Bear

We regularly fished the stretch of the Crowsnest River managed by Trout Unlimited in the evenings. This is located a couple miles below the photo, which was taken at the Leitch Collieries access to the stream, upstream from the Castle Mountain road. This stretch of the river holds an excellent population of large rainbows, and we found them rising to very small mayflies tight to the banks.

One evening, I geared up before my partners and wandered down the hill to the river. I chose to walk upstream, and stopped at the first run until the boys made it down to the river and headed downstream. I worked up the river slowly, casting at risers, until I passed a big bend pool. I heard a rustling in the brush and saw a snout appear across the river, perhaps 50 feet from me. For a second I thought it was a dog, until it took a couple steps forward out of the brush, and I realized I was looking at a medium sized black bear. As casually as I could, I backed away downstream, slowly and without any sudden movements. I said something like, "It's OK guy, I'm leaving". The bear disappeared into the brush and I continued back downstream. After a couple hundred metres, there was another rustling in the brush across the stream, and there again was the bear. I can't be sure if it was the same one, or a second one, but my feeling at the time was that it was one bear, keeping tabs on me.

I backed into the brush behind me. This was very thick brush, and very difficult to move around in, but I hoped the bear would not follow once I disappeared from his view. I knew that if I could bull my way through about 40 feet of brush, it would open up to a rocky hill. It did, and I was able to scramble up the rock, which rose to overlook the stream. From this vantage I could see the shoreline of the stream, and there was no sign of the bear. I was exhausted and un-nerved - translate that to scared silly. Back to the bridge I walked downstream to the guys - safer in numbers. There, we enjoyed a good evening of trout fishing with no further sign of the bear.

We continued to fish the area throughout the week, with no other encounters. We did see fresh scat throughout the area on both sides of the stream. There are many ripe berries this time of year near the banks of the Crowsnest such as service-berries and choke-cherries that draw the bears down to the river. You can see the scat is full of berries. On closer examination, we could see many berry bushes where whole sections have been ripped off the bear so that he could get at the berries.

We met another fisherman who lives only a couple hours from the river, and who has fished the Crow for many years. He told us he has been run off this stretch by bears twice in the last decade, both during berry season. I feel fortunate to have been able to see the bear in the wild, and have a peaceful, if scary encounter.