Bear Season 2015

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Markus
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Re: Bear Season 2015

Post by Markus »

The small bears we call "messengers" did their job. The little fella's have had the bait sites to themselves for about 6 days, but their greasy little feet let the secret slip. lol I ran all 3 sites today and re-baited and there's a big bear at all 3. We couldnt have asked for a better start. Here's the 3 big boys from each site.

B2 Site
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GP Site (with an overlay for size comparison....i'm 6'2 230lbs)
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B3 Site
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smitty55
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Re: Bear Season 2015

Post by smitty55 »

Good stuff Markus. Seem to be be good size for sure. Always nice to get pics of them up close to some object like the barrel to get a good height measurement. I could be wrong but the first two pics look like the same bear with the other being shorter and more stocky. Have you seen enough pics to know the sex for sure?
Sure is nice to get daytime pics too. Hopefully that keeps up as they become real comfy with your stands and what you're feeding. Good luck with it.
Btw, do you have oak in your area? If so, do your baits slow down for a week or so when the acorns are dropping? Or even hickory if you have that out there. Just curious, as It's been the norm for me most years, specially with a heavy crop.

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Markus
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Re: Bear Season 2015

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Smitty, the top 2 stands are far apart, but there could be cross over. The one at b2 appears to have a scar on its hip in a lot of it's pics, but no sign of it on the bear at gp...plus the times thru the night last night were similar. It was doable for him to be at both sites last night, but he'd have had to book it...and with bait still in both barrels today, it doesnt make much sense for him to sprint through the woods to another barrel if he still had food at the other.

We do have oak, but it has little affect on feeding patterns. Berries do though. Raspeberries and Blueberries are on now and next will be Blackberries. They love the blackberries it can really slow down action.
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Markus
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Re: Bear Season 2015

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Oh, and i'm not sure of sex yet, but that doesnt matter to me really. As long as it doesnt have cubs, it's got a greenlight.
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drake691
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Re: Bear Season 2015

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I wish I could find a place to Bow hunt some bears.
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smitty55
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Re: Bear Season 2015

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Yea, now I see that mark on the first one. Even better that it's 3 different ones. Like you said it makes no sense for it to race between sites. The big ones never seem to be in a rush anyhow.
Markus wrote:Oh, and i'm not sure of sex yet, but that doesnt matter to me really. As long as it doesnt have cubs, it's got a greenlight.
Got that right. :) I'll take a dry sow anytime when it comes to the table.

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Re: Bear Season 2015

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drake691 wrote:I wish I could find a place to Bow hunt some bears.
Where is your deer hunting territory? For the most part if you put bait out the bears will come.
Looks like you have to go up to Stony lake area to find crown land.

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drake691
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Re: Bear Season 2015

Post by drake691 »

I lost 2 farms over a guide who is paying a lease now. The food plots I built were dynamite after the shotgun season. Its next to impossible to find farms around Peterborough to hunt now
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Markus
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Re: Bear Season 2015

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Tim and logged a few hours today and got a bunch of things done. We started with mowing the food plot and cutting up a small jag of wood. Then we trimmed out a couple trails and took down a double ladder stand that we planned to relocate to the new bear site.

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We stopped at the GP bear site first and trimmed out the walking trail and all the little stuff sprouting up around the barrel. Tim hung a scent bag full of smoked salmon and lobster shells high in the tree above the barrel an then stuffed the barrel with bread and donuts before leaving.

I had rubbed the tree with beaver castor the other day and then left the castor gland in the tree before leaving. First bear in had the castor gone in 30 seconds. :lol:

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I've named this big boy "nightmare"....he just has a mean look to him.

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It didnt take us long to get the double ladder stand up at the new B3 site. We had already had the shooting lane cut out and the tree ready. It's a 34 yard poke to the barrel. We made it xbow friendly. Tim hung another bag of smoked salmon and lobster shells here as well.

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We 're really happy with the bear action at this site already.

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We didnt have time to tend the 3rd site today, so i'll likely make a run into it tomorrow and reload it....then we'll let them be for 4 or 5 days.
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Re: Bear Season 2015

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Reloaded 2 of the 3 sites today. Decent bear action and they're coming to the site at great times. Here's the best bear from each site in the past 5 days...

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My season opens Sept 14th, but my hunting partners opens Aug 24th......so 2 weeks until he'll be in the stands. :D

We're heading to the 3rd site tomorrow for a check.
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Re: Bear Season 2015

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Nice big bears there!

.........and they look very tasty too!.............. :wink:

Doug
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Markus
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Re: Bear Season 2015

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We made into the new site yesterday afternoon for a re-bait. We have 1 big bear tending this site and he's only coming at night. With berry season just kicking off, feeding habbits are gonna change over hte next couple weeks, so if he stays nocturnal, we'll deal with that later. We're hoping a few other bears might come thru the day to avoid him, but i think he's laid claim to this area.

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We finished all our shooting lane trimming, so we'll let all 3 sites go for four or five days now and start getting ready for my hunting partners opener on aug 24th.
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Re: Bear Season 2015

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All 3 sites are ready to go now. We put the final touches on the B2 Site this past week. The stand is on the edge of a mature woods and faces into that woods. The backside use to be a choppings, but it's gown up so much the past 5 years and you cant see anything back there. The bears have a path through it as well, so we decided to take the saws in and open up the area along their trial.

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The last thing to do was put some fresh brush on the stand and we can call the pre-season prep work done.

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All 3 sites have decent action at them, but with the flush of berries on right now, it's slower then normal. They all have "a" bear showing up each evening at dusk, but there's no patterns to any of the bigger ones yet.

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Tim's season opens in 6 days and he'll have a tough time picking a stand!
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Markus
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Re: Bear Season 2015

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Another round of baiting finished today. With the berries all in full flush, it's traditionally a slower time and we are seeing a bit of that. We'll see a spike in numbers and activity in a few weeks after the natural forage dries up.

B2 Site - The past week has just seen a couple smaller bears visiting.

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GP Site - We have 2 regulars here...the big boy and a smaller guy. One or the other is there every evening at last light, so they are patterned already. No sign of the big one with the weird scared face this past week.

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B3 Site - This site has been claimed by a large bear and we havent seen any action from another bear up until yesterday. We finally have a 2nd bear there. He may be run off though. lol

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My hunting partners season opens today, but he's a slave to his job until this thursday. We have day bears at all 3 sites and I think he's leaning towards hunting the GP site first. He's already got a giant bear to his credit from a few years ago and had a rug made....so he's just out for some meat and a bear hunt. He's not fussy and would be happy with a small bear. He'll likely shoot the first one he see's. Plus...he know's I'd like a big boy to rug, so not getting the huge one isnt a big deal for him....but he wont pass on it if it walks in! lol
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Re: Bear Season 2015

Post by Doug »

Good luck, Markus!

Looking forward to seeing your "RUG" bear!

Doug
Last edited by Doug on Fri Aug 28, 2015 4:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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