Spring Bear Season Is On: Just get out and enjoy it!

[Wild one]

My thoughts are similar to Caddisguy

Its really about knowing your area. Mid day shady feeding areas along rivers/creeks on hot days but when it’s cool but sunny it’s not unusual to catch them suning themselves

The rain advice he gave in my experience is a coastal thing. I find interior bears hide when it’s raining so rainy days suck unless you’re on the coast

I actually take a lot of mid day bears between 10am and 3pm has treated me well. A big part of it is I know my areas and I target smaller feeding areas. Late afternoon is still best though. Unlike Caddisguy I hate early morning for bears

It really is think like a bear he is hungry, thirsty, and debating on a short nap even. Find somewhere he can accomplish all those in peace with out traveling and odds are a bear is around

[ElectricDyck]

Sounds amazing! The famkly and I are excited to head out and kill some bears this May long!

Post up your sucess pics!

[HarryToolips]

Yup, I hear ya! Might have to try to find time to sneak away during daytime between school drop off and pickup... I’m self employed so the boss won’t mind...

On that note, is hunting bear between 9am and 2pm realistic? I’d miss first and last light...

I'm with Wild One, unless it's busy with human traffic in the area, that time of day is a great time to be out for black bear..

[joshbazz]

I'm with Wild One, unless it's busy with human traffic in the area, that time of day is a great time to be out for black bear..

My thoughts are similar to Caddisguy ...I actually take a lot of mid day bears between 10am and 3pm has treated me well. A big part of it is I know my areas and I target smaller feeding areas ...It really is think like a bear he is hungry, thirsty, and debating on a short nap even. Find somewhere he can accomplish all those in peace with out traveling and odds are a bear is around

Excellent, can't wait to get out there, even if just to put the work in to learn as much as I can about them... will be ready with the '06 and 180s if I'm lucky. Cheers!

[caddisguy]

My thoughts are similar to Caddisguy

Its really about knowing your area. Mid day shady feeding areas along rivers/creeks on hot days but when it’s cool but sunny it’s not unusual to catch them suning themselves

The rain advice he gave in my experience is a coastal thing. I find interior bears hide when it’s raining so rainy days suck unless you’re on the coast

I actually take a lot of mid day bears between 10am and 3pm has treated me well. A big part of it is I know my areas and I target smaller feeding areas. Late afternoon is still best though. Unlike Caddisguy I hate early morning for bears

It really is think like a bear he is hungry, thirsty, and debating on a short nap even. Find somewhere he can accomplish all those in peace with out traveling and odds are a bear is around

My experience is similar when it comes to seeing less activity when it's actually raining, but on those days where it's a little sunny and off and on rain (the kind of days you might see a brief rainbow two) I see a lot of activity between rains. I don't think I have actually ever had an opportunity on a bear with any significant amount of wet stuff falling from the sky at that precise moment. That was the case this season as well. Driving in, it was sunny / rainy off and on. You could see the evaporation. My thought was "This is perfect, but I want to get in there before the rain really starts coming down". When I pulled into our spot, it rained good for about 15-20 minutes. Darn! Might as well sit in the car and wait this out before we unpack the gear. Couple of the dark nasty clouds went by and it was all blue and sunny again. Time to go for a walk! I only had doubts for a brief moment when I walked into my spot and didn't see a bear right away... but little did I know there was, only 10 yards away down the hill (temporary blind spot) from me. I knew the conditions (for this specific pocket) were perfect. The result was my bear season only lasted 15 minutes. I could be way off (I haven't even researched to see if this is true) but I theorize the mix of light rain followed by sun (rinse and repeat) results in sugars, especially in patches of grass that were nipped prior... or maybe it's just as simple as the bears around there like their salad misted or that they simply like to wait out the rain between feedings as well, consolidating their feeding time into little windows.

I'm definitely not a fan of getting up early to hunt bears, but I do sometimes. It makes for a long day and hunting them while groggy (I go from sleep to hunt pretty much instantly) feels weird. I only do it because in that particularly area, there is some good activity. I have seen some nice bears first light, but I usually end up sleeping in a bit these days. If I can get up around 8:30AM, that still gives me a couple hours of activity where I hunt and it really doesn't take a lot of effort to find one anyway. I have it dialled in enough I don't need to spend a lot of time. Maybe if I was really picky.

For whatever reason, activity in that pocket drops off round 11AM - 3PM. Lots of activity in another pocket 1-2km away though, in an area I usually stay out of for various reasons.

My absolute favourite time to be sitting (though I rarely sit and wait these days) in a small feeding pocket is late May / Early June after a hot day when the sun has just tucked behind the mountain. Everything just comes to life... all the sounds, the smells. I can just sit there on a stump and odds are that a bear will literally walk right up to me no matter which way the wind is blowing.

The best tip I have for my area (which might apply some other similar areas) is to find an area that has 3 or more feeding pockets within 2km or so of each other and keep walking in and out of them. Even if you only have one pocket, walking in and walking out 5x in one day can be better than sitting on it all day. What I found with the bears in my area is they essential give each other space and take turns (I am sure they are not always that nice, but you get the idea) you probably have 20-30+ bears in a 5 square km radius this time of year, all hitting a few little pockets of feed. One bear feeds, another approaches, bear leaves, new bear walks in. I think sometimes if I am sitting in the feeding area, they treat me just like any other bear having their fill. I think those bears just consider me another bear. I can't count the amount of times I have walked out of places that I was sitting on, just to walk back in a few minutes later and have a bear out. That said, I do find that if I sit on a pocket long enough, the bears appetite will get the better of them even if the wind is circling everywhere, especially if I made a bunch of noise and then went quiet. I think sometimes they have trouble figuring out if you "are there" or "were there" and eventually make the gamble... either that, or the bear just thinks "what the heck man, you have been bogarting my grass all day. I'm having my turn, like it or not".

[Wild one]

No matter what it all comes down to know your area and the habits of the bears in it

Right now after doing a little scouting around my area and looking at the weather I know it’s sooo close to being good. In this case knowing my area is painful because I am impatient and want it to be good NOW

[caddisguy]

No matter what it all comes down to know your area and the habits of the bears in it

Right now after doing a little scouting around my area and looking at the weather I know it’s sooo close to being good. In this case knowing my area is painful because I am impatient and want it to be good NOW

I hope you will post up the pictures tell a little bit of a story when it all goes down, which sounds like it will be sooner than later. HBC is where the stories are at. I can't stand the bear posts / format of most of the big social media sites.

"Shot this guy today"
+ picture.

Take me along for the ride man!

As it stands, I am taking my brother out this weekend. He's going to meet up with me first light when he finishes his PG run (long haul trucker with no sleep) Looks like it's going to be a hot one, so we'll hunt first light until 10:30am, find a cool spot to doze off and then back at it around 3:30. I'm not shooting anything unless it's gnawing on me or it's a put down shot. Would be cool to get him his first animal, if he can handle being awake for 36 hours LOL

Maybe I'll have another story and more video I'll never get around to editing... or maybe we'll snooze all weekend. I don't even know anymore. Either way, that will be it for this year. I knew I wouldn't get much time this spring, but I'm happy and thankful for the way things went thus far.

[caddisguy]

Oooh might as well throw out a teaser. I have a "secret" bear season related project brewing back out in the bush there. I can't give any details now. It could be a total bust or it could turn out to be amazing (coolest thing I have ever orchestrated) or anything in between. I'll spill the beans on Sunday about the "big deal" or lack there of. Either what happened or what I tried to accomplish. It's keeping me up at night for sure the way the odds are stacked.

[joshbazz]

Man, this thread is pure gold to me... Good luck fellas, going to try to get out there this week or weekend in MU-8. Cheers!

[Wild one]

I hope you will post up the pictures tell a little bit of a story when it all goes down, which sounds like it will be sooner than later. HBC is where the stories are at. I can't stand the bear posts / format of most of the big social media sites.

"Shot this guy today"
+ picture.

Take me along for the ride man!

As it stands, I am taking my brother out this weekend. He's going to meet up with me first light when he finishes his PG run (long haul trucker with no sleep) Looks like it's going to be a hot one, so we'll hunt first light until 10:30am, find a cool spot to doze off and then back at it around 3:30. I'm not shooting anything unless it's gnawing on me or it's a put down shot. Would be cool to get him his first animal, if he can handle being awake for 36 hours LOL

Maybe I'll have another story and more video I'll never get around to editing... or maybe we'll snooze all weekend. I don't even know anymore. Either way, that will be it for this year. I knew I wouldn't get much time this spring, but I'm happy and thankful for the way things went thus far.

I don’t even know how to post pictures and often I don’t take any lol

Who know’s when I will tag a bear I am pretty picky. I have seen 16 bears so far just checking out the conditions of a few spots mid day. Some of my pockets bridges have been pulled, road washed out, or it’s burnt. I will start putting in actual effort in a few days but odds are I won’t be the shooter. Good chance I will be stuck packing out a bear soon but most likely not mine

As for pics I will think about maybe in listing a slave to post them lol