Dec 20, 2004 By Rod Schoener 5 min read

Fayette county’s unofficial bear season prognosticator was right on the money again. Prior to the start of the season, Northern Fayette County Wildlife Conservation Officer Charley May said he felt county hunters would have another good season, even on the heels of an all-time record kill of 61 in 2003.

This year’s harvest didn’t quite measure up numbers-wise, falling four short of last year’s kill.

But, considering all the factors it was a great year.

“I feel we had a tremendous bear season considering there was no snow and two days of rain and heavy fog on most of the ridges,” May said.

The bulk of the Fayette County harvest used to come from May’s northern district, but hunters eventually became convinced that there are every bit as many bears in the southern half of the county.

Once again the harvest was evenly split between the north and south districts.

However, that was not always the case. Prior to the 2002 season, 75 percent of the bears harvested in the county were taken in May’s northern district.

The Quebec Wilderness area was the hot spot in southern Fayette County, while Game Lands 51 and the Sugar Loaf areas were big in the northern part of the county.

“The only good spot in my district that was down this year was the Casparis area, but Zebley Flats made up for it,” May said.

It is not likely that these record harvests will affect next year’s season, according to reports that May says are still coming in.

“Deer hunters told me that they were seeing tons of bears,” May said. “I spoke with some groups of deer hunters that pushed out as many as six and eight bears on their drives.

“There were quite a few bears killed at Dunbar and Zebley Flats, and one group of deer hunters pushed out eight bears in Buck Run, and I know that nobody hunted that area for bear.”

May said that the biggest bear killed in Fayette County this year was a male with an estimated live weight of 470 pounds. It came out of Neals Run on the backside of Seven Springs.

He noted that very few tagged bears showed up at the check stations.

May said, “We should have had some tagged bears show up that were at least as large, or larger, than the heaviest one weighed in this year.

“I trapped a 452-pounder in April and moved him, and he came back in three days. He should have been in the 470- to 480-pound range by time hunting season started.

“Many residents have told me that they are still seeing some very big bears.

I’d say we have upward to 10 bears that go 500 pounds or more. We just don’t get the tagged bears back.

“One that was harvested we tagged twice.

“It was a 9 1/2-year-old female that weighed 350 pounds. That is an exceptionally large bear for a female, which usually weigh much less.”

May pointed out that is was good food year with plenty of the things bears like to eat most in ample supply.

“The fact that there was plenty of food out there was evident in the size of the cubs that came in. I saw one that field-dressed at 78 pounds and another at 72 pounds. We can tell they are cubs of the year and not older ones, because they still have juvenile canine teeth and no permanent canine teeth.

“There weren’t too many small bears checked in. Some guys said they saw females with three cubs and let them all go.”

May said that the bears are still cleaning up the acorns, which were still fairly abundant throughout much of the deer season.

“They root acorns out of the snow all winter,” May said. “One day last winter my wife and I took a walk in the mountains when there was snow on the ground and saw a 50 by 50-foot area, where the bears had torn the ground all up rooting acorns out of the snow.

“I think they can smell them through the snow. Deer seem to find them easily, too.

“You can go into corn fields and see where deer dig until they find corn that was left behind. I’m sure that they can smell it through the snow also, because of the scent it gives off.”

In a way May was surprised that Fayette County led the entire southwest region in the numbers of bears harvested this year.

“Considering the weather, I was surprised we had as many bears killed as we did,” May said.

“Fayette County has come a long way for bear with a pretty stable record of near-record harvests in the last three seasons.

“Part of that is due to the number of bear hunters. The first year the season was open in the county I checked five hunters. Now every parking lot is full.

“I think we’re starting to draw in more hunters from out of the area now that we’re having very successful seasons.

“Another factor is that guys started to do it right and spent time scouting ahead of time. Archery hunters have started to see a lot of bear, and either go to the spots they see them or tell their friends who bear hunt.

“Quite a few guys who archery hunt on the mountain were seeing bears, and it was not unusual for some of them to see multiple bears.”

I too saw fresh bear sign during deer season, and by the size of the track, I’d have to say I just missed seeing one of the county’s larger survivors of the past campaign.

With its recent success, bear hunting is one pursuit that will continue to attract new followers for years to come.

Rod Schoener is the Herald-Standard outdoors editor.