Bearpaw Season - Spring 2014

[bearpaw]

SPRING BEAR BEGINS
On Day 1 Jason and Paul arrived and we set out on their bear hunt and my first bear hunt of the season. The first day we spotted 4 bear and Jason pounded a nice 220ish black boar. We tracked the bear as far as we could but the blood trail ran out and despite making numerous circles we could not find the blood trail again or the bear. Unfortunately that occasionally happens. On a positive note, since the bear quit bleeding there's a chance he'll heal up and be fine. Jason was bummed about not killing the bear but we convinced him to think about the rest of the hunt.

On Day 2 we found a magnum pile of bear poo, the knife in the photo is 4 1/2 inches long, I bet there is a 1/2 to 3/4 gallon of bear poo in that photo. We kept going back to that area looking for that bear but couldn't find him. We saw 4 more bear that day and we should have shot a bear that we chose to pass, I think we all looked back later in the hunt after the weather changed and said we probably should have shot that bear or maybe one of the other bear.

On Day 3 it started cooling down and raining. We saw 1 bear in the morning and 2 bear in the afternoon. It started raining again just before dusk and Jason spotted the 3rd bear, a small cinnamon bear that Paul opted to take. It wasn't a big bear, it's a yearling boar, but a beautiful color. We all know that was a wise choice now as the weather changed the rest of the hunt. Congrats to Paul! 

Day 4 was a bust for bear, it cooled down and poured rain hard most of the day and no bear were seen at all, to top it off I felt sick all day, so it wasn't a going very well. The only good thing that happened is that we had a break in the bad weather and we stumbled onto some turkeys and Jason sacked up his first turkey ever, a good sized jake. That put a smile on all our faces. Congrats on an outstanding shot Jason!

Day 5 the guys hunted till 11am before needing to leave for home. It was still cool and no bear were moving so we ended the hunt and Jason is going to try and come back for a few extra days after it warms back up. Had an awesome time with these great guys, thanks again for hunting with Bearpaw! 

[bearpaw]

Strutting & Drumming, a ruffed grouse shows himself off while looking for a mate!

[bearpaw]

A blue grouse parading on it's favorite little ridge looking for some grouse love.

[RadSav]

So did you fill your spring bear tag Dale?

[Killmore]

I been wondering the same thing..

[bearpaw]

So did you fill your spring bear tag Dale?

No bear taken by me, in between work I went out numerous mornings and evenings without seeing a bear, then on the last day of season I saw two smaller black ones, I didn't shoot either of them because we didn't really need the meat and my wife wanted me to shoot another off-color brown for the bear quilt she plans to make. Funny how things go when hunting, when I had a hunter out I think we saw 11 bear and 8 were off-color bear.

Nonetheless, it's always fun to get out hunting and scouting. I saw quite a few really nice bucks with horns outside their ears during the last few weeks along with numerous moose and elk. With mild winters in 3 of the 4 states that we hunt I'm looking forward to a good fall season.

[whackmaster]

Hey Bearpaw,
Looks like all in all you and your hunters had a great spring hunt
you have a very nice hunting lodge and cant wait to come back sometime
you put me on the turkeys and i had a blast wish you all the best on a big fall bear
with some color for your quilt 

[bearpaw]

Hey Bearpaw,
Looks like all in all you and your hunters had a great spring hunt
you have a very nice hunting lodge and cant wait to come back sometime
you put me on the turkeys and i had a blast wish you all the best on a big fall bear
with some color for your quilt 

Thanks, it was our pleasure to have you guys over for a hunt. I'm already looking forward to the next spring season too, I think we'll have even more bow hunters next spring.

[bearpaw]

I almost forgot to make a post about the last turkey hunt of the season. Fred had been over earlier in the season and sacked up a couple nice toms. His wife JoDean called and said they would like to bring their grandson over for the last day of season. I warned that on our last hunt it had been tough but one day is all the time they could get Riley away to hunt.

I hadn't seen JoDean for a couple years so we had a really nice visit when they arrived the evening before the hunt. Right after first light in the morning we got onto a good flock of about 15 jakes and toms, the birds wouldn't call in so we did a stalk, Riley did an excellent job of being careful and quiet and soon we were about 15 to 20 yards from the flock. I couldn't see a single hen so I whispered that they were all legal birds, for him to pick out a good tom and shoot.

He was on a good looking tom and tried pulling the trigger but the gun wouldn't go off. The birds were already nervous and now they picked us out and began putting and moving away, I told him to shoot again and he tried but with no results. After the birds left we decided to return to the truck and swap for another gun. I decided to leave that property and go to another property but we spotted another group of birds and decided to go after them.

There were 6 jakes in this group, we got as close as we could but they were moving a different direction so we watched them go up over the ridge and out of sight. We moved out around and behind the ridge and got in front of the birds, suddenly here they come, I told Riley they are all jakes, just pick one of the bigger ones and take him, he pulled up and got the best one in the flock with one shot. By the end of the day we found several more flocks, JoDean filled her two tags and Riley got to shoot a few squirrels, we spent a couple hours fishing and everyone caught at least 2 or 3 trout, it was simply a great day in the outdoors. All total we saw over 30 jakes and toms, I really liked seeing that many legal birds on the last day of season.

[BOWHUNTER45]

Looks like things went well this spring ...   Still can not believe we had to miss the turkey madness  That will never happen again !!!

[bearpaw]

Looks like things went well this spring ...   Still can not believe we had to miss the turkey madness  That will never happen again !!!

I can't believe you missed it, it was a pretty good year, better than the previous several years. I was really hopeful for a big rebound of turkey numbers, but we've had a lot of rain the last couple weeks and I'm seeing a lot of hens with no chicks. Should start seeing more chicks now that the rain has stopped, hopefully we'll have a somewhat normal hatch.