2020 Fall Bear Report - Trifecta
The original plan was to head up Monday (Sep 7) night and than hunt Tuesday to Friday chasing my target bear and taking one of the other bears if I ran out of time. My BIL and nephew were also hunting but were on baits all within 1/2 mile of the cottage as they decided the back lake was too much work (hot water, shower, full kitchen, tv, etc may have had something to do with it).
Well the entire plan quickly went out the window as the phone started ringing at 230 am Tuesday with problems at one of the sites my company manages. This chewed up Tuesday morning and i missed the morning hunt. My nephew though managed his first ever bear on one of the baits i set about 1/2 mile down the driveway and 1/4 mile into the bush. Nothing spectacular but special none the less as it was his first. 2.5 year old boar at about 110 lbs:
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I managed to get out for the afternoon to the back lake but the site problems continued to plague me and i spent most of the time on my satellite texter directing repairs. I did manage to also see 5 bears during that sit so at least that was enjoyable although none were the target bear so i passed. Wednesday morning things continued to get worse at the problem site and i had to pack up and head south. Not a happy camper at this point. My brother in law managed to connect with another small bear that afternoon (slightly bigger than his son's). Weighed in right around the 150 lb mark:
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They left Thursday morning while i was still on the job site slaving for the man. Finally managed to restore order Thursday night around 9 pm. Stayed at home that night and Friday morning had to file reports and tie up loose ends associated with the problems on site. Friday afternoon i headed back up with a new plan to hunt the weekend and drive home late Sunday. Was a good idea on paper but all day Saturday and into Sunday morning the wind was totally wrong for the back lake site so i resisted the temptation and cut firewood instead. Sunday afternoon the wind shifted and i headed into the back lake for a last ditch effort. Got the boat unloaded and when i pulled the trailer out of the lake it had a flat and the clip that holds the slipper end of the leaf springs to the frame on the same side was broken:
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I decided i would deal with trailer before heading back as most likely nothing would show in the first hour of the sit anyways. I had a spare but had to jerry rig a way to keep the leaf springs in place so i could at least make it back to the cottage with the boat:
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Made it back to the bait at 3:45 pm and was 28 feet up the tree and settled by 4:15 pm. Wind direction was good but stiff at 20 km/hour steady with gusts to 40. The wind speed and in particular the gusts made the pine i was in sway noticeably and looking through my scope at the bait 70 yards away i could see my cross hairs moving as much 15 inches left, right, up and down. Figured that will be interesting if i have a shot. The view over the lake from 28 feet:
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Well at 7:15 pm my #2 bear came in. Not the target but with 45 minutes left in my season i decided to take him as soon as he gave me a shot. Did not have to wait long and fortunately the wind had died down and the tree sway was absent for the shot. As you can see from the picture he did not make it far from the bait. He weighed in at 189 lbs field dressed so probably 210-220 lbs live weight.
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Recovery was pretty easy as it was basically straight down the shooting lane 70 yards to the boat and also all down hill. Pulled the trigger at 7:17 pm, took 10 minutes or so to shimmy the climber down from 28 feet and had him loaded by 7:40 pm.
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Loaded the boat up and thankfully my makeshift trailer repair held together for the ride back to the cottage. Grabbed something to eat, packed up, put the bear on ice in the box of the truck and made it home for 2 am. So even though it seemed like the gods were against me this fall it all worked out in the end and all tags were filled although i did have to pay the ferry man his toll for using that logging trail.
