Fishin' Reports

While fishing on Rufus Woods last summer with James Lebow and my niece Ellie Coen we spotted a small black bear on the shore opposite the net pens. We were able to watch the animal cross a slope and then climb out of sight. This was particularly memorable as neither James nor Ellie had ever seen a bear in the wild. My wife Eileen and I have spent quite a bit of time on the Colville Reservation and have seen many black bears while on fishing trips on the San Poil River. One time, while fishing on Omak Lake, I spotted six different bears from the boat. We also watched a large female feeding on a deer carcass on Omak Lake and the next year watched its yearling cub at the site of the same carcass. On Monday Eileen and I got to see another bear. It was a small cinnamon that walked around our house, then the neighbors. They watched it go into their chicken pen, take one of their chickens and then climb of a nearby pine tree to eat it. It was a reminder that bears are still out and to avoid encounters with them we need to keep our pet foods indoors, take down the bird feeders and put our garbage out just before it’s picked up.