Wildlife and the outdoors

[Carver_OR]

We all have seen some natural wonders when out on the water or just outside. We're lucky to live and play in the Pacific Northwest,I appreciate the outdoors as much as tricking a fish. Some of the memories and thing that still make a trip special for me are.
I can find a GOOD rock and get darn excited :&gt . A pair of otters swimming and playing along the river. Getting 4" from a Pine Siskin or Nut Hatch(Jennie, I've touched two). Watching a pair of bucks spar and one get pushed off a cliff. Having deer swim down the river beside the boat. I watched a falcon on the Deschutes take a pigeon in mid air. A rattlesnake swallow a frog. I seen a bald eagle catch toooo big of a salmon and he had to swim to shore before he could fly off with it. Getting spaced out on a rock formation. Drifting a river in a snow storm.
There's more to it than catching fish, whats your story?

Hooks sharp?
Pat

[PEEPS]

Man oh man, Pat, I agree with you 110 per cent. My most memorable outings are the ones where I encounter something special from the natural world.

For me, it doesn't need to be all that spectacular.

Things I still think about once in a while:
Bald eagle flying up river on the Kalama.
While fishing the Big Wood in Ketchum Idaho this summer, see first a weasel scoot by behind me and stop and take a look, and then as the sun was setting behind the hills, seeing a fisher (big weasel) scurry along the riprap across from me and then come back with a big ol' trout in it's mouth to take home for dinner.
Got a wild hair, and spent a night trying to catch a catfish out of that little lake near the campground at the Kalama. All night long, 3 beavers swam back and forth in front of me. Every once in a while one of them would slap his tail on the water and scare the cr*p out of me.
River otters are cool to watch.
Water Oesuls (sp?) are amazing little birds too.

The list goes on, but a fishing trip can be great, regardless of how many fish you catch, if you get a chance to see this kind of stuff.

Bill

[RichH]

Sight fishing to a big summer steelhead at Niagra park on the North Santiam and catching a glimpse of something brown and furry swimming from upstream in my direction. Biggest dam beaver I've ever seen. No wait, Its a bear staring me straight in the eyes while he's huffing his way down through the drift. :shocked:

Too cool.

[SuperT]

Opening day of lake season, fishing with my dad on Silver Lake (Just off Pacific Hwy in WA)when I was like 10 or 11 and watching a bald eagle repeatedly come in and catch trout. One time ,less than 10 feet from the boat.

[winterkill]

Swimming my way up river on the Nehalem in the summer, and having 2 otters follow me the whole way. Every time I came to a new hole they were popping up from underwater, kinda trying to play a game with me.

[Jennie@ifish]

Being a bit tired of the rain, and hungry for icy winter days...
I want be on the bank of a river, or in a boat, and glance over to see ice on branches, and the sun streaming through them.
Or even dew on winter branches... with that same cold, clear sun, and the powdery blue sky of winter.
Something about how brilliant they are against the dark branches. They are like jewels, diamonds!
Something as simple as that, makes the day precious to me.
Jen

[Seefood Man]

Nothing built by man, will ever be as beautiful as nature it's self

[Steelie Steve]

Drifting the Lewis river on the 4th of July with my two daughters, seeing osprey, baby deer, and steelhead. :smile:

Drifting on the Clackamas and spotting 4 Bald Eagles within about a 1/4 mile stretch. Two of which were in a nest directly above the river.

Great place to live and play. :grin:

[ampersat]

tops for me so far was:
standing waist deep in the sandy, ice mixed in with the rain. bundled up warm and dry, except for my hands which are turning red from the cold stinging rain. having not the foggiest clue what i'm doing pitching jig and bobber in four feet of water. having the entire run to myself, with the quiet of the outdoors roaring all around me. then i look down and a winter steelhead is lazily swimming by my feet. i swung my rod over to get the jig in front of it and with a flick of its tail it's gone.
i certainly didn't appreciate that moment at the time as much as i do now.

second to that was watching a mother and baby deer swim across the sandy to my side of the river. they were hanging out on the island across from me while i was summer steelheading. i took a few pics and went back to fishing. i heard a splash and when i looked up, momma was already out of the water and baby was just getting out. they were not more than twenty feet away from me. i snapped some more pics and went back to fishing. they lazily wandered off. i love oxbow park; the deer are plentiful and rather tame.

[ 12-14-2001: Message edited by: ampersat ]</p>

[DF]

Sturgeon fishing by trojan and having a deer swim towards the boat and pass by right by the transom. So close I could of touched it :smile:

[ 12-13-2001: Message edited by: Drummer/Fisherman ]</p>

[Nestookher]

Fishing from a rock one day at little sweeden on the North Fork Santiam a Huge bear came out of the woods across the river from me and sat down, I froze untill it raised her nose only to notice a bright flash next to my bait, and then a bump, not to set the hook and alarm the bear, she had cubs balling up in the trees. She knew I was there but could not see me. After one large snort she walked away I reeled in, picked up my stealhead and went home and took a shower. Named the bear wanda and have seen her 2 more times.

[JPSFISHY]

A spike/fork Rossevelt Bull in my driveway Nov.3.
A real nice 3pt buck wipe out one of my archery targets. Tore his head off. A Eagle roll over an pick an ospre out of the air while summer steelheading. A deer that tried to jump in my drift boat on Dec.22 last season. Saw 2 cougars this year, 1 bear. Got my buck, had 20 head elk/3 spikes run through camp/ not by me. I watched a nice 5pt bull lay down in the snow/I had a spike tag. Had a skunk attack me at home/ all over a little cat food-at night. Not good. Tomatoe juice doesn't work. The memories go on and on. This is a neat topic to have over a wood pit BBQ.

[salmonlips]

Great topic - A couple of bears, one cougar when I was a kid. The best came a few years ago when a pod of Killer Whales came by when my daughter and I were fishing the south side of Orcas Island. A close second were some huge sharks in south puget sound. The marina owner told me they were plankton eaters.

[Captain and Marie]

I remember several years ago being in Alaska. And we were hunting the Toklat Male Grizzly Bears, with cameras. We found him! Almost to close for comfort. But we later found out we were the only ones that had actually spotted him that summer. It was special.

When my deer family came to see me every day last summer. Lilly had triplets in my back yard and came to show them off JUST for me! And the male buck actually would eat apples out of my hands. He really did! And he actually let me scratch his chin and feel the velvet on his horns this past summer. I will never forget him.

Seeing Great Blue Herron flying over the river and landing in my back yard searching for varmits.

Seeing Bald Eagles soaring down the path of the river I live on. And at the same time seeing huge Hawks streaming the opposit direction.


During the 1996 flood, seeing trees as big as houses floating down the river. The huge trees hitting the Rail Road Trellis with loud bangs. Causing a mock dam at the bridge and flooding us so deep here that we feared for our lives and all possesions. We were evacuated from our homes.

The beautiful Rainbows after the storm. I saw one the other day, right over our house. Feeling like I found my "POT-OF-GOLD".

The Pacific Northwest is awesome! My home of beauty and nature at its finest!

Thanks for listening,
Marie

:smile: :smile: :smile:

[MintBrite]

Elk hunting in the coast range when a herd of about 25 animals fed up to me. I had a cow 4ft. from me before she startled, then stared at me until she decided I was no threat. She kept on feeding as I watched for 10 min. her bull calf playing like a puppy thinking he was king of the herd.(I could only hear Daddy!) The lead cow had a different idea about me however and soon the party was over. The Summer I watched a mother otter catch a summer steelhead on the wilson, feed her 3 young ones and take a nap while they played with their food-kids!