Hunting Season is Coming!

In some ways it seems that we just finished our outfitting season, yet here we are again starting to get ready for September. We've gathered in our bear sucker pots and have started making more suckers.

It's been a bumper crop year for blueberries and everyone has been out picking like crazy. Hopefully the bears will have tired of them and be looking for some variety in their diet.

I Love Deer, But...

I love deer. They are beautiful animals, graceful and swift, and taste great in a sausage or on the bbq, but I do not like them in my yard. This year I put up electric fencing just to keep them out of the vegetable garden, and that has worked fine,  but now someone is eating my flowers!

Could this be the culprit?

Deer Safety Driving Tips

My son mentioned that he'd read this article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/4387477/350000-deer-must-be-culled-in-UK-each-year.html about how they are talking about culling 350,000 deer in the UK because there are so many motor vehicle accidents involving deer there. This got me to wondering, what are the stats for this type of accident here, where I live.


Hard to spot, aren't they?

In my community, just about everyone has either hit a deer or had multiple near misses in their driving history. Shortly after she got her driver's license and purchased her car, my youngest daughter hit a deer. The damage was so bad the car would have been written off if it wasn't for a great autobody guy who took the time to source a few used parts. Last night I just about hit one. Thanks to the light, I didn't even see the darn thing until it was in the middle of the highway and I was only feet away from it.




I've been told that you shouldn't swerve if you see an animal on the highway because that is more dangerous then hitting it. You could end up in a rollover, rather than just a collision. Don't break hard either if you have vehicle behind you, they might not be able to react fast enough and now instead of hitting one or two hundred pounds of flesh and bone, you are being hit by thousands of pounds of steel.

Would you have seen these ones?



See what I mean about groups?

I've learned from my own experience driving remote highways that if you spot a deer, while keeping an eye on it, watch both sides of the road because there are often more than one. I know guys who have been watching the one that just crossed only to hit the buddy who is next to cross. In fact, I know a hunter who was so engrossed in watching deer #1 that he hit deer #2 on two separate occasions. Guess sometimes you have to learn things the hard way.









Here in Manitoba, Canada, there are approximately 10,000 deer motor vehicle accidents every year. Considering that there are only 1.2 million people in the province and 60% of them live in cities, and 20% are children, and your odds of hitting a deer are a bit less than 1:50. We have public insurance here in Manitoba, and they even publish maps to inform you of high risk zones for deer/vehicle collisions http://www.mpi.mb.ca/en/PDFs/MBwildlifeMAP.pdf

As well as a list of tips to keep you safe:

Tips to help keep you safe:

Slow down

• When you see wildlife crossing signs
• Especially at dawn, dusk and at night
• Where brush and tall grass grow near the road
• Drive at a speed at which you will be able to stop within the zone of your headlights

Watch carefully

• Scan the roadside for animals -- get your passengers to help
• Watch for the reflection of headlights in the eyes of a deer, or a dark silhouette
• Use your high beams at night but remember to dim them for traffic coming from the other way and when following another vehicle closely

If an animal crosses...

• Dim your headlights—your brights may cause a deer to freeze on the road
• Slow down and be prepared to stop
• Blow your horn to scare the animal away
• Avoid hard swerving—you may lose control
• Brake firmly to reduce the impact between an animal and your vehicle

If you hit an animal...

• Don’t touch it—it may hurt you
• Move your car off the road if possible, and call the police or have someone call for you

And remember: wearing your seatbelt is one of the best ways to prevent injury in any collision.

Preparing Your Trophy

If you aren't a veteran of guided hunts you might worry about what happens after you've downed your black bear. Will the outfitting take proper care of this trophy that you have just travelled hundreds or thousands of miles, and spent a fair coin, to bag? With this in mind, I've decided to share what we at Whiteshell Outfitters do to ensure that your trophy is in ideal condition for your taxidermist.

Gus Congemi 2010

We have consulted with taxidermists on how they like to see the black bear that come into their shops and have been advised the following:

Do not do the paws. Leave them as is for the taxidermist. There is too much fine detail work there to be done in the field and taxidermists see too many errors that are hard to fix.

Gus +Live the Wild Life TV

 

 

#1 Pope & Young in NORTH AMERICA 2010 

Also:  Leave the head alone. This makes if far easier for your taxidermist to recreate the animal you have taken. He doesn't have to guess about the size and shape of the skull because it is right there.

 22 2/16 and  7' 6" nose to tail

These two simple guidelines that can make all the difference in the world in your trophy mount. Whether you choose to hunt with Whiteshell Outfitters, or elsewhere, you want to make sure that your guide is knowledgeable not only when it comes to hunting, but also in trophy preparation.  You want your trophy to remember adventure and good time.

NOTE: All photos are of the same award winning bear, taken by +Gus Congemi of +Live the Wild Life TV in 2010

Hunting Bear in the Rain

2013 One very wet bear

Rain is not conducive to black bear hunting. It pretty much shuts them down. I mean, who like to be outside in the rain for any length of time? Not me, and not black bears.











What I have found though is, let it rain long enough and eventually the bears will start to move. They are hungry. Immediately following the rain, they are out in full force, kind of like campers who've been holed up in their tents and anxious to get out and stretch their legs once the rain stops.

Bear taken in the rain

This spring, we had the misfortune of having a day where the rain just wouldn't stop. Now, you might wonder why on earth anyone would go sit in a stand in the rain, but let me tell you, people don't come up here bear hunting to sit in a cabin all day. They come to hunt. On three separate occasions in the past, we have had hunters choose to skip hunting on a rainy day only to have the hunters that chose to tough it out in the rain bring in their trophy that night.



prepped back in shop due to rain

One fall, nature was making it extremely difficult to hunt, with it beginning to rain at about 2pm every day, for the entire week. But bears do have to eat eventually, and from Wednesday through to Friday our hunters all got their bears.

 

After all, you're not going to get your bear while sitting in a cabin.

Trail Cameras

More and more hunters are using trail cameras to determine what animals are coming into an area, what time of day the come by, what the weather conditions are at the time, etc..

We too started using trail cams a while back and not find them useful for determining where the big ones are, how many are coming by, and when they are most likely to show up. We also get some good shots showing their interactions with each other.

 
We use a couple brands of cameras; +Moultrie and +Wildgame Innovations. Moultrie was the first brand we went with, after talking to other outfitters. Moultrie takes very good pictures.



Dennis, one of our clients turned guide, brought up his Wildgame Innovations cameras and we liked them so much we use them too now. 






This year we tried out a Hunten Outdoors camera, and had good results too.


ignore date, this was last week

Overall, we've been really happy with the results our cameras are giving us.

 

 If you are looking at purchasing a trail camera I suggest you get the best picture resolution you can afford. Also look at the durability of the unit, because you never know what an animal might try to do to it while it is installed, and consider battery life, Things like infrared flash seem to be pretty much standard these days, but worth mentioning as a must have feature. USB port or TV Out Jacks are really up to the user and how you plan to manage your photos. We prefer to load them directly onto our computer and sort, file, and delete them there.

 

 

Hunting Manitoba Black Bears

+Joel Prunty at +North American Hunter interviewed Mike Adey a while back about spring black bear hunting:

"I asked Mike, “What is the biggest mistake bear hunters make?” and he didn’t have to think twice about his reply. “Even experienced hunters get overly confident hunting over bait and throw caution to the wind,” he said. “Maybe their scent preparations are a little lax or they move around too much on the stand, all because they assume the bear is going to hit the bait. That’s not necessarily the case.” If it happens to be a big bear, getting it to hit the bait while you are on stand is even tougher. Bears generally get smarter as they get bigger."

Whiteshell Outfitters Spring 2013

For the rest of the article: Hunt Manitoba Spring Bear: Why and How

Trail Cam Photos

Remember those cameras we set up? Well here are a few of the visitors we've had:



 

Not exactly What we had in mind when we set out this bait







 








More interesting by far, but still not what we wanted. Just a few hours later Bill was filling the bait.









Now this is more like it











Sitting pretty, posed for the photo







Came in for a close up too

















Fawn Triplets

+Mike Avery's Outdoor Magazine has a Facebook page where he shared this video.

It's pretty rare to find something like this, so I had to share it with you.

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Take a look at this photo

What do you see?

This is a pretty typical bait set up for us.

Hanging in the tree is a beaver carcass, courtesy of some of our local trappers, who are only too happy to find someone to get them off their hands.

But what about the bottom, left hand corner? Do you know what that is? Looks kind of like a campfire ready to be lit.

It is logs, cut and laid out to cover over a hole in the ground. Why bait near a hole? We didn't.

What happens is that grain and Jell-O from our barrels falls from the barrel onto the ground as the bear feeds on it. The barrel is also moved around, so the next bear shows up, finds some grain and Jell-O on the ground and figures there must be more further down and so digs.

We've had black bears dig down as far as three feet as they try to get at a food source that doesn't exist, at least not where they are looking. We cut logs to cover over the holes otherwise a bear will eventually lodge the barrel in the hole and no one is getting dinner until we show up and have to dig the darn thing out.

A Monster Black Bear Birthday Present

Last week, Gus Congemi, of Live the Wild Life TV was hunting with Whiteshell Outfitters, in Manitoba, Canada when he took a 7'6" black bear with his bow and on his birthday! How's that for a birthday present? Hard to beat for sure.

Gus, Mike Adey, and guides Dennis, Bill, and Darrell

Cameras

We've got some cameras set up to catch the action when no one is in the stand.



Hopefully we'll get some good photos that we can share with you.

Huge Manitoba Black Bear at Whiteshell Outfitters

Gus Congemi of http://www.livethewildlifetv.com/  does it again!



7'6" black bear taken with bow last night at http://www.whiteshelloutfitters.com/    


His second 7'6" bear in 4 years hunting with +Mike Adey, owner/operator of +Whiteshell Outfitters.

We will be waiting to see if it goes Boone & Crockett.

Congratulations Gus!

Monster Black Bear Taken with Bow

+Gus Congemi from Live the Wild Life TV http://www.livethewildlifetv.com/ has just taken a monster black bear with his bow. The guys are just heading out to skin it. Will post pics as soon as the action slows down and they can get a few photos out. Cell reception is poor in this area of the wild, but everyone is really pumped.

Bear Down!

Last night Stan took a nice chocolate bear.

Sorry about the picture quality, this was taken with Mike's phone.

Black Bear Hunting Update

Wind here in Manitoba is calming down, weather warming up, and the bears are moving around more. Checked 22 baits and all have been hit and our guys are seeing bears each night. Just waiting for the perfect one to take home.

 

And They're Off! Bear Hunt Spring 2013

Night one (last night) was pretty darn cold, in spite of that, there was some movement and bears were seen on the baits.

 

Remember those suckers we made?

Bear Sucker

If you were wondering how they worked out, they have been catching the bears' attention. One seemed to have confused a bear as it didn't appear to have been eaten but was covered with dirt. We think the bear might have been playing with it, batting it around, kind of like a tether ball.

A few of the suckers actually fell out of the cans. We did have a spell of warm weather for a bit, and figure that the sun heated those cans up to the point that the candy started to melt.

 



Spring Black Bear Season Begins

We've been spending the past few weeks making suckers, mixing bait, hauling it all out to the bush and filling our barrels. This week we brought in supplies.

These three carts are just one of our stops. Two half tons full of food, snacks, and miscellaneous other items that are indispensable to our operation.

 

Our first couple hunters came in today, the rest arrive tomorrow. Looking forward to a great season!

Bear Hunting Preparations

Surveying our supplies

Looks like a lot, but there's about a half ton full yet to pick up.

We've been busy putting up stands and filling baits.

Hunt begins in just over a week and there is much left to do.

 

me setting up a tree stand

 Thankfully the snow has pretty much melted this past week so it's been a lot easier to get around in the bush then it was even a week ago.

Fishing at Whiteshell Outfitters

Denis at Crow Duck



Tony at Crow Duck

Not only does Whiteshell Outfitters fish with Crow Duck Lodge












Don Lamont at The Complete Angler does too. Here is a great article one of our guests shared with us: http://www.completeangler.net/2011/06/crowduck-lake-camp.html

Bear Baiting

This is me.

Spring 2011



Guess what I'm doing?

 

Feedin' the bears, of course!



 Spring 2013

Mitchell & Neil filling the baits in 2013

Bears Like Our Baits

 

 

Thought I'd share a few photos of a couple bears that just couldn't share one of our barrels of yum

 

 

We got more than a few good shots of these two battling it out over this bait

 My favourite - a bit blurry but that's  because of the action