Skinning Rick's bear for a rug.

Yesterday was without a doubt the most amazing day I have ever had bear hunting. And yet I came away without a bear. I’ll tell you the full story in a minute, but first a little about the other two hunters who filled their tags last night. John shot a medium-sized black bear at about 7:30. He dropped it in its tracks with a rifle. Rick also shot a medium-sized black bear which he arrowed from ten yards. It ran off and he heard the death moan. So four out of five are tagged out and I am the only one remaining to get a bear. But I have had plenty of opportunities and I am going back out tonight despite the fact that it is supposed to rain all afternoon.

So here’s my story. Keep in mind as I tell this that I booked this trip because they have a high percentage of cinnamon and blonde bears in the Duck Mountains. I have shot blacks and chocolates so I have been holding out for the color I really want. I have been bear hunting for quite a few years and it has long been my goal to get one of each of the four main colors. However, I really need to shoot a bear to complete the magazine articles I will be writing about this trip. These factors all put me in kind of a difficult spot when it comes to making decisions on what to shoot and not shoot. So I was hoping and praying that the right bear would come out and I would not have to make a tough decision on whether or not to shoot. I decided last night that it is a lot easier to go on a hunt where you don’t see very many bears, because then when the opportunity to shoot one comes along you do not hesitate to shoot it. But when you are looking over multiple bears each day, you have so many tough decisions to make!

John and Bill with John's bear. They are golfing buddies from Wisconsin. John is battling cancer and has a limited time. Hunting is his passion and he is not a quitter. He showed tremendous toughness and courage on this hunt and he has certainly earned my admiration. God Bless you John.

About 7:30, a medium-sized black bear came to the bait. I videotaped it for a while and was trying to decide if I should take the bear and get my story or wait a little longer. I still had 2 1/2 hours of daylight, plus one more day. I decided to hold off. The bear left about 8:00. About 15 minutes later, I thought I saw it coming back from the direction it had gone, but when this bear came to the bait, it was clearly a bigger black bear. I started filming and decided that I should just take this bear, it was a nice one and I needed to get the job done. So I got my bow ready and was looking for an opportunity for a shot when suddenly the bear started acting nervous and I heard teeth popping right below my treestand! Sure enough, I could hear an agitated bear directly below me which had apparently come up over the steep bank from the beaver pond behind me. I was about to witness a bear fight! I slowly turned my head to look down and right at the base of my ladder was the bear I have been wanting for all these years, a beautiful cinnamon! I got the video turned towards it and got a little video of it before it turned and began the circle the bait area to my right.

The black at the bait moved off into the bushes towards where the cinnamon was going and they had a huffing, puffing growling encounter out in the bush where I could not see them. A few minutes late the black came back to the bait. The way he acted for the ten minutes or so he was there I could tell the cinnamon was still behind the bait in the bushes. In fact I heard it back there a couple times. Then I saw movement off to my right and a HUGE bear stepped out onto the trail. The black at the bait, which was a nice mature bear, bolted! The giant one left down the trail the other direction.

It was about 5-10 minutes when I saw movement to my right again, and a fifth bear, another really nice mature black bear, came out on the trail and approached the bait. It fed for a while and I had my bow in hand thinking I should really shoot this bear, but knowing the bear I had been desiring for years was in the immediate area, I just couldn’t do it. That bear left after a while and all was quiet. It was now 9:30 and I had a half hour left. I began to hear bears huffing and clacking teeth off and on in the bushes to my right and behind the bait. The about 9:50, A mountain of black fur began moving towards the bait through the popples behind the bait. The Giant was returning. He got to about 40 yards and sat down but all I could see was a huge mound of black sitting there. He then turned and moved off.

A shipment of bear bait came in. These bags contain Tom's personal bear bait mix. It contains molasses, rolled corn and rolled oats. There may be a couple more ingredients but Tom's not talking.

Soon it was 10 minutes after 10:00 and I could no longer video or shoot, but I still had bears around me. They had left a 4-wheeler for me about 250 yards back down the trail so if they didn’t get back to me at a decent time, I could walk out to the 4-wheeler and drive the seven miles of trail back to the truck. I decided to get the heck out while I could still see to get down without a flashlight.

By the time I got to the ATV my adrenaline glands had been dumping full bore for about two hours and I was pretty beat. I drove the two miles to where we had left Rick and found them all dragging Rick’s bear out. So they wouldn’t have gotten to me for at least another 45 minutes. I am glad I came out when I did.

I left my camera arm, bow holder, and trail camera in there so I am going back there again tonight. It is my sincere hope that the cinnamon comes in and gives me a shot. But no matter what, I need to shoot the first good representative bear I see.

Not everyone will understand why I did not just shoot that first bear. Especially when you see the video of it. It’s a decent bear and most people would be happy with it. But think of it this way: I had the most exciting night of bear hunting in my life, and if I had shot that first bear, none of it would have ever happened. Hunting bear is about a lot more than just shooting a bear. It’s about the whole experience, the adrenaline, the learning about bear behavior, and the stories that can be told around the campfires for years to come.

Two little cubs and a sow that showed up on the trail camera

The wind blew hard again last night and the bear movement was way down. Out of the three of us still hunting, we only saw 6 bears. Rick had all kinds of action with a couple small bears that were trying to get at the beaver we put up for him, and he had a really big one come in right at dark but he couldn’t get a shot. The big one moved off as the Quad came in to pick him up. John saw one big bear but did not get a shot and I saw one that was pretty nice but it was a black bear about 250 pounds but He never really presented a tempting shot and I am holding out for a nice color for one more day. I am beginning to lower my standards. I told Tom my guide that on the fourth day I become color blind. We are going to yet another area and all new stands today.

Two yearling cubs... a nice brown color.

We had a very interesting experience yesterday. We were at Rick’s Stand getting him settled in and Tom was hanging a beaver for extra attraction when all of a sudden we realized there were three bears in a tree right above our heads! They were three yearling cubs and we realized that the sow had run of on our approach while the cubs went up the tree. The cubs decided it was time to come down and down they came. I got the whole thing on video and it is really cool, I’ll get it posted when I get home. Two of the cubs were a really pretty light brown color and the other one was a black. Great experience, and one of the things that make bear hunting so much fun. It is about a lot more than just shooting a bear.

Baldy Mountain, from the logging road near my day-4 stand. This is the highest point in Manitoba at 2727 feet. It has two cell towers on it even though there are probably less than a thousand people living within 50 miles of it.

The road into my stand was really bad and we got everything all muddy going in there. I mean I had mud all over my clothes, my bow case, backpack everything that was attached to the 4-wheeler got covered with mud. What a mess. The guides workd on it and it was a lot better on the way out.

For bear, a beaver is like crack cocaine. Their eyes roll back in their heads and they do dumb things for a beaver. This one has had its tail and ears cut off for bounty and it makes a great bear bait.

I was in a really nice spot and I didn’t realize that I was really close to a babbling brook until the wind layed down for a brief moment and I could hear the water gurgling. It was windy enough that it really reduced the bear movement. The mature bears just don’t move as much when their senses are diminished. I had one black come into the bait area and circle around a little but never did come to the barrels. I got some terrific video of a pine marten at the bait, that was cool.

Since no one shot a bear, we were back at the house at 11:30, had supper and I was in bed at 12:15; the earliest yet by far. Today it is supposed to get up to 80 degrees with a chance of showers.

For today, I am going to lower my standards. I need to get some magazine articles out of this hunt and to do that I need a bear on the ground. I am still really hoping for a color bear but tonight any good representative bear is going for a ride on the bush buggy. It’s time to close the deal. Stay tuned!

This bear was on the edge of panic the entire time he was there. He finally left without eating and I was sure a big one was coming in but he never showed. This was the first bear to come to the bait, it's a small male, and not a shooter.

What a long day. Finally got out of the woods last night at 11:30, drove home and had supper at 1:00 am and went to bed at 2:00. It’s 7:30 am and I am up and ready to do it all again.

Yesterday I had to go to Dauphin in the morning and get a card reader for my CF card in my camera so I could post some pics. By the time I got back it was time to head to town for lunch at a restaurant and from there we drove an hour and a half to where we unloaded the 4-wheelers. We then drove another hour into the bush and let guys off at baits along the way. My stand was another 4 miles off the main trail, so it was 4:00 before I was settled in to hunt.

The wind was screaming and it was in the upper 70’s when I settled into the stand. Within two hours a cold front came through and I had put on all the clothes I brought and I was still cold. The cold north wind was ripping right through my clothing. I had a big poplar tree come crashing down right beside me, falling across the trail we came in on. Other guys reported seeing trees blown down around them too. I didn’t expect to see many bears and I was right, but only for me… more on that later. We had to chainsaw a few trees to move them off the trail as we came out because they had fallen across the trail while we were in the stand.

This 3-year-old sow was at my bait for 45 minutes

At 6:00 a small boar came to the bait and he was really on edge. He was so nervous he could hardly even eat any bait. He was only there for five minutes, and he kept looking down the trail every 10 seconds. He just left and I was expecting a big bear at any second but the big one never showed. A swirling wind is one thing that big mature boars don’t like, and no one saw a really big bear last night. At 8:15 a small sow came in and spent 45 minutes at the bait and didn’t seem nervous at all. That was all the bears I saw last night. I was really looking forward to the 200-yard walk back to the 4-wheeler so I could get warmed up I was really chilled.

This big poplar tree came crashing down with a thunderous roar only a few yards from my treestand. Scared me pretty good. I started analyzing the look of the other trees around me to see if any of them loooked like they could fall on me!!!

Of the four other guys, only Bill shot a bear. Rick, Mark, John and Bill all had bears around them all evening. Rick had a bear try to get in the stand with him and he had to poke at it with his bow to get it to back down the tree. All told, we saw 29 different bears at five baits. Bill shot his first bear, a beautifully furred dry sow. His wife wanted a bear rug and he got the perfect bear for that, she has a really thick, heavy pelt on her so he is happy. It was his first bear too. The other guys saw lots of sows with cubs and small bears. Everyone saw color bears except me. As you can imagine there was lots of excited talk around the trucks when we got back and on the ride home. That’s one of the things I love about bear hunting… seeing the excitement in the people who you are hunting with and making new friends.

Today, we are going to an entirely new area. The last couple years Tom has not been able to bait this area because it has been too wet to get in there but it is a dry year so we are going in there tonight. It’s always exciting to be able to go to an area that has not been hunted for three years, and the baits are getting hammered. Anticipation is running really high. Every day is a new day and this might just be the one where something great happens!