The Fish and the Bear

My brother Brent and his wife Melissa are currently living in Island Park, ID, building cabins. For those of you that don't know where Island Park is, it's in the mountains right outside of Yellowstone. Brent is huge into the outdoors and spends all of his free time hiking, fishing, hunting, etc. Well, probably about a month ago, I got a text message from Brent telling me about how he had just caught this fish that was one of the biggest rainbow trout ever caught in Idaho. He said that the fish was 20 pounds, 32 inches long, with a girth of 16 1/2 inches! He gutted the fish before he found out that the Idaho state record is 19 pounds set back in 1947. He just sent us pictures of the fish a few days ago. Look at how huge that thing is!

About a week ago I got another text message from Brent about how he had just purchased a bear license, and the next day he killed a huge black bear not too far away from their cabin. I had a hard time believing him at the time because for April Fool's, Brent told everyone that Melissa had been swatted by a black bear and had to go to the hospital. So of course, when I got the text saying that he had just killed a bear, I wasn't sure whether or not to believe him. Well, a few days later Brent sent out an email with pictures of the bear and the story of how he killed him. The bear was about 400 pounds and the taxidermist Brent talked to told him that it would probably make the record book list for Idaho! Here's the story from the email:

We first noticed the tracks on the north hill at the cabin. We decided to grab the gun and follow them just to see if we could find something. Melissa and I were just getting over the flu so we wanted to get out anyway, but didn't have all our energy back. About a mile into tracking it I heard a branch crack ahead. There it was 30 yards in front of us. We were in very thick forest so I knew my window to take a shot was small before he vanished through the pine trees. The first shot hit him good, but he still ran off. Melissa was right behind me, but didn't know what I had shot at because she never saw it. We ran after it following the tracks and blood trail in the snow. I finally caught up to it after a half mile. I then followed him for another quarter mile keeping a 10 to 15 foot distance from him. It was pretty exciting to be that close to a bear like that! I just watched him walk slowly in front of me until he eventually sat down. He was about to die but I shot him in the heart just in case. I then yelled for Melissa and quickly found her. She was very relieved to know the bear was dead.

Crazy huh?! I would have been freaking out! He also said that when they went back later with some help to carry it back to the cabin, they heard some wolves in the woods nearby. Here are the pictures he sent in the email:

Thought some of you would find that pretty interesting! Also, I wanted to brag a bit about my brother. :) Hope everyone is doing well!

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARK!!!