West side bears

[JeffRaines]

So after absolutely striking out for a long time, I finally have a handle on bear hunting - I’ve had first night opportunities the past two years in a row! Now, this is on the east slope where it’s predominately dry. Not a big deal to drive out here and camp, but sometimes I have short weekends where I’d still like to get out and hunt productively. Being that I live on the west side, that means sticking to the west side.

I have a secret formula that I use to find bear spots on the east side - okay, it’s not really a secret… but either way, the “food water cover in the steeps” doesn’t really translate well to the west side because, well, there’s food water and cover nearly everywhere!

So now that I’ve shared my “secret” formula, what is yours for finding westside bear spots? Obviously bear still need those three things, but how in the world do you narrow down an area that’s almost all “food water cover”?

[jason stevens]

Follow the food right now. We have so many bears in our area its rediculous.  Berries are ripe but we have them going through trash. The usda guys are sharing on timber property. Come walk an shoot them. There everywhere from cinimon the Blackie.

[jason stevens]

From monroe to the top of stevens pass.

[bkaech]

Same formula, but cover and water is just about everywhere, so food is the primary. While there is a lot of food opportunities, you have to identify their favorite food for that time. Usually in late summer and early fall hunters focus on the best berries, but there can be a lot of different opportunities in every local environment. You just have to put boots to the ground and miles on logging roads looking for good food and bear sign.

[swampbear]

Probably will sound obvious. My best west side luck has been locating a plentiful food source (berries, old rotten stumps that have grubs), with a water source nearby, that I can set up and watch (with the wind in my favor), adjacent to thick cover. The hard part I run into is, there’s tons of food. So I look for an area that holds a dense amount of berries, and has fresh sign. If I’m not seeing bear poop that’s fairly fresh, I’ll usually move on to another spot. The other issue I run into is terrain that’s hard to watch. I can think of one particular spot I hunt near with a steep hill covered in huckleberries. Lots of fresh sign. But because of the steepness, height of the brush, and lack of higher ground to look down into it, it’s damn near impossible to spot a bear in there.

Another tactic that paid off for me in the past was location an area with the above (food, cover, water) that surrounding pressure may funnel bears into. If there’s logging activities in the valley for example, I may hunt up on the ridge above it. If there’s Hunter pressure up in the hills, I may try to find a tucked away spot near a creek bottom that the bears might get pushed into. If there’s a natural barrier (steep canyon, gorge, etc) on one side, and pressure from hunters or logging activity on the other side, I’m going to find a spot in between.

In my experience, bears are lazy. Well, I should say they are efficient. They want to get food the easiest, safest means, without exerting any unnecessary energy if possible. If there’s a flat gated road with blackberries, huckleberries, salmon berries, salal berries, etc, they are probably going to use that road system early/late in the day, or at night. They probably won’t leave an easy food source to climb 2,000 vertical feet to access another food source, unless they’re feeling pressured. If it’s hot out (like next week) they may go up high to stay cooler, if everyone is down in the valley pounding the roads and creek bottoms. Last season the 2 bears I saw were up fairly high in the area I hunt (which usually isn’t the case). Heat, and tons of new hunters, pushed those bears up into some gnarly country.

I generally see the most bears on the west side mid October-early November where I hunt. November is crunch time for them, and they pound the berries if they’re still available.

[slowhand]

tagging in

[Coy86]

Awesome info guys.  I have been having this problem on the westside and this info is greatly appreciated

[Meow]

When it comes to sign how much and how fresh should one expect before posting up on an area vs. looking for a better spot? Does the size of the area you can surveil factor into your decision?

Yesterday was my first day hunting bears in Washington and I had to change up my plan considerably due to weather (fog, swirling wind, rain). I'd planned on taking position on a high point and glassing, but ended up mostly still hunting (and grazing  ) berry filled slopes most of the time as visibility was very limited. The wind kept shifting on me though so I'm sure any bears were able to get a whiff and beat feet before I could pick them out from the haze.

Most of the bears I've seen while climbing, hiking and such have been near edges between cover and feed, so I've been emphasizing those areas. They especially seem to like slopes with good cover on top where they can get down just a bit to chow down on whatever the best food source is in the area at the time. Or perhaps that's just the type of terrain I can actually observe them in (pertinent for hunting I suppose).