***Update 6/8/16 - success story added on page 3***
So I got lucky this year and drew a NE WA spring bear tag with only 3 points. I really wasn't expecting to draw this tag but plan to make the most of it. I've shot 11 bears so far but have never had the opportunity to take one with a bow. Last time I drew this tag, I made 3 trips over to Eastern WA to hunt and really felt like I'd figured out the unit by the end of season. With that in mind, I am planning to do my best to tag my first bear with a bow. I'm not holding out for a monster. I'll pretty much chase any 3+ year old bear I see as long as it doesn't have cubs.
Here is the bear I got last time:
Last time I had this tag, I made the mistake of heading over too early (April) and hardly seeing a thing. This year I knew I didn't have as much time so waited until this past weekend to make my first trip. My buddy Jeff and I left around noon on Friday. We had a lead on a nice chocolate bear close to where I shot my bear 3 years ago so that's where we went the first day.
We made it over with about 1.5 hours to hunt. The views were great:
We had a great camp right next to a creek and really enjoyed fires and s'mores every night. One night we even had a moose come through our camp and wake us up by splashing in the creek. He seriously walked within 5 feet of our tent! (Click below for video.)
It was really windy the first night and unfortunately we did not spot any bears. The next morning we got up around 6, ate a quick breakfast and drove up to a high point to do some glassing.
We spotted a bear about 2 miles away in a small meadow. He was only visible for about 10 seconds, but we didn't have any other prospects so we looked at our maps and made our best guess how to get to him and took off back down the mountain. It was unbelievable how green everything was in the timber and in any meadow we came to.
We didn't find any bear sign or see any bears. We thought we were pretty close to where the bear was and set up a few times to predator call but nothing was moving at all. After a couple of hours of hiking and calling, we ended up heading back to the peak we spotted the bear from. It didn't take long for us to realize we weren't even close to the meadow that we had spotted the bear in!
After another couple hours of glassing with no more sightings, we decided to drive around and try to figure out how to get to where we had seen the bear. We found an old skid road that looked right and after hiking around for a couple miles found the right spot. Not a lot of bear sign but some great "beary" looking meadows!
Also some really cool looking flowers growing in the moss.
It was getting pretty warm so we headed back to camp to make an early afternoon dinner so we could hunt until dark. That evening we headed back down the skid road hoping to find the bear from that morning.
Unfortunately, the bear from that morning was a no-show. We did spot one really nice boar about 2 miles away on the mountain we had hunted the night before. He literally stepped out of the trees into a meadow for about 10 seconds. Looked around and then walked right back into the trees. Apparently the bears weren't spending a lot of time in the open. We decided to head back that direction right at dusk and drive the road and do some calling and see if we could get lucky. We didn't see anything on the road but parked at another old skid road and hiked out about 200 yards to do some predator calling. At this point we were a little disappointed with the lack of bears we had been seeing and decided if we called one in right at dusk I would shoot it with my rifle. Literally within about 20 seconds of starting to call, 2 coyotes come sprinting out of the woods about 75 yards away. I pulled up my rifle to try to take a shot but they saw me immediately and started running. I squeezed off one shot but missed just over it's back.
The next morning we were a little dissapointed with the lack of bear activity but decided to head back up to the same peak from the morning before and glass again. About 10 minutes into glassing we spotted a bear feeding on top of a peak about 2 miles to the south. This bear was actually spending some time in the open and we thought we could tell from the map exactly how to get to it. We jetted that direction and were hiking up the mountain about 25 minutes later.
Some really crappy PhoneSkope footage:
This bear was in the perfect spot for a bow stalk as far as terrain goes. The mountain slowly rolled over and we walked up to about 20 yards of where he was feeding. Unfortunately, i think the thermals busted us as we headed up as there was no bear in sight once we hit the spot he was feeding. There were holes all over the mountain where he had been digging up roots though. We tried predator calling for about half an hour but nothing showed up.
From this new mountain we were able to glass some of the same country we had been looking at but from a different direction. We sat and glassed for about an hour and a half when low and behold a cinnamon bear walks out into a meadow about 2 miles away. Luckily I Had stalked a bear in this meadow 3 years earlier and knew exactly how to get there.
It was a steep climb!
Again the bear was in a perfect location to stalk with a bow. We got to the same meadow as the bear within 25 minutes of first spotting her and slowly worked my way down to where it was feeding. Had it still been there, I would have walked up at about 50 yards. Unfortunately, the bear was gone (replaced by a cow and yearling calf moose feeding.) There was bear sign everywhere. The bear had a very hidden spot where it must have been feeding every day for the last week or two. Unless it came way out into the middle of the meadow (which was not necessary at all) you can't see it from anywhere. Definitely a spot to check out again next time I go back.
Unfortunately we didn't get any close calls on a bear but we did have a great time. We're headed back first weekend of June and hope to close the deal then. I know at least one spot I will be checking out again. We also have some new spots are are going to check out next month. I'll update here again after that trip. Hopefully with some BBD photos!
