In 1995, I had the opportunity to guide for Brown bear an old client of a company on Chichagof Island , He was 70 years old at that time and very experienced and well traveled, he told me that he had hunted 96 countries by that time and had some amazing stories…
We hunted hard, and the bears were hesitant in their cooperation, so we had some spare time on our hands and took the opportunity to do some fishing while watching the flats one evening, two rods dragging a herring from a 18 foot Lund skiff, there was some breeze on the water which kept my hand on the tiller constantly to keep it traveling straight as the wind caught our bow…
At one point I decided to change a bait and a gust caught us and the client’s line went into the propeller! The prop stripped some line quickly then snapped with the client unaware of the source of the “strike” he said frantically “what did I get?” I turned to raise the motor and clear the line replying “ you caught a 25 horse Suzuki” He still did not understand and asked again, to which I turned to him and said again “you caught a 25 horse Suzuki” He looked at me with a strange look of bewilderment as he sat down, then it dawned on him and he started laughing, long and hard, after a few minutes he slapped his leg, grinned at me and had a final chuckle, then we went back to fishing…
It was not too long after that when I spotted two bears on the other side of the inlet, they were moving along the shoreline and with a considerable size difference between the two, we reeled in our lines and motored over as quickly as possible…Upon reaching the other side and anchoring the boat to make a stalk, both bears appeared at the far edge of the flat, rounding the far point…
So back into the skiff and I started paddling trying to overtake them and get set up if one was legal, I paddled for 45 minutes following them along 1,1/2 miles of the shore and they never stopped…
By this time the client was starting to get worried and anxious, this was the seventh day of a 10 day hunt and he was thinking it might be his last chance, so he asked me “what is the fine for shooting a sow with a cub?” and I replied “ my bosses hands around my skinny neck!” this did not satisfy him…and he asked again “seriously”, One of the duties of a guide is to make sure there are no cubs accompanying a bear that is taken, and the size difference between the two we were following was enough to make me unsure of the larger ones sex, so I told him “it’s out of the question, I have to identify it before you can shoot!” Clearly not getting the answer he wanted, the client seemed irritated and angry, and I was not going to change my mind…
There were cliffs ahead and the opportunity to ambush these bears was fading fast, because the inlet was narrowing and I could not overtake them or even get a look at the larger one to identify it, So I had to make a judgement call and back up to where they could not hear us and start the engine to get ahead of them…And so we backed up started the engine and tried to get ahead of them by traveling next to the far shore, as we passed them I could see them both stand on their hind legs and watch us go out of their vision, finally arriving just before the cliffs, I slowed the motor to go into the beach and the client proceeded to cycle a round into the chamber of his rifle…
With the clients state of mind, and knowing that my boss had seen him kill a wolf with one shot while it was running across a flat at 400 yards, I knew I could not let him get a shot without me knowing the bear was legal! Now please bear in mind this fellow was a retired executive that had 60,000 employees under him at one time, and now I had to tell him to take a shell out! So I tapped him on the shoulder and asked him “did you just chamber a round?” and he said “well yeah!” where upon I replied “take it out!” He looked at me questioningly and I responded by reaffirming “seriously I can’t let you shoot until I have identified it!” And he withdrew the cartridge…
We reached the shore and waited and to no avail the bears had busted us and moved back into the woods with us never sighting them again, so after awhile we motored back to the main vessel where I wondered if the client would be angry and if my boss would back me up, both were gentlemen and my boss let me know I did the right thing, the client went to an inlet with my boss a couple of days later and found a good boar that he was able to take home, It was a privilege to hunt with him and taught me some things about myself, like not succumbing to pressure when you know something is not right and another good lesson as he found the next day…It ain’t over until it’s over!
