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

Feeding the Bears

So you want to know what bears eat? Here in Manitoba we mostly hunt black bear from baited stands.
 
 

Baiting can be quite an effort, especially when you are an outfitter and have a couple dozen baits to keep going.
 
 
These two have quite the fight over our barrel of yum
 
 
 
 
 
We've been doing this for quite some time now, and after some trial and error have found that bears prefer raspberry flavoured Jello. We used to use a variety of flavours but found that the raspberry flavoured baits were the hardest hit.
 
 
 
Of course, we don't only feed them Jello.We mix it with lots of yummy things like grain, old bread and cake, used fryer oil, and toss in some animal carcasses that our local trappers are more than happy to stuff in our freezer. Well, freezers, we have more than a few, and when they empty of carcasses they fill with our hunters' trophies.
 
 
Sounds easy, doesn't it? Don't forget the volumes we are talking about. A truck load of bread, a trailer full of grain, all the used fryer oil our 3 local restaurants can produce in a year.

Mixing bait is a big job, and how all three of our children first entered the workforce; mixing dozens of 5 gallon buckets of bait after school. The kids grew and moved on to "real jobs" and these days, we mix with a cement mixer yet it still is a huge job.

Do you run baits? What do you use? I'm always on the look out for new ideas, as you can see in an earlier post where I am trying suckers, or as I started calling them; bear Jello shooters.
 

Hunting Black Bear in the Spring

Every spring someone in the news media brings up spring bear hunting. The anti-hunters try to draw on your emotions by lamenting about the poor little baby bears. They don't give you much for facts so you can make an intelligent decision over bear hunting in the spring. I think these folk got their ideas about bears from Winnie the Pooh. Funny though, how these are often the same people who go into a panic if a bear is within 300 yards of them.

The fact is that sows don't go far from their cubs in the spring. The babies are young and momma is keeping a very close eye on them. She'll enter your site, check it out, and they are close on her heels. The hunter doesn't have to wait long to determine if she's got cubs. We're not about to harvest a nursing sow. We want to keep our hunting areas healthy and vibrant. You never know, one of those babies might be a future monster bear.

Bear Treats

We're trying something new. We've been feeding the bears a combination of grain, oil, and other stuff for years now, but we've decided to add another treat for the bears; suckers. Yep, suckers. You know, lollipops, but for bears. So this weekend Mike has been making them. Not on sticks, but in these cool looking containers that you can chain to a tree.

 Let us know if you've ever tried these. Seems to work for the cat...

Spring! Are You Here Spring?

The calendar says it's spring here in Manitoba Canada, but we're not seeing as much evidence of it as we'd like. Need a bit more snow to melt so we can start getting in to our stand sites. In the mean time the equipment is all ready and we've stocked up on bear feed so we are good to go as soon as Mother Nature will let us.

Instead of complaining about the unseasonal weather, and how getting ready for spring bear hunting will be rushed once the snow is gone, Mike has decided to take advantage of the cold and give ice fishing one last kick at the can and see if they can bring home a few more lake trout.

last week's catch ready for the freezer

 



Last week's catch is headed for the bbq,  but I thought I'd look for some new recipes for today's catch, because I know Mike will catch. He always does.  I found some good recipes on the Colorado State website. Now it's a matter of deciding which to try.  I'll add a link to game and fish recipes and share some of the recipes.

 



Mike has decided that he wants to blog. No surprise really, as well all know that he can tell a good story and talking comes naturally to him. Blogging seems a natural fit. Except he hates reading...and writing...and computers. Lucky for Mike, he married me; Debby. I love reading and writing and computers. Opposites attract they say. We are living proof of that.

It will be interesting to see how this blogging thing works out. I have no experience with it, other than having read other people's blogs, so it's been a real learning experience just getting to this point, where I am actually writing our first blog.

Mike's off at a hunting and fishing summit in Winnipeg Manitoba today at The Victoria Inn.

It's the hotel we always recommend to our deer hunters and bear hunters because the quality of their rooms and service is always great and they are  close to the airport.

Check out our background photo. I'm really pleased with it. It's one of ours, taken here at Whiteshell Outfitters:

                   It's so beautiful that it almost looks fake doesn't it?

If you are reading our blog and can think of improvements or find problems, let us know by email. We can't fix it if we don't know it's broke.

Spring is in the air, finally, after a very long winter, and that mean spring bear hunting season is on the horizon, and that means there's a whole lot to be done in the next month, so I'd better get my butt in gear.

Till next time,

Debby