Bearpaw Season - Fall 2023

[RB]

Awesome! 

[bearpaw]

We get a lot of guys asking about wolf hunts and if we offer wolf hunts. We haven’t offered a wolf specific hunt because we have not been able to see a high enough success rate in our own efforts at hunting wolves. Two winters ago one of our guides focused on hunting wolves for a week, with no kills made. Last year the same guide and one of our cooks focused another week on wolf hunting and they got four wolves, so that was very encouraging.

We are hoping that in the future we will be able to offer a combo wolf hunting/trapping adventure, by combining as many methods as possible we think we will be able to offer a reasonable opportunity at a wolf. Brian is trying to hone his wolf trapping skills, in anticipation of a hunting/trapping predator adventure in the hopefully near future.

Brian has gotten tips from some pretty successful wolf trappers. A couple weeks ago Brian put out a bait site and traps in an area he knows the wolves pass through. Basically wolf trapping is a waiting game, your sets just sit there with no chance of catching a wolf until they pass through again, sometimes that’s the next day, sometimes its a month or two before your trapping skills are even put to test. Obviously the more sets you have the higher your odds. In this case Brian opted to only put out one bait due to being so busy, you have to check traps every 72 hours so only having one site would keep it quick and easy.

Yesterday was trap check day, on the way into the sets he wasn’t seeing any fresh tracks, but when he got close the tracks of a large lone wolf came in from the left, the wolf missed his first two trap sets but as he approached the third set he saw that it held a large male wolf. There’s a pack that comes through that area too, so he reset everything in hopes that the pack comes through soon before he has to quit trapping for the season.

[LDennis24]

Awesome! Nice job! My buddy out of Craigmont has done fairly well in his 2 primary locations but he said he still sees more and more tracks. Almost like he can't keep up with the population growth rate!

[bearpaw]

Awesome! Nice job! My buddy out of Craigmont has done fairly well in his 2 primary locations but he said he still sees more and more tracks. Almost like he can't keep up with the population growth rate!

  It won't be long and more pups will be hitting the ground!

[Machias]

WOHOOOOO!!  Nice!
You guys are probably already aware but the F4WM is going to put on another 3 day Wolf Hunting/Trapping Rhondy this summer.  WELL worth going!

[bearpaw]

WOHOOOOO!!  Nice!
You guys are probably already aware but the F4WM is going to put on another 3 day Wolf Hunting/Trapping Rhondy this summer.  WELL worth going!

Yeah, Brian knows a lot of the wolf trappers and we have a table at the Sandpoint banquet every year, we both wanted to go to the rondy last summer but we were too busy trying to get his new log home dried in for winter. We didn't get metal on the roof but tarps kept it dry and kept the snow sliding off. This year we have to try and get it liveable, he would like to move in asap, so not sure we will make it this year to the rondy, but we sure plan to start going one of these years as soon as we can.