I really appreciated all the response to my Funny Fishing Stories post. Some of the stories may make it into the REEL TRUTH book. I think people would be interested in fishing stories involving bears, both funny and NOT. I encourage your stories in reply here. - I have only been charged by a bear once. A "false charge" (stopping short to intimidate - it works!) by a black bear while flyfishing Idaho's St. Joe R. near the Bitteroot Mountains. That occurance convinced me to take a large cannister of powerful "Bearspray" (12% capsasin- Mase is 5%) when towing a sledboat up the AK Hwy. in the late 80's to camp & fish on the Kenai Pennisula. On the way up we stopped at a garbage dump near Tok, AK to observe 3 large black bears foraging. I figured this would be an excellent opportunity to both practice my quick draw (this can had a holster) and to see how affective it would be on the bears (clarification- a light spray from about 100 feet away was planned, to see if they showed an aversion to the brand I had purchased; no intent to harm wildlife or even the possibilty under those circumstances!). While my 2 companions watched from the Wagoneer, I walked a short distance to get the breeze behind me toward the bears, who had stopped foraging to keep an eye on me. I pretripped the safety latch and proceeded with an attempt to impress my buddies with my Wyatt Earp like draw. In my haste I accidently grabbed the trigger along with the handle and at the same time the cannister tilted downward instead of popping out of the holster. Thus I sprayed a large reddish swath of this stuff down my right pantleg. Fortunately, the breeze carried off most of the spray cloud; missing the bears. What was left on my pants sent me into a scary uncontrollable coughing fit as I frantically tried to rip my pants off. When accomplished, I threw them as far away as possible. It wasn't funny at the time- at least I didn't think so. My "buddies" sure got a good laugh though. The bears meantime had run off into the nearby woods. Since the spray missed them I'm quite sure it was the sight of a crazy coughing clown ripping his pants off that scared them away. So I figure if you ever run into a bear with no spray or gun along, just cough wildly and rip off your pants! Just be sure it isn't a boar during mating season! - Steve Hanson

[This message has been edited by Reel Truth (edited 03-26-2000).]