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.