OT: Live stream of bears feeding on salmon in Alaska | Page 2 | Syracusefan.com

OT: Live stream of bears feeding on salmon in Alaska

Planet Earth- The Great Salmon Run. Watch that. Legendary footage.
 
AlaskaSU said:
Salmon are not endangered in AK. Every stream is swarming with fish. Most rivers are undisturbed. Subsistence fish get passed around to family members etc. Outside of Anchorage, stores are expensive. Everyone puts up fish. they do shrink when smoked.

There are also Native hunting allotments. I have a friend who is a professional Proxy Hunter. He fulfills the allotments for Natives that are too old to hunt etc. I guess he gets paid by the State. He brought up his kids in a very remote section of Prince of Wales Island. You can't get more remote. it is like living with wolves. I know his daughter. Just like a story book fairy tale: she is a graceful blond that waltzes with the fluidity of someone graduating from a French dancing school, yet she captains her own fishing boat. her name is Mariah.

If someone just showed up at Sweetheart Flats with all the equipment but not knowing what to do they could try all day and they would be guaranteed to not get a single fish. You have to know what you are doing.

Here are some details to entertain you all during off-season. The Flats consist of a series of 3 small lakes each perched above the other and connected by waterfalls that salmon amazingly jump. My technique is to go in with a team of three. Climb through the muddy hills alongside the system to get to the top lake. Rope off the person handling the net to a tree so he or she can safely stay at the edge of a cliff far above white water. Another person is below the dip netter on a flat ledge. The dip net handle is very long, like 25'. The dipper moves the net through the white water and sweeps it up to the cliff downstream where the second person unloads the net. Hence, the net makes a big sweeping arc. A third person helps kill the fish and string them up.

When the fishing is done, everyone climbs into the pond to handle the fish which are strung with rope. By clinging to the rocks you slowly work your way downstream all the way to the first pond. The fish would be too heavy to drag over land.

At the bottom you clean the fish and if all goes well, no boar shows up. You get out at high tide as that is the only time that a skiff can be floated up the creek to the lower pond. A group of 3 people = 75 sockeye salmon. A lot of work but I am very quick as I fished commercially soon after college. Luckily I was grandfathered in for a limited entry commercial fishing permit. However, subsistence fishing is open to any Alaskan.

Even though everyone is armed when a big boar shows up in a constrained area it is time to tuck tail. The flats are about 50 miles south of where I live. A worse case trip would be where a boar is patrolling the place where you land a skiff. No fishing that day. There are usually sows around but they are no big deal. If you are not an Alaskan you will never see this place or experience it.
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I hereby nominate TexanMark to arrange our first, week-long tailgate in the Alaskan wilderness, with AlaskaSU and CuseTroop assigned as our guides. :)
 
PeteCalvin said:
I hereby nominate TexanMark to arrange our first, week-long tailgate in the Alaskan wilderness, with AlaskaSU and CuseTroop assigned as our guides. :)
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That would be epic.. A week wouldn't be enough time for you guys..

A year and a half ago, when I came down on orders to Alaska I was pissed. I was calling every high ranking person I knew "these SOB's are trying to send me to Alaska, and I'm not going!!" the wife thought it would be a fun trip across the country, so I gave in, and we made the trip. Now, I never wanna leave. I've met the most amazing people, and have seen some amazing things. Never in my life did I even think about going to Alaska, for a trip, or to live.


AlaskaSU, I don't know if you follow the Iditarod or not, but look out for my good buddy Rudy this year. 67 years old, he has ran the race 6 times but not since the 70's. Most famous native in Alaska lol. I was drinking with lance mackey the other day, and he offered up some dogs for ol Rudy. I'm making a practice run With him from Paxton (or palmer, cant remember) to wassilla in December!
 
So of course the bears site hit the internet today and the server's been crashing all day.
 
Watching the feed today. This is just a great way to get my mind right. Just wish I was there.
 
So cool. I need to get down there and check out that part of the world. Heard SW Alaska is absolutely beautiful
 
Here is a photo I took at Katmai the Sept. before last. The two bears are adult brother and sister. Brown bears (grizzlies) keep track of kin. They boxed each other for quite a while and the tree got bent over when it got in their way. They had taken down another tree earlier in the season. After boxing they took a nap in the little clearing in the photo, sleeping cuddled next to each other. I was in a tower on the far side of the river. Park Rangers keep track of the bears and the people and close gates accordingly so that people do not get near the bears. Not unusual to be waiting at a gate for several hours. This is where that Treadwell guy went to live with the bears and they ended up eating him and his girlfriend at the end of the fishing season.
Katmai 110.JPG
 
McNeil Falls at Katmai National Park at the base of the Aleutians. There were tourists from all over the world. Takes three flights to get there. Regular airline to Anchorage. Twin engine turbo-prop to King Salmon. Float plane to Katmai. Pre-registration required. there is a cap on the number of people allowed in the Park. This is the upper falls where people are restricted to elevated walkways. Sort of like a Jurassic Park.

Brooks River.PNG
 
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The fishing takes place in the whitewater. The bears downstream have no status. The highest status bear is the dark one in the middle at the bottom of the falls. Here is a closeup of that beast.
To bring this back on topic; they are intelligent enough to open car doors. Wonder if one could play center. Would be a rim protector extraordinaire. When standing they go almost 10' and 1,500 lbs. When charging they snort as loud as a freight train whistle.
Katmai 063.JPG
 
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AlaskaSU said:
McNeil Falls at Katmai National Park at the base of the Aleutians. There were tourists from all over the world. Takes three flights to get there. Regular airline to Anchorage. Twin engine turbo-prop to King Salmon. Float plane to Katmai. Pre-registration required. there is a cap on the number of people allowed in the Park. This is the upper falls where people are restricted to elevated walkways. Sort of like a Jurassic Park.

View attachment 136895
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Wow, that's crazy. The only thing I have experienced and it's not even remotely similar is crocs in Costa Rica. This picture doesn't do it justice but just seeing 100's of crocs in one place is pretty amazing.
crocs.jpg
 
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cliftonparksufan said:
Wow, that's crazy. The only thing I have experienced and it's not even remotely similar is crocs in Costa Rica. This picture doesn't do it justice but just seeing 100's of crocs in one place is pretty amazing.View attachment 136903
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That from a bridge? We walked across one on the way down to Manuel Antonio. Dented my kids hand from holding on too tightly.
 
CuseFaninVT said:
That from a bridge? We walked across one on the way down to Manuel Antonio. Dented my kids hand from holding on too tightly.
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Yup, Rio Tarcoles. That bridge is about 1.5 hours from the San Jose airport on the main road heading to the Pacific Coast. Not much to see there except for a lot of of Crocs basking in the sun.
 
They can eat all they want, but it all comes down to the one primal instinct... I was laughing my ass off when these guys came on the camera.

bears.jpg
 
Wonder if people might be interested in meeting up at Katmai next year?
Katmai 082.JPG
 
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