2020 Foss & Bolssen Bear Season

[Chad Gus 715]

I'm in west central Wisconsin and I've got a sow that has produced 5, color phased cubs in the last 5 years.

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[Mike Foss]

I'm in west central Wisconsin and I've got a sow that has produced 5, color phased cubs in the last 5 years. IMG_20200430_210522_090.jpg

That's awesome, thanks for sharing

[Mike Foss]

Couple mature boars hope they decide to stick around during the season. Big bear hanging out will his girlfriend.

[Mike Foss]

This decent bear looks like he tangled with something stronger than him. Look at his head and leg, he's all beat up!

[Mike Foss]

P.S. The above pictures date stamp is wrong, they are from this June

[Chad Gus 715]

This is her from couple years ago

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[Mike Foss]

What's your trail cameras telling you? Brians is telling us that the bear rut is coming to an end, we are starting to get bigger bears on camera now, searching for if there are any girlfriends left.... and they are hungry

[Mike Foss]

And the heatwave continues, big storms came threw the area, heavy damage in parts of Bayfield County, did some baiting, moved one bait station back to its original spot, spent half a day working and seeding my deer food plot before the rain came in, was perfect timing, and was pleasantly surprised while viewing my trail camera the decent boar that visited my plot. Had a nice mature boar that stayed around for a few days then moved on, the rut is definitely slowing down, maybe he will be back in September. Look at that nice crease in the middle of his head, that's one of the telltale signs of a bigger bear.

https://youtu.be/dHmoRGsTZ5s https://youtu.be/GUlusCXmPsw

[Mike Foss]

Dewey you can appreciate this. The other day when I was baiting this particular stand I was reminiscing of some of the early days when this spot was a food plot for deer, I said to myself why not and in two days I had the old food plot mostly cleared of waist-high weeds, the next day I raked by hand, then sprayed a 12-hour weed killer. This next Friday I will lay down 400#s of lime and 200#s of fertilizer then seed it. There are close to two hundred apple trees scattered throughout the property and its a super bad year for wild apples, some trees have absolutely no apples what so ever, so my intentions are, not a deer food plot but a bear food plot right where the bait station is. Bears love clover and anything fresh green, the plot might hold the famous Ghost Bear longer than usual and maybe attracted other bigs bears and hold them in the area more than usual. This past week I have worked (played to me) from sun up to all most sundown, planting deer food plots, baiting bears, checking cameras, etc, hotter in but I love it. Watch the video guys and tell me what you think....will it work?

https://youtu.be/AiYkFkFVlo8

[Dewey]

Cool. Looking forward to seeing if the Ghost shows up.

[Mike Foss]

Cool. Looking forward to seeing if the Ghost shows up.

If he's not dead he will show, he's never let me down yet and it's only a few weeks away when he shows. Hope I just didn't jinx myself lol

[spirit1727]

Dewey you can appreciate this. The other day when I was baiting this particular stand I was reminiscing of some of the early days when this spot was a food plot for deer, I said to myself why not and in two days I had the old food plot mostly cleared of waist-high weeds, the next day I raked by hand, then sprayed a 12-hour weed killer. This next Friday I will lay down 400#s of lime and 200#s of fertilizer then seed it. There are close to two hundred apple trees scattered throughout the property and its a super bad year for wild apples, some trees have absolutely no apples what so ever, so my intentions are, not a deer food plot but a bear food plot right where the bait station is. Bears love clover and anything fresh green, the plot might hold the famous Ghost Bear longer than usual and maybe attracted other bigs bears and hold them in the area more than usual. This past week I have worked (played to me) from sun up to all most sundown, planting deer food plots, baiting bears, checking cameras, etc, hotter in but I love it. Watch the video guys and tell me what you think....will it work?

https://youtu.be/AiYkFkFVlo8

I can relate on the food plotting. Labor of love for sure I’ll be planting my plots in a couple of weeks. Brassicas,oats, and clover (FOR DEER) I don’t want the bears in my plots but they don’t seem to listen!! If you plat oats & clover for sure it willl work! Good Luck

[Tripod472]

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Finally able to update from my trip up on July 11th. Getting some different bear coming in at the bait sites. There are a variety of sizes. Mike has posted some really nice bear coming in at some of the other bait stations. It was super hot the past couple of weeks and baiting was brutal. It will all be worth it sitting in the stand coming up in Sept when the first one steps into range whether it is a shooter or not.

[Mike Foss]

It was a very disappointing weekend up in the northwoods. Started off Friday morning I left the Twin Cities at 4:30 am, on the drive up it was beautiful, had my whole day all planned out, first stop Ashland Ag, to pick up 500lbs of pellitized lime, arrived there only to find out they ran out of the lime and the next shipment would be in on tuesday, that ended the plans on liming, fertilizing and seeding my bear food plot, I have no choice but to do it next weekend. Second disaster, was doing my rounds with baiting, pulling the trailer and the bearings went out on the right side, Friday was totally shot.

This is the sad part.... Ive always been addicted to bear hunting and assisting others on their hunts, and anything that has to do with bears and then some, but Ive always had a bad habit of getting emotionally attached to some of those bears, and this is one of those times and this one hurts. The video I posted of that one sow with the 3 color phased cubs, well this past week within 3 nights she lost two of her cubs to either wolves or that big boar that has been at the same bait station as them. I was so looking forward to watching those cubs grow up, I must be getting soft. And them, while running the baits on Saturday, I witnessed and used my phone to video a horrible site and bear crossing the road dragging his hind legs. Watch the attached video (excuse the language when I drop the phone). I hope next week will be better, it cant get any worse.

In the first video this is that nice boar that possibly could be the cub killer, but watch him as he checks out the area and glances down my entrance trail and makes sure no danger is around before he commits to the bait. The 3rd video is the sow with the loan cub, hope that one makes it. Video 4 is that poor injured bear.

https://youtu.be/KsvpAf4yVQc https://youtu.be/-LupwVsdSKM https://youtu.be/TM1qFYc7v00 https://youtu.be/5xdnkdwLNV4

[Bearman13]

Wild animals will to survive is amazing.