hook him on a back-cast.
Relative to my fly fishing, I came to accept a long time ago that I live where I live and it’s not as nice as out west, or the mountains of North Carolina, or even northern Michigan where I sometimes venture to wet a line. Kentucky is Kentucky after all, and while we have some fine fly fishing, I’m never going to find the same experience scenery-wise as I have in all of those other places. I’ve learned to accept that there will never be sun-drenched canyon walls or snow-capped mountains in the background, and I’ve even somehow gotten over the fact that on our state’s premier trout fishery, a tailwater, that nice break in the current that I wade closer to will once in a great while turn out to be an old car or truck wheel. But on those occasions when I hear a branch breaking and turn around never to see a deer, or an elk, or a bison, or even a bear, but a cow, I still can’t help but sigh. Wildlife, yeah buddy.
Once while wade-fishing a river in northern Illinois, a flock of Turkeys (one at a time) flew through the trees on the adjacent river bank, right over my head (could have touched them with my fishing rod), and on across the river into a huge oak tree where they landed to roost for the night.
I have seen wild swans fly over while fishing 3 times now…once in Illinois, twice in Iowa.
While flyfishing after dark one night, a muskrat swam over my line and managed to get hooked. When it felt the hook, it freaked out. Thinking something was in the water trying to get it, it promptly swam to shore and climbed up into the grass, where I was finally able to get close enough to reach down with pliers and pop the hook free.
This past summer, I was fishing a topwater plug with spinning gear while wading a local reservoir. 3 Seagulls took turns going after the plug. I managed to keep it away from the first two, but the 3rd managed to grab it. Not much of a fight, he settled on the water and let me pull him in, where I was able to remove the hook very easily. It was hooked in the hard bill, but not past the barb, thankfully.
While on Spring Break with my family a few years ago in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, I was fishing from a panga (boat)…trolling a large baitfish, hoping to catch a Roosterfish. I watched an Osprey soar over, then dive down and snatch my bait out of the water! He flew off while I tried to fight him with the stout gear. He never even flinched…STRONG BIRDS! I finally managed to put enough pressure on it as the Osprey flew away, that the hook pulled out of the baitfish.
We were fishing in Canada from a boat, and a cow & calf Woodland Caribou came out of the woods and paced nervously along the shoreline just 75’-100’ away. They disappeared back into the woods, and within minutes a Black Bear came out, nose to the ground, hurriedly paced exactly where the Caribou had been, and then followed their path back into the woods.
Me too Joe…no one said it had to kill ya…
Brad
Me too Joe…no one said it had to kill ya…
I must be off
Brad
Some interesting stories. Thanks all. My tale. I was fishing a very small creek in Oregon. The creek was full of small brookies and fun to fish for them. The creek was so small that I could stand with one foot on the left side and the other foot on the right side at the same time. So there I was straddling this little creek when there was a movement in the water to my rear. I looked up and here came a beaver swimming by. It stopped and looked at me and continued on swimming right between my legs.
Tim
Nothing extraordinary. About 1/2 hour after a rain had stopped I was driving out of the campgrounds and saw something in my rear view mirror. I stopped the car, got out and looked around where I had seen movement. I was about 10 feet away and then a doe kind of bounded away. There was still some movement and I saw this baby deer shaking and awkwardly get up, taking its first steps. I just walked back to my car and slowly drove away. I looked back in the mirror and saw the doe again.
Allan
Standing on the bank and fishing one day I had an otter swim by under my line, saw a mink running around up and down the bank and into and out of the water last summer picking up all the little minnows that had washed down, mergansers are pretty standard they have a tendency to show up on certain parts of the river when you happen to be catching fish. I did see an eagle come down and grab a small trout behind my brother who was fishing upstream of me years ago, he never even knew it was there couldn’t hear his wing beats over the current. Seen tons of wildlife on my way into places, there always seems to be grouse hiding near the streams in some places. Did have a deer walk up by me while I was duck hunting one year, I was slowly coaxing in some mallards that were swimming up to my decoys and the deer was coming along the bank above me and I had no idea it was there until it noticed I was there and took off down the bank a ways. Scared the ducks off the water and didn’t see anything for the rest of the afternoon. Had a porcupine climb up the tree I had my tree stand in several times while I was sitting in it, get a little nervous when you see that by your face having seen dogs with quills all over them.