After a long winter the baits went out in the first week of May. Both bait sites were long standing locations and the bears were at them in short order. After two weeks of baiting the bait I was set to hunt went dead cold....nothing doing whatsoever. Our other bait remained active although there was only one larger bear on camera and it was a fleeting picture. The unique part of that bait was that a colour phase bear that had been at bait 1 made it to bait 2 within 2 days.....over 5 miles along a lake shore between and he was there big as life in less than 48 hrs.
Fast forward to the past weekend. After a frantic gathering of gear etc. we were off to the lake. Arriving mid afternoon we checked both baits and they were again active. The bait I was to sit on actually had a monster at it on several occasions in the days prior to our arrival and if there's any better way to get pumped to sit in a tree stand I'm not sure what it is.
I was near frantic as time was slipping away and I had yet to get al my bow gear etc. ready so I decided for the one night I would sit with the rifle...with the caveat that only the big bear would even be considered. I crawled into the tree at 5:20 pm and listened to the boat motor fade. Almost immediately I could hear something coming through the swamp to my right and based on the sound I assumed it was a moose (common in the area). About 10 minutes after this is I get a glimpse of black coming through the bush from some of the deepest darkest pines you will ever see.
As he stepped into view it took about a second to realize that this was "the bear" with a significant number of scars and cuts on his face. As he emerged he just kept coming and coming and it seemed like he was 10 feet long. All thoughts and considerations of waiting were now out the window.....it was time to get down to business. As he cleared the trees I had a good look at his face which confirmed who he was and the crosshairs settled on his chest. At the shot he rolled, roared and did two circles before beginning the death moan (all the while blood was geysering from his side). The woods were silent again and then the heart rate kicked in, and the camera finally came out of the pack as I hadn't even had time to set it up before he arrived.
I climbed down and was stunned with how massive his head was and how difficult it was to move him in any fashion. In the end not even two of us could move him. Back to the tree for the additional 3 hours until I was to be picked up. 30 minutes later I caught movement from the dark pines again and another bear emerges. She was quite hesitant with all the commotion but eventually her stomach won her over and she came into the bait happily eating 10 yards from the dead boar. This continued for about 40 minutes until I saw another bear coming in from another trail....another BIG BEAR. He was even more cautious and circled twice before disappearing into the trees. Shortly thereafter another bear (different from bear 2 and 3) shows up and begins to have a tete a tete with bear 2 who was not looking to relinquish her dinner. Eventually they agree to disagree and over the next hour they take turns eating. At 9:10 pm out stepped the other big bear. He came in so very quietly but again his gut won out and he was eating with the other two watching within minutes. I had to politely ask him to leave as I couldn't get out of the stand to catch my ride.
Of note the following morning on trail camera a black wolf came to the bait and milled around for a bit prior to making his escape.
In the end I saw 6 bears in 2 days, one wolf in person and one wolf on trail camera. I'm not sure how you top that for a weekend in the bush!!! We were able to add a walleye fish fry and that's about as good as it gets by my standards.
Pic of the wolf we saw.
The specs.....Cooper M52 270 with Zeiss 3x9x50...Hornady 130 SST (unreal devastation in the chest cavity).
Fast forward to the past weekend. After a frantic gathering of gear etc. we were off to the lake. Arriving mid afternoon we checked both baits and they were again active. The bait I was to sit on actually had a monster at it on several occasions in the days prior to our arrival and if there's any better way to get pumped to sit in a tree stand I'm not sure what it is.
I was near frantic as time was slipping away and I had yet to get al my bow gear etc. ready so I decided for the one night I would sit with the rifle...with the caveat that only the big bear would even be considered. I crawled into the tree at 5:20 pm and listened to the boat motor fade. Almost immediately I could hear something coming through the swamp to my right and based on the sound I assumed it was a moose (common in the area). About 10 minutes after this is I get a glimpse of black coming through the bush from some of the deepest darkest pines you will ever see.
As he stepped into view it took about a second to realize that this was "the bear" with a significant number of scars and cuts on his face. As he emerged he just kept coming and coming and it seemed like he was 10 feet long. All thoughts and considerations of waiting were now out the window.....it was time to get down to business. As he cleared the trees I had a good look at his face which confirmed who he was and the crosshairs settled on his chest. At the shot he rolled, roared and did two circles before beginning the death moan (all the while blood was geysering from his side). The woods were silent again and then the heart rate kicked in, and the camera finally came out of the pack as I hadn't even had time to set it up before he arrived.
I climbed down and was stunned with how massive his head was and how difficult it was to move him in any fashion. In the end not even two of us could move him. Back to the tree for the additional 3 hours until I was to be picked up. 30 minutes later I caught movement from the dark pines again and another bear emerges. She was quite hesitant with all the commotion but eventually her stomach won her over and she came into the bait happily eating 10 yards from the dead boar. This continued for about 40 minutes until I saw another bear coming in from another trail....another BIG BEAR. He was even more cautious and circled twice before disappearing into the trees. Shortly thereafter another bear (different from bear 2 and 3) shows up and begins to have a tete a tete with bear 2 who was not looking to relinquish her dinner. Eventually they agree to disagree and over the next hour they take turns eating. At 9:10 pm out stepped the other big bear. He came in so very quietly but again his gut won out and he was eating with the other two watching within minutes. I had to politely ask him to leave as I couldn't get out of the stand to catch my ride.
Of note the following morning on trail camera a black wolf came to the bait and milled around for a bit prior to making his escape.
In the end I saw 6 bears in 2 days, one wolf in person and one wolf on trail camera. I'm not sure how you top that for a weekend in the bush!!! We were able to add a walleye fish fry and that's about as good as it gets by my standards.
Pic of the wolf we saw.
The specs.....Cooper M52 270 with Zeiss 3x9x50...Hornady 130 SST (unreal devastation in the chest cavity).
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