After a Redmond fisherman’s “terrifying” close encounter with a cougar near Crooked River Ranch this weekend, state fish and wildlife officials are warning trail users to exercise caution.

“It’s kind of a scary one,” said Steven George, wildlife biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The department is posting advisories at trailheads leading to Foley Waters and at Steelhead Falls, west of Crooked River Ranch off Highway 97 between Bend and Redmond.

Kent Baer says the big cat stalked him as he hiked out of the canyon Saturday. Not only did it refuse to run when he threw rocks at it, but it threatened to charge.

“It was horrible,” said Baer, 46. “It was completely terrifying.”

Baer said he regularly fishes at Foley Waters, a stretch of the Deschutes passing through land overseen by the Bureau of Land Management, but he usually has a fishing buddy with him.

On Saturday, his friend wasn’t available. So he went by himself.

Baer said he caught some trout during the late afternoon, then at dusk began the roughly half-mile trek out of the canyon back to his truck.

Walking in his waders, wearing his fishing vest and carrying his rod, Baer neared the top of the canyon.

He’d heard nothing, he said, but he had an urge to turn around. When he did, he saw a cougar crouching about 10 feet away.

“It was huge,” he said.

The big cat growled. Sensing that it might pounce, Baer laid his rod down, grabbed a large rock with both hands and chucked it at the cougar. The rock hit the cat, which backed off some, but didn’t lose interest.

As Baer shuffled sideways over the 75 feet between the top of the canyon and his truck, the cougar kept following him — coming as close as six or seven feet, pawing toward him and growling.

The cougar’s crawl reminded Baer of a house cat stalking a toy.

“I kept thinking, ‘Oh my God, he is going to kill me,’” Baer said. “‘I’m his prey.’”

In an effort to convince the cougar otherwise, Baer hit it with another rock and yelled, clapped and swung his fishing rod.

“I just kept walking as fast as I could without running,” he said.

The fish and wildlife department recommends that people who encounter cougars make noise, try to appear large and avoid succumbing to the urge to run.

While there are usually three or four encounters reported each year, not all prompt warnings like Baer’s. George said the department is now posting signs at trailheads because the cougar showed signs of being aggressive.

The agency last posted such signs in May, when a cougar was spotted several times in Deschutes River Woods south of Bend over a two week period and even was shot by Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies. Wildlife officials eventually trapped and killed that cat.

On Monday, Baer and a Department of Agriculture trapper returned to the site of the encounter, checking for signs of the animal.

Neither saw him. But because the cougar may still be prowling the area near Foley Waters, George urges hikers and anglers to heed the trailhead warnings.

“This would be a good time that if you have a fishing buddy to go with (them),” he said.