Spring Bear hunting Minden-Dorset area

[gbk]

Hello
A friend of mine has invited me to go bear hunting with him in the Minden-Dorset area.He bought a trailer there last year.

He is new there,and i do not know anything about that area -at least now i KNOW where those 2 places actually are............

If you guys can give me some help with experiences there ,as far as bear is concerned:

is there a lot of public land available there(so to avoid stepping onto other hunters turf....)
How is the bear population in that area?
Is it a flat land-or being close to Halliburton Highlands it may be rolling land?

Any pointers maybe how to hunt the area-what the bears look like in the spring-when is the reasonable time frame to expect any action could help.
Can i think about spot and stalk or baiting only..........?
Appreciate your help
gbk

[Articcat]

Hi gbk,
That area is typical Muskoka with lots of hills, granite out croppings, mixed forest and swamps.
Lots of bears and best way is to bait them, as it it not at all that easy in Ontario to spot and stalk bears like it is in BC unless you happen to surprise one which is rare.

[canadaman30]

Minden area has an excellent bear population. Had a cottage just north of Minden for years when I was younger and the bears were plentiful.

[SK33T3R]

lots of bears there.
Here's a Minden story for ya. About 5 yrs ago my younger brother and his family were visiting friends at a cottage outside Minden. My brother decides to take his daughter out for an ice cream cone. Down the hwy they go. They get a cone and on the return trip there's a dead bear laying in the middle of the road. Another car now stops and they look at the bear. My brother and this other guy drag the bear by the front paws from the center of the road to the shoulder. This is when my cell rings with him telling me about his road-kill find. It's only 10 minutes dead. He wants to keep it for the meat. He says he will flag down the next car for a hand to load it up into his truck.
10 minutes later my phone rings again. I figured he wanted instructions for getting off some meat. He says while waiting for another car he looks over and the bear raises it's head, then up onto it's elbows. Looks around dozily then stands up and shakes like a wet dog. He looks everyone over then walks off into the bush. What a hoot. Imagine it he woulda got that bear loaded and it woke up. Woulda been riding around at 80kmh like a farm dog. right through downtown Minden no less.

So make sure your bear is dead before you load him up. They're sneaky buggers some time.

[gbk]

Thanx guys for the help and advice-and SK33T3R i am still laughing about the possibility you mentioned above...........

[huntervinni]

I'm not a bear hunter so take this with a grain of salt but that area you mention is pretty busy with cottagers and for that reason there are quite a few garbage dumps around. Seen many bears while dumping garbage in that area so unless you want to shoot a "dump" bear I would try to steer clear from hunting close to the dumps.

[ride.lift.shoot]

We learned last year that if there's a dump within miles of your bait you will have a hard time drawing them in consistently.

[fratri]

We learned last year that if there's a dump within miles of your bait you will have a hard time drawing them in consistently.

I thought that all the dumps were chain linked or electric fenced off to keep the bears out of the dump (maybe I am wrong?)

[COYHUNTER]

LOTS of bears in dump off limberlost road,,,,,,near huntsville

[ride.lift.shoot]

I thought that all the dumps were chain linked or electric fenced off to keep the bears out of the dump (maybe I am wrong?)

Not 100% sure, this was in the Loring/Restoule area.