Bears and fish

[runamuk]

I caught a bunch of flak and deleted what I wrote, here is my topic.  I had a private conversation the other night with a member about eating bears and bear meat and hunting grizzlies in AK.  My experience from a family full of people who have eaten bear even though we were not the hunters we always knew where food came from.  In Wa I had bear as a kid and remember really awesome sausage.  My sister lived in AK they had good bear and then nasty wild dogs wouldn't eat it fishy bear.  I was told time and again that you don't want to eat bears eating fish because they tasted fishy in a very bad way.

I thought as we all prepare to go hunting and are looking for food sources that also knowing which food source provides the tastiest meat might be good, fruits, berries, heck cropland all would be my first choice.  Fish filled rivers and creeks would be a possibility but I would go in knowing the meat might not be great and could potentially be nasty.

since I am a nobody when it comes to hunting, but I do know my way around cooking, I figured I would find an article to link to written by someone people here might respect more than that weird chick on that hunting forum

http://themeateater.com/2012/varied-black-bear-meat/

I think this is suitable to back up my informational offering.

I plan to go back to where the bears were last year and maybe I will go try another area entirely....not sure yet, hope this is my year and i finally get my bear...good luck everyone else

[bankwalker]

I have heard countless people talk about the bad taste of bear meat. Having never shot a bear or tried the meat myself I can't make my own opinion. Many people talks about only making sausage, of course adding pork or other meats to the sausage, and fats to go along with it. Therefore altering the taste however you feel fit.

I have never even thought about thier food sourse and the different impact it would have on the taste of the bear. I'm just so focused on killing my first bear. Hoping that the meat is something I like, and will continue hunting them.

The area I hunt is full of blue berries so hopefully if I ever shot a bear there, it would be of the better tasting variety.

[Austrian Hunter]

I have killed four WA bears all from the NE corner.  All my bears were super delicious meat.  Last years bear was the smallest, I would not have shot him but he left me with no other choice when he charged at me and my wife while I took her on her first deer hunt.  That smaller bear was incredible tender and awesome eating, no sausage nothing was processed on that bear all meat was grilled, stewed and made into burgers. 

I also heard from several people that the AK bears big grizz etc... are nasty because of the fish consumption.  I don't know because I have yet to kill a grizz, but I do believe it. 

My point is I agree with you run  

[Dan-o]

The Alaskans I know that kill bears say:

Fishy bear = nasty tasting bear

I have no experience of my own with bears.  My brother used to get them, but never near fish sources.

[runamuk]

I have heard countless people talk about the bad taste of bear meat. Having never shot a bear or tried the meat myself I can't make my own opinion. Many people talks about only making sausage, of course adding pork or other meats to the sausage, and fats to go along with it. Therefore altering the taste however you feel fit.

I have never even thought about thier food sourse and the different impact it would have on the taste of the bear. I'm just so focused on killing my first bear. Hoping that the meat is something I like, and will continue hunting them.

The area I hunt is full of blue berries so hopefully if I ever shot a bear there, it would be of the better tasting variety.

all the bear i have had was very similar to pork in flavor and texture, I had lots of bear sausage as a kid, have had bear roasts, bear summer sausage, and some other bear dish all was from WA and all was delicious, hunt those berry eating bears and you will be happy I think.

[Kola16]

I have tried a mildly "fishy" bear before, and.......ugh Not a good idea. It was OK when we turned the rest of it into sausage after eating the first roast, but we added a lot of pork. That was almost 15 years ago.  Don't shoot a "fishy" bear I have also been told to stay away from skunk cabbage (I have no experience with this, but I trust it since numerous people have said it).

The best bear I have ever had was a bear that had pillaged a plum orchard

And on a side note...Steven Rinella (The Meat Eater link) is awesome

[snowpack]

The guy that works one of the county transfer stations was telling me about a bear that likes to scale the fence and eat the garbage....I was explaining to him about the 'taste like what they eat' effect on bear meat.  Think he understood why I wasn't so motivated to burn my tag on his bear.  The berry eaters from the high country have tasted great, but still a little early for high country berries that I know of.  A couple of days ago I found tons of sign, but the only berries I could find were raspberries and a few late salmonberries.  Only hope the porkers don't find any fish soon.