Bernie, that blonde is exactly the color I’d like to get one of these days! Nice display of color phase bears!

BBQ bear ribs,JP. Big bears have a good amount of meat. Bear sausage, just like pork!

I’ve seen some pics and heard bear ribs are good. I should give them a shot and try them.

Great thread JP!!
Good luck out there. We've got a whale of a black on one of our baits and a real big cinnamon on the other. Hopefully once the sows toting yearling along kick them to the curb and go into heat, the big fellas turn into daytime walkers.

BBQ bear ribs are the best! I’d seriously take them over beef or pork ribs ANY day…..yes, I’m serious! Good luck all! Happy trapping! ScottW

I’m in the treestand for the first time! The weather is good for this evening. The rest of the week is rain and I have a very busy next week. So hopefully todays the day!
Lots of Dark Eyed Junco’s and Blue Jays flying around. Squirrels are chattering up a storm and I hear Trumpeter Swans in the distance.

I also have a little bit of that fear coming on knowing I have to walk out of here in the dark.



Hey it’s been a while since I posted a selfie! Lol

No worries JP.
I've been bear hunting for 40 years and I don't like walking out in the dark.
Good luck. Hides should be primo.

You're still ugly. Lol..
JK.

I Hope You Get one!!!

Climbing down next to the Food source is "€×citing!"...be safe

LOL!!

Fur looks so full and thick in the trail cam pics! They’re looking very good at this point!

m

Thanks 330!

Here we goooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a great hunt!

Moosetrot

Never bothered me walking out. Bears are plenty skittish of everything. You can’t get out of the woods without one hearing you no matter how quiet you try to be, if they are in that close. They will “make” you and fade back. Why not, the bait will still be there and they will hit it shortly after when they feel safe. My cameras have shown it a hundred times and then some.

The only trouble I’ve had was taking bait in in the daytime, sows and cubs being the issue.

Had a bear recently that would always come in just after the hunter left no matter what. Back 300 yards from the bait on an old grassy logging trail that had to be used to walk in was a light bear trail crossing. On a whim I put a camera there. This bear was coming out about an hour before dark sniffing that trail, away from the bait, obviously checking for scent more recent than the mornings baiting trip. That dictated when he would eat.
Next night I set the guy up on that trail instead of the bait. and he shot the terrific boar. That bear had played the game before.
I’m positive the bear after smelling the hunters approach just laid back and listened for the hunter to leave.
Osky

Yep, one way to up your odds of this issue is have two people go in and then one guy leaves and one stays.

Jurassic Park >>> Good luck will be following your journey.

Out here, seems the deeper you go the braver they are. Back when we had an Argo, they’d just step into the bush a few feet and watch when we tried to get them to leave. Sometimes the odd one wouldn’t even leave the bait. Yelling, waving, throwing stuff at it. Sometimes you filled the tag early on a bear you really didn’t want to shoot, but usually we’d make our other buddy that doesn’t hunt much use his tag….lol
Need an Argo just to navigate our municipal roads never mind getting deep in the bush! I was behind a mini van pulling out of your driveway on the weekend, looked like she bottomed out hard a couple times just west of your place….lol.

Yep, one way to up your odds of this issue is have two people go in and then one guy leaves and one stays.

In some cases. If you read the issue, doing that would have only exasperated the situation. Remaining early day scent did not trigger the bear however picking up any scents left later in the day in that tall grass was enough to keep him off. Running two people across that trail later day, one of them twice would have come to nothing.
I like someone else on this forum have been working bears heavily since the 80’s. I don’t know it all, but I’ve learned plenty.

Osky

Ya Shakey, the roads are pretty bad this Spring. They shut the road down to the East of me. When I came home last night there was a car stuck in the middle of it. Went around the Road Closed sign. I got to listen to his loud exhaust till almost midnight while he revved his way out lol.

We all give a 4 1/2 year old Buck a lot credit for how smart they are. Now think about a 15 year old bear at the bait. They no what’s going on! I’m sure I’ve had exactly what Osky described happen to me before.

If possible, I always try to go to the bait site after dark to retrieve my hunter. I jingle my car keys, whistle or make noise to drive the bear off the bait from a good ways out. You don't want to startle one right at the bait and you don't want that bear seeing you climb down out of your stand.

I've baited sites many times after dark doing the same thing. As long as they don't feel compromised right at the bait it doesn't hurt a thing.

Same here, I like to walk to the base of the tree to get my guide clients. It's better to have a bear bumped from the area by someone walking in, than it is to have the bear see you getting out of the tree. Plus it is downright shocking how many people will get out of the stand 15 minutes before dark because they get scared. Really makes it difficult when people wreck a bait that way. Just because you do not see a bear doesn't mean there is not one close. Most baits have bears casing the joint for half an hour before dark.

I'm the opposite. I like to get out and want others to do the same when it's still early light enuff to see. Not pitch dark.
Have seen to many people shoot poo bears and make bad hits in the last 5 minutes.

Yesterday legal shooting light ended at 9:12pm. I climbed down the stand at 9:01pm. It wasn’t cause I was scared, but it’s pretty dark in the Spruce tree’s compared to an open area with a sunset in the background.
I feel if a bear did start to come in where I could see it, it’s pretty much 100% certain I wouldn’t have gotten a shot off by the time the bear got to the barrels and presented a perfect shot.

I’m not filming my hunts, otherwise that would be another issue. But like Bucksnbears said, lowlight equals poor shot placement.

The only way I would sit to the very last minute is if there was a shooter already at the barrel or working its way in and I was getting ready to shoot it.

I didn’t see anything or hear anything coming in, and with only 11 minutes left of legal light I figured sneaking out then was better than sneaking out with a bear 30 yards away with 2 minutes of light and it pretty much being pitch black.

To each their own though.