Photography and Fishing!!

Like I said in the beginning of this story, when the light is right the fish will bite. That was always my dilemma. If I would wait on fishing, instead going off making photographs in the soft light of the morning, there was a good chance I wouldn’t eat. I was very lucky the day before, catching those fish, I knew I couldn’t count on my luck holding out. I learned to be quick with my fishing, no sport involved, no sooner was the fish hooked, then I’d flip him way up the bank, giving him no chance to escape. My memory is rather good, but for the life of me, I can’t remember the name of my neighbor at the camp in Reds Meadow. What this man taught me, kept my Father and me out of real trouble, while camping in Alaska, it just seems strange, that I draw a blank on his name. I don’t know, maybe some timers disease is setting in. He was not so impressed with the fish I brought back to camp, he called them McDonald trout, stockers. He told me, they don’t know what to do with a bug, all they knew was what they were fed as they were raised on the farm, that was all they would hit on. He wasn’t complaining, but he told me he would show me better places where I could fish. Well we finished up with the lunch, and settled back for the show. First he checked my truck, made sure there was nothing showing in the cab. He told me these bears knew what coolers were, and if they saw one in a car, they would tear the window out, just to get at it. Right on schedule, here comes the one o clock bear. It was the bear, Astro and I had met in the woods, earlier in the day. We watched him roll through the campground, today he came up empty. Astro was fascinated by the beast, but only watched, I think she knew not to tangle, not even a growl came from her. The bear was around for ten minutes or so, then moved on to, I guess the next stop on his route. No sooner did the bear move on, than a family pulled into the campgrounds, and set up camp about 50 yards away. They had their tent pitched quick, left some coolers and bags on the picnic table, then took off for a hike. My neighbor, about the time these people pulled in had gone off to the showers. By the time he returned, this family was on their hike, I wasn’t wise enough to warn them of the bears. So 2 o clock, the bear, right on time, wandered into camp. It wasn’t a large bear, a bit bigger than the 1 o clock bear, he went right for the goods. My neighbor knew this one too, said it was a three year old, he said he knew him from the year before. The bear began to rip up the camp site of the people who were hiking. He had found the mother load, found some Oreos, peanut butter, chips, all sorts of goodies. From time to time, he would stop, he’d be looking around, he seemed distracted. Maybe 4 or 5 times he did this, always going back to his feast. Then, it seemed like out of nowhere, with a loud growl, a very large bear appeared through the woods. He was not young, maybe 400 pounds, we watched that three year old head up the closest tree. Now we had some drama, my neighbor in camp, had never seen this bear before. The smaller bear voiced his displeasure with being run out, and after a little snack, the larger bear started up the tree, chasing the younger bear farther up. I guess it was all about pecking order. About this time, the hikers came out of the woods, and saw all the damage. More drama, my neighbor in camp went over to these people, and began to read them the riot act, telling them, they had no right coming down here, creating such a dangerous situation, that they had a responsibly to secure their camp site, before they went wandering off in the woods. He had been pretty cool with me, I guess only because I hadn’t drawn any of this into the camp. The larger bear went back and fourth, between the food and the tree, chasing the small bear farther and farther up. At one point, the larger bear, very irritated by the squawking of the small bear just flew up that tree, got as close as he could, grabbed a branch in his jaws, and began with his arms, trying to swat the younger one out of the tree. About this time, the Ranger shows, up and asks for a couple of pots. He starts banging the pots over his head and hollering, causing the older bear, to back down the tree, and run off into the forest. The Ranger kept it up from a distance, and shortly, the younger bear came down from the tree, and ran off as well. Well the new campers trip was ruined, they cried a little to the Ranger, as they packed up there things, and in short order, they were gone. The Ranger came over to us, told us that the night before, a coyote had tried to drag a child out of his sleeping bag, but was scared off by the parent. He told us they weren’t in a tent, and that was why most likely it had happened. He told us that the Ranger Station had called in trackers, that they would be out all night, for us to stay in camp, that we would probably be hearing rifle fire through the night.