Bear Hunting Quinault
Hi all thought you might enjoy some good news about Bear hunting with the Quinault tribal guide John “Tater” Bryson of Bear Balls Guide Service.
And there I was hunting Bear over bait on the Quinault Nation Reservation
I arrived at the Rain Forest Resort with my trailer on the Wednesday prior to my scheduled Thursday thru Sunday hunt with John “Tater” Bryson of Bear Balls Guide Service.
I called John and notified him of my arrival and was waiting for instructions on where to meet in the morning, John told me if I was willing to drive to Taholah I would get an extra night in the blind that evening, of course I said yes and was off to Taholah.
John met me and another hunter named Patrick and we followed him to our first blinds, not any action this night it was raining and dark. We made the drive back to Amanda Park waiting for the next days hunt. The morning hunt found us in new blinds that had some previous action. No rain this time but the Bears still didn’t show for us. One of the other hunters arrowed a bear but he had to track it in the morning.
John & Gina invited us to a relative’s house in Amanda Park for some grub that evening Venison and Steelhead man was it good. In the morning John moved us to a couple of new blinds 2pm until 930pm off and on rain no action. But the good news is the new Thermacell worked great keeping all the Mosquitoes out of the blind.
The next Day we were back in the previous days blind with high hopes for some action but the bears didn’t cooperate again. As usual the birds ate most of the bait. When hunting from a blind is hard to stay focused as your sense of smell, sight and sound is reduced compared to a tree stand. The next morning John asked us to return to Taholah where we hunted the first night as the bears were once again hitting the baits there. This time I only brought a small back pack and one small video camera and was determined to get some better video of the setup of the bait and surroundings. This time we cleared the shooting lane that had grown over in just a couple of day’s time. Before I got set in the blind John put out fresh bait and sprayed some scent around where we had cleared.
After several hours of sitting near the side of the blind my chair kept sinking in the mud and rubbed the blind making noise so, I sat up in the chair to adjust my position and realized it wasn’t the chair making noise as the noise became more of a breathing like sound and quickly became louder and closer. In an instant the noise was right next to me and in through the partially open door zipper opening pops the nose of a bear less than 18” away, I jumped up and spun facing the half open door zipper while drawing my S&W .40 but the bear retreated as fast as I jumped making no sound at all.
Adrenaline pumping I quickly unzipped the blind windows to see his retreat but only saw the brush swaying in the direction he left he didn’t even make a sound leaving. I had not expected this whew! Determined to not get surprised again I zipped down all the remaining windows and put up the screens and moved my chair to the middle of the blind allowing me to shoot in any direction. What I wouldn’t give to have had the cameras rolling when all this excitement occurred. Previously when sitting in the blind I had occasionally started to doze off but there was no chance of that happening now as my mind was clear and extremely alert. I made sure the camera was on and pointed at the bait and stayed focused on all angles out of the blind. Not more than 30 min passed I was scanning the forest from right to left as my eyes came to focus on a Bear sitting next to the barrel I had only a second ago looked at. I switched the camera to record and made sure the bear was in the picture. I knocked a Gold tip to the string of my Bowtech Allegiance and drew as the bear reached in the barrel, but just as quickly he pulled out some bait and walked behind the barrel and laid down so I let down and waited heart pounding soon he came back and was in the barrel again only to back out and lay down beside the barrel giving me no shot again. I was determined to wait until he had his head in the barrel before shooting and it was only moments before I got my chance. Drawing my bow I was amazed at how focused and steady I seemed until I tried to aim at that big black blob of fur 33yds away not realizing how dark your pins are inside a blind the fiber optics don’t gather much light in there. Picking my spot I released the arrow and it passed thru and into the mud as the Bear jumped knocking the barrel over as he spun and retreated down the trail he came in on. Much to my surprise he stopped and returned to the scene, with a slight stagger he backed up from the baited area but I had already knocked another arrow and had decided to try a spine shot which fortunately connected and dropped him on the spot. No tracking in the dark for me.
Sitting in my blind I called my wife to tell her the good news while waiting for Tater to come and pick me up. I have always wanted to get a bear with my bow and was happy that the excitement I thought I would experience was nothing compared to the real thing.
To get part of it on video was great also. When Tater arrived to pick me up I was already at the road with my gear in a pile and huge grin on my face. I thought he was going to fall in the mud laughing when I told him the story, we loaded my gear in his jeep and drove back to my truck and returned to pick up the bear. Tater quickly field dressed my Bear and we took a few pictures in the rain then we followed him to his house where he fed us dinner again. Great meal again and we drove back to Amanda Park for the night. The next morning Tater took us to a new area so I could try and get some more footage and fill my second tag and we setup a new blind to better accommodate my video gear and Archery tackle. This time all I saw was some Stellar Jays and a beautiful Coyote. We followed Tater home and then to the locker where we loaded the bear meat and frozen hide in my coolers in the back of my truck for the ride back home. It was a great hunt where I met and became friends with fellow hunters and Guide.
My wife always accuses me of waiting until the last day of the hunt to get something so I can hunt the whole season but I think its just luck.
I will return to hunt Quinault Bears again soon with Tater and hopefully get some more action on video. The link to the youtube video is below.
