Beavers?

I was fishing in a creek yesterday evening, a spot I've been fishing somewhat regularly for the last few months. I waded about 100 ft down to a hole a the mouth of a small feeder stream. Water was a little high and visibilty was only about 6 inches due to the rain. After about 10 mins. I saw a little beaver swimming down stream about 20 ft in front of me. I watched it till it was about 30ft. downstream and then turned back to look at my bobber. A minute later I look back but I could not see the beaver. I turn my head back around just in time to see a pretty large beaver surface about 10 ft to my left. This beaver was pretty big, bigger than a small dog. I'd estimate it was about 40lbs. He kind of suprised me but I didnt think to much of it. He continued to swim to the other side about 20ft across from me right in the shallows at the bank where he stopped in a few inches of water and turned facing me. He sat there glaring at me for the next 10 minutes. Again I didnt think much of it so I kept fishing. After about 10 minutes or so he started to move towards me and dove under swimming in my direction. I was standing in water a few inches below my waist so at that point I decided maybe I should get into shallower water because I couldnt see anything and he was a pretty big guy. I moved to shallower water where I could at least see my feet and then I saw the little beaver again swimming back upstream. Didnt see the big one after that. I'm sure some of you guys have had experience with beavers. I dont know Sh*t about beavers so I have a question: Is a bad idea to be so close to them? I didnt approach him he approached me? Can they be aggressive or is there any thing to be concerned about when they are very close??? Like I said I wasnt worried about him at all until he started towards me and at that point I wasn't wild about the idea of being up to my **** in murky water with a 40lb beaver swimming toward me. LOL actually after I typed that I just saw some humor in it. LOL. But seriously what are you thoughts and experiences.

I had a close encounter with one on the little Juniata river last year. It was on an island chewing weeds and I walked right up on it about 10 feet away, never had one let me get that close.  I stopped and watched a while. It gathered up a bunch of weeds and swam downstream with them, I guess it must have had little ones to feed.  After that I headed down to fish the big hole it just swam through, figured he was gone.  About 20 minutes later (I was wet wading waist deep)   he came to the surface about 10 feet downstream of me, then ducked back under and slapped his tail.  I don't know whether they'd ever be aggressive or not, but I wasn't going to be the one to find out, and quickly moved back to knee deep water.  Ball wading with wild animals with powerful jaws nearby isn't a relaxing way to fish.  Over the next hour that beaver must have went back and forth from that little island to somewhere downstream of the hole I was fishing at least 10 times.  After the first two encounters it stayed on the opposite side of the stream.

I could share several aggressive beaver stories from college, but that would be off topic LOL...

I wasn't even going to touch this one, but...


Anyway, all I need to say is, Oil Creek Outing '07.  My only close encounter with a beaver that didn't cost me at least dinner.  I must say, I didn't like how close it got.  It was more likely due to me being in IT'S way, but the fact that I was perched on a slimey boulder trying to get a better view into the stream, made me nearly coat the insides of my breathables.

I was on Spring Creek last year after they began to allow wading and was upstream close to the prison property by all the old ponds, fishing the sulphur hatch when something hit me in the leg, and I look down to see a decent sized snapper getting pinned against my leg from the current...and I quickly found out how Jesus walked on water...

Kyler I know its crazy how they (at least sometimes) appear to have absolutely no fear of people. Not what I would expect. Sounds like the little guy wanted to adopt you as a new parent. LOL
Dealinsteel, yeah that would have been really uncool. Snappers are pretty **** mean and fast when they snap.Thinking about it makes me realize how dumb I was when I would wade in flip flops.

When I was much younger I couldn't keep the beaver off my pole. It didn't take much to catch one and some would even suggest using a nice bottle of Chateau de Legopenur.

Now I'm married and the beaver has all but gone extinct in my area.

Interesting.  I guess they do attack sometimes
 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/swedenanimalsoffbeat

I guess they never heard of relocation.

Frik, yeah!