Wayne in BC
New member
My close friend and guide/outfitter Tom K came to visit me several months back and we spent a couple very enjoyable days together, mostly, as guys will, hashing over old times and adventures. Most were to do with hunting and i have told you a couple but the subject of fishing came up of course as in addition to his many hunting camps, Tom operates a fishing charter business from the Queen Charlotte Islands some 400 miles north of me and not far from Alaska.
Tom is a big boy, 6'3" and 230 or so with no "spare tire" and a hugely strong man which i saw demonstrated a few times under circumstances that are best left to the readers imagination but large animals were involved
Here is one of my favorite "Tom stories" ............
On a long weekend in late May of 1983 Tom and i had finally found the time to unwind a bit. We had both put in several weeks of long days and short nights guiding bear hunters, now the season was done and what better way to relax than to go fishing?
Yep a "busmans holiday" was just the ticket!
The plan was to visit a small (30 acre) lake in the foothills of west central Alberta which held large Walleye and was only lightly fished due to the fact that few knew it had Walleye. This small lake is only a half mile off the highway to Banff and Jasper national parks and had a basic campsite that was mostly used by locals as the tourists are heading for the Parks and seldom stop there.
We arrived at near 10 am that Sunday having slept till 7am, late as heck for folks in our business and it was an hour and a half drive from my home. Tom had a small cartopper boat in the back of the pickup. When we pulled in there were about half a dozen tents and campers there and as we backed to the lakes edge to launch the boat a commotion caught our ears.
A woman screaming usually means trouble, maybe for you, but we had to investigate and both trotted/ran towards the camping area a few hundred feet away wondering what the hell!? Now men were yelling and a couple kids crying and suddenly a young woman ran towards us saying.......can you help us? There is a BEAR here!! Tom sez what kind of bear? Where!? Is anybody hurt? And we both thought at the same time that maybe a Grizz had been provoked by dumbazz campers and i was turning to go to the truck pronto for the rifle when she said THERE!! There he is!!!! I stopped my run to the truck and we both looked where she was pointing, only to start chuckling, which offended the upset gal as she was putting on a good show of typical city folk in the bush and it discumbobulated her some when we laughed at what she figured was a major motion picture in the making
The sight was too funny to a couple bushmen, tents were wiggling and shaking, kids crying, "men" yelling bravely? And a poor confused two year old Black bear was 15 feet up a Jackpine, hugging it and hiding his face in terror!
We laughed even harder now and the woman who was so panicked swore at us and ran to their tent where her big strong hubby peaked out the flap, a face the natives aptly called "paleface" was a sight! Hee Hee!
We walked to the tree as several frightened voices called.......don't go near it! You could now hear some relief in the voices though, and maybe a bit of embarassment as we stood looking up at the poor confused bear.
The hubbub settled down a lot now, paleface was back in the tent but his wife peeked out and a young guy nearby nearby began to sidle towards us saying, is it dangerous? Nah said Tom, it is you bunch that are dangerous
Then went on to explain loudly that everyone should quiet down, let the bear climb down and go his way. Well the loud woman yelled NO! There children around here and that is a Bear! She was joined by her brave paleface hubby and a couple other women and said that someone had taken off to inform the Rangers, (a 20 mile drive cause no cellphones in those days) . We had backed off from the tree about 40 feet and were trying to tell the idiots that there was no danger and the scared little bear barely two years old would soon climb down and run for his life. The loud woman was still looking unconvinced and suddenly screamed as little bear began to back down the tree. She screamed and pleaded for us to do something so much that Tom finally sauntered over to the tree, picked up a limb and whacked the bear smartly on the butt, it gained altitude again pronto (while i giggled, sorry but it was funny and did not really hurt the bear, just scared it).
This made that city girl happy and she said if we could keep it up the tree until the ranger came we would be heroes......we did not know what to say, having given up trying to reason with yuppies, so i volunteered to go get the boat and gear ready while Tom played Grizzly Adams for the Latte crowd..
It was surprisingly only a few minutes later when the Ranger drove in, he was making rounds and whoever drove to the station would not find him so it was kinda lucky,in a way
.......
The Ranger settled folks down quite professionally and took charge, telling them the same thing we had said but the loud woman was insisting that he trap it or something, it was his duty to protect them! The silly beeyatch followed by proudly telling the Ranger how Tom had saved them all by whacking the bear with a stick and things started to go sideways. Mr Ranger sir! Drew himself up to his full 5'6" ish and began to tell Tom that he had committed an offence by beating on an animal!
I could see Tom stiffen up as he stepped forward to tower over the uncivil servant and said a few words that cannot be repeated here but they were punctuated with "stupid" "brainless", and do you want a good whipping!? I was some worried cause although both us had little respect for Rangers and Fishcops, i knew my buddy was getting mighty close an action he would regret and was wondering how to defuse the situation when the "paleface" stepped up and said, as his mouthy wife chimed in, hey this guy saved us and all the kids here (there were 3) from serious danger and don't you be threatening him cause we will all go to court for him! The Ranger settled right down and so did Tom, probably from shock! The Ranger asked Tom to keep the bear up the tree while he got the tranquilizer gun. The deed was done, the sleepy little bear loaded in the truck by Tom who picked it up by the scruff easily, dumped it in, and we went fishing as soon as we got away from the grateful city folk........
We had a good day while we watched all the campers leave
Tom is a big boy, 6'3" and 230 or so with no "spare tire" and a hugely strong man which i saw demonstrated a few times under circumstances that are best left to the readers imagination but large animals were involved
Here is one of my favorite "Tom stories" ............
On a long weekend in late May of 1983 Tom and i had finally found the time to unwind a bit. We had both put in several weeks of long days and short nights guiding bear hunters, now the season was done and what better way to relax than to go fishing?
Yep a "busmans holiday" was just the ticket!The plan was to visit a small (30 acre) lake in the foothills of west central Alberta which held large Walleye and was only lightly fished due to the fact that few knew it had Walleye. This small lake is only a half mile off the highway to Banff and Jasper national parks and had a basic campsite that was mostly used by locals as the tourists are heading for the Parks and seldom stop there.
We arrived at near 10 am that Sunday having slept till 7am, late as heck for folks in our business and it was an hour and a half drive from my home. Tom had a small cartopper boat in the back of the pickup. When we pulled in there were about half a dozen tents and campers there and as we backed to the lakes edge to launch the boat a commotion caught our ears.
A woman screaming usually means trouble, maybe for you, but we had to investigate and both trotted/ran towards the camping area a few hundred feet away wondering what the hell!? Now men were yelling and a couple kids crying and suddenly a young woman ran towards us saying.......can you help us? There is a BEAR here!! Tom sez what kind of bear? Where!? Is anybody hurt? And we both thought at the same time that maybe a Grizz had been provoked by dumbazz campers and i was turning to go to the truck pronto for the rifle when she said THERE!! There he is!!!! I stopped my run to the truck and we both looked where she was pointing, only to start chuckling, which offended the upset gal as she was putting on a good show of typical city folk in the bush and it discumbobulated her some when we laughed at what she figured was a major motion picture in the making
The sight was too funny to a couple bushmen, tents were wiggling and shaking, kids crying, "men" yelling bravely? And a poor confused two year old Black bear was 15 feet up a Jackpine, hugging it and hiding his face in terror!
We laughed even harder now and the woman who was so panicked swore at us and ran to their tent where her big strong hubby peaked out the flap, a face the natives aptly called "paleface" was a sight! Hee Hee!
We walked to the tree as several frightened voices called.......don't go near it! You could now hear some relief in the voices though, and maybe a bit of embarassment as we stood looking up at the poor confused bear.
The hubbub settled down a lot now, paleface was back in the tent but his wife peeked out and a young guy nearby nearby began to sidle towards us saying, is it dangerous? Nah said Tom, it is you bunch that are dangerous
Then went on to explain loudly that everyone should quiet down, let the bear climb down and go his way. Well the loud woman yelled NO! There children around here and that is a Bear! She was joined by her brave paleface hubby and a couple other women and said that someone had taken off to inform the Rangers, (a 20 mile drive cause no cellphones in those days) . We had backed off from the tree about 40 feet and were trying to tell the idiots that there was no danger and the scared little bear barely two years old would soon climb down and run for his life. The loud woman was still looking unconvinced and suddenly screamed as little bear began to back down the tree. She screamed and pleaded for us to do something so much that Tom finally sauntered over to the tree, picked up a limb and whacked the bear smartly on the butt, it gained altitude again pronto (while i giggled, sorry but it was funny and did not really hurt the bear, just scared it).
This made that city girl happy and she said if we could keep it up the tree until the ranger came we would be heroes......we did not know what to say, having given up trying to reason with yuppies, so i volunteered to go get the boat and gear ready while Tom played Grizzly Adams for the Latte crowd..
It was surprisingly only a few minutes later when the Ranger drove in, he was making rounds and whoever drove to the station would not find him so it was kinda lucky,in a way
.......The Ranger settled folks down quite professionally and took charge, telling them the same thing we had said but the loud woman was insisting that he trap it or something, it was his duty to protect them! The silly beeyatch followed by proudly telling the Ranger how Tom had saved them all by whacking the bear with a stick and things started to go sideways. Mr Ranger sir! Drew himself up to his full 5'6" ish and began to tell Tom that he had committed an offence by beating on an animal!
I could see Tom stiffen up as he stepped forward to tower over the uncivil servant and said a few words that cannot be repeated here but they were punctuated with "stupid" "brainless", and do you want a good whipping!? I was some worried cause although both us had little respect for Rangers and Fishcops, i knew my buddy was getting mighty close an action he would regret and was wondering how to defuse the situation when the "paleface" stepped up and said, as his mouthy wife chimed in, hey this guy saved us and all the kids here (there were 3) from serious danger and don't you be threatening him cause we will all go to court for him! The Ranger settled right down and so did Tom, probably from shock! The Ranger asked Tom to keep the bear up the tree while he got the tranquilizer gun. The deed was done, the sleepy little bear loaded in the truck by Tom who picked it up by the scruff easily, dumped it in, and we went fishing as soon as we got away from the grateful city folk........
We had a good day while we watched all the campers leave
