From: ketchum@cs.montana.edu (Steve White)
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.fishing
Subject: Re: Fishing Stories
Date: 31 Jul 92 16:53:32 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, MSU, Bozeman Mt 59717

In article <13838@auspex-gw.auspex.com> johnf@Auspex.COM (John Fereira) writes:
>We'll I was of the first people to post to alt.fishing so I figured that
>I ought to do the same thing here.  Anyone for a best fishing story contest.
>I got into a fishing story contest a few weeks ago on a trip with a bunch
>of other guys.  "Tom" had the winner:
>
>Tom and two of his buddies were mooching for salmon in 17' bayliner about...

What's mooching?

Good story John. I'll try one. It's probably not as exciting now but it was 
then.

A few weeks ago I was floating the Gallatin River of Montana in the area of 
Castle Rock with my cousin and his boy from Illinois. The boy looks down river
and replies, "What is that down there? Is that a moose in the river?" Sure 
enough there was something in the edge of the river but I figured that it
must be a log or rock that just looked like it had ears. Well as we get closer
we realize that it is a young black angus cow (900lbs or so) laying in about
10" of water close to the fairly steep, rocky bank. The water temp was 56F so
I thought that the situation seemed a bit odd. I thought that she might have 
have a hurt leg or hip so I thought that I would float by close enough to 
spook her into standing up so I could tell for sure if she was hurt or not and
notify the owner if she was badly hurt. As we got closer she stood and started 
charging the raft! Well I swung the bow towards her to pull away (which is the
way that one should do in a river in an oar powered craft. That probably seem
strange to you sailers and motorboaters.) Well my cousins were in the bow
and the cow was about ready to join them when she stepped in the main channel 
which was too deep for her so she ended up just splashing them.

As we floated on down the river she tumbled down stream a little while her head
went under a few times. I expected her to drown but soon she stopped and just
sat on her haunches in three feet of water facing upstream. Well that didn't 
set well with me. I figured, even if you weigh 900lbs you can die of hypo-
thermia if you sit too long in 56 degree water. So I pulled over, grabbed a 
rope and went up to her. I didn't know what I was going to do but I didn't 
want to leave her in the predicament that I felt partially responsible for. As
I got within about 30 yds of her I worked my way up the fairly steep bank so
that if she came for me it would bring her out of the water and the steep bank
would give me more time to run, climb, etc. Pretty soon she got out of the 
water and came to the bank's edge with head down wanting to fight. So I left.

I couldn't figure it out. It all seemed a little weird. I've been around mad
cows before but this one's behaivior was queer. She wasn't very stable on her 
feet even with the slippery rocks (probably a good thing). Maybe that was from 
laying in the cold water. More likely though that may be why she was laying in 
the water. Had she been smoking larkspur (loco weed)? It is common in this area.
I didn't see anything wrong with her except her actions. Anyone have any 
suggestions as to her problem?

Anyhow, from that day on until the day my cousins left, whenever we were 
outdoors they weren't worrying about bears anymore.

Steve