The Lure of the Bear

Hello friends: This week’s column is dedicated to Michelle Chiaro. Michelle was my bear hunting, winter camping, bow hunting, all forms of fishing, gardening and “Date Night” partner. Michelle was 50 and on June 15th she passed away unexpectedly from Sepsis.

This was going to be the biggest outdoor adventures year of my life. I received Montana tags to hunt deer and elk and have plans to do that hunt alone in late October. I also received a tag to hunt black bear in Zone C, which I have ran baits in since 2010 and this would be my first year where instead of taking a “new bear hunter” I would be the only tag holder and therefore would be the most active bait that I have when the season opens on September 7th.

Michelle and I were a complete team when it came to running baits either together or separate, depending on our schedules, and let me tell you Michelle loved running bear baits. I started the task in mid-April and in reality Michelle and I started last February when we could walk on the frozen marshes of the Meadow Valley Forest in northern Juneau County which is public land in Juneau, Wood, Jackson, and Juneau Counties. Last fall I was on a duck hunt and camping trip when I had a unique experience. I had hiked from camp about a mile, shot a limit of woodies and kept hearing mallards and geese behind me. I went exploring found duck/goose paradise and became very lost in knee to chest deep water. More importantly, I found lots of bear scat and trails, that is why we went exploring in February. The standard procedure for our operation generally was to be at least a half mile hike from the gravel roads by foot and we use a hollow stump with a cover for the top and bottom which is just a 3-inch thick piece of a large log, and to keep everything out of that stump but black bear I put logs that are anywhere from 5-8 feet in length tepee-style over the top. At first I ran three baits with total truck miles being 52 and foot miles about 3. On Memorial Day weekend Michelle and I camped and on the last morning, I ran the baits and she broke camp and cooked lunch. At that point we had been running the baits about 40 days and one of the baits had never been hit. The new one was sporadic, but I had some very cool wolf and bobcat photos and bear were hitting it about once a week. Bait and what is it? So far this year, I am getting all of my bait from BBD out of Abbotsford “Big Bear Down” and I am using cookies and granola that I purchase in 55-gallon drums.

June and early July is crazy time for black bear and baiters. The bear are in estrus and the sows hang around a good bait and the boars hang around a hot sow. I have one bait that is exceptional, and my gang has harvested several from it. This year I probably had four different boars working it and at least two very hot sows. The pairs would literally make a bedroom in trail camera range and my pics included lovers sleeping, eating, and loving.

On June 15th, just like that, my woman was taken from me with zero warning and I have to tell you I have about 20 bad episodes each and every day. On the bright side when Michelle first passed, every moment of every day was a horror story for me. What am I getting at? Running the baits and staying ultra-busy, never placing blame or having anger are what is keeping me from requiring a strait jacket.

Every day that I have been home, except one since June 15th, I stay outside way past dark and I work, putz and think.

Today was about day 105 on the baits. I have three out, all were hit. Zone C on the southern end has a problem and that is that the bear are almost always nocturnal once the season starts.

We shall see and I am betting that when the time comes, Michelle will be in that tree with me!

This wolf was very curious about Mark Walters trail camera.

Bear baiting is an intensive sport that can pay off greatly.

Mark has spent a significant amount of time bear baiting this spring/summer.