7/22/06 Russian River Rainbows and bears

Another fishing adventure in Alaska. Along with Drew and Jon from work, and Cal, another friend, I went down to the Russian River to go rainbow fishing this past Saturday. It was in between red salmon runs, so we hoped the place wouldn’t be mobbed by people trying to fill their freezer with salmon, and it wasn’t. Plenty of people, but not mobbed ~~ it’s usually a combat fishing spot.

The day started with me getting up at 3:30, getting to Drew’s at 6, and getting to the Russian around 8:30. We fished till around 7 PM, left around 8:30, and I got home just at midnight. Needless to say, after hiking 4 or 5 miles during that time, most of it in the stream flailing my arms around, I was moving kinda slow for a day or two afterwards.

We did, however, get into the fish, and I managed to do pretty well, getting one around 20”. Most all of the ones we got were in the 16-20” range. Not a bad day of fishing (is there such a thing as a bad day of fishing?)

It was inevitable ~~ I knew it would happen sooner or later, and I’m just glad that I was with a bunch of other guys when it happened. I finally met up with some bear on a fishing stream. Three, in fact.

The Russian River is infamous for bear / human contact, and this year seems to be a bit worse than usual. We had taken precautions, with 3 of us packing heavy caliber handguns. My .44 Mag was strapped to the front of my chest where I could get to it fast if needed.

The first black bear came out of the woods across the stream from Drew and I, poked around, then went back into the woods. Drew and I continued to fish. A few minutes later he reappeared, and started walking down stream towards us. We were fishing off a gravel bar, and I yelled at Drew so he knew the bear was back, but we continued to fish.

The bear got to just opposite of us, then headed out onto the gravel bar right at us, so I moved up next to Drew to present a larger profile. We yelled and waved our arms, but the bear kept coming. When he got to about 40 feet away, we were both looking over our shoulder for an escape route and loosening up our guns.

I’d had about enough by then, and took out a small air horn I keep in my vest, and let go with a blast. That brought him up short, and he finally turned and headed back into the woods, deciding he didn’t like the noise. A wise choice on his part, but for a while there, I thought I might have to change my waders.

We met our next bear shortly thereafter. I noticed Drew was up on the opposite shore from me, just standing there. I fished down, then crossed over to him, and he told me there was a brown bear (aka grizzly bear) lying down in the tall grass on the side of the stream I had just been on. I would have passed within a couple of feet of him if I hadn’t crossed and gotten his warning. I saw the bear when he stood up to look around, and I was truly impressed. Almost had to change the waders again.

The griz decided he’d had enough of people, and started to come over to our side of the stream, but at an angle away from us, obviously not threatening. He just wanted to get away from people, so we yielded our spot and moved off down stream away from him.

We continued to fish down to where the Russian River flows into the Kenai River, where Drew caught a nice 24” rainbow. A two foot long trout was a great way to end the day! The third bear, another black, we saw as we were walking back to the parking lot. He was on the opposite shore and more interested in the salmon carcasses, so we were able to just pass him by.

All in all, a great day of fishing, and I’ve finally got my first “bear encounter” behind me. You’ll have to forgive the fact that the photos of the bears are a little bit out of focus and shaky, as I had other things on my mind while I was taking them!

Keep in touch, and I’ll write more as it happens.