An Outdoorsman's Journal

Twenty-One Days in a Bear Stand
Hello friends,
My bearbaiting season started on April 15th and ended on October 7th.176 days after it started and 21 hunts later I had no choice but to throw in the towel as it closed. This week’s column is about some of what I noticed and experienced running baits, hunting and talking to other hunters.
Doug Cibulka, my bear hunting partner, and I had 4 trail cameras out and it was by far our best year ever for daytime pictures of big bear. These photos were so common that we did not even talk about them by mid-July. What we did talk about is that out of what was probably thousands of photos, we did not have a single sow come in with cubs.
Generally sows and cubs are pests as they can become "glued" to the bait which leaves nothing for other bear. I am not a biologist, but my prediction is that where we hunt in northern Juneau County the wolves are eating the cubs. This is not just my theory but it is shared by many outdoors people. A pack of wolves living in the same forest as sows with cubs, has every day of the week, including some situations in the winter den for something to go wrong.
As I wrote, I hunted 21 late afternoons. On every trip that I had for this job, during the bear season, I hunted on the way home. I also went on a bow hunt for deer and fishing trip, in other words from September 3rd to October 9th I was running and gunning.
Doug and I had one bait that had the largest bear hitting it from about May 1st to September 24th that I have ever had come to one of my baits with regularity. This boar often traveled with his lover which was a sow in the 325-pound range. During the first 21 days of bear season the sow or boar or both would come in 20 to 60 minutes after dark, until bear season opened they were regular day time, bait hitters.
I became so into hunting him that I sat on that bait for 17 nights, the only night that one of them came in before dark I was at my buddy Chuck Reib's, Celebration of Life.
I have written that I feel bear baiters, especially those that are willing to do some walking are literally biologists without a degree. The changing seasons of the insects, the forest and swamp coming back to life, the fawns being born, the fawns being eaten by bears and wolf. The turkeys being born, the bear coming into heat in June and early July, the abundance of porcupine and the horrible reality of way too many raccoon now that the fur trapper has lost his or her market. The lack of ruffed grouse, drought and flooding are all a solid part of a bear baiter's experience.
There is so much more that we observe, even the mental and physical ability, as well as financial to just stay the game. By October 7th, I was probably in the best shape that I will be the rest of my life, carrying 25 pounds of bait and making good time while bushwhacking forest and swamp will do that to you.
My buddy Doug got a bear but I was on one of my trips that pays my bills and so our hauling crew of Joey Dushek, Joey Snooty and Nathan Potter "younger guys" helped get Doug's bear out of the woods. There is a rule though and that is you have to have beer for the helpers and it is a guaranteed good time once the bear makes it to the truck.
It kind of looks like Doug is going into retirement from the world of bear hunting, Doug is an active guy and wants to see the world. My partners have been Selina and Joey, just Selina, Michelle, Michelle, Doug and I and now just me.
I did not see a bear in 21 nights. I had good friends harvest bear but other than Doug's all were much further north where you are not at the southern end of "real" bear country. I would strongly advise bear hunters to go at least 40 miles north of Necedah to hunt bear as there are too few and they are too smart in my zone.
As for me, I’m 64, I figure I will be in my prime for about another 20 years before I start to age so I will be the old geezer carrying a bucket of granola in the woods and looking for Mr. Big for many years to come!
Sunset