I have lots of bear stories fro fishing Ak and hunting down here this is a fun one.
Two summers ago my wife comes in from a trip to the store and says there is something hurt down our driveway . It is after dark so I drive down the driveway and check it out. there is a god awful screaming noise coming from the creek. I get the flashlight out to go take a look. The creek bottom is filled with eyes glowing back at me. I have a 6' by 3'x3' Humane trap set up near the creek. I use to to control Coyotes, raccoons etc. I assume it's coyotes and that they are after something in the trap. I shine the light in the trap and their is a real fat little bear cub. The hairs on my neck stand up and I shine the light up and there is momma and her other cub plus a few more bears watching me. I head for the truck. The rest of the bears must have been attracted to the sound of the wailing cub because they are crossing the drive way and coming in from all directions. We have quite a few here and it is not uncommon to see several a day when the blackberries are ripe. I had no way to release the cub with out going into the brush. So I decided to call Fish and game for help. They sent out 3 officers that arrived by midnite. Two stood back up with big lights and shotguns while one guy and I tried to release the cub. Everytime we would get close to the trap the cub would scream bloody murder and the Sow would bluff charge, woof and pace the perimiter popping her chops and trashing brush. If you have ever hunted bears at close range the popping the chops is a serious sign of real agitation for bears. We finnaly get to the gate on the trap and the cub decides to fight us. It starts hissing ,biting and clawing at us through the trap. We finnaly get the door open and the cub burries itself in the other end of the trap and will not come out. So we go to the other end and lift the trap and try to dump it out. The cub holds on for dear life to the sides of the trap. It's yelling and sreaming the sow is goin nuts and the sounds of the other bears in the brush fill the air. The two guards kept saying hurry up here they come. fiannly the cub drops out and goes running for the woods and it is instantly quiet except for a screaming cub tearing off through the woods. My wife and kids shot video of it from the truck and it's pretty fun to watch.

All 3 of my close up encounters were with black bears in the Michigan UP.

1. 10 yrs old fishing with dad for trout. Waded upstream and planned to fish down. It was pouring down rain and the stream was rising rapidly. I decided that I should get back so I started wading down stream. I reached a place that the water had risen enough that I couldn't wade it. I crawled up the bank and it was tight scrub and a lot of huckleberry bushes. I found a beaten down path that I started following down stream. 50 yds or so i came to a sharp turn in the path. It's raining so hard that I could barely see. I "bump" into something and suddenly realize that I'm right next to a bear. We both dove into the brush on opposite sides of the trail. I jumped into the stream and ran/floated/swam the mile back to where Dad and I started. Can't remember if I s**t my pants.
2. My parents had a rustic cabin on Lake Gogebic. The restroom was an outhouse 30 yds down the hill. Had to make a nature call in the middle of the night and took a flashlight and started down the hill. It was fairly moonlit so I didn't turn the light on, halfway down the trail I heard a noise next to me and turned on the light. Another blackie 2' away. We both yelped, turned and ran. I remember not having to go to the can at night ever again up there.
3. Again at the cabin, dad was playing cards one night with some of his friends who came up for a few days. The old case of the boys escaping from the war departments for a few days of fishing, drinking, and friendly poker games. As the kid in camp I got to fetch the beer, ice, and food while they played. I walked out of the lighted area to where the beer cooler was and saw a bear sitting right next to the coolers. He was biting the cans and drinking the beer. I ran back to the porch and told them a bear was drinking their beer. had it been the food coolers of fish coolers it wouldn't have been so bad, the guys grabbed whatever they could find as a weapon and ran over to save their beer. The bear was just sitting there holding a can to his mouth. It looked so comical the lynch mob just started laughing.

I ran into this bear up at Omak Lake this summer. Right when I got there I was alone as I unloaded my truck and he came right into my camp and tore it up as I retreated to the truck cab. Clearly he was conditioned to getting food from campers as he had no fear and was a pest the entire trip even with our food properly stored.

River Walker,

That bear has been doing that for 2 years. People sit around camp and feed it to see how close they can get to it.

I was walkin down the trail one day and ran across a half rack of animal beer and.......oh wait that was "bear" sorry wrong thread

I've only got two:
The first was in Glacier Nat'l Park. We forded the river at the Rangers suggestion. Upon reaching the far side about 300 yards from where we started we were cold and tired. Two miles into a 5 mile hike we came around a corner to see a gris cub all alone. He bolted and we wondered was he running toward or away from mom......we stayed where we were for 10 minutes and then went on our way. Upon arrival at the lake there was scat and tracks everywhere...we even had a funny encouter with a mink but that's another story.

The second was last year on Hospital Hill above White Salmon while mtn biking.
I waited at a switchback for my parter. While sitting on the trail drinking some water I heard noises below me. I thought oh a squirl. It got louder and i thought oh a deer. Louder still and I thought cool some elk. I got up and looked over the ridge I was on. There was a mommy and three cubs about 10 yards from me rippin up a log. I said (I thought under my breath...) oh ****.
They heard me and ran downhill quickly.

Here's a couple........

Several years ago I was on a motorcycle heading up an old logging road to fish for trout in some high lakes on Stevens Pass. The road curved and a lanky black bear rumbled down the hillside onto the road about 30 yards ahead of me. He was booking and kept going down the road ahead of me, so being an idiot, I followed but kept my distance. After about a hundred yards he dove into the brush on the downhill side of the road and was gone.

Also several years ago, I was at a B.C. private lakes resort. One morning three of us headed to a lake a few miles from the resort in an old Jeep. Once there we hiked into the lake wearing our waders and carrying our float tubes on our backs. As the lake came into view, my friend in front turned around and walked past me saying, "B-B-B-Bear" . I looked ahead and about 50 yards on the trail standing on two legs and looking right us was a Griz. Before I could react(basically crap my pants), he dropped and ran off into the brush. We then caught some nice trout, but the hike out was rather tense.

Found a picture of our trip where my bear story came from above. This was about a half hour after that event. The lower river was full of bears!


http://www.kickboat.com/kodiaksandgrizzlies.jpg

Just happened to stumble upon it while following a link on another board. Brought back some memories!

CF

Back in the 70s, before the NF of the Tolt was closed for Steelhead, I found a game trail which led down to the head of the lower canyon. I would descend to the river on the steep trail in the dark and spend the morning fishing down the canyon to the forks. Never saw another fisherman in the years I fished that stretch of water. Rarely got skunked. Had some big days. One morning I took my wife Lia with me. We started down the trail in the dark with a pen light. Just took the little light because I didn't want to haul unnecessary weight down the canyon all morning and first light was just a quarter hour away. We were about a hundred yards down the trail when a bear (I guess it was a bear) started screaming at us from a few yards down the trail in front of use. Let out several piercing screams and went quiet. I looked around and my wife was gone. She had levitated in the dark about 25 feet back up the trail. I climbed up to her and tried to calm her down so we could get down to the first hole and be fishing by daybreak. She wouldn't go on down the trail. Absolutely refused. Wouldn't listen to reason at all. Got pissed off at me. Took the pen light away from me and started climbing back up the trail. She had just gone a little way, with me grumbling along behind, when the bear (or whatever it was) started screaming at us from above. It had circled us and come back to the trail. Didn't have a bit of trouble getting Lia down to the water after that. We were fishing as soon as it was light enough to see.

If it was screaming it was probably a cougar... that would scare me a lot more than a bear.

I guided at Katmai Lodge in the early 90's, for those not familiar it is about 10 miles in from Bristol Bay on the Alagnak River. The fishing package included fly out trips to among other places, Brooks Falls so I had become familiar with Brooks. Between McNeil and Brooks Falls you have all seen spots on TV about the bears sitting at the falls eating the happless Sockey as they jump into the bears mouths, or they catch them, which ever you prefer to believe.

On one of my trips in I had three English gentlemen to guide. Upon arriving we discovered that the natives had netted the river for the past three days and it basically had turned the usual Sockeye run from a rushing torrent of fish to barely more than a drip.

Proceeding on to our ritual debriefing by the local rangers about the bears and how to behave around them, something I'd heard too many times before, two of my guys decided in true English tradition, why risk it when you can get drunk, and they proceeded to the bar. A decision I wish the third guy had made.

We made our way down to the lower Brooks area, crossed the bridge and setup to fish. Small schools of 3 to 5 fish appeared once about every ten minutes. Fishing couldn't have been worse for a fly out trip if we had tried.

You could tell this trip was a lot different than any previous trip in here. There were bears wandering around, yawning, and restless nearly everywhere. The rangers figure there are around 30 bears in this area,weighing between 800-1200 lbs., covering a stretch of river less than a mile long throughout the Sockeye season. Most of them congregating at the falls when the fish are running. During this trip the fish weren't running so the bears were walking the beach and patroling the lower creek where we were.

We fished, pretty much in vane for about three hours when my now very drunk fisherman unbelievabley hooked into a Sockeye. The fish tore line off the spool, the unmistakable sound of a Hardy reel paying line out as the fish tried to escape. This sound it seems has been heard many times by the bears too because they came running like someone just rang the dinner bell. I walked down told him to straighten the rod and snap the fish off immediately to which he refused. I grabbed the rod from his grasp and did it myself. Winding the line up I turned and made my way about twenty feet up the bank with him right behind me telling me what an ass I was. As I turned to him I heard a roar from my left as two bears topped a small berm simultaneously and lit into each other not twenty feet away. My guy now standing squarly behind me not saying a word. To my right another bear thirty feet away was closing on our position very fast. The two bears to my left continued to fight and the one to my right stopped not more than six feet away. While not the largest bear there this bear hit the 1000 lb mark easily, very large, MUCH bigger than me. The bear faced me off, snorting and growling, head swaying from side to side. The bear roared and then began to spit and pounce up and down with the hackles on the peak of it's back standing straight up and the bear looking as ferocious and wide as it could get. It drew closer now just two to three feet away, pouncing and clawing at the ground. You could feel the ground shaking everytime it pounced.

As well as I could I tried to maintain my composure and not appear to be scared talking to the bear the entire time, making an absolute point to look at the ground and not appear threatening. I don't even have a clue what I said during that time but eventually the bear backed off, turning its attention back to the river with no fish. The other two bears had by now wandered off. The entire event probably lasted 5 minutes but seemed like an absolute eternity at the time.

When we figured it was safe we crossed the bridge and swiftly joined my other two guys at the bar where we remained the rest of the day.

I hated taking people in to Brooks after that. I honestly don't miss Brooks.

A few years ago I was out w/ a friend sighting in my 30-06 on another friends property , We get done shooting and I want to take a look at his property so we jump in my truck and motor off down the road I find a old logging road pull off and I shut off the truck I jump out and grab the rifle.

We start down the road about 3/4 of a mile into my expedition I start to smell this GAWD AWFUL smell. First thing is I told my friend to catch up w/ me NOW!!! I told him I smell a Bear, He crapped his britches right then and there. We continue walking and then I hear twigs and tree branches breakin off to my left ......It sound like the bear is paralleling us in the woods I said we better start turning around cause' this bear is stakling us . I start to talk to my friend on what to do JUST IN CASE kind of talk( My friend has NEVER been in the woods before)

This gives the bear just enough time to get roughly 100 yds ahead of us and she pops outa the woods ALONG W/3 CUBS now I say awe S**T Now I need to clean out my skivies........... the Sow stands on her hind legs (MAN WAS SHE BIG)

My budddy dosn't remember a word of what I told him NOT to do and runs like a mad man to my truck leaving me all alone w/ a pissed off sow.

Then I remember the rifle un-sling it rack a round home and I drop to one knee and wait to see what the bear is gonna do, ..... 10 seconds later the bear charged, ( a world of thought starts playin in your head. I didn't want to shot the sow and leave her cubs to die , on the other hand I dont need to get invited to dinner..........especially when I'm the main course)

The bear closed the distance w/ in a fraction of a second Just long enought to take the slack out of the triger, the bear stopped stood on her hind legs and ROARED and took off towards her cubs. The bear stopped close enough to see the blood shot veins in her eyes. I got back to the truck and was soo pissed off I almost left him there, I still have never taken him back out!!!


That is THEE closest I EVER want to come to a Black bear and her cubs!!!!!!

25 years fishing the Russian River on the Kenai Penisula and never had a bear encounter. Last fall had two in one day. Started the morning walking down to the RR and started upstream alongside a nice hole. Stepped off the river onto the trail and just as I did about a 3 year old black bear came around the corner about ten feet away. Made myself as big as I could and yelled loud enough to scare myself and the bear. Fortunately he left in a hurry and after I checked to see if I needed to back to my truck and change underwear, I kept going up the trail. 2d encounter not near as close, but kind of neat anyway. After awhile on the trail I stopped to fish and looked up stream. About 50 yards up saw a big blond griz along the bank. I again made myself look real big and talked real loud to the bear. Instead of leaving it jumped into the river and sat down. After about a minute 2 cubs of the year jumped in with her and she took them across the river and headed on up stream. I enjoyed the view and decided fishing was probably better down stream. Hope its another 25 years before the next one.

I was standing under the 9 mile bridge on the Situk river in Alaska last July fishing for Sockeye when a brown stuck his head out of the bushes to look at the thousands of fish in the hole, he was just about ready to jump in and start fishing when he turned his head and we were face to face about 5 feet apart. I had no where to go but in the river and I knew he could out swim me so I just froze. He stared at me for about 10 second ( felt like 4 hours) jump back and shot down the river about a hundered yards and crossed the river. I think I moved about an hour later and then went back to the lodge and clean my shorts!!!
YAKUTAT JACK--What lodge you stay at? Sure is a great river!!! I am going up for Steelhead in late April. Last year 15 fish in one day and 3 over 20.

Yeah right, it happened just like that. :rolleyes:

I haven't looked back at this thread since I posted it. After just having read my ill fated parter's time scewed account of the episode I damn near just choked to death laughing my ass off. What my "now" not anonomous friend really meant to say to me was---Thank you for showing me all of your zipper lip spots in BC.

combie...we always stay at Glacier Bear. Their rooms are just right and decent facililties and restaurant/bar etc. We bailed on Yakutat Lodge when they started doing the package thing only. We like to do a la carte. We have been doing Glacier Bear for years and they give us preferential treatment and give us the same prime coho week each Sept. Guess there are a lot of good bed & breakfast places now as well as private homes etc.

I'm jealous of your steelhead trip. Have always wanted to try that, have heard all the fantastic stories. Be sure and report back after your trip this year!

ps - loved your bear story. We have had many other encounters!

Jack:
As I said in my e-mail, Glacier Bear Lodge is a great place and I hope to see you there this year. Last season, the Sockeye Run was huge. We were hooking 20-30 each every time down to the river. We even started fishing a hole about 20 minute walk up from 9 mile bridge. It was great!! Halibut was real good as well.
There will be a vauum packer at the cleaning station next season as well so you can vacuum your own fish right after filleting. Keep in touch.