When a hungry black bear and a brave fisherman cross paths, something’s got to give.
There’s nothing more relaxing than casting a line out into the water. Fishing is one of those activities that really brings out the best of being out in nature, and the fisherman in this video was having a great time, and had even hooked a salmon, when a black bear ran out of the brush and tried to ruin his day.
Though bears will eat just about anything, the ones who live on the western coast might not have a snack that they favor more than salmon. The large animals will often spend hours fishing, and are normally successful in their endeavors. Some coastal brown bears have been known to catch and eat over 30 salmon in one day.
A bear’s speed and razor-sharp claws make them perfect anglers, and their strength allows for them to walk away with their catch. Fully grown black bears can lift up to 300 pounds with each paw, and their bite force sits at around 800 psi. In other words, if they need to carry prey off in their jaws, that’s very doable. However, black bears can also be very opportunistic hunters… and that’s just another way of saying that they can be lazy from time to time.
This one in the video below was clearly not up for fishing its own salmon out of the water. Why would it, if it could just swoop in at the right time and snatch a freshly hooked fish right from a fly fisherman?
That was clearly this younger black bear’s plan, but little did it know, this is one of the bravest anglers on the planet. Most people would concede their catch if they saw a sizable predator charging right at them. But this guy – presumably named Jeremiah Mast – had a different idea. A black bear is charging at him trying to get the big ol’ salmon that was just landed? Well, the only response is to charge right back.
When the bear moved in on the fish, the fisherman charged right back at it, and that effectively stopped the black bear in its tracks. It didn’t give up the pursuit. Rather, it seemed startled that it was challenged like it was. When the fisherman continued to pull the big ol’ salmon to shore, the bear took it as an invitation to try again.
The fisherman and the person behind the camera shouted a couple of “Hey Bear” for good measure, and the brave angler chose to step at the black bear in an aggressive manner once more. The second charge by the fisherman seemed to finally get the point across to the black bear. Following a second failed attempt to steal some free salmon, the wild animal got the memo and went into full retreat mode.
Was it worth it for the fisherman to risk his life to secure the salmon he had just caught? I’m not entirely sure. But did his tactics for shooing away the “opportunistic” bear work? You can watch the video below and answer that for yourself… I’d say “yes” to that one though.
“That’ll get your blood pumping. Get your own fish buddy.”
At first glance, it seems a bit insane to step up to a bear like that, but Jeremiah confirmed that the bear had already taken a number of fish from them that day. He also is very familiar with the area, seemingly somewhere in British Columbia, Canada, and in another comment, he explained why it isn’t wise to feed the bear some of the fish he caught.
When a number of comments (rather ignorantly) argued that he should’ve just given the bear to the fish, he said:
“The amount of people saying “just give him the fish” is astounding, so let me educate you…
Firstly, In this particular area there are so many fish that bear could dive into the water blind and come up with dinner every time. Secondly it’s a highly populated place with lots of people and tourists, if people start feeding those bears they will start to get more comfortable and no longer look at you as a threat and before look at you as food also.
Thirdly, I watched this bear eat 3 huge fish that morning, including one off my line. And lastly if you don’t know that you shouldn’t feed wildlife, specially an animal that can be dangerous to humans then you need to do some research. Cheers”
Of course, if he just let the bear snag the fish off the line, there’s a good chance that it might still have a hook in it. It goes without saying, but you don’t want to be feeding hooks to the bear either. That’s certainly not good for it.
The more you know…
