The rattle of rocks and a loud splash erupted behind me.

I glanced over my shoulder, and there he was.

The source of the tracks.

We had seen fresh bear tracks on the trail near the road, but they thinned and disappeared as we walked up river.

And after a couple of hours of great Dolly fishing, my wife and I had completely forgotten them.

Now the bear surveyed the river in front of him and waded out into the current. Despite the host of pink salmon, he was surprisingly thin for so late in the summer. Though he was mature, he had the long-legged, lean look of a youngster.

Perhaps because he was intent on supper, he didn’t notice us. As I watched from less than 40 yards he clambered out on my shore and started walking upstream toward me with his gaze fixed on the water.

I whistled at my wife a little further upstream and she saw the bear, then backed out of the water as I backed away from its approach.

The bear glanced upstream and spotted me when it was about 30 yards away and reared up on its hind legs for a better look.

I stopped, waved an arm and started talking to it.

In a flash it dropped down and loped across the broad gravel bar toward the screen of willows beyond.

That’s what I call a “good” bear encounter. He had no interest in us, and in fact left once he saw us. If he had decided he wanted to stay and fish, we would have been just as happy to leave the river to him.

I was carrying a pistol, but it never occurred to me to draw it. The bear was simply going about its business and acted in everyone’s best interest once it spotted us.

My wife “drew” when she saw the bear, but in fact she pulled out her camera and grabbed a quick shot of the running bear before it disappeared.

Bear tracks and the bears that make them are part of life on Kodiak. As a matter of fact, they’re among the biggest reasons we love fishing here.

Not so many years ago the sight of bear tracks, much less the bears themselves, was rare on Kodiak’s road system. But now my wife and I expect to see both every summer and are more surprised to walk rivers without them than with them.

Whatever the explanation, there seem to be lots more bears on road system rivers than was the case even ten years ago. Whether you write it off to effective management by ADF&G or simply more people stirring around and helping the bears become accustomed to people, there’s no question that bears are almost common in places we never used to see them.

There is good and bad in that. The mixing of anglers and bears doesn’t have to be a problem, but it requires lots of learning and good behavior by both.

Ask anyone who has spent time around bears and they’ll agree on a few points.

Bears are smart! Probably smarter, in fact, than most dogs. Present them with a puzzle or the chance of a free meal, and they’ll find a solution in no time flat.

Try to devise a way to keep them from getting to a meal, and they will usually defeat it in a hurry.

Bears grow up learning from their moms, then go on learning from what life has to teach them. And when a new trick or new location nets a meal, you can bet they’re going to remember it and come back often.

And they can get downright possessive about their food sources. You’re probably welcome to stand at a respectful distance and watch them eat, but you had better get out of their way if they are convinced the food is theirs. And they have little regard for your opinion to the contrary!

It goes without saying that the mom’s think their cubs are pretty special and need looking after. Interfere with that or threaten the well being of a cub, and prepare to be educated.

But overall, bears on rivers are a whole lot more interested in the salmon than they are in you. Give them a chance to be wild, well behaved bears and they’ll pretty much accept people as just one more hungry mouth wanting a turn at the best fishing hotspots.

People are supposed to be the smartest critters around, but watching them mix with bears makes me wonder sometimes. Humans can do downright stupid things, then blame the bears for the resulting problems. Remember that bears learn quickly, and it’s as easy to teach them a bad habit as a good one. I believe it’s even easier to teach them the bad habits.

The biggest problems I’ve ever had with bears on rivers are the direct result of lessons the bears learned from others. Someone else taught them how to raid camps, bluff anglers to steal fish, or that most packs contain food.

I sure didn’t teach them those tricks, and you won’t see bears off the beaten path who have learned such dangerous “tricks.” But too often I have to deal with those facts when I run into the bears at popular recreation sites.

There’s always a moment of truth for me when I encounter new bears. I simply don’t know what to expect from them. And the closer they are to areas frequented by people, the more I expect them to misbehave.

I treat each encounter on road system rivers with kid gloves, assuming that the bear has already learned a few bad habits. I give them my complete respect and let them have any fishing hole they want. After all I’m fishing for fun, while they’re hard at work storing calories they’ll need in the long winter.

I also work not to startle them when I’m moving around on streamside trails. Even if I’m by myself I keep up a steady stream of chatter, alternately talking to myself and the bears. You’ll be amazed just how far a human voice will carry.

If worst comes to worst and I run out of things to talk about, I’ll even try singing. If you’ve ever heard me sing, you won’t have to wonder why I see so few bears considering all my days on the water!

But most of all, I try to do nothing to teach a bear any bad habits, even as I am contending with bad habits they’ve already learned from people who encountered them before me.

Rather than going through all that you need to keep in mind in bear country, including the road system, I heartily urge you to stop by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Kodiak National Wildlife, or Alaska State Parks office and ask for their bear safety information sheets. They include a wealth of information accumulated by pros that have been in the business of keeping bear and people out of trouble a lot longer than I have.

If an office visit isn’t convenient, the same kind of information is available on the web. ADF&G’s “Bear Facts” web page is at: http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=bears.main It tells you about living with bears in all sorts of situations. If you want to get specific about fishing, visit their “Fishing With Bears” web page at: http://www.sf.adfg.state.ak.us/statewide/regulations/bears.cfm

For the latest information from Alaska State Parks visit their “Bears and You” at: http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/parks/safety/bears.htm

All that is useful and important background information, because sooner or later you’re going to run into a bear if you’re active along Kodiak rivers.

Is it startling? Yes, always.

Is it frightening? Maybe a little, at least until you can assure yourself that the bear doesn’t really want any trouble.

Is it something to worry about? Not really, so long as you are well behaved and the bears are well behaved. And that’s the point.

Next time you see a bear, do your part to make it a happy experience for everyone. Living and playing around bears are what Kodiak is all about, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Hank Pennington©2008 is on our panel of expert outdoor advisors.

For more info on this or any other subject contact the store directly

Thanks

Jesse Glamann

August 1 is always a special day to me, and not just because it’s opening day of Kodiak’s long deer season.

In fact, it is also a day of closures!

The upstream portions of road system rivers close to salmon fishing starting August 1, in order to protect spawning pink salmon.

Why is that so important? Do I regret not being able to fish all that water for salmon?

By no means!

In fact I relish the closure because it leaves the upper rivers virtually deserted.

And even though they are closed to salmon fishing, they are wide open to fishing for Dolly Varden. Until mid-September I can enjoy world-class trout fishing without another soul in sight.

I admit with all the great salmon fishing on Kodiak, it’s easy to lose track of our trout. But if you’re a dyed in the wool trout lover, it’s hard to imagine how folks could let plain old salmon distract them so easily.

Most trout enthusiasts think of the big blue-ribbon rivers of the Rocky Mountains as the best of the best. But that’s part of the problem. Those big rivers like the Yellowstone, Missouri and Big Hole are just about “loved to death.”

The fish are still there, but so are the people. When western trout rivers accumulate more regulations than Alaska’s Kenai River, you can pretty well guess just what kinds of crowds clog the rivers.

In fact, a growing number of our friends are abandoning the famous trout rivers in favor of Kodiak’s Dolly fishing. They live right on the banks of famous trout rivers, but they buy tickets to Kodiak to do their trout fishing.

Do I have your attention yet?

Kodiak has some of the best trout fishing in the country, yet almost no one bothers. Remember that next time crowds choke your favorite salmon waters.

While you can certainly catch Dollies on spinning tackle with lures or bait, this is not really the time for that kind of fishing. The problem is that lures and bait are also attractive to pink salmon.

When the whole point of the river closures is protecting the pink salmon, it doesn’t make any kind of sense to fish in ways that are going to catch them. In fact, to meet both the letter and the spirit of the law, you should do everything you can to avoid them.

Simply switching to fly tackle isn’t going to solve the problem either, if you aren’t careful about where and how you fish, as well as what you tie on the end of your line.

Pink salmon in rivers are extremely aggressive. They’ll hit lots of things out of pure meanness while competing for or protecting their spawning opportunities. Anything big or bright or moving quickly is likely to catch their attention and draw a strike.

There’s a further problem in their sheer numbers. If you put a hook below the surface in locations with lots of pink salmon, you will inevitably snag them.

The first consideration for me in avoiding pink salmon is using a light leader. If things go wrong and I hook or snag one, I want to be able to break it off immediately rather than dragging it to shore to remove the hook.

I use leaders no heavier than four-pound test. Flies are cheap and easy to replace, so I’m not the least bit concerned about losing them in order to avoid harm to the pink salmon.

And choosing flies that avoid the interest of pink salmon plays right into the hands of great Dolly fishing. Brightly colored wet flies and streamers, even salmon egg look-alikes, will draw strikes from pinks.

But conventional dry flies and nymphs pass by pink salmon noses virtually unnoticed.

When you realize that the abundance of pink salmon eggs is the big reason Dollies enter the river in the first place, it may seem contradictory to use only flies that resemble insects rather than those that look like salmon eggs.

But in my long experience, the dry flies and nymphs actually work better than egg patterns! I’ve tried lots of egg patterns and even beads, but almost always caught fewer Dollies than with dries or nymphs. It makes me wonder if in fact the Dollies don’t get a little sick of salmon eggs after a steady diet of them, and in fact relish opportunities to snatch a high protein insect snack.

Without a doubt the two most effective nymphs for Dolly Varden in Kodiak rivers are Bead Head Hares Ears and Pheasant Tails, both in size #12 or smaller. Drab olive or gray wet flies that resemble emerging caddis pupae are also good when actively fished, but those patterns are harder to find.

I mentioned “brightly colored streamers” as a bad deal around pink salmon. But that doesn’t mean all streamers are ill advised.

Very small slender streamers like Thunder Creeks can be excellent in natural fish colors, provided you don’t get them too close to territorial pink salmon. I reserve them for use in places where pinks are scattered, but they can be wickedly effective on the very largest Dollies.

But nymphs, wet flies and streamers aside, the world class nature of Kodiak’s Dolly fishing doesn’t fully emerge till you switch to dry flies. Once you switch to dry flies your worries about pink salmon virtually disappear while the excitement of the fishing goes right through the ceiling.

Imagine the thrill of trout averaging over 15 inches rising up to smack your dry fly! And if you stick to it, a notable portion of the fish you catch will top 20 inches!

How big do Kodiak Dollies get?

The largest I’ve hooked and landed on a dry fly was just over 29 inches! I fully expect to catch fish over 20 inches every time I venture out, and I’m surprised if at least one or two doesn’t top 24 inches.

There’s a whole lot of strategy and experience in finding those big fish among the run of the mill Dollies, but it’s easier than you might guess. All you need to do is understand a little bit about the “rules of the hood” in a tough salmon spawning river.

In fact, with all the commotion and chasing that accompanies spawning, fish of all species tend to sort themselves by size. The smaller fish get pushed to the fringes of the stream and areas not being used for spawning. While bigger trout can circulate among the salmon with relative impunity.

If you want to catch the really big Dollies, you can expect to find them right among the pinks. Most are going to be as big as the pinks and some of them are going to be larger. Quite a bit larger!

That’s where the dry flies come in. You can float a drably colored dry fly right over the top of a school of pink salmon without attracting their attention, and meanwhile drawing enthusiastic strikes from the Dollies among them.

The best dry fly by far is an Elk Hair Caddis due to the preponderance of caddis flies in Kodiak rivers. I have the best luck with the smaller versions no bigger than #12, and in fact #16 is usually a whole lot better.

You can catch a few Dollies on dries fished in the classic “dead drift” manner, but your catch rates will soar along with the excitement when you break that basic rule of dry fly fishing.

Instead of working to make the fly drift dead on the water, have some fun. Make it wake and jiggle on the surface just like a living insect. Brief pauses in movement will draw strikes at times, but for the most part expect the strikes to come while your fly is moving.

Fast, slashing strikes from really big trout. And not another soul in sight.

See why dedicated Montana trout anglers are buying tickets to Kodiak Island?

Hank Pennington©2008 is on our panel of expert outdoor advisors.

For more info on this or any other subject contact the store directly

Thanks

Jesse Glamann