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Show When it Comes to aBear, Which is More Important, The Fish or Your Fingers? Dennis Davis was born in and raised in Pleasant Grove. He recently moved to Alaska. After an accident he relates this fictional story about his injury. I will have been in Alaska for one year. Yep, only us die hard idiots decide to come to Alaska in November and stay the winter. There is just so much to tell about all my adventures since I have been up here. I think I could write a book but I have nigh the time nor talent so I decided to just tell you one of my favorite Alaskan adventures, one I will never forget. It all took place a few months back during the salmon run. The salmon run is such an exci ti ng ti me to not only be here in Alaska but to live in Alaska. Alaskans don't fish for salmon; they harvest salmon for the winter. Kind of like Grandpa Dean Davis and apricots, only these apricots swim up rivers and don't want to be picked. . It was long about mid September and some friends of mine from church invited me to go with them on the red salmon run down on the Chugiak (chevv-gee-ak) River. Wow, what a beautiful fish the red salmon arc. They are a deep, deep red color with a black head and hooked jaw with a few. black stripes that run horizontally down their body. They average about 7-14 pounds a piece and my, my, are they tasty. (I even know guys who will eat them raw right out of the river) So my friends and I went to get a bunch of "Reds" to put up for winter. When we got to the Chugiak we split up and agreed to meet back in a half hour to see if anyone had found a hot spot. I decided to fish around a near-by bend in the river that had a nice slow back eddy so I wouldn't have to cast out as much and the fish could not see me around the bend, (a nice trick my dad and Grandpa Davis taught me). There is nothing like being a little lazy when you fish. Well, I cast out and let the river take my line. It didn't snag, so I let it go and go till 1 couldn't sec it anymore. Then it hit! It pulled good and hard. It was my first Alaskan salmon. I was so excited!!! I reeled in and it pulled away. It came back in and away three times, just like I dreamed it would be! Then I saw it. A big beautiful Red leaped out of the Dennis Davis shows of the repair job after his recent accident. water on my line about 35 y ards down. It looked to be about an 8 to 1 0 pounder, which is a good one, and he was plenty mad but I wasn't giv ing up. Then it got real exciting. After he leaped "Bear" continued on Page 8 "Bear" continued from Page 1 lie wasn't scared of me one little bit. So I hollered and yelled and kept jerking on the line. But you know what; he just bit down harder on my salmon. I've got to tell ya, that just made me so mad! Here he had been catching and eating Alaskan salmon his whole life and he thought he could just go in and bully mine away from me just like that. Well I wasn't going to let that happen that easy. Besides, 1 was the bigger one in this stupid little tug of war, or at least 1 thought so. I know, pretty dumb looking back, but at the time 1 thought I had the situation licked. So I kept reeling and pulling and reeling and pulling. Sometimes he moved and sometimes I moved. And when we were about 10 yards apart, I opened up with the biggest bear growl and screaming fit I could muster up. You know it sort of worked because he dropped the fish and I thought that was kind of nice of him. So I started reeling it in the rest of the way. But you know what, he only dropped the fish so he could growl back and come after me! Have you ever heard a real live bear growl? Well I have and let me tell you, it's kind of scary. So I turned around and started running the other way. But I forgot to diop my pole and fish. I don't know why, it was my first time running away from a bear. So there we were, me, a pole, a flopping 10 pound fish and splashed hard in the water about 35 yards down stream a black bear came miming out between two big rocks straight for my salmon! He wasn't a grizzly thank heavens just a smaller black bear. He ran out and dove in right on top of my salmon and came up with the salmon in between his teeth. And do you think that stupid bear cared? Hey, my hook was still hanging out of the salmon's mouth. He didn't care, not one iota. He just lumbered back to the shore like it was his salmon flopping around in his teeth. Well, my line was still going out, so I set the bail, jerked hard, and I almost pulled my salmon out of his mouth. Only the salmon's tail was hanging in the bear's teeth now. So 1 reeled and jerked the pole hard again. Sure enough, out plopped my salmon from his mouth. So here's my chance 1 thought and I reeled that fish for all I was worth. But that stupid bear started slapping around and biting at the water and up he came with my salmon again. This was my first salmon and he thought he was going to get to eat him. This was just ridiculous! Well, 1 was starting to get a little annoyed with this whole situation, so this time when 1 pulled on the line, I leaned back and reeled twice as hard. This sort of perplexed the bear and caused him to look up at what was causing the fish to pull out of his mouth and that's when he saw me. and a bear all running down the trail. After 1 had run for about 30 yards it occurred to me that this was not the best outcome for the situation. So I stopped, spun around, and headed for the bear screaming and yelling and smacking my pole at him. This surprised the bear. I know because he looked surprised. He reached down, bit my salmon by the tail and took off running the other way. I didn't mind him finally leaving but he still had my salmon in his mouth. I know, stupid bear. So I reeled in one last time while I was running after him and I jerked that pole as hard as I could. My jerk was so hard that it cocked that stupid bear's neck right around and then I was running straight at him and I couldn't slow down, because you know I can run real fast. (You know, like that time when we went fishing with Grandpa Denny Davis and he just found out that Oscar Lion and I were keeping our new pet frog, Folgers, in his coffee pot.) Yeah well anyway, 1 was bearing down on the bear real fast and like I said, I couldn't stop. So when I came to the bear 1 just kicked him in the ribs as hard as I could with my big brown boot. Well it worked. I know, because he dropped my fish, coughed twice and leaped right on top me. Yep, he was just a tad bit heavier than I thought. And you know what, bears stink! And it's not just their breath either. So there he was on top of me screaming his head off and about to rip my gizzard out. It was then that I realized that the fish was really not that worth it. Then I remembered there were two things you could do to fend off an angry bear. You could lie down and play dead or you could poke him in the eye. I really didn't want to poke him in the eye but 1 figured if 1 didn't then it wouldn't be too hard to play dead. So I did it. I reached up and poked that bear in the eye with my pokey finger. Wow, let me tell you, this can really make a bear mad. He was so mad that while he was screaming at me with my pokey finger in his eye he decided to chomp down on my middle two fingers. Oh my goodness, I only have two words for this. Yow and Zers! Man that hurts. But it worked. He rolled off the top of me and bawled and bawled at his eye as he ambled back into the woods. But I didn't cry (at least not too much) and I picked up my salmon and went home. Dennis, "2 fingers, " Davis |