Well, my trip to Northern Manitoba, pretty much went off without a hitch. 5 of us left on Sunday afternoon about 3:30pm. We arrived at our destination NW of Lynn Lake about 11:15am on Monday. First off we hit the lake to snag some walleyes and have some shore lunch, by 12:15 we were cooking up a bunch of the freshest walleye on earth 
3 of us headed back to the lodge to get ready for a evening sit in stand. I went to a place I was familiar with, it is called “The Hole”(pic #1)… it is at the bottom of a draw and the outfitter had been telling me about a chocolate bear they had been seeing there…. that is what I was after, a colored Bear 
We sat until about 11:25pm, actually I could sit longer, if I wasn’t in the hole, it gets dark in the hole earlier than on top. Nobody seen any bears the first night. I did see what they call a CrossFox and also a Pine Marten. I actually heard the CrossFox catch a duck in the pond behind my bait site… that duck was making racket for over an hour and then slowly got quiet…. the circle of life I guess. The next morning we did some fishing, I will say, the fishing was not as phenominal as usual, the lake is down about 3 feet from 2 years ago, and really, I haven’t fished this lake all that much, as the place I usually go fishing, we fly out too. Either way, plenty of walleye and northern were caught. That afternoon, I went to the hole again. After sitting about 3 hours, I happened to be looking up the hill and watched a Chocolate Bear crest the hill, directly above my bait about 60 yards. It stood there for about 10 minutes, then started going across the hill top, away from the bait. It then started down the hill, directly behind me, putting myself between the bait and the bear. Game on… I grabbed my bow. The bear wandered to within 30 yards and locked up… it just kept looking all around, not at the bait, not at the stand, but everywhere ??? (probably heard my heartbeat… check out her ears)There was alot of trees between myself and the bear, I had no shot 
I decided that if given a shot, I would use the rifle, the outfitter supplied me, he likes everyone to have a back-up weapon “just in case” I had a 30-06, leaning in the corner. After about 5 minutes, the bear turned and started back up the hill, where it came from. I set down my bow, took a deep breath and grabbed the rifle. I picked out a spot, about 50 yards up the hill…and waited. After what felt like forever, the bear filled the spot…. Breath, Relax, Aim….Squeeeze !!!! The bear hit the ground immediately, 4 legs in the air and rolling around… I ejected the spent cartridge and chambered another…aimed and POW !!! I hit it again and it got up and started running across the hill, directly up from me now. I chambered another and settled the crosshairs again and let it have one more…. it went down and stayed down. 
At this point it was 9:25pm… the guides would be driving the road from 9-9:30 and I needed to tie a ribbon in the tree, before he did, or I would be sitting until 11:30pm. I heard the truck go by, as I was climbing the hill. No big deal, he was going down about 5 miles, to check 2 more guys and would be back shortly. After about 15 minutes, they came by and I flagged them down. We grabbed the stretcher and I took them right to where the bear went down, talk about happy guides, worlds shortest track job 
They decided to gut it before taking back to camp, as it has been warm (80’s during the day, 50’s at night) so it would keep until morning for pictures and skinning. The Bear was an old sow, which weighed 252 lbs. It is not the biggest bear in the woods, but I am extremely happy getting a colored Bear 
And also, since I have still not shot a Bear with my bow, I have an excuse to go back 
I am having a rug made out of this bear also, again the guides and outfitter could not believe how nice the hide and fur on my bear was… no rub marks & nice and thick 
Another guy in our group also got a black bear, he got it with his bow 
Another guy from S Dakota, hit a nice black bear one night, his uncle had it on video, but they did not recover the bear 
, after the initial shot, it hit the ground, just like mine did and he didn’t plug it again 
We watched it that evening and they went to look the next morning without luck… he sure was kicking himself for not putting another one in it 
It was a great trip and I can’t wait to do it again… although now, we are talking about doing a fly-out Moose Hunt maybe 
Don’t tell my wife
June 27, 2011 at 12:22 am
#197468
