This weekends BEAR, where to head?

[BiG Boar]

Hey guys, this will be my first weekend bear hunting. The world, well lower half of BC is my oyster. I have all my ducks in a row so far. Got tag, boots, sighted in the brand new gun, 4x4 and want to go harvest a mature boar. Mainly for the rug, but I just did get a new meat grinder and smoker. So, where to? I don't want people to give me thier honey holes, I just need rough areas, (just got a back roads map book for island and SW BC). Basically, I am looking for an area that might be without snow, and ready to go. I am willing to go to the island, or as far as 5 hours drive from the lower mainland. I have in mind the gold river area on the island, and liloette and pemberton areas. Anyone have any thoughts? PM me with any hints, and if anyone does want to plan a side by side trip, that would work to. We have our truck full though, we plan on leaving friday in the morning sometime, and returning sunday morning. And remember, your helping a newbie, is helping control the bear population, I am not stealing your record book bears. Though if I see one, I will shoot it for you. Thanks in advance. Dave

[Dirty]

Can't go wrong anywhere in Kamloops. Better watch the snow though, we have a fresh dusting here in Chilliwack at a fairly low elevation.

[browningboy]

Go up the north bend in the Nahatlatch, go as far as you can in and the nice cut blocks start at 60km and you will see bears, but still may be snow there so could be a waste of time too?

[sneg]

Lilooette river area is good place. I have seen quite few bears over there last year. It s free of snow now and have easy access. Keep in mind IR boundaries. Friend of mine went to Gold river area .Says it is full of bears . He had a dog to locate bear. I m not sure about snow . Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

[BCBear]

Go up the north bend in the Nahatlatch, go as far as you can in and the nice cut blocks start at 60km and you will see bears, but still may be snow there so could be a waste of time too?


Went up there last week and met the "white gate" again. had to turn back and ended up going to Ainsle instead. There's snow there but you can get in about to about 12 km which is better than half of that at North Bend. Seems like any roads in the shadows and cover are still covered in slurpee mix

[srupp]

STILL too early for most places here for bear unfortunatly..I will be checking out the Fraser river area on the weekend..

Steven

[Orangethunder]

Pretty wintery up in 100MH this week. I covered about 40km on the quad today at work and not a bit of bear sign. I did see a few coyotes and a moose. Lets hope it warms up and stays warm.

[huntingchick]

we are heading up to boston bar this weekend for our first bear hunt too! we went up a few weeks ago and saw a bear nice size not very sleepy either so hopfully we see some more this weekend. maybe try there? good luck

[boonerbuck]

All the areas I consider good have snow still.

[Barracuda]

that kinda the situation for me also . the coast is so mountainous that soon as you start climbing you hit snow. I will still be out this weekend most likley with the fleabags and see whats walking :tongue:

[BCLongshot]

Go to Whistler

[island hunter]

if your coming over to the island i really recomend heading up Horne Lake road just after Qualicum. go past the provincal cave park and turn left at the bridge. lots of bears last year with good size.

good luck.

ez.

[browningboy]

Went up there last week and met the "white gate" again. had to turn back and ended up going to Ainsle instead. There's snow there but you can get in about to about 12 km which is better than half of that at North Bend. Seems like any roads in the shadows and cover are still covered in slurpee mix


Is the gate at 45km or 52? They seem to move that gate around, once at the river then just past grizzly falls exit, wonder why they still have a gate, no camp in there anymore??
Was the road up there the shits (need a grader) or was it maintained?
If you go past the gate though, bear city! (grizzly and black) and goes quite a ways in.

[The Hermit]

Try the island... Cowichan west and south to the Walbran/Carmanha lots of bears... south facing slopes with sun on them... roads with grass in the ditches.

[BigBanger]

Im going for a drive to boston bar for a look friday , cant wait .

[BigBanger]

Hey Dave you know where your going yet?
Im going to look around in Boston Bar in the morning.
Where you going?

[hunter1947]

If I was you I would head over hear to the island ,head up to nitinat or holberg for a hunt. If you get to holberg head up the San Josef lots of bears in there.

[Phil]

Is the gate at 45km or 52? They seem to move that gate around, once at the river then just past grizzly falls exit, wonder why they still have a gate, no camp in there anymore??
Was the road up there the shits (need a grader) or was it maintained?
If you go past the gate though, bear city! (grizzly and black) and goes quite a ways in.


By "the white gate" he means snow. It was too hard to get that far in due to deep wet snow. We tried several roads that looked promising at the bottom but after quading in only a few kms we were stopped short. A few more weeks and it will be fine.

[pikey]

Went to Anderson and Nahatlatch yesterday, had a great day up there.

Couldn't get very far up Anderson at all as we were in a 4x2 and the snow shut us down pretty quickly.

Got a little further into Nahatlatch and had a great day over there, saw grouse, a ton of deer and did see 3 Blackies and one very intersting and bold mouse thingy.

One Blackie was standing by the side of the road eating Grass, had a shot at it at 40 yards, even stood up at looked at me but I couldn't be sure it wasn't a sow. I still have a lot of meat in the freezer and don't need to be shooting a sow maybe with cubs, would feel really bad about that.

Turned out after we drove past a couple of times againg there was a private property sign 30 feet away......didn't see it at the time....double glad I didn't shoot it!

Still going to be a while before that snow is gone.

[BiG Boar]

boston bar report
bears 4
kms on fsr traveled 200
shots fired 0
biggest bear seen 5.5 feet
fun had 10/10