Imagine going out for an afternoon of fishing and catching… a black bear.
Granted, it’s not what you went out on the water looking for, but it would still be one hell of a fishing story. These Montana fishermen got dangerously close to having that storyline play out – with an emphasis on the danger part. As their boat floated some 30 feet off the shore, a curious black bear decided to swim out to them to check things out.
They couldn’t believe their eyes when the bruin first waded out into the water, then went into full on doggy-paddle (beary-paddle?) mode in the direction of their boat:
“What the f**k is he doing? The f**k… he’s coming.”
In some classic best friend banter, one of the guys suggested that they try to catch the bear and reel it in. Their best idea? Well, why wouldn’t you try to catch the bear like it’s a fish?
“You want to jig him?”
In a way that only a good fishing buddy can respond, the other guy kept up the bit and said he’d be more than happy to cast out towards the bear… under one condition:
“I can. I’ll catch his ear if you want me to. You gotta unhook him though.”
They were pretty comfortable joking around for two guys that would have been in a real pickle if that bear got up into their boat. Luckily for them, just as the swimming bruin got within a couple of feet of the boat, it got spooked and decided to head back to shore.
It might have been the fisherman speaking directly to it that encouraged the bear to abandon ship, so to speak:
“What are you doing buddy? He didn’t know… get out of here buddy. He was coming for a second.”
I’d count that as a close call if I were those guys. And just like a good ol’ fishing story, the size of that bear would get bigger and bigger every time I told the story.
Or I guess they could just show the video below:
