Bear Attack

Black Bear Attack.

If you have an encounter with a black bear, your best course of action depends on how the bear is acting.  It is a misconception that black bears attack only because you are in their territory, you are a threat and/or the sow is protecting their cub.  The most serious and fatal attacks is brought on by food stress and the male black bear sees you as prey.  A hungry male bear is more likely to kill you than a sow protecting her cub.  

Situation 1.  If the bear growls, paws at the ground, chop his teeth, makes short runs toward you then stops and appear to be aggressive,  you are in luck. He sees you as a threat and wants you to go away.  If you slowly back away he knows you got the hint and most likely you will never see him again.  Have your bear spray ready but do not make threatening motions to a bear that is acting aggressively.  Just back away and chances are you will be ok.  

Situation 2.  If the bear is being quite, calm and is approaching you, this is worse then if he is acting aggressively.  He is not scared of you and is stocking you because he is considering you pray. Over 90 percent of this type of bear attack is done by a big male and ends up being deadly if you do not deter him from attacking.  With this type of bear encounter, it is time to make noise, scream at him, show acts of aggression and deter him from thinking you are an easy pray.  Use sticks, rocks, noise makers and better yet, if the bear is close enough, it is time to use bear spray. With this type of attack, bear spray or a gun is your best defence. 

 It was said before, “If a bear attacks, lay down. He will leave as soon as you are no longer a threat”.  Well if you are food it doesn’t work like that.  As for me I think I would at least try to fight. A big strong surveyor in my home town got attacked and tried to fight and remembers being hit so hard he went flying and doesn’t remember anything after that until he was at the hospital.  He crawled out of the woods approximately a mile and was picked up on the side of the road all scratched and beat up.  It was assumed that once the bear deemed him no longer a threat, it left him alone. The bear did not see him as pray so did not eat the surveyor but  I hear that he has some very big claw marks scares on his back.  

Because of the extensive time I spend in the woods, I have seen over 5 bears including the one I hit on a 3 wheeler. My most dangerous bear encounter comes to mind.  I was salmon fishing in the Nor-West Miramcihi when a bear crossed the river less than 300 meters upriver.  I just waited for about 5 minutes and thought he would be long gone so I started working my way up river to fish the pool.  After fishing my way up river 100 meters, I looked up and seen the big black bear had silently works it’s way down river towards me and was now less then 100 meters away standing on the bank. He was on his back legs peaking over the thicket looking down at me in a curious way.  Maybe he was just curious, maybe not.  He disappeared behind the thicket as he went back on 4 legs.  I heard him work his way farther downstream on the path and I screamed to my buddy Denis that a bear was coming down the path.  Maybe it was this scream that deterred him but I never seen him again. Trust me…. I didn’t miss not seeing him again.  

The best two ways to avoid coming in contact with black bears is make lots of noise as you travel through bear county and don’t camp beside your food.  A noise maker, like wearing a bell is a good choice.  Also If you are camping hang your food in trees away from your camp area. These methods usually keep you from coming in close contact with bears. I carry bear spray just in case. 

Here are some other facts about bears:

• Bears that kill before are much more prone to kill again. 
• There is around 800,000 black bear in North America.  A bear is not a violent creature or there would be more attacks.  Many, many unreported encounters resulted in the bear running away.  I am just glad that Donald Trump is not a bear. 
• Around 70 percent of fatal attacks the victims were alone with no bear spray.  Less than 10 percent of the fatal attacks occurred if there were three or more people present.  I suppose you could be selfish and think I cannot outrun a bear but I can outrun my buddies. Well if you stay together, you are way less prone to attack.  

I hope this helps you play safe.  

Here is a link to a guy that had a narrow escape with a bear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PWHNIbS8cE

P.S. Kinda wish I didn’t write this today.  I have to go timber cursing tomorrow and all this bear talk is giving me the willies.

Cain River Trip 2014

After a long hard Canadian winter, the warm sun on our backs was welcoming and brought on a flood of river memories and emails. Our cravings to indulge our thoughts deeper into a trans of the coming river trip dictated that we meet and spend a few hours together for some planning. Well as usual laughter and beer over shadowed our planning process and a couple of hours later we walked away not knowing what the hell our plans were except that our busy scheduled coincided on June 15 to June 19 of 2014.

June of 2014 arrived and with it organizing, planing and training had to begin. My training aids was my pipe, pipe tobacco and beer. I had to build up my endurance for I knew I would be exposed to more of the same during the trip..

After performing a refit on my canoe(patching a hole and repainting), I carefully organizing my supplies into the dry bags and felt I was ready to go. Now the challenge was to endure waiting for three more days until we set sail.... a feeling that a small child has for his wait for Christmas day.


We arrived at the put in under the Doaktown Bridge on route 123. We bid our driver Albert farewell(which is Chad's good friend)and guaranteed him we would meet him at Salmon Brook Pool at 7:00 P.M. five days from now. Albert knows his way around this neck of the woods and we could trust him to find his way into Salmon Brook Pool through old remote logging roads that were barely on the map.

The Cains is a slow moving river. To canoe it without scraping on rocks, water levels has to be above summer levels. The excitement of fast rapids and falls is non existent from the Doaktown Bridge down to the mouth but it is a river where you can enjoy the scenery, friendship and fishing without having to break for precariously navigating through white water rapids riddled with boulders and big drops.

Typically, we like getting our tents set up around 4:00 pm cook some trout then have the evening for fishing, camp fires,lies, guitar playing, and a few refreshment well into the night. Our energy runs out long before our conversation and laughter,  but as soon as we awake we start all over again. The first night, June 15,2014, was no exception. Around the Upper Trout Pool Area, under the comfort of the hardwood trees and a roaring camp fire, we partied well into the morning before cashing in and calling it a day.

The second day was colder then average for this time of year - around 15c. Early morning a moose crossed 150 meters downstream from where I was fishing. The day progressed with lots of stops and the cooking of freshly caught trout. The day came and went in a flash and before we knew it we were setting up camp again. We tarped our tents to shelter us from the rain.
A few showers didn't stop us from the usual guitar playing, having a warm fire and cold beer. We all slept well and stayed dry.

We awoke to a warm hot day. Mid morning Aaron's neck was getting burnt so he borrowed my hat. Denis's forearms were getting burnt so he borrowed some wet grass from mother nature and tied it to his arms. Our third night camp was near Blackville at a pool I think is Dr. Island Pool. The camp spot was up a hill about 150 meters away. Dragging the cooking gear would of been a task so we cooked and ate our supper by the river's edge. Despite the dropping temperature, we had a bath in the icy water. I am not sure what was worse, the cold water or hauling the camp gear up the hill. It was however a nice place to camp and worth our efforts.

The forth morning greeted us with a bright sunny day. I dressed light thinking it would be warm. It started to rain, the temperature dropped and we all got wet and I got very cold. The down pours caused the day to be rained out as far as fishing was concern. We paddled hard for several hours until we got to Fin Pool where we found a wet campsite up on a hill. We pulled our gear up the bank and about 100 yards into the wood, quickly got a fire going and pitched our tent complete with an over head tarp. I changed into dry cloths and put on my rain gear and started cooking supper. The rain let off and although it was not an ideal camp site we though it would be decent spot to spend the forth and last night of the trip. Well we got more then what we bargained for because about 3:00 a.m. we all awoke to strange screeching noises and branches being broke by an animal that would have to be as big as a bear. Now folks we are not new to the woods so we figured the screeching may have been an owl, but the breaking of big branch and trees had to be by something big. I joked a big foot but the boys settle there minds to be a simple old black bear with no claws and dull teeth. The sounds seem to go away and we fell back to sleep for another couple of hours.

The 5th morning was cold and I dressed for it. I used my neoprene waders, a sweater and an oil skinned rain jacket. Despite the cold and rain we were all fairly comfortable and enjoyed the day fishing and floating down the river. Early afternoon the temperature dropped again and we had one heck of a hail storm. The pellets were bouncing off my hooded rain coat like a rubber ball on pavement. We sat in wonderment of the storm and somehow enjoyed it's splendor.

After the storm we continued our way downstream. I spent an hour or so fishing at Pickards Pool which is about 1 km upstream from our take out at Salmon Pool. I caught a few small trout and like most of the fish we catch, I released them back into the river to live another day.

We arrived at our takeout at Salmon Brook Pool. We walked our boats up Salmon Book about 100 meters to a steep embankment where we unload our gear. Off in the distance we heard our drive coming up the woods road. The timing was perfect so it wasn't long before we had our boats and gear loaded on the trailer and heading back to Moncton. The trip back home was endured with many colourful stories each replete with exaggeration and humour.  I am not sure when we will be back but I will sure miss this 40 km, 5 days on the Cains River.
This book will surely kindle your sense of adventure.

The last 6 years

My previous fishing group fell apart since Marvin's death. Life took us separate ways, Denis C is out west and Demien is somewhere in Fredericton.
Life has it's ways of taking and giving back and fortunately I was recently given the best three fishing friends a guy could have.

Friends and co workers of 15 years namely Chad, Denis D and Aaron are blessed to share several fishing excursions a season. This year's plans are shaping up all ready. We applied for a crown waters draw and planning a 3 day canoe and fishing trip down the Cains River which is the biggest tributary of the Miramichi system.

We mostly fish the Miramichi river systems. I also take trips to my homelands in Cape Breton Nova Scotia where my mother and I fishing countless amount of days from as long back as I can remember. Moms favourite pools is Harris Pool on the Baddeck river. At certain times of year the trout fishing was good but most days we went more to enjoy the trans that the smooth flowing river put us in. Now when fishing Harris's my brothers, sisters and I all have a strong since of nostalgia and a flood of memories. These fishing memories with mother will hold me in her arms for ever. Man I miss the old girl.

Read more on salmon

Fish migration - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Miramichi

Unlike the Nor-west Miramichi, the Main Southwest Miramichi is doing
well. The Trout are gone by Querryvillle and has been reported as being
far up river. The main flow of salmon has not yet hit Querryville. Down
stream from Querryville there is some salmon being picked up.

For more information visit my web-site at www.lostcaper.com

A Tribute to Atlantic Salmon

When the leaves fall from the trees in fall, the salmon settle into their new home on the upper reaches of the rivers. There they spawning and house themselves under the shield of the winter’s ice. In spring they head down river to the ocean and feed for the summer. They make their way to the coast of Green Land and back to the very spot where they were hatched. On the way down the river these fish are easier to catch. Being a guide I can take you to these incredible fish. I practice catch and release and try to capture the salmon, take a picture and release it back in its realm as quickly as possible. A speedy capture and release help ensure the fish’s survival on its journey to Greenland. Maybe next year you will catch it again after it gains 20 pounds.