As a few of my hunting buddies know I tend to have a horseshoe when it comes to drawing tags. Bear for whichever reason seems to be my sweet spot, drew a tag on my first attempt for the second season in a row. This is the 3rd tag I have had, first two years for a lack of better terms I blew it off and just “kinda” did the very basics. Mostly worried about finding the next set of horns I wanted to to chase come the fall rather than doing what I should to be successful at filling a bear tag.
This year I have come full circle,(so I tell myself) started baiting first part of July and coming into the still very early stages of fall with some encouragement. Have ran multiple baits and this last week basically started eliminating and narrowing in on specific ones along with adding a couple as I go along. Started out only checking once a week to twice a week and becoming 3 times a week on a couple that are getting some attention from multiple bears. The last 2 weeks seems to be a hot streak of seeing tipped over stumps and torn up trees on the majority of the baits every time I walk in.
I have placed about all my baits within an hour drive distance from work so I can reach a few every couple of nights. The area has a ton of dog running traffic in the summer but no running during the season. Spot location is becoming to be a little clearer as time goes on, started with just getting next to water whether be a creek or swamp, but have added a couple this past weekend into the edges of some oak ridges with the thought of maybe keeping one interested once the acorns fall. Some I have lugged it back 20 min. from the truck or more and a few where I can practically see the truck from the bait. But it has become increasingly obvious that the less human interaction the better and much more frequent they are getting hit, regardless of distance to the vehicle (seems obvious but to an extent it wasn’t clear until noticing areas that were void of traffic for different reasons). I have two baits in particular that I giggle when I think boy I wonder how on earth I’m going to get one out of there. But as I have always said I will figure that out if it happens!
So I figured I would start a little pre season check in post with the first round of camera pictures on a set that I just hung the camera on this past Sunday. Put the camera on video mode just to see how they interact and so I can really try to get a mental image of the size differences of the bears rather than a couple of still shots. I have no clue when it comes to judging bears or what sets a mediocre bear to a good one. I am planning on trying to stick one with the bow so hopefully that will help being a little more up close and personal. I keep saying it most likely wont matter, the first one that walks in I will freak out thinking its a giant and it will end up being a 100 lber! I added one more camera out from Sunday that will hopefully have some similar results that I plan on grabbing tomorrow. I started this bait with simple bread, donuts, and popcorn with about as much sweet toppings as I could add, then switched to cookies Sunday, and boy did they enjoy the cookies! Major difference in what small scraps where left behind last few weeks compared to this week with the cookies. I will attempt to load up the videos in some form below. There were two bears that came in within minutes, they came back the following evening in daylight. Any thoughts out there on sizes? Back of my head I was thinking the bigger bear would be close to the 300 mark the other a touch smaller, am I even Close!? haha. I will add a clip of me walking in for a 6′ reference when we checked it today.
