Man goes on fishing trip, catches 4 deer instead

December 11, 2012

Tom Satre was taking his 62-foot fishing boat out with a charter group thinking it would be a typical day of fishing. Some fishing stories are hard to believe, but Satre took pictures to prove this one.

We've heard about salmon jumping into boats -- we've even seen a video of a great white shark leap into a research boat. This one might take the cake.

Satre and his group caught a group of black tailed deer. Four young black tails swam directly over to his boat.

"Once the deer reached the boat, the four began to circle the boat, looking directly at us. We could tell right away that the young bucks were distressed. I opened up my back gate and we helped the typically skittish and absolutely wild animals onto the boat. In all my years fishing, I've never seen anything quite like it! Once onboard, they collapsed with exhaustion, shivering."

With a boat full of scared, exhausted deer, Satre headed straight for Taku Harbour. Once he reached the dock, the first buck that had been pulled from the water hopped onto the dock, looked back as if to say 'thank you' and disappeared into the forest.

After a bit of prodding and assistance, two more followed, but the smallest deer needed a little more help.

Satre's daughter, Anna, and son, Tim, helped the last buck to its feet. No one knew how long they had been in the icy waters or if there had been others who did not survive.

"My daughter later told me that the experience was something that she would never forget,"said Satre. "And I suspect the deer felt the same way as well"

deer saved by fisherman