An Alaska fishing guide and his clients were watching a mother grizzly forage beside their boat when the animal suddenly locked onto something moving through the water.

Guide Carter Brown did exactly what most of us would struggle to do in that moment: he stayed calm and kept the camera rolling.

The mother bear approached the fishing boat, spotted a salmon in the water and snatched it only a few feet from the charter.

Brown said he began filming as the bear foraged along the river. Seconds later, she was fishing directly beside the boat while his clients watched the entire scene unfold.

The video shows the grizzly focused on the salmon rather than the people nearby. She studies the water, makes her move and comes up with the fish while the boat remains still.

Brown said his clients were stunned. That is putting it mildly.

Alaska’s rivers bring anglers and bears to the same place for the same reason: salmon.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game warns that splashing fish can attract bears. If a bear is close enough to notice a fish struggling on the line, the agency tells anglers to stop fishing and either give the line slack or cut it.

The state also advises people fishing from boats to keep their catch closely attended or secured inside the vessel. Fish, food and waste can teach bears to associate anglers with an easy meal, creating danger for people and the animals.

The National Park Service gives similar guidance for anglers in Katmai National Park, where annual salmon runs support extraordinary concentrations of brown bears.

Park officials tell anglers to stay alert, keep their distance and be ready to cut or break a fishing line if a bear moves toward a hooked fish. The goal is simple: never let a bear obtain a fish from a person.

The specific Alaska waterway where Brown recorded the encounter remains unknown, and the short clip does not establish how long the bear remained near the boat.

What it does show is extraordinary enough: a powerful wild animal reading the river, tracking its prey and making a clean catch within arm’s reach of stunned charter clients.

Brown’s calm reaction kept the focus where it belonged — on the bear doing what bears have done in Alaska’s salmon rivers for generations.

For his clients, it became the kind of fish story that will never need exaggeration. They have the video.