It is currently Fri Mar 29, 2024 11:45 am

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]




  Page 1 of 1   [ 17 posts ] New Topic Add Reply
Author Message
PostPosted: Sat Jun 20, 2020 8:53 pm • # 1 
User avatar
Hero Member

Joined: 12/29/12
Posts: 1835
Location: Rusagonis, New Brunswick, Canada
...unless its got some bears in it.

The province I live in has been closed to visitor travel for over three months now, and we, especially outfitters and guides, count on United Statesian hunters every spring to come up for the spring black bear hunt. Locals don't hunt them in spring (and very few in autumn), and when the 'foreign' hunters don't take a bunch, there are a LOT of bears around for the summer. They mostly get shot or relocated as nuisance wildlife because the surplus tend to seek food close to habitation. This spring there has been a big sow and yearling cub across the road where I fish, and another solitary animal up the hill behind my place, hanging out at the gun dog training farm (go figure! Lots of gunfire and non-stop barking dogs).

I was down yesterday morning to try a few beadhead nymphs I'd tied up, on the local fish for a couple of hours, and noted the mom and youngster's tracks ahead of me along the sand and mud bars, still full of cloudy water. I just made sure to make lots of noise, and had a good time with what turned out to be pretty productive flies. On the way back out, I was conscious of the potential for a 'meeting', and was pushing my way through a dense stand of chest-high ostrich ferns when I startled an animal that took off about 3 meters from me. I **** near soiled myself before I realized it was just a groundhog or snowshoe hare or some such. Pretty sure I was home before my heart settled down. I've lived, hunted, fished and worked near bears all my adult life, and most sightings involve seeing the fleeing backside of them. But a mom and offspring is always kind of a crap shoot, pun intended. ;)
brent


Top
  
PostPosted: Sun Jun 21, 2020 10:18 am • # 2 
User avatar
Hero Member

Joined: 12/27/10
Posts: 2253
Location: Plano, TX
Next time use Depends in case you mess yourself when the next groundhog scares you. :lol


Top
  
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2020 5:25 am • # 3 
User avatar
Hero Member

Joined: 12/29/12
Posts: 1835
Location: Rusagonis, New Brunswick, Canada
:lol Thanks, Cliff. The voice of experience is ALWAYS welcome. ;)


Top
  
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2020 10:47 am • # 4 
User avatar
Hero Member

Joined: 12/27/10
Posts: 2253
Location: Plano, TX
Where do you think I get my words of wisdom from if not personal experience. :lol :lol


Top
  
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2020 3:48 pm • # 5 
User avatar
Hero Member

Joined: 12/29/12
Posts: 1835
Location: Rusagonis, New Brunswick, Canada
Cliff Hilbert wrote:
Where do you think I get my words of wisdom from if not personal experience. :lol :lol


Wow! Based on your depth and breadth of wisdom, you've had a LOT of experience :lol :lol


Top
  
PostPosted: Tue Jun 23, 2020 9:04 am • # 6 
User avatar
Hero Member

Joined: 12/27/10
Posts: 2253
Location: Plano, TX
wheezeburnt wrote:
Cliff Hilbert wrote:
Where do you think I get my words of wisdom from if not personal experience. :lol :lol


Wow! Based on your depth and breadth of wisdom, you've had a LOT of experience :lol :lol


Yeah, and a LOT OF the WRONG KIND of experiences. :lol


Top
  
PostPosted: Tue Jun 23, 2020 9:27 am • # 7 
User avatar
Hero Member

Joined: 12/29/12
Posts: 1835
Location: Rusagonis, New Brunswick, Canada
:lol


Top
  
PostPosted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 10:26 pm • # 8 
User avatar
Hero Member

Joined: 08/27/15
Posts: 781
Location: New Jersey
Being a fisherman and hiker from northwestern NJ, I have a lot of black bear experience. My corner of the state has the highest density of them anywhere other than Alaska.

Couple thoughts on these amazing creatures.

1. Only brown bears instantly attack if you get between mother and cub. Black bears don't exhibit that behavior so much. Still a good policy to avoid the situation.

2. Black bears kill more people each year than brown bears. Browns don't have much interest in eating you but occasionally a black bear does, especially if food has been scarce. Should I hunt for more grubs and berries or is that hairless and clawless creature a better choice? If one follows you rather than runs, you're what it wants for dinner. Had that happen to me just once while fishing a small stream. After we crossed paths a third time, I knew it wasn't by coincidence. Of course that was the day I forgot the bear spray in the car. Bee lined through the woods at a bend in the stream, just guessing as to what direction I needed to go. Obviously it all worked out ok. That was not the case for one college kid hiking with his friends no too far away a few years ago. The bear was found and killed and stomach analysis proved what was feared.

Be careful out there.

PS - A polar bear will hunt you every time. Not something I have to worry about in NJ. LOL


Top
  
PostPosted: Thu Jul 02, 2020 5:59 am • # 9 
User avatar
Hero Member

Joined: 12/29/12
Posts: 1835
Location: Rusagonis, New Brunswick, Canada
Knotty: Interesting stuff! I see North Carolina also claims highest density of Black Bears: "According to the North Carolina State Bear Biologist, the Albemarle-Pamilco Peninsula has the highest black bear densities in the world! " We certainly don't have any record-setting densities; I'd describe it as 'plenty' or 'enough'. I've only been threatened by a sow with cubs once, just upstream of where I live; solo canoeing with a buddy down the stream when we spooked a sow with three cubs on a turn. The runt couldn't climb a tree like the other three bears did, so mom quickly descended and stood on shore and roared at us as we passed. 50' wide stream, about 3 feet deep so she could have attacked had she wanted. Anecdotal, I know, but I still avoid moms and cubs.
Can't comment on brown bear motivation; I've encountered them while fishing in northern BC and Yukon, and always took their presence as good reason for my absence.
Speaking of polar bears: While fishing searun brook trout from a small aluminum boat in coastal northern Labrador about 30 miles inland, we had a beluga swim under our boat. Our guide looked quite panicked for a minute because, until he got a good look at it when it surfaced, his first reaction had been 'polar bear'. Never seen a man that tanned turn that pale.


Top
  
PostPosted: Fri Jul 03, 2020 6:29 pm • # 10 
User avatar
Hero Member

Joined: 08/27/15
Posts: 781
Location: New Jersey
Ran into, not literally, a bear on the road today on my way out to fish.

I'm sure who has the most is contended. The world record for a black bear taken by bow was set in my county...700#.

https://www.inquirer.com/science/black-bear-hunt-new-jersey-bow-hunting-world-record-20200214.html


Top
  
PostPosted: Sat Jul 04, 2020 6:51 am • # 11 
User avatar
Hero Member

Joined: 12/29/12
Posts: 1835
Location: Rusagonis, New Brunswick, Canada
Wow! That's a big 'un. Hunter must have been shocked at the size.
Years ago, while working at DNR on a bear license allocation quota with outfitters, I heard some great stories from the old guys. (I was a young guy at the time - yes, Cliff, they had guns back then :lol ). Best was from a guy, Hoot, who said he had a hunter from New York who insisted on not hunting over a bait, but was pretty adamant about getting a bear. So Hoot put him up in a tree stand, on a trail a couple hundred meters from a bait (half-ton cow carcass and old donuts) and told him nothing about the bait. Buddy shot a 200 lb bear, but it ran down the trail, and expired at the bait. Hoot quickly made up a story about a cow-killing bear terrorizing the local farmers for months, and clearly buddy had shot it, for which the community would be forever grateful. Not one question about how a 200 lb bear hauls a 1000 lb carcass two miles into the woods or where the donuts came from. So buddy went home with a carcass and a story, and Hoot got a great tip.


Top
  
PostPosted: Sat Jul 04, 2020 11:20 am • # 12 
User avatar
Hero Member

Joined: 12/27/10
Posts: 2253
Location: Plano, TX
Who got the other half of the cow?


Top
  
PostPosted: Sat Jul 04, 2020 4:39 pm • # 13 
User avatar
Hero Member

Joined: 12/29/12
Posts: 1835
Location: Rusagonis, New Brunswick, Canada
Cliff Hilbert wrote:
Who got the other half of the cow?


Taxes.


Top
  
PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2020 11:51 am • # 14 
User avatar
Sr. Member

Joined: 02/07/14
Posts: 382
Location: The southern tip o' Texas
When I lived in northeast Vermont for a year back in the sixties black bears were pretty common. Berry picking always called for caution. They were in our garbage cans more nights than not. Never worried much about them; just took precautions not to surprise them at close range. One of the stinkingest critters you'll field dress.


Top
  
PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2020 4:41 pm • # 15 
User avatar
Hero Member

Joined: 12/29/12
Posts: 1835
Location: Rusagonis, New Brunswick, Canada
hipshot wrote:
One of the stinkingest critters you'll field dress.


:lol :lol yes, there have been times that I have smelled them before I knew they were there. Not an odour you're likely to forget.


Top
  
PostPosted: Wed Mar 17, 2021 10:26 pm • # 16 
User avatar
Hero Member

Joined: 05/28/18
Posts: 603
Location: Tucson , Hellazonia
I was fishing a beat just before a bend on the Little Mackinaw river . My lab Ralph was with me bringing up the rear and not paying much attention to anything in particular when I heard him emit a low growl looking straight upstream . To my disbelief there was a medium size grizzly walking straight toward me in the river . I cant judge bears weight very well because there just aren't that many around the Little Mackinaw River , in fact this is the very first I had seen . Well he didnt seem to be in a hurry, just kind of looking around no closer than a hundred yards so I kept fishing in hopes he would turn around and wander another direction . I caught two fish and after the second fish is when things went south . That dang bear decided he wanted either my fish or me and he charged at full bore . He was about 30 feet or so when I saw a blur from my right side and this blur hit that grizzly with such force that the bear toppled and the fight was on . I guess that lightening fast blur was hungry too or protecting me maybe ? I'll never know because my dog Ralph and I sneaked our mangy little azzez right on out of there while that blur and the grizzly were getting after it . Later that day in the Manito Tap I overheard a guy say that he saw something that was unbelievable for this area and started to tell a story about a man and his dog fishing right downstream from a grizzly and a mountain lion fighting in the Little Mackinaw river . Everyone was captivated by his story and the drinks were flowing . Me ? I just looked over at Ralph and give him a wink as everybody knows there aren't any Grizzly's or Mountain lions in this part of Central Illinois .

Or are there ?;)


Top
  
PostPosted: Thu Mar 18, 2021 11:35 pm • # 17 
User avatar
Sr. Member

Joined: 03/11/12
Posts: 298
Location: Suburban Chicago
I’ve come across bears in the wild several times and they either ran away or just casually moved out of the way. Thank God I’ve never run across a sow with cubs. I probably would have soiled my pants too


Top
  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  

  Page 1 of 1   [ 17 posts ] New Topic Add Reply

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]



Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 10 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  


- OurBoard Support -