Got several, but this one stands out. I took a buddy up to fish BC one year. We were walking into the Morice at dawn through a willow flat about a quarter of a mile accross between the truck and the river---griz tracks and chewed up salmon everywhere. I lead the way yelling "HEY BEAR," "GET OUTA HERE BEAR," just warning any in the vicinity of our presence. As a newcomer my buddy was relatively unconcerned.

We emerged at the rivers edge at the top end of a pretty good stretch of holding water. About 200 yds upstream was the top end of an even better stretch. I asked him which stretch he wanted and he chose the upper and plodded off upstream, but he didn't continue with the "noise" I had been making. I just grinned and began fishing.

About four minutes later I heard some garbled splashing upstream. My buddy had walked to within 30 feet of a grizzly that promptly stood up on his hind legs in the sawgrass and grunted. At this point my partner did a kind of running/swimming impersonation of someone who wasn't very good at either. He kept falling down in two feet of water while remaining stationary for 5 seconds or so before getting his feet under him. He finally put his hand on his peper mace and mustered up a half-hearted "get outa hear bear" about 50 yards out. I was laughing my ass off. He came back downstream and I said, "welcome to BC."

I will never forget that, what seemed a huge, polar bear in the Anchorage airport. Loved going to the airport to pick-up my Pop coming home from the slope. Always had to go see the bear.

Now they have a new bear in there with a couple Humpies too!!!!!

Good topic... Brings back memories.

Floating down the American River on the Naknek system on the Aleutian Peninsula in Alaska. We started at the Lake (Hammersley) and drifted down over three days doing some R&D for a lodge. There were bears along the whole way as is normal for a Sockeye stream in that area.

Last day I was fighting a nice Rainbow and got a little behind everyone else. We were floating in personal floats called WaterMasters. Anyways I come around a bend into a densely canopied straight stretch of riffled water about 20 feet wide with high banks and I get this feeling... My hair on my neck stood straight up and I did not want to float through that stretch. I stowed the fly rod and moved the gun to the front apron and slowly walked/floated through the 150 foot long stretch of water. I was scared stiff and felt like at any moment a bear was going to land on me. I knew I was being watched and intuition was telling me things were not ok! I made it through the little stretch of river and back out into an open section of water.

I turned around and looked back into the canopied area and there is a huge sow standing half in the water half on the sloped bank looking down at me! I will never forget that image.

I have no idea how close I was to her but I know it was closer then I wanted to be.
We ended up seeing 100+ bear over the three days but as usual had no problem with them even when camping streamside at night.

I also have a few good stories of clients climbing my back and trying to drown me after a bear non chalantly walks out of the woods near us while fishing. And the time a friend "impersonating" a bear charged me in the high grass of a tributary off the Naknek. I thought I was dead.

But I never did feel threatened by a Grizzly in the eight years I was up in Bristol Bay.

CF

We were fishing the Situk River in Alaska for coho in Sept. A coastal brown bruin popped his head out of the bush across the river from us and eyed our salmon on the beach. He started licking his chops and we thought it a good time to leave.

Hiking "quickly" downstream on the trail to the parking lot, we came upon another fisherman trying to scare his buddies in the river by making bear grunts and noises. We told him in about 30 seconds there will be the real thing he could use for that purpose, but he blew us off.

When we got to the parking lot, we gave those guys about a minute and sure enough they all came out of the bush screaming "bear". Funnier than hell. But it was time to leave.

This runs a close second to the 9ft. brown bear they had to shoot in the parking lot of our hotel last year. He had been walking in to the back door of the restaurant and reaching through hotel room windows to grab food. Apparently tagged as a nuisance bear he was given a death sentence. A shooting in front of your hotel room is, gladly, something you don't see every day, or in the brochure.

Next Question?

Holly Bear Samonella! That is sweeet......

Russian River, Black Bear with 2 cubs across the stream. Nothing too exciting but kept the hairs on my back up...

DOGOFF!

Salmonella, what are you doing to that bear on that top pic???

Three summers ago, four of us went to Brooks Falls, in the Katmai Nat'l Park up in Alaska to fish for Sockeye and whatever else we could scare up. It was just the beginning of Sockeye season, so the bears were just beginning to show up. We weren't there 15 minutes when we saw our first Brown Bears and they were a common sight throughout our 5-day stay.

Down where the lodge is, there were mostly Sows with cubs and juvinile bears. Up at the falls, in the prime spots is where the big boys hung out and there were some pretty big bears up there. Some of them old, shaggy and scarred up, some of them in really prime shape.

The most memorable encounter was fishing our way downstream from just (a reasonable distance) below the falls. We were fishing for rainbow, as the salmon hadn't worked their way up to the falls in mass numbers. I was starting to have some luck on some nice rainbows and I, too, fell behind my three friends. I got to a spot in the river where it made a curve to the left against a high, read that unclimbable, bank. At this point, a lone juvinile came to the riverbank from the flat side of the river, about 50 yards upstrem from me. I made some noise and it looked like it saw me. I started moving down stream.

The bear started moving downstream along the low bank. I moved downstream, but the bear moved a little faster and pretty soon, it was uncomfortably close. I moved with a bit more purpose and would have liked to cross the stream, but had to go down stream to get past the high bank. As I was angling down stream to get to where I could get out on the other side, the bear came up even with me on the bank. The river is not a big one. The bear was about 50 feet away at this point.

I came to a little dry gravel bar and got out on it, deviding my attention between the bear and where I needed to go. The bear headed toward the gravel bar. I got to the end of the gravel bar and the bear came to the other end, where I had just been; now, it was only about 30 feet from me. And it was only looking at me.

I didn't know quite what to do at that point. I couldn't go anywhere fast. I didn't want to turn and start crashing through the water, but I didn't like standing there that much either. I raised my jacket up over my head and tried to look big, but the bear wan't too impressed. It just kind of kept looking at me, moving its head left and right.

The next thing I knew, the bear just took a lope or two and was within about 10 feet of me before I could either sh!t or go blind and then it stood up. It seem about 12 feet tall (even though pictures taken later prove it to be small, compared with the adult bears). I actually felt my knees get weak. It had these pig-looking eyes and it just kept looking at me and wobbling its head.

I had no other choice than just to back up into the water. That's what I did, trying to keep one eye where my next foot would go and one eye on the bear, but not looking it right in the eyes.

I remember how lucky I felt that the bear didn't immediately follow me. It finally went back down on all fours and stared and waved its head. Once I got about 50 feet away, it started shadowing me again, both in the river and along the bank. I was making pretty good time downstream now. But the bear just kind of stayed about the same distance.

I finally caught up with my friends who had seen most of this happen from about 100 yards down stream. When we all got together in a bunch, the bear started across the river toward all of us and really got close to one of my friend's father, who is about 68 years old.
Since I now had the opportunity, I was the farthest away I could get.

Finally the bear just recrossed the stream and wandered off into the bushes.

That was about as much bear as I want to see. Brooks Falls really is remarkable. The bears are everywhere. They all seem to fish differently. Some swat at the fish, some snorkle for them, others run full speed downstream and then pounce. That is something to see - a big bear crashing down stream, chasing a huge school of salmon. The big adults at the falls stand on the rocks with all that water rushing around them and catch jumping salmon in their mouths. You can watch the mother bears trying to teach the cubs and the cubs at various stages of development starting to try to catch fish. Not all bears are real good at catching fish. But some of them are very good.

There is no real strict control over you on the river. You have to go to a class and learn how to behave. You're supposed to stay 50 yards away from single bears and 100 yards away from Moms with cubs. But they can sneak up on you even when you are being as observant as you can be and still fish.

They can be a real pain when you are trying to fish. Sometimes you can fish for a good long time without being interrupted, sometimes there seems to be bears coming around every time you get a fish on. The bears have the right-of-way and you just have to break your fish off and back away until they move on.

I think the lodge has been open since the 50's and they've never had a real incident. Mostly, its the same bears and their descendants year after year. The adult bears mind their own business. Its the juviniles, like the one that shadowed me, that might get their curiosity up about you.

You really have to be aware of the bears all the time. One morning, we were just getting out of our cabin. We went out the door, turned left and there was a big old bear, right up on the porch. The rangers will chase the bears off the porch, but almost any other time, even if the bears are blocking you from getting to your plane to leave, you just have to wait until the bears move off. It's a remarkable experience!

I had a buddy who a few years back was hiking into a Yellowstone Lake trib I recommended to fish for post-spawn cutts (the area is now closed due to bear problems). Now this guy is in about half blind, and terrified by bears. Apparently, he had seen quite a few buffalo at the trail head, so he was not surprised to see one come out of the woods and begin ambling along the meadow path in front of him. As he tells the story, he slowly caught up to the buffalo, and when he was about 30 yards away it turned around and stood up on it's hind legs an began sniffing the air!

Needless to say, my buddy never made it to the creek, and likely had to clean out his pants back at the trail head.

You can not just post pictures like that Salmonella and not give some details on the bear!!!


Party foul!

On a two week wilderness raft trip in AK near Bethel and was awoken one morning to the roar of a bear next to our tent. That is a pretty rude way to wake up! I guess it didn't like us camped on his gravel bar. the next sight of three guys in their underwear running around with guns outside the tent would have scared anything away.

I've never seen a Grizzly and have only really had one encounter with bears but it made for an interesting morning several years ago.

First day of being on strike I naturally hike into one of my mountian summer run zippers. It was pretty foggy out and I had to walk past a tailout that fills up with spawning humpies. Through the fog I could hear the humpies splashing about a little more enthusiastically than usual. This was followed by some serious splashing. I made the prudent decision to sit back and wait for the fog to lift. Sure enough within minutes I was watching three black bears displaying some of the worst fishing techniques I've ever seen. I watched for about half an hour before being spotted and they meandered off in three different directions. The bears did better than I that day, as I didn't touch a thing, but it was still one of my best days ever on the river. Pretty cool for the Cascades!

I was having lunch at the Double Muskie in Girdwood, AK a few years back. There was a 300lb black bear nosing around out back. My girlfriend of the time really wanted a picture so I went out front to our car to get the camera.

I walked around the rear of the car and opened the trunk. I had to spend a couple minutes bent over in our luggage to find the camera but finally did. I stood upright and closed the trunk, and was staring directly at the young bear that was suppose to still be out back.

He was standing between a couple trees about 25 feet away. The door to the building was about 40 feet away. I calmly (yeah, right) started walking towards the door. He started shading me that way, and there was no way I could get there before him. Realizing no one was around and knowing blacks attack for the purpose to eat you, I felt that him stalking me like that was a very bad situation.

Instead of going for the door, I went back towards the back part of the car, always keeping it between us. He immediately switched directions and mirrored my move, closing the gap between us as he did. I felt my only shot was to pull him in closer and at the same time, get him further from the door to the building. I wanted to get him behind the car while I was along the side, move to the front, and then bolt for the door. I thought about jumping in the car but the windows were down, and there was no way I could get them up before he piled in with me.

After making a number of side to side direction changes in my moves, I eventually go him at the rear of the car and took off for the door. I'm pretty sure my feet never even touched the ground I was going so fast. I got in and absolutely was certain I would hear him slam into the door, but never did. I went straight to the restroom to clean up my shorts, and returned to our table.

About 5 minutes later there was a big commotion out back. He had a guy cornered on top of his car in the rear lot, and was trying to get him. The cooks came out with pots and pans and made alot of noise, enough to distract him long enough so the guy made it off the car and back inside. Later on, a wildlife officer came and "ended" the problem.

I've seen plenty of bears in WA and AK, been close to them a number of times. Having one stalk me is a feeling I will never forget as long as I live. I'd rather confront a brownie any time over a black.

The Photos show my 10ft 1in Kodiak Brown Bear that I took in April of '01.
The bear made the Boone & Crockett record book.
Since I was a young kid I listened to stories of the giant bears of Kodiak from my Dad who was stationed there in the Navy to looking at those monsters mounted in classic sporting goods stores.
I tried to take a big Grizzly in '96 but ran out of time and ended up taking an average one.
I figured the only way was to spend the big bucks and hunt Kodiak Island or the Alaska Peninsula.
Well after a few years of self depravation, I saved up and went on a 15 day backpack trip on Kodiak island and on the fourth day connected with the bear of my dreams.
It was a VERY challenging hunt!
If anything can be derived from the story, it is that you don't have to be a "Rich Guy" to live out your dreams!
You just have to be willing to do whatever it takes to get there!
I posted some of my other trophies in the "On The Hunt" forum.

Though I've seen hundreds of blackies over the years in Ak. I really haven't had any close encounters, probably the closest was a bear that decided to scratch its back on the tree I was sitting in, about 20 feet off the ground, he never knew I was there, shot a few nice bucks out of that stand, but thats another story.

I did hear a great story this past spring when I got to the resort I work at. A couple of our dockhands (young, dumb and full of ___)were doing a trash run out to the dump (we burn all our trash) there are always bears there and they usually run off when they hear the quads coming. well the 2 dockhands spot this bear that is down in a hole with its rump up in the air and its so busy eating it doesn't pay any attention to them, 1 of the guys (stupidly) decides he's going to sneak up on the bear and kick it in the butt, he gets in position and drills that bear solid, expecting it to run off, well the bear had other ideas, it spins around and before Rich could move it clamped down on his foot for about a second then according to the other guy that witnessed this, they both let out loud screeches and ran in opposite directions, he was wearing extra-tuff boots that had definite signs of a close encounter with a bear.

I was visiting my ex Sister in Law on Kodiak Island. We went out to fish the mouth of a small stream where it came into the salt. Just a little ways up from us we saw a family camping out of a camper. There were also some cows wandering the beach. We fished for a little bit then left.

A few days later I was at the Kodiak Rotary Lunch with my Sis in Law. She introduced me to some people at our table. They asked what I had been doing while on the Island and I mentioned I had done some fishing.

They then told us a story of some people who were fishing by where they were camped. They said right after the people left a Brown Bear came out on the beach and took down a cow, dragging it into the salt water and killed it. They immediately packed up and left the area.

My Sis in Law and I were the people who had just left when the Brown came out and killed the cow.

Was bowhunting with two buddies in the marble unit several years ago...Buddy in the lead suddenly gets huge eyed and backs away while nocking an arrow..I look up and we had come within 20 feet of a black bear in the brush..

.It just stared for a second and took off like a raped ape.....Saw five more bears that trip but nothing else within bowshot . Wanted to be legal so we didn't pack heat. Good times!

About 12 years ago I shot a 4pt near Twisp on opening morning. The next morning my dad, my uncle, and I hit the trail again, but before leaving we noticed that the head of my deer was gone from the picnic table. Around midnight the night before, two guys pulled their camp at the end of the road and took off. We blamed the missing head on them and cussed them all the next day.
When we returned to camp on the second day, my uncle and I put our stuff away and were sitting down to take our boots off. After puting his rifle in the camper and without saying anything to us, my dad had found some bear tracks on the road and followed them.
So my uncle and I had just put our slippers on when we heard my dad screaming for his life from down the road. "HELP! HELP! BRING THE GUNS! HE'S GONNA KILL ME!" My uncle grabbed his 30-06, I grabbed the .22 I carried for the day and, in slippers, we ran down the road to see who was about to kill my dad. Just down the road we saw my dad FLYING down the bank and onto the road. I've never seen my dad move like that. He got behind my uncle, grabbed him by the shirt, and started pushing him up the bank saying, "SHOOT HIM! SHOOT HIM!"
My dad was freaked out, but managed to say something about a bear.
All three of us went up the hill and just as my dad is pointing to the mighty, blood thirsty beast, a cute little bear stands up on his hind legs, standing about chest high. "There he is. SHOOT HIM!" "Where?" my uncle asked. "Right there!" says my dad. "That's just a little one" says uncle. "He wasn't chasing you! Now shoot him!" says dad.
We scared the bear away and my dad showed us the find. Against the base of a tree was my deer head, along with another head from our camp that the bear had taken during the day while we were gone.
My dad had followed the track to the heads, and while he was looking at them, he thought he heard me walking behind him. Of course when he turned around it wasn't me standing behind him, but the bear. Apparently the bear made a charge as my dad ran and my dad thought the bear was on his ass all the way down to the road.

"Salmonella, what are you doing to that bear on that top pic???"



at least he had the courtesy to shoot it first!

So far the Darwin award goes to the guy in Akkings post...kicking a black bear in the ass...

I once took Brian, a different friend to a different BC river with no access other than a logging road bridge crossing. We arrived early AM to find two grizz in the river about 200-yds downstream swiming around fishing for sockeye. Piering over the side of the bridge directly below us were numerous half eaten salmon. I spent the good part of 30 minutes convincing my friend to accompany me for the day in the presence of these bears. He was more than a little apprehensive. I kept telling him we just had to move downstream slowly making lots of noise and these bears would stay out of our way.

Finally he conceded, "but need my morning coffee first," he said. So he started scrambling down the dirt embankment on the side of the bridge to get water from the river to boil on the tailgate. About halfway down this bank a *BIG* grizz that had been out of sight and earshot under the bridge the entire time we had been talking got his scent and spooked, and it chose the direction of my friend as his escape route. At the same time Brian lost his footing and slid down the hill directly at the bear that by all apearances, looked to be charging him. Brian was backstroking like a wild man, beating the hell out of the coffee pot in the process, but just kept accelerating toward the toe of the slope. When he hit the bottom the bear ran by him 4 feet away and kept going. I never laughed so hard in my life.

It took me another hour to convice my now, emotionally accosted friend to go fishing. When we did we had yet another encounter about a 1/2 mile downstream. He has yet to go north with me again. Them bears are hell on fishin' buddies.