Have Glove, Will Travel_ Adventures of a Baseball Vagabond - Bill Lee [64]
Constructing roe sacks is time-consuming. Fergie reminded me that we were playing a game that evening, so I instead baited my line with a grub, one of the cattus fly larvae that attach themselves to the bottoms of streamside rocks. If you want to use grubs for bait, you must collect the larvae before they hatch. Breaking open the cocoon releases a pupa with the tentacles of a miniature squid. Those long legs are what attract a fish’s attention. With a little practice, a seasoned fisherman can get a grub to sink low in promising waters with just a little split shot on a fly line.
We fished for hours with only a few bites, but it was so relaxing neither of us cared. In the solitude of all that green with the water whispering fast over the rocks, the aspen leaves fluttering in the wind, and your focus tight on your line, time stops. You can live forever on a good day’s fishing. In that sense, it is a lot like baseball.
I had just started to move upstream a piece when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a shadow streak behind me. I spun in its direction but saw nothing there. My attention returned to the salmon. Another shadow lumbered behind us, this time closer to the riverbank. The hackles rose on my neck, and I could actually hear a voice in my head saying, Don’t make any sudden moves. There is a goddamned bear walking through the slash.
We should have known. Black bears will take a hunk out of you, but they are primarily omnivores who love eating grass, berries, and nuts. When you have a slash in a forest such as the one we were fishing near, blueberries, raspberries, and huckleberries flourish. And with the trees no longer blocking the sun or drawing nutrients from the ground, the grass was free to go crazy. This made it an inviting place for any hungry bear.
I didn’t dare shout a warning to Fergie. Instead, I slowly reeled in my line while walking toward him. He stood about a quarter mile further downriver than I, with the truck parked on the road between us. Fergie was fishing his hole so intently he had not seen or heard anything. I quietly tapped his shoulder. When we both turned around, there he stood, nearly seven feet and a quarter ton of black bear blocking the middle of the road, just looking at us as if we had intruded on his picnic.
That bear stood just as near to our truck as we did. All we carried for weapons were our fishing poles. Canadian wildlife laws prohibited us from packing firearms to ward off any dangerous animals. The rules did permit us to pack pepper spray, which was fine if you faced a particularly vicious squirrel or jackrabbit. A full-grown black bear considers pepper spray a condiment. He will douse his victims with it just to add some spice before eating them.
Most people think of grizzly bears as the most dangerous members of their species. But, given the choice, I would rather go toe-to-toe with a grizzly over a black bear anytime. The grizzly might maul you a bit, but he will more often than not smack you into your grave with one quick swipe of his paw or let you run away.
Black bears? Well, they seldom work expeditiously. Oh, they will kill you as well, but they don’t do it all at once. First they want to play with you. A black bear will slowly swat your body shapeless and chew on you for cud over several days. Once you pass on, he will roll in you as if you were dog shit. Now, I’ve read the works of Joseph Campbell, and animal rituals fascinate me. But this was one rite of passage I definitely was not eager to participate in.
Neither was Fergie. “Walk to the truck slowly,” he whispered. “Don’t make any sudden moves. We won’t start running unless the bear does.” Sound advice from the Hall of Famer. Black bears are plodding creatures, but they do this plodding on four legs, so they can cover short distances as fast as an average human sprinter. Once they get going, these bears