Over The Edge

When fishing Alaska, bear in mind...

I watch a lot of fishing. I catch all the outdoor TV shows I can to keep up with our industry, and I have a front-row seat in the camera boat as Aaron and his guest fishes on each episode of Bass Edge. I’ll admit this makes me a bit nuts. I love to fish as much as anybody, but I suppose watching them fish is better than staring at the walls of a cubicle in some corporate setting.

But every so often, I get to dust the cobwebs off my tackle and hit the water, and last week was just such a week. And man, what a week it was.

The good folks at Alaska’s Naknek River Camp were kind enough to invite me up for a little rainbow trout fishing in what is generally considered the best such fishery in the world. Also along were friends like Michael and Kristina Kyle, and Steve Jensen who I accompanied last year to Alaska, along with several new friends from my native Ozarks.

Of course images of huge trout making long runs in pristine water still dance in my head, but my memories are most consumed by remembrances of my fellow fishermen. No, not those folks I played cards with at night, the other ones … big brown furry guys who could run me down in a few strides and crush me like a tin can.

Though a little bit unnerving at first, you don’t have to be around Alaska’s bears long before you realize that they have no interest in dining on anglers when such an endless supply of salmon is at hand. There were those who suggested that I would be easier to catch than a dying salmon and a much larger morsel, but clearly the bruin clan prefers seafood.

Part of the whole Naknek River Camp experience is a 35-mile boat ride over to the Katmai National Monument’s Brook River. This is sort of world headquarters for Alaska brown bears. Brooks Falls is that place you’ve all seen on various wildlife shows where the salmon are jumping the falls, many being picked off by bears. To fish this river, you have to come to grips with the fact that they are constantly around. You have to keep an eye out and steer clear. We tended to stay on the move.

As you pull up onto the beach, there are these huge pits dug in the sand where the bears rest their bloated bellies stored full for the approaching winter. A colleague made an inappropriate suggestion to me that did serve as a reminder that I am suppose to be on a diet.

Before you fish at Brooks, you have to go to “bear school,” where a Ranger gives a 10-minute lecture on how to act around bears. I was way ahead of him on the keeping-your-distance part, but later in the day I would experience the torture of breaking off a 25-inch rainbow because a bear began to pay attention to it.

Anyway, there were plenty of fish to catch, and I was finally able to get enough of it out of my system to shift into a bit of bear photography.

My dear bride was a little concerned when she saw some of the close-ups. With her knowledge of any major purchases I may have made, she knew “taken with a really long lens” was flawed. She was equally unimpressed when I explained that I was a graduate of bear school. After seeing these photos, Aaron said he is thinking of investing in a life insurance policy on me.

These concerns are all unfounded I assure you. First, I’m basically a chicken when it comes to bears or anything else that can eat me in sitting. Second, it is quite clear that these guys have nothing on their minds but chowing down on salmon.

Quite the gluttons, these Brooks bears, and many are very finicky in their dining habits. Some just bite the head off the salmon and throw the rest back, and some prefer caviar -- just ripping the eggs out of the belly. It reminded me of those folks who pull the Oreo apart and lick the white stuff off first … but the bear throws the cookie part back.

The fishing? It was outstanding as you might expect, but those bears …

When I finish writing this, I’ll go back and look at my pictures for the 10th or so time. I can’t get enough of those bears. I think it is because I feel a bit of a kindred spirit with them. Fishing is a huge part of mine and their lives, we both love the wilderness and seafood, and … never mind the other similarities.