Fishing On The Deshka!

Now I usually go fishing with a couple of friends, or at least with my best friend. However, this time, I was unable to get anyone to go fishing with me to the Deshka River in Southeast Alaska. That didn't bother me as much as the fact that I didn't own any weapons at the time and going into the bush of Alaska unarmed is an unsafe venture. Bears and moose abound and can make a puddle out of you in no time flat. Much less a meal. Well I almost always take a shotgun, but again, I was unable to. So I took a 44mag revolver I borrowed from my friend Rick Miller. This is not enough to take out a bear for sure, but it was what I could get, and I wanted to go, BAD!

So I took the usual trip to Willow from Anchorage on a gorgeous Alaska summer day and waited for my turn to get a ride to Neil Lake. I was friends with the owners of Willow Air and took space available to get a better price. Well, it was getting late and I was finally able to talk one of the pilots into taking me in his Piper Cub Float plane as the last ride of the day. Now at 7:00PM in Alaska in July, it is light all night, so I wasn't really worried about walking the quarter mile from Neil Lake to the Deshka, except for the prospect of startling a bear or running into a moose on the way. It is thick brush and not an easy walk. No trails, no markers and plenty of massive swarms of mosquitoes.

Now I should have known at this point that nothing was going to go the normal way when we flew over the area getting ready to touch down on the lake and I saw no one down or up river for as far as I could see. Usually there were at least a couple of people camping up river of our favoirite spot. But I was already there and decided to go.

Immediately after I unloaded my gear, I sprayed myself down with mosquito repellant. In the Alaska bush, the mosquito swarms are thick and you can end up with them in your nose, ears, mouth and clothes. They look for any unprotected areas. I then started my trek down to the river and set up camp to get ready to fish. By now it was about 8:30 and the sun was still above the horizon. (I again had to spray myself with repellant as the first spray had worn off by my sweat and I was beginning to get swarmed again.)

Now our favorite spot was a decent size sandy gravel outcropping with a small creek running into the fast moving Deshka. What made it great was that we could set our lures into the current from the creek and it would hold our lures in the river so we wouldn't have to keep reeling in and casting out. We could stick our poles into the ground and relax until we got a bite. But you have to be quick when you are fishing for salmon. Anywhere from 12 to 40 pounds can take you rod in a heartbeat. I started a fire to let any animals in the area know that someone was here and to hopefully deter them from coming into camp. I always take MREs, (military rations called Meals Ready to Eat), into the bush to keep the bears from being interested and to also allow for little waste and survival rations if need be.

I fished for a few hours catching nothing, till around midnight when I heard something in the brush about 50 yards down river from me. I ignored my fishing rod and concentrated on trying to determine how big and in what direction this noise was coming from. When the noise got to within about 20 yards of me, out bursts a cow moose and her calf into the river and bounded to the other side. Most people might think this is not that bad, but moose are a bad attitude wrapped in about 800 pounds of long legs and fur. But a mama moose with a calf is even worse. Good thing for me she decided not to cause me problems.

For the next coupls of hours, I couldn't concentrate on the fishing. I wasn't getting bites and yet, about every few minutes you could see another group of salmon swim upstream and go right past my best lures and bait. I wasn't having the fun I had come out here to have. The moose had spooked me and now I was hearing more noise behind me across the creek. There is a small rise at the back of the outcropping that kept me from seeing the creek and so I had to creep up on all fours to see what was making that noise. Well, when I got to the top of the rise, I saw a full grown brown bear drinking from the creek.

I must have sighed or something that made enough noise for that bear to look up. Upon seeing me, he bounded in one leap across the creek and started walking up the rise as I was backing off to the river's edge. I was now standing up making myself as big a target as possible and making as much noise as I could. I saw him come over the rise and he seemed twice as big as he had looked when I first saw him. Now I had retreated into the middle of the river and the water was almost to the top of my hip waiders. I had drawn the revolver and was deciding what to do and if he charged, or if he didn't how long could I be here. I was shaking. I'm not sure if it was because of how cold the water was, or if it was because I was scared sh__tless. I remembered all the mauling stories I had heard and about all the stories of what TO do and what NOT to do. Well I decided that I had 6 shots in the revolver and one load of backup in my quick-loader. I figured I wouldn't even get off three shots if he charged. And if he did, do I shoot him or myself? Do I jump into the quickness of the river and let it carry me down river or do I stand my ground?

I decided to stand my ground and fired off one shot toward the bear aiming at the ground near him. That was enough to make him lurch and run off into the trees. Now my ears were ringing and I couldn't hear anything. "Great", I thought, "Now I can't hear sh__. So if he decides to come around again and charge me, I won't be able to hear it anyway." But the bear was gone and the bush was quiet. Almost too quiet.

After about 15 minutes, I was getting most of the ringing out of my ears and I felt safe enough to leave the relative safety of the river and clean up the mess the bear had made of my camp. He hadn't gotten anything because I hadn't started eating any of the MREs for him to smell. For the next couple of hours, every noise I heard I was sure it was the bear coming back to get me. I made the fire much bigger now and stayed very close to it. If he came back, I could use the fire to put between him and me. I didn't want to go back into the river. However, by about 4 in the morning, I was feeling sort of shell shocked. I couldn't concentrate, I wasn't fishing anymore and I knew at some point I would have to make my way back to Neil lake and leave the safety of my fire and the river. I would have to walk back to the lake through the trees and waist high brush. ( A great place for bears to lay down and sleep, a bad place to walk up to and find at the last second that there is a bear sleeping and you just woke him up! )

I packed up, put out the bonfire I had worked so hard to make and started back to the lake. I decided that the only way to go was up a steep embankment after I had to walk about 100 yards through waist high grasses. (You know that natural sleeping area for bears.) But it was better than walking through the same terrain the whole way and possibly having to climb a tree or shoot my way out. I decided it was the best way and started walking. I kept looking for any sign of something having walked through the grasses and decided that being quiet was probably the best way. If there was a bear sleeping in there, and I woke him up, I would then have answered my question, and possibly be in a world of hurt. But if I was quiet and there was a bear sleeping, maybe I would inadvertantly walk around him without disturbing him. About half way thru the grass, I hear a noise coming from behind me moving towards me slowly. It sounded big and I could see the grass moving. I abandoned my quiet theory and ran screaming, "Bears, bears, bears, my kingdom for a shotgun!", over and over. I got to the steep embankment and stopped long enough to turn around to see if I was being chased. Across the grass, toward the river, I see a brown bear running the other way as fast as he could. He didn't look back.

I finally made it to the safety of the little cabin at the lake that the Fish and Feathers guys have there and it had occupants. I was forced to stay outside. I was wet and cold, but I felt safe. I was apparently suffering from some sort of fatigue or exposure because I fell asleep and was woke by the campers in the cabin that made me move to a fire they had built and they fed me eggs ham and orange juice. After I ate, i felt much better. I was no longer shaking and I was able to explain why they found me sleeping and shaking outside the cabin.

Needless to say, I went out the next week and bought a Remington 870 Express 18" barrel shotgun and a box of 1oz. federal rounds. I have never had another bear experience since then, but if and when it happens again, I will be ready. And I will have a friend along as well.

Questions and suggestions? E-Mail me. All good ideas used!! Ken Hinrichs