2017 Canada Black Bear Trip

[mainebowhunter]

Will post up more later ...but shot one of the bears that we wanted to shoot. Cool white fronted bear. Pretty cool hunt. Great story. Wifi is limited so will post more when I get home. 183# dressed -- not sure how you guys weigh your bears. She was old. Big butterball. But the white front is the coolest part.

More to come later...

[moog5050]

Congrats Maine! Is today opening day?

[Dewey]

Congrats.

[swampyak]

Congrats

[john1984]

Nice lookin bear. Congrats

[Joe68]

Congrats. Gonna have a rug made?

[Kokes]

Awesome maine - what province where you hunting in?

[tgreeno]

Congrats Maine!

[JAK]

Congrats.

[dan]

CONGRATS!

[Stanley]

Good job on the nice bear.

[stash59]

[Jackson Marsh]

Congrats Maine!

[Singing Bridge]

Great looking bear!!

[mainebowhunter]

What a trip! I was planning on writing this up when I got home BUT I am sitting in the parking lot because my flyrod broke on a fish! No lie. I was nymph fishing. Lost 2 fish, hooked a sucker but figured out the fish were hitting a green caddis nymph. Cast again. Thought I was caught up on bottom. Grabbed the side of my rod, and grabbed hold of the fly line to start trying to tug it off the bottom. THE FISH WHIPS ITS TAIL and takes off! That fish was BIG. SNAP! Broke my rod right where I was holding it. Day is done. Only brought one rod with me. Good thing is its a bean rod and lifetime warranty.

This spot in Canada Sepaq is such an amazing place...especially if you are fishing nut. 500 square miles with 350 lakes. And very few people are fishing the streams. Bear hunting is very good. I passed the same bear 2 different nights. Swapped to a different bait, one we knew had a white front. The toughest part of the hunt was the stands were not set for a bow. So shots are longer than I would like.

So the night I killed the bear was pretty slow up until 8:45. Weather this past week has been terrible for bear hunting. Seen very little sun and it has been cold. Been in the 40s most of the week. Its raining right now and its 48. But on Wed, the weather broke and it was sunny. 8:40 or so a small bear came to the bait. 5 minutes later, here comes a 220# black butter ball. She was FAT for a spring bear. She chased the smaller bear off and proceeded to go round and round the barrel. Shaking it. Getting on it. Drew my bow once but let down.

35yds at 8:45 on a BLACK bear is not a shot I prefer with a bow. But she finally gave me a quartering away shot. Steep quartering away. I aimed just in front of her rear ham. Bears vitals are a bit further back than a whitetails and shoulders are a no no. THUD! saw the arrow hit and it was back more than I wanted. I was not happy. When the last thing I saw was white fletching that far back...disconcerting. Height was perfect. 45 secs later, bear walks right in front of my set, 10yds. Thought it was the second bear.

So I left the bear, never even when to the barrel. Decided it was best to wait for morning. Some guys disagreed. But knowing there was a definite gut hit, there is no other choice. Morning came. Blood trail was sparse ...found arrow right off. Covered with blood all the way to fletching. Tracking we could see there was no exit. Good sign. Means all 26" of arrow went into bear. We followed blood...RIGHT BACK BY MY STAND! That was the bear I saw earlier...THE BEAR I SHOT. Within 35yds of my stand we found a bed. We could not locate any blood after that. So we left the bed and called a dog tracker.

The dog tracker is part of this Sepaq reservation. We had planned on it the night before if things were getting slim. Dog was simply amazing. Tracked that bear down to a stream. Jumped into the water and swam it. (Small dog) Straight up a hill. There is a bed. More tracking...another bed. Straight back down the near vertical ravine...back across the stream. At this point, track has been 1000yds. I am thinking dog is tracking a live bear. BAM...french dog trackers starts yelling. Bear is dead right along stream.


Would we have found it? Maybe. I always check water on gut shot animals. BUT maybe not. The experience with the dog and his 70yr old handler was well worth the tip! Awesome to see.

The hunting camp shared with the other guys was outstanding. The hunting brotherhood was what it was all about. No blowhards in camp. No braggers. Just a bunch of red blooded Americans who love to hunt and fish. They love the meat that it provides. They treasure it and eat a lot of it. We had mule deer burgers. Elk burgers...squirrel pie. It was a pleasure to share camp with them.

I will post up some more photos later once they load. (Hopefully my buddy shoots a bear tonight. Last night)