An encounter with angry animals

There is a river I visited in the fall last year it was a clear and crisp fall day - I caught one fish.Fast forward to this week and I was itching for another go at the river to see how the trout had done through our mostly mild winter.

There is a roughly one mile hike to get to the river. When I got close I spotted another angler but he was wearing jeans and a flannel shirt. I did not feel like chatting so I slunk back up the trail to look for a spot where I could cut cross country and start fishing where I had left off the previous season.

A lovely spot...

While looking for a place to cut cross country I came upon a trail. I have hiked this area quite a bit and had never seen the trail. I followed it and low and behold it took me to the exact spot on the river that I had wanted to start fishing at. While bush-wacking down to the river from the trail though I managed to pick up five ticks on my legs. I flicked them off into the river, setup my rod, and began making my way upstream.

Wild violet

As I made my way upstream I spooked a deer beside the river. I watched as she leapt and bounded deep into the forest. A little further up I spotted several fish holding in a riffle. I cast well above them and drifted my lure in front of them. They did not even sniff it. Indignant I reached for my tackle booklet (straight from Japan thank you to my good friend and fellow tenkara enthusiast who runs the Sieyu Institute) and attached another hard bait. As I was getting it rigged up suddenly upstream I heard snarling, splashing, and shrieking. It sounded like a bear attacking a deer. Kicking myself for forgetting my knife in the truck I whipped out my iPhone. If I was going to get eaten I wanted someone to know by what...You can check out the wildlife encounter in the video below...

Well it was not a bear attacking a deer. As best as I can tell it was a racoon encroaching on the otters territory and a fight ensued. Otters do make similar noises as a deer though, who knew... When the otter saw me he retreated into some brush along the river and started growling and hissing at me. I grabbed a nearby log in case he came for me and booked it upstream as quickly as possible.

The trees are blooming

The rest of the day was less eventful. I had a wonderful stream-side lunch and found some very fishy spots that were a hoot to fish. This trip I stuck with my BFS rod/reel but earlier in the week I had found a great tenkara stream. I did not catch any fish but I did see several red-spotted newts in their eft stage! It was a great and exciting day out in the wild. Next week looks a little cooler but there is another area I want to scope out. More to come...