No bear but many stories to retell
My flight from Toronto to Fredericton, New Brunswick has landed. Let the “bear fun” begin. Upon arrival at the airport, I met our guide, Reg Fredericks and Ken Chapman, a local hunter finishing up his week of hunting.
They were easy to spot in a crowd of people with their camouflage clothing. After picking up my gear, we headed out to the parking lot where another show was going on.
In the back of Reg’s truck was a plastic tub of old doughnuts. Ravens were perched on top of the tub taking turns hopping in and out of the tub stealing chunks of doughnuts. Of course, there were more than a few spectators at the airport standing around watching the show.
Our first expedition before heading back to the lodge was to take a drive to the area where we would be hunting for the next week. Driving up and down deserted gravel roads looking for black bears feeding in the patches of green grass was the plan for this evening. It wasn’t even 40 minutes after I arrived that the first bear of the evening was seen browsing through the fresh grass along the road. The rest of the evening we encountered 11 more bears, two coyotes, three whitetail deer and one moose.
We headed back to the lodge for BBQ spare ribs that evening. I think I gain about 8 pounds every time I travel to Nerepis Lodge. The food there is awesome. During dinner, bear sightings were recounted and numerous stories of bear hunts past were told.
Monday morning arrived with clear blue skies. I had time in the morning to go outside and take practice shots with my new Hoyt Vectrix bow to make sure nothing was displaced during the bow’s journey from Pittsburgh
Dialed in and ready to go!
Camouflage clothing, gloves, facemask, flashlight and bow with arrows were the only items I would need for this hunt.
After a 40-minute ride back to the area we visited the night before, it was time to hunt. Andrew, a guide for Nerepis Lodge, took me into my stand. While Andrew baited the barrel, I used a climbing tree stand to reach a height of approximately 16 feet. Andrew dumped the fresh bait into the barrel and a couple bangs of the bucket on the side of the barrel and then he was gone.
My five-hour sit in the stand began.
I began the sit by scanning the woods looking for any moving black shadows. Within minutes, snowshoe hares showed up at the barrel for a raid of any bait lying on the ground. After an hour or so I tried not to nod off, hoping to see a glimpse of a big bear. After that long sit in the stand, I did not see any bears come into the bait site.
After returning to the lodge, I found out that a member of our hunting group took the first bear. Dwayne Sheets from Princeton, W.Va., took his first bear with a bow. The bear weighed approximately 150 pounds.
Day 2 took me back to the same stand as the previous night.
With cooling temps and swirling winds interfering, I would not see any bears; however, Dan Lopez from Mesa, Ariz. took a nice bear at 400-plus pounds. Talking to Dan he thought the bear only weighed about 150 pounds from his tree stand. Dan took this nice bear with his .30-06.
Later that evening at the dinner table, Reg explained how hard it is to judge a bear’s weight from a tree stand. He said that using the method of comparing the bear’s ears to the size of the bear’s head doesn’t always work. Comparing a bear’s size to a 30-gallon drum can also be deceiving.
At that point, Reg explained the term “ground shrinkage.” A bear always looks big when peering down at him until you get on the ground and take a look. Everyone always comments that the bear appeared to be huge on the ground looking at him from their tree stand compared to the moment when they physically see the bear and stand next to it. Hence, the term “ground shrinkage.”
Day 3 brought about high winds, freezing rain and snow flurries. I thought I had escaped winter and would have to worry more about bugs than how I was going to stay warm. All hunters did get cold and wet and had no sightings of any bears.
Day 4 brought high hopes for all the hunters in our group as the cold front moved on and the blue skies reappeared.
I was put into a new stand that had not been hunted since last fall. Reg said that he has had bears hitting this bait. After I climbed into the permanent tree stand and Reg did his work of putting fresh bait in the barrel with a couple quick bangs, a bear showed up 30 minutes later. He appeared to be a smaller bear. My guess was that he was about 150 pounds, not quite the size of bear I was looking for on my sixth trip to Nerepis Lodge.
The young bear entertained me for 45 minutes rolling around on his back and licking peanut butter out of a 5-gallon pail that Reg left at the bait site. Later that evening, it appeared that the same bear returned behind my tree stand. He was pacing back and forth. I asked Reg about the behavior he was displaying. Reg explained that there was probably a bigger bear around that I could not see.
Back at the dinner table, I found out that three more bears had been taken that evening.
Merlin Rowley from Mesa, Ariz., took a 100-pound bear with a rifle. Rod Richardson from Grand Junction, Colo., took a 150-pound bear with his father’s custom muzzleloader, and Jim Harry from Princeton, W. Va., harvested a fine 275-pound bear with his Hoyt bow.
As the hunt ended for the week, I returned home with out taking the big bear I had high hopes for.
But I did end up seeing 24 bears, numerous moose, whitetail deer, a couple of coyotes and hundreds of snowshoes. I did get to make some new friends and had a lot of hunting stories to retell.
It is amazing as the week went on how the bear stories I heard had the bears each growing an average of 10 pounds per day.
If you would like any more information about the hunt or Nerepis Lodge email me at hoytarchery@hotmail.com or visit www.huntabear.com.