Bear in camp story and loose ends of sea lion trip

Okanagan · August 23, 2015, 03:30:48 PM

Spur of the moment salmon fishing trip, arrived near midnight at an isolated spot on a logging road where I could launch my kayak into salt water. WOW! The remote inlet on the Pacific side of Vancouver Island was covered with hundreds of lights. Gill net commercial boats crowded the water in every direction, shore to shore of the half mile wide inlet. Bad timing for my fishing trip because the nets scour the inlet of salmon and I'm not going to launch into that mess of boats.

The commercial boats quit fishing at daylight, anchored everywhere awaiting the next legal opening, which is sometimes only for a few hours. Drove to an isolated resort to get info and a cup of coffee and saw a bear on the way. Stopped to take a pic and didn't put the camera back in my boat pack.

A guide at the resort thought it would be worthwhile to fish right into the mouth of a river across the inlet. Sprained my wrist badly unloading the kayak, but paddled on in pain anyway expecting it to get better. It didn't.

Foul hooked a sunfish, unusual in those waters, a small one about 2 Â½ feet across, incredibly strong fish.

I fished for several hours, nobody catching anything and all the boats left. It had been good the day before. Then the sea lion came and harassed me into leaving. Wrist hurt so bad that by the time I got the kayak on top of vehicle, I headed for home and a Dr.

Bear in Camp Story: While fishing at midday, another fellow had pulled his boat near me and told me a story about a bear in his camp the night before.

He was camped in a grassy spot off a logging road just above high tide with his boat pulled up on the gravelly beach. He woke up about 2:00 AM and walked through a thin belt of trees to check his boat and the tide level. All OK but he noticed a black bear nearby on the beach. No moon and with starlight only he wasn't positive it was a bear. They usually don't like to have a light shined on them so he turned on his flashlight and put the beam on the bear. It started right up the beam toward him. He yelled at it and it turned and went into the trees, but paralleled him back to the tent, popping its teeth and making deliberate noise breaking branches, etc.

He got in his pickup, revved the engine and drove around the tent honking his horn and shined the headlights into the trees where the bear was. He couldn't see it so he moved his truck several times, shining light into the woods and honking the horn. After a couple of moves he noticed that someone else had come in during the night and set up camp nearby in the small clearing...

The new man figured he had camped beside a crazy druggie!

The bear I'd photographed (pics above) at 7:15 AM was a half mile away from his camp in the nearest clearcut. Hard to know if it was the same one.

Hawks Feather · August 23, 2015, 04:37:04 PM

That is nothing like the sunfish we have around here. Ours are considered huge when they are 2 inches thick.

Jerry

nastygunz · August 23, 2015, 06:21:52 PM

That is one odd looking fish!

Okanagan · August 23, 2015, 07:06:52 PM

Quote from: nastygunz on August 23, 2015, 06:21:52 PM
That is one odd looking fish!

Very odd! They sort of look like a giant crappie with the back half of its body cut off. I don't know how they can swim so strongly but that one the other day pulled me around for awhile, always slowly but powerfully. One time while diving in California I sensed something big beside me and almost turned inside out, fearing that it was a shark. It was an ocean sunfish (moa fish) nearly four feet across that had eased up from behind on my blind side and was within three feet of me. They lie flat on their side on the surface a lot but swim vertical like a crappie or bluegill.

Carolina Coyote · August 24, 2015, 05:28:26 AM

Okanagan, Just out of curiosity are those Sunfish eatable ?

Okanagan · August 24, 2015, 08:56:58 AM

Quote from: Carolina Coyote on August 24, 2015, 05:28:26 AM
Okanagan, Just out of curiosity are those Sunfish eatable ?

I dunno, never tried one! Now you have me curious. Looked it up and they are a delicacy in Japan and Taiwan. Not sure that is a high recommendation to my taste buds!

I put too many stories in one post, too typical and shows my lack of discipline.

JohnP · August 25, 2015, 12:05:56 AM

"I put too many stories in one post, too typical and shows my lack of discipline."

Get your act together!

A 2 1/2' sunfish! Whatever it is your smoking, drinking or popping you need to share.

Like Jerry said 2 inches thick is a monster.

FinsnFur · August 25, 2015, 05:21:57 AM

I've never seen anything like that in my life.

I had to look them up to get a better idea of them. Very interesting to say the least. Never new such a thing existed.