Went up north for my first bear hunt (solo). With little ability or interest in baiting, i decided to try my hand at spot and stalk using the clearcuts. Plan was to find blueberries and put the slip on some bears, easy enough. Basically wasted the first hunt day setting up camp, trying to get my bearings and figure the area out a bit. Found what i was looking for on day 2 evening with loads of blueberry bushes in a particular clearcut, only problem was 99% of bushes didn't have a berry on them. Found decent amount of scat in a small stretch on the way in on the logging road, which was encouraging as it was all blue purple colour so i assumed the berries were still going but i kept driving another 20km past to my predetermined area, which i think was my biggest mistake. The next 20km and rest of the logging roads i drove to get to my campsite i only found 1 more pile of scat and it wasn't the berry colour. I think i should have stayed in the area where i found the initial sign as there were clearly still berries and bears feeding in that area. Didn't see a bear for the next 4 days. Learned a lot though going hunting that far north myself and have a much better idea of what to expect next year. I will be going up a few weeks earlier to time the berries better.
