I was trout fishing in WV early one spring morning, trying to catch breakfast. I was standing in a decent sized pool, facing down stream, dropping my line around a big volkswagon-sized limestone boulder about 30 feet away. I saw something on the surface about 100 feet downstream, slowly moving upstream toward my position. When it was close enough, I could tell it was the nose of a good sized beaver. I kept casting and it kept coming, looking right at me. Then he veered smoothly to his left went behind the big boulder and out of sight. I thought he was pretty brave to come that close to me. But in just a few seconds, he came swimming slowly around the other side of the boulder, still looking at me. When he got about 10 feet away, he turned and smacked the water with his tail which made an incredibly loud sound, like a gun shot. It startled me and splashed me pretty good. Then he was gone. Talk about brave! Clearly, he was telling me this was his territory and I was not welcome. I headed back to camp to made some eggs and find somebody to tell my story to.