Canucks' Booth taking heat for bear baiting excursion

Have to agree baiting sounds awful, the optics are all wrong. In reality it is just like my crabbing trip yesterday. Brought several newbies out, after a day of dealing with the boat, bait, traps they realize trapping crabs is a LOT of work with NO guarantees.

Booth did go online to show off his catch that inevitably attract both sides, name of the game. Folks nowadays are quick to criticize, lazy to learn; the less they know, the louder the rant.
 
"I think that your theory lacks practical experience"
"You are very determined to reveal your complete ignorance"

He sounds smart, huh? Smarter than the average bear.
 
Congrats to Booth on his bear! I have more respect for a FAMOUS guy who is UNafraid to show he likes to hunt whether it be for sport or sustenance ... he is a hunter and I like that! Imagine if my boy Jordin Tootoo posted his hunts ... HAHA! KUDO's to you Booth!

Otokiak
Rankin Inlet, NU
CANADA
 
I HATE hockey but congrats to this player for being an ethical hunter. He took a damn nice bear with a bow infront of a bunch of camera people. Not easy. I hunt bears over bait. I hunt ducks and geese over decoys. I call in turkeys. I put out salt and clover for deer. Its part of hunting and baiting allows me to make sure of my target. Identify its a shootable bear by legal and moral standards. I bragged about shooting my first bear. Put pix on facebook to. I'm not worth 4 million so no one gave a ####. To many yuppies out there have no real world experience and to much time on their hands. Its negative incorrect ways of thinking by idiots that resulted in ontario loosing our spring hunt. But hey what's a few hundred wasted bears peta got their wish as they are no longer being hunted.
What team does this booth play for. I now have a favorite team (even though I still hate hockey. He supports my sport ill give respect to him and his)
 
Again - I'm not a hunter, but logically it would seem to me that baiting bears (especially when armed with a bow) would assist in making a quick, humane kill that does't result in Yogi taking off over hell's half acre with an arrow in him. Bait or not, Yogi loses, he just loses quicker and more humanely when using a known distance and a stable location to shoot from. Or am I in left field here?
 
enefgee said:
Again - I'm not a hunter, but logically it would seem to me that baiting bears (especially when armed with a bow) would assist in making a quick, humane kill that does't result in Yogi taking off over hell's half acre with an arrow in him. Bait or not, Yogi loses, he just loses quicker and more humanely when using a known distance and a stable location to shoot from. Or am I in left field here?
Click to expand...

Two points on that;

1. Bowhunting is effective and lethal... if any bowhunter is ethical they only take shots that they are certain that they can make with a high degree of repeatability and they place their arrow very specifically to cause lethal damage... and a quick, humane death... All this regardless of the circumstance or methods used (baiting, stalking etc...).

2. However, your conclusion is correct. The more variables that can be controlled when it comes to executing the shot, the higher the degree of success (potentially). Shooting from a fixed elevated perch (treestand) whether for bear or deer or moose aids in a number of ways (reduced movement, elevated scent stream, heightened awareness)... and having a "known" distance is a huge benefit with archery equipment (arching trajectory). "

BUT", there are also intangible factors that can't be easily controlled even when hunting a bait... some of these are; The hunters nerves (controlling emotion). Hunting experience (knowing when to move or draw the bow and when to stay still etc...). The fact that not only are you anticipating the bear, but the bear is anticipating YOU, and the animals senses are on HIGH ALERT. The fact that you have been motionless for HOURS and the biting insects have swelled into the 10's of thousands (don't laugh, insects can be a signifcant factor in Northern bear hunts). Also, bears have incredible noses, and fixed bait locations make it very difficult to play the wind to best benefit (particularly with a limited number of bait sites available).

So baiting does have its advantages... it also has disadvantages... it is IMO a legitimate method for harvesting bears while doing so concurrent to all game laws and bag limits. Booth has good reason to be proud of his accomplishment... even more so, the outfitter who did the mountain of preliminary work, has reason to be proud of Booth's bear... because it is a testament of his own hard work, knowlege and hunting abilities.
 
Once they get enough hunters that don't bear bait onside they'll make it illegal. Then they move on to another form of hunting and then another and another till it's all illegal.

Divide and a conqueror is a powerful tactic.

Anyone who does any type of hunting should support all types of hunting, not for others but for themselves.

Also consider some of the people who say 'I hunt but I find this type of hunting disgusting' are if fact liars who hope to ban all hunting, one step at a time.
 
SneakyD said:
Once they get enough hunters that don't bear bait onside they'll make it illegal. Then they move on to another form of hunting and then another and another till it's all illegal.

Divide and a conqueror is a powerful tactic.

Anyone who does any type of hunting should support all types of hunting, not for others but for themselves.

Also consider some of the people who say 'I hunt but I find this type of hunting disgusting' are if fact liars who hope to ban all hunting, one step at a time.
Click to expand...

I agree 100 percent! I live in BC, and I would love to hunt bear over bait!
 
I've always been of the opinion that restrictions on hunting methods are to decrease odds of successful hunts to help with conservation while still allowing hunting. If the bear population is healthy enough to allow baiting, why get upset by it? The laws are there to protect the resource and everyone's concept of fair is different. I would argue that burning around the bush with an ATV in man made clearcuts with a centre fire rifle and excellent optics is a little unfair for the critters. We're always cheating with our smarts and our tools to kill anything stronger or faster than us (which is almost everything considered wild game) and that's just the way it is.
 
Here's what I did: I wrote Michael Platt, the dude that wrote that erroneous story. Here's the exchange of emails so far.

I maybe started on the wrong foot...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


To: Michael Platt
Sent: Thu May 17 19:38:07 2012
Subject: Pathetic

I read your dumb-ass biased, left-wing, Disney-fied version of bear hunting.

You are a f**king retard.

Jim.

On May 17, 2012, Michael Platt <Michael.Platt@sunmedia.ca> wrote:

Does your mommy know you're on her computer, swearing at people?
Naughty boy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




To: Michael Platt
Sent: Fri May 18 09:10:26 2012
Subject: Re: Re: Pathetic


I'm 54 years old.

You should come bear hunting with me and learn what it's really about before spewing inaccurate, false stories.

Bear baiting is nothing like you've portrayed it. But you wouldn't care about reporting on the truth now would you.

You must be a ### eh?

From: Jim

On May 18, 2012, Michael Platt <Michael.Platt@sunmedia.ca> wrote:

Are you asking if I'm ### in a hopeful way? What do you guys do in those tree stands?




---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I realized I was stupid to try to engage the guy in this way, so I decided to switch tactics...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------





To: Michael Platt
Sent: Fri May 18 12:02:40 2012
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Pathetic



Michael, how about I'll quit with the stupid comments and then maybe we can discuss this on an adult level? My comments were stupid.

I hope that works for you.


Let me tell a few things about baiting, which btw, I never do. It's far too much work, far too time consuming and expensive. People that bait bears, haul food supplies into a remote site, every day or so, and for sometimes a month before they ever hunt it. I can't afford that. I do spot and stalk hunts for bears only.

There is a huge benefit to the bears. You likely have never thought of that. A bear comes out of the den HUNGRY. When they locate a food source, such as a bait site, the animal can quickly gain fat and strength through the food at that bait site.

When hunters go into a bait site, they are looking only to kill the large adult male black bears. Very few bears are actually shot; the vast majority that come into a bait site are small bears, or sows with cubs, which the hunter simply observes. Those are bears that benefit totally from this. A week or month or so, of extra high calorie nutrition that a bear can pick up from a bait site is extremely beneficial to the bear long term. They wander off after the baiting site is closed up, with a nice headstart on their summer weight gain.

Another benefit to this type hunting (whether the hunter is in a ground blind or treestand) is that the hunter can identify very clearly, sows versus boars. You never want to shoot a sow with cubs. Well this makes it way easier to identify those old boars, which is what we're after.

Hunting in this manner allows the hunter to watch many bears. They are fascinating to watch you know.

It may look like the hunter is 'shooting-fish-in-a-barrel', but it's not as simple as that. For one, the hunter has to remain quiet, motionless for hours at a time. Endure thousands of mosquitoes & black flies. IF... a big bear shows up, then they have to be able to move into a shot position without the bear sensing them. Again; not so simple as it might seem at first glance.

But if they do get that shot, then the ability to shoot accurately due to close range, concealment etc, helps the hunter. Because ultimately, when you do decide to kill an animal, you've got to be certain to kill that animal with the minimum suffering. A hunter, over bait, from some form of blind is much less likely to wound an animal, and cause undue suffering, and that's what's important.



I'm going on a hunt June 3rd, you're invited if you want to see what it's about. I'm going for 5 days. But it's spot and stalk. No baiting. And there's rough terrain, poor accomodations, no internet or TV, no phone service (poor company I suppose), grizzlies etc.

Let me know if you're intrerested.


Jim


On May 18, 2012, Michael Platt <Michael.Platt@sunmedia.ca> wrote:

Appreciate it Jim. And I appreciate the adult conversation. I'm not against bear hunting. And you make good points about baiting.






---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This was another email I sent him this morning.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Michael there's another point, which I want to stress; a bear that is feeding on a bait site, is not eating calf moose, or elk calves, or deer fawns. In fact, that bear may eat enough off a bait site, over a week or month or so, that it has no need to go and kill a calf or fawn that year.

The Saskatchewan Fish & Game Dept wanted to institute a moose draw, in an area called the Cumberland Delta (I don't know exactly where that is, maybe you do). This might have been 20 years ago or so now. It was covered in an article in Western Sportsman, way back in the day, when I still had a subscription. The area is prime moose habitat anyway.
So Sask' F&W took a moose census. After several years, they observed that moose numbers hadn't changed, so they decided to investigate. They commissioned a study and found that 65% of all moose calves were being killed by adult male black bears. That's 65% calf moose mortality, before wolves, severe winter, disease, or malnutrition even come into play.

When I go bear hunting, and I am successful in taking one adult male bear, I feel that in a very small way, I've helped the moose herd. Not just this year; those bears live for 20-ish years, and take calves every year.

Btw, wolf predation, severe winters, over-harvest by first nations, has pretty much decimated the moose population in this area. The moose need all the help they can get. So once again, a hunter, sitting over a bait can benefit those moose due to the fact that they are feeding bears and keeping maybe another calf moose or elk alive, that woulda gone into bear scat...



Jim.
 
If you run your own bait soon you will find it's much harder and much more work to bait bear than it is to hunt deer. And nobody seems to have a problem with people hunting deer.

Plus I don't bow hunt, but don't you have to set up a blind of some sort and "ambush" hunt? How else are you going to get an ethical shot?

Anyways I want to see a pic of that Bear.
 
Oh I also wanted to say that hunting over a bait is amazing. I highly recommend everyone reading this thread tries it at least once. It is not even close to a sure thing and is very exhilarating.
 
^ Yes, I said some pretty retarded things, but what's important is that once I gave valid arguments in support of baiting (bears), even the liberal had to admit there was a basis for it.

I'm still working on the guy. I'm going to try to get him to add to the story, to tell the other side of bear baiting and the benefits.


http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=intensivemanagement.research

Btw, there's a bunch of moose mortality studies in these links, which pretty much support what I had said about the Sask' study; only 28% of calf moose survive the first 14 weeks of life due mainly to bear predation. That's not a lot left over to feed the wolves come winter.

Which is why every hunter should be killing any wolves they see, at any opportunity.
 
Good for Mr. Booth, I will be also hanging 20 ft. in the air over my bear bait in about 30 hrs from now. I could care less if people question my morals, they get piss up a rope as far as Im concerned. We have a hell of a time at camp , dump a bunch of $$ in a rural community and help control the exploding bear populations. Our camp sucess rate is 100% in 8 years and some guys have passed on bears for 4 years. Hunting over bait allows the archer to get the perfect ethical shot as well as shoot a trophy boar.
 
He was hunting in a legal manner. Some people like it and some people don't. Personally, I wouldn't hunt that way myself but it is none of my business if others do so. To each their own and good luck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom