Fall bear; Idaho vs Washington?

[syoungs]

So I have yet to harvest a bear, the extenent I know of bear hunting is find the berries mid september, hope theres a bear there.

I really want to get a bear this year, that going to be my main focus, I would like to get one with my bow, but reading through all the past success stories, I will most likely start with my rifle.

Im starting now to research more about bear, and where I want to hunt at this coming year.

it looks like approx 180$ gets you a tag in idaho, I have never hunted idaho, so it would be limited to me choosing an area via internet, going maybe twice in the summer to scout, and baiting a week before I hunted. cant afford to go much more then that.

The only areas I know that hold some bear, are around godman and a small patch outside of waitsburg, never seen bear personally, but have seen pics from friends of friends of animls coming out of both, and caught a small blackie outside waitsburg on a trail cam.

being relativly new, would you anti up the time and money to go to idaho, where baiting may or may not give you a leg up on seeing a shooter bear, or would you stay in washington, and focus more on the semi familiar land I know?

another option is getting a map from bearpaw, not sure where all he maps though.

both of these would be fall hunts, wont have time in spring for idaho, and doubt i would draw with 0 points in wa.

[Machias]

My experience baiting for fall bears is not quite as successful as the spring can be.  I have run two baits in the fall in Idaho that never got a hit in 30 days.  I have had good luck in baiting bears in Idaho in the spring.   Also most of the time it takes my baits anywhere from 7 to 9 days to get the first hit.

[syoungs]

Yeah that's kinda what I've been finding out, little to far to go keep it stocked, I also found out a guy I work with has some property off skyline in the blues, going to park the camper there, so fast overnight scouting trips, and weekend trips will be easy. He also says, he can hekp put me on the bear 

[dbfalls]

Lived in Idaho for 27 years killed plenty of bear all in the fall. Orchards are one good place to start. Baiting works really well but there has to be bear in the area. Case in point back in the late 70's some boneheads from the college set a couple of bear traps in unit 8a between Deary and Bovil. Never caught a single bear and determined that the bear population had fallen off and so Fish & Game had an emergency closure of the unit for bear. Where they put the traps they had no chance of catching any bear.
  You need a 55 gallon drum go to the local grain growers and buy 5 gallons of molasses,get some old doughnuts, and meat scraps for bait. Set up a tree stand once the barrel gets hit, the only thing big enough to overturn the barrel is a bear. Be sure and chain the barrel to a log so it stays put. Hang a plastic milk jug near the barrel in a tree a few feet off the ground. Most of the time they will bite it out of curiosity. Measure the distance between the cannines, 2" or more is a keeper. Of course those were the days before trail cameras. If your planning on next fall you have plenty of time to do some research on what unit to hunt. Oh one more thing orchard or berry patch if there isn't any bear scat around no bear and don't bother.

[sirmissalot]

I think it depends on what kind of hunt your are looking for. A baited hunt vs a spot and stalk hunt are very different in my opinion. The area Dale hunts and guides has a lot of bears, I have no clue about Idaho so that's hard for me to say. In my opinion it would probably be hard to beat either an unguided hunt with Dale or buying one of his maps.

Idaho spring bear is something I'd really like to do as well, but I don't have the time to do a baited hunt and have been fairly successful with the spot and stalk method anyways.

[longstevo]

Here's my experience with bear hunting. 

Idaho (Seven Devils area):
1999:  We backpacked in 7 miles, and saw 9 bear in 3 days.  They must have been getting one last forage in before hibernation...
2006:  Dad saw a nice cinnamon bear, and he ended up shuffling through our camp later in the week.  Found his den, but nothing home.
2010:  I used my deer tag on a 6 foot 300 pound black bear.

Washington (South Cascades area):
2001:  Nice blond bear in a grazing pasture
2010:  Small bear in the Columbia River Gorge; also saw a MONSTER bear in the Quinault area
2006:  Yearling cub in the snow when he should have been hibernating already
2013:  Small bear on the road above Stevenson
2014:  Big bear in the South Cascades, but no shot. 

In my experience, it's this:  if you're carrying a bear tag and actively looking for bear, you won't find them.  If you don't have a bear tag and you're not looking for them, there they are!!


But seriously, if you hang around the west slope of the Seven Devil's area, there's a decent chance you should at least see a bear.

[trophyhunt]

My  , draw a harder to draw spring bear tag, not one of the lower success 150 hancock tags and you should find a bear. I draw my spring bear tag about every 5 years, see bears all the time, successful most the time.  My friends passed one up last year on a 3 day hunt.  Your best bet for killing a bear besides paying for a hunt, imo, is a spring bear tag in Wa, not sure where you'd go in Id for spring bear.

[follow maggie]

A bear tag in idaho will run you $340. $186 for the tag and $154 for the license

[Kuduman]

Wade
I did spring bear in Idaho several years ago and tagged one on day three. I would hunt it again but only in the spring. There are allot of bears around here if you know where to look. Give me a call and we can share ideas

[huntnnw]

Not if you hunt the reduced bear tag areas which are $37 a tag and some of these units are 2 bear units.

Good thing about ID is you can buy your spring tag and hunt and scout if you dont get one in the spring you can always hunt in the fall and now you will have a good idea where to hunt.

I have had far better success baiting fall bears over spring bears, just due to the heat will get stuff stinking bad. Spring its usually cold and wet. We struggled to get bears into bait in the spring, same area in the fall we get tons of bears into bait.

[BULLBLASTER]

Not if you hunt the reduced bear tag areas which are $37 a tag and some of these units are 2 bear units.

Good thing about ID is you can buy your spring tag and hunt and scout if you dont get one in the spring you can always hunt in the fall and now you will have a good idea where to hunt.

I have had far better success baiting fall bears over spring bears, just due to the heat will get stuff stinking bad. Spring its usually cold and wet. We struggled to get bears into bait in the spring, same area in the fall we get tons of bears into bait.

another thing to keep in kind is some areas in idaho are open till the end of june for spring bear.

[syoungs]

Wade
I did spring bear in Idaho several years ago and tagged one on day three. I would hunt it again but only in the spring. There are allot of bears around here if you know where to look. Give me a call and we can share ideas

As we move into scouting season ill be in touch