Alpha angler meets his match

ROSS BELL HAD IT ALL. He was young and strong, good looking, intelligent and hard working. His family connections didn’t hurt, either. Bell sold expensive real estate from inside his father’s brokerage firm in Marin County, and it all added up: He was on the summit. He even walked that way, and we were friends, connected by our passion for fly-fishing for giant trout.

Yet if one thing in life is certain, it’s this: No one -- no matter all the power, good taste, wealth and stature in the world -- knows how it’s going to end. Accidents happen, and for some reason, most successful and powerful men fail to understand that the bravado and swagger that took them there in the first place, will not keep them safe. Count Bell in this crowd.

Take the time Bell wanted to go fishing with me. Not just fishing, mind you, but fishing for the immense rainbow trout they have in Alaska -- in a region where some of the largest carnivores on Earth -- Kodiak bears -- also like to fish. I know there’s an inherent problem with this situation, but Ross took it lightly. It remained outside of his experience or belief. According to him, the grizzly would simply have to get out of the way. “They have to know their place,” he said.

“What place is that?” I asked.

“Underneath us,” he answered.

He really didn’t believe we would be able to intimidate a 1,000-pound animal that can shake a truck like a rat, break the neck of 400-pound moose with one swipe of a paw and cover 300 yards in seconds, coming straight at you at 30 mph, with its heart and lungs shot out. So my reply, which fell on deaf ears, was simple. “We will have to yield to the bear.”

“In your dreams,” Ross said. “In your dreams.”

We arrived at Katmai National Monument’s Brooks River. When I looked at the mouth of the stream, the sockeye salmon were thick in the water, and the pools were as red as blood with the shimmering bodies of salmon preparing to spawn and drop their eggs.

Bears were everywhere, snarling, fighting over fishing territories and feasting on salmon. It didn’t look good.

The next day, late in the afternoon, Ross hooked his trophy, a magnificent rainbow close to 8 pounds. In fact, we both had one on when a Kodiak emerged from the brush opposite us.

I knew this bear. The Rangers called her “Sister,” and at 800 pounds, she had maimed and almost killed an angler the season before as he stood in the river fishing. She simply knocked him down and ripped off a leg and an arm and took his fish. That same bear was now in the water, about 80 feet away, swimming toward us.

“Ross,” I said. “Break off that fish. Mine is already gone. She’s coming for us.”

“To hell with her,” he replied. “She’ll stop when she sees we won’t move. This is the biggest trout I’ve ever had on.”

When the grizzly closed to 20 feet, the color began to drain from Ross’ face. At 15 feet we could see the dark pupils of her eyes and the drool of her mouth; at 10 feet she emerged from the water like a phantom, her claws raking the stones, her teeth clicking, and when she stood up in front of us, she seemed to fill the sky.

Her breathing poured over us in a warm vapor; I knew there was no escape. She had us if she wanted.

And I’ll never forget the look in her eye. It had nothing to do with Ross’ world. It contained more honesty, power and truth than we had ever seen, and there we stood like children trying to comprehend what was happening.

Then the trout broke free, and the bear shook her head, snorted and without warning turned back to the river, leaving us alone. I looked at Ross. He had tears in his eyes.

We fished the rest of the week, and Ross wasn’t the same. His voice seemed softer. He waded the river more carefully and fished with a greater sensitivity than I had seen before. Around noon of the last day, he hooked another huge trout, and he asked me if it was better than the other.

I looked at the river, and for a moment saw the eyes of the great bear. “No, Ross,” I finally said. “It isn’t. There will never be a trout better than that one.”

Lani Waller is a fishing guide and author of “River of Dreams.”