There aren’t many creatures on planet Earth that are better at fishing than bears.
On a good fishing day, a dominant bruin can catch and eat more than 30 salmon in one session. It should go without saying, but that’s one amazing caloric intake, and it’s all thanks to the skills they have scooping and biting fish right out of the water.
Then there is this brown bear in Alaska, apparently bored with regular fishing so it chose to try a different form. Standing on the banks of the river, this big beast introduced “belly flop fishing” to the world, and I’ll be the first to say that I’m a big fans
I was going to call it “fly fishing,” but that’s obviously taken. Plus, I don’t know if this jump from the river bank into the water gets enough air to qualify as “flying.” This will be “fall fishing” before I call it “fly fishing.” So let’s just stick to “belly flop fishing,” shall we?
The bear carefully stabilizes the roots of a tree on the edge of the bank while waiting for a fish to come by. If I had to guess, the plan for the bruin is the “Wait and Weight” method, meaning it’s on standby until it sees a fish swim close to shore, then jumps in and crushes it underwater with its full weight.
It definitely had an element of surprise on his side, though I’m not sure that was enough to overcome the quick-twitch response a fish might have back when the bear started in the water. There is a reason why most bears only dive into the middle of the river to catch fish.
That said, I have to hand it to this brown bear. It appears to have created a whole new way for bears to fish. Is this a successful method? Considering what’s in this video comes up empty passed on shocked, I confidently answer that question with a firm “No.” However, it is undoubtedly a very entertaining method of fishing, and I would like to see more of it.
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