Bear rugs are back. My 2009 Northern Alberta spring bear hunt.

[Call of the Wild]

With bear season just starting I decided to share the story of my 2009 bear hunt. Last year I finally decided to get my two black bears done in rugs and a few weeks ago I finally received my rugs back.

The story behind the hunt started in the spring of 2009 in northern Alberta. As an Alberta resident then, with a few friends we decided go spring bear hunting and set up some bear baits in an un-hunted area. The area is far and to a degree hard to access, we knew it was very unlikely used by any outfitters and residents. We wanted to find an area where the mature boars would be active during daylight and uneducated to bait hunting. I decided to set up two baits 6 km bird fly apart to prevent the same bears from visiting both baits.

First I wanted both baits to be near at lease one good beaver dam for a water source since bears naturally visit beaver dams to find beavers to eat. Having natural bear activity near my baits would increase my chances to bring new bears in as the season went on. Generally old and yearly active baits are known to local bears and sows which is a major advantage while hunting during the rut in mid June. From discussing with friends who guided for black bears for years, they strongly suggested to set up baits in matures pine or spruce trees because the big trees block the wind and during mild windy evenings baits in that type of habitat are always more active.

Eventually while scouting I found two great spots for my baits in some big and old mature spruce covering a large area which I was very confident would become great locations for the bears to find the baits and also to keep them in the area. The first bait, named later on Circus, was close to 5 small ponds while my second bait, named Pipeline, was on a nice ridge right by a pipeline which is great for game movement. The ground at each bait site was very soft from the spruce needles and green moss. At each bait site a large and comfortable tree stand for two guys was build with three barrels 15-20 yards from the stand and also with a cable to hang a beaver just over 7 feet high. I hang my beaver that high so only real big boars can reach it, it smells and it’s evidence that doesn’t lie when a big mature boar found the bait.

Mid May we all started to bring food and beavers to our baits and I also set up a trail camera at each bait site so I could monitor the activity, the number of color phase bears, the size of the bears and the time they visit the bait. That year I decided to use oats on my baits with used cooking grease and prior leaving the first time we had a pail of stinky stuff (fermented fish and meat solution) for each of our baits. Let me tell you it is the most disgusting smell I ever smelled but it bring in the bears. We can still smell it in June if the wind is right while hunting.

Picture 2, 3 and 4 show the two bears that always came in when I drove to the bait with my quad at Circus. I had to chase them away often while I was filling the barrels and they would come in from a different direction within a few minutes after I chased them away. I parked my quad by the stand and once I was done filling the barrels, I let them eat 20 yards away while I climbed the steps of the stand to get the memory card in the camera. I hid my cameras bellow one 2x4 step of the stand to prevent the bears of destroying my cameras. That year they didn’t play with any cameras since they didn’t stand out so much.

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Bait_1.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Bait_2.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Bait_2a.JPG
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Bait_2b.JPG
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Bait_3.jpg

[Call of the Wild]

Short low quality video of a bear walking to the bait while I quad in with a fresh load of food.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5YC2GLcemM&feature=youtu.be

I was very surprised with the amount of color phase bear visiting the baits. Especially at Circus with the cubs of a sow which were all three different colors (blond, chocolate and cinnamon). The name of Circus came from the fact that this bait’s beaver was always half eaten and hanging low without any big boar signs around and no pictures of real big bear. If I remember right it’s after my second or third visit to the baits with food that I found out why the beaver at Circus was always hanging low. One of the cubs was climbing the tree and either jumped on the beaver or hanged on the cable to drop down above the beaver. I started calling that cub a circus bear and hence the name of that bait.

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Bait_4.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Bait_4a.JPG
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Bait_4b.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Bait_5.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Bait_6.jpg

[Call of the Wild]

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Bait_7.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Bait_7a.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Bait_8.jpg

Pipeline was hit very fast with a lot of bears. What was very exciting was the fact that there were signs of a mature boar with the bait’s beaver gone every visit (4-6 days), big foot prints on the ground and thick oats dropping on the ground everywhere. I filled every barrels were filled ¾ full of oats at every visit, 6 total, and the barrels were almost empty. I had a lot of bears visiting my baits and those bears can eat a lot a food.

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Bait_10.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Bait_11.jpg

[Call of the Wild]

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Bait_12.jpg

We started hunting on June 6. I decided to put my time at Pipeline to have a chance at the big boar with my buddy running a camera. I didn’t have any pictures of him in three weeks of baiting but he did leave signs around of his presence.

It was a perfect day to hunt bears, hot, blue sky and without any wind. While walking the pipeline to the bait we saw one bear crossing toward the bait. Once set up in the stand, I got the memory card to check out the last 5 days activity at the bait. I wasn’t surprise to find out I had over 200 pictures and finally I had three pictures of the big boar (10 am, 2 pm and 6 pm). We couldn’t make him out perfectly on the screen of my camera but it was evident he was the king.

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Mik_Boar_1.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Mik_Boar_2.jpg

After one hour of hunting there were two black bears and one very ugly cinnamon with half his hair. Every bear was very nervous, stopping and looking in every direction when odd noise was heard. Sign that a bear scared them before.

At 9:45 pm my buddy turn around to tell me in a very low voice "BIG BEAR BEHIND DON’T MOVE", the look on my face told him to shut it up and stop pulling my leg. It didn’t take long to realise he wasn’t joking but I couldn’t see the bear. He arrived without making any noise and he stared at the bait for 30 seconds before moving in.

Anxious to see the bear, he eventually walked about 6 yards of the stand directly for the barrels and the small bear that was feeding at the bait walked away when he saw him. Let me tell you it was quite a rush to see such a big bear walking and the size of his head was very impressive, he was walking like bodybuilders walk. He walked around the bait and came back to eat. At one point he was perfectly broadside and I was full draw ready to let go an arrow when he drops down to eat. I relaxed and released my bow not wanting to miss my shot on such an amazing bear. Luckily the wait was short. He took a few steps and at that point I had a perfect broadside opportunity at 22 yards, anxious and ready I pulled back and aim right at his vitals.

Very calm and focus, I took the shot and saw the red Lumenok of the arrow disappear right where I was aiming behind the shoulder. He jumped, snored and started running away, confident in my shot I followed him thru the trees and I saw him falling down about 50 yards away. The adrenaline rush was intense and my hearth was pumping hard!!!!

He’s a very good bear and to my surprise his head was very heavy. After taking some pictures, we loaded him on the quad by flipping the quad backward and strapped the bear to the quad. There was no way we could have lift him. After skinning him at camp he measured 7’8” claw to claw and 7’4” nose to tail, so I call him a 7’6” boar.

It was a very exciting hunt, had great time with friends and learned a lot again.

Here’s the video of the hunt. At 6:15 you can hear the boar moaning just before he died.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIkTzFx1Ih0&feature=youtu.be

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Mik_Boar_3.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Mik_Boar_4.jpg

[Call of the Wild]

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Mik_Boar_5.jpg

Couple pictures while hunting the following days

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Bait_13.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Bait_14.jpg

Now here are pictures of my two bear rugs and two of the cinnamon bear after the harvest.

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/BB_rug_1.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/BB_rug_2.jpg

[Call of the Wild]

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/BB_rug_3.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/BB_rug_4.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/BB_rug_5.jpg

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Mik_autumn_035.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Mik_fall_bear_2.jpg

Well happy spring bear hunting to everyone, best of luck. I hope you enjoyed the story.

[BromBones]

Very nice, thanks for taking the time. One is an absolute hawg, and one nice color phase. Congrats.

Hopefully a few guys will see this and appreciate how much effort goes into setting up a bait station. You put in some serious gruntwork there, and the result was an awesome bear. Well done.

[russm]

You lost me at bait.....

[digger dogger]

You lost me at bait.....

It's legal, so that didn't need to be said!

Nice bears, cotw!

[KB90]

Nice Bears buddy!!!



You lost me at bait.....

How many bears have you killed?

Don't knock something you haven't tried.

[jrjonesy]

Awesome story and write up! Thanks for sharing the whole hunt. Great bears!!

[BearStump]

You lost me at bait.....
x2. nice bears but not my style.

[Slee]

Great bears and video! What did his head come in at?

[GrandA]

what a monster, good video footage too - congrats!

[Call of the Wild]

Slee

Never measured the skull after the harvest, I should have. I put the tape on him few minutes ago, he sure look bigger than his 19 11/16, 11 15/16 long and 7 12/16 wide.

Anyone know how much a bear skull can shrink? The skull was frozen before I placed it in a swamp for bacteria to clean it (maceration) and now it’s in my garage. Not that it matters but I’m curious since last time I measured the skull it was in the 20 inches if I remember right. On the pictures and the video he sure has a big head and hit was a heavy head/neck, there’s a big difference between the head of the two rugs too. Anyway time to go out scouting and maybe spot a BC black bear worth shooting.

[Mulehahn]

That is a hog. Wow. The that is easliy a foot bigger than any black bear I have seen. Congrats.I would love to bait some bears if it was legal. Sitting in a stand and having a buffet of choices in front of me. How about a ginger, nah I like the one with the perfect coat. But wait that one is huge. Sounds like fun. I enjoy hiking and driving trying to find a nice one, but to be there with that many bears would be something.

[Slee]

Great skull! From my experience, bear skulls only shrink 1-2 16th from green to 60 day dry time.

I know a lot of guys on here say they are not fans of baiting bears, but if you think about all the work that goes into finding a baiting area, packing in bait for a month, sitting on stand for days waiting for a big bear to come in...... Hell of a lot more work then driving around sipping coffee and trying to find a bear on the side of the road like most guys do.

I think baiting bears is in the same category as hunting behind hounds. It's all about the work to get to the animal and not about the kill.

[Call of the Wild]

Thanks Slee, the skull might have shrunk a little or a lot in 3 years now, it doesn’t really matter to me.

About the bear baiting debate, it’s legal in Alberta so as ungulate baiting in BC. I’m always amazed how some hunters will bring up what they think is right or wrong just like long range shooting, bow hunting is not ethical and so on. Instead of trying to be united as hunters, we are a special group sometimes who too often trash talk others legal hunting actions.

I’m not going to start a debate on bear beating but I worked my ass off that spring, spend a lot of time and money in to that hunt and hunting over a bait allowed me to choose the bear I wanted and to take my time for a proper bow shot opportunity. I now live in BC and I’ll be hunting bears the BC way by spot and stalk!!!!

[Gateholio]

That's a great bear!

Most bears get shot in BC by someone pulling to a stop, exiting the truck and BAM. Baiting takes 100 times more work, effort, and patience. I think it should be legal in BC but I doubt I would take it up....Too much work!! :)

[silvertipp]

Great bear there
To each there own ,bears that size are far and few between,no matter wich way you choose to hunt them
I gotta admit tho, i do have a bit of a problem with the BEATING of bears method

[kootenayelkslayer]

That bear is a pig, congrats! A lot of people have no idea the amount of time and hard work that goes into baiting and taking a monster boar like that, way to go.

[Rackmastr]

Bears look great together! Congrats.

[luckynuts]

Thanks for sharing the Vid and a big congrats on a huge bear! well done. I have to ask what were you using for equipment? Bow, arrow, broadhead etc Did you ever measure the skull? looked like he had a good ole noggin on him

W.
Oops should have read page 2. As for skull shrinkage i shot a bear in 2009 measured it before being boiled and it came out as 19-3/4 after being boiled and sitting on a shelf for 3 yrs it was officially scored beginning of April this year and ended up at 19-9/16 so not as much as I would have thought, though your score could be low if you did not level the skull before measuring it. Still either way you have an excellant Black bear congrats again

W.

[BCHunterFSJ]

Stop with the bait thing already!!! If it's legal leave it alone...
Some of my most exciting bear hunts were over baits.