Tuff hunting, but very rewarding just sighting the critters.
He's what little I know.....
Hunt white oaks....big ones. Try and find some on a Mt. top, knoll, ridge or long slopping lead. Personally, I haven't had as much luck hunting IN the bottoms. I think they must work their way down, and get in the bottoms after dark. I have had luck with major leads that end up in the bottoms.
The bears will most likely be climbing the white oaks the 1st two weeks of the season, then gathering underneath the rest of the season.
Try your best to find white oaks with claw marks and white oak groves with lots of scat and other bear sign. If more than one bear is using the area, then your odds of a sighting are increased dramatically.
Travel funnels between two oak groves is also a great place to set up if you can't decide which tree they are bound to hit. Look for trails twice as wide as deer trails, and a bear trail will have a 'packed down' texture vs the crunched up of a deer trail.
Pre scouting a week or days before the season opens is much more productive than 2 weeks before.
The best tip I can give you is to hunt a single tree with lots of scat near it....BUT!!!, you must find at least one fresh pile....how fresh? With flies on it!!!...if a pile aint got flies on it, I keep a walking.
Sparse acorn crop?...gotta wear out some boot leather to find the few trees that are producing. Can be tuff to find, but once you do, the bears will be there.
Normal acorn crop?....sign will be easier to find since the bears are moving a lot from tree to tree, and scattered about a bit more.
If we have a drought?...and all the acorns fall just before the season?....then I don't commit to any trees or groves, I walk and walk and walk, cause the bears will not have to move for food, you will have to find them. Walk travel routes like mentioned before, but try to walk those with known running water near by, since water will be scarce during a drought as well.
Afternoons are better than mornings, but that don't keep me from hunting mornings. I've seen them as late as 10 am.
While walking in, pay attention to 'loud squirrels' in the trees...they may be a bear. If so, stalk the tree from down wind, and wait for the bear to climb down. Now, pay attention to the tree, you may need to get cross wind. If the tree is straight with no obstructions, there's no telling where he'll climb down. But, if the tree is leaning, or on the side of a steep ridge, or has some obstruction to one side, the bear will take the easy route down at the base.....clear from obstruction, up hill side, or least steep side if the tree is leaning. So, set up accordingly the best you can with the wind still in your favor.
The early season seems to congregate bears in higher elevations, and they work there way down in elevation, since the acorns will mature earlier up hi. Now bear in mind, that some times there is a late freeze in the spring, so those higher elevations will be void of sign due to the buds getting nipped. If that is the case, then move down the mountain a 1/3 of the way, and scout your way down. However, I have seen bears low the 1st part of the season, so the higher elevation is a guideline, not written in stone.
Two weeks before the season will be the tailing end of the last 'patten' before the acorn feed, and might be tempting, but don't fall for it. If you scout early, you will possibly find sign in berry patches, around wild cherry trees, and in dead pine groves the pine beetles devoured because of the grubs in the rotting pines. Unless you are in the highest elevations in GA, this should be what you will find. If you are in the highest elevations, then you should find them already on the acorns unless of course there was a late freeze in that area.
I need to add that I hunt wilderness bears, so I don't know much about the food plot 'source'.
Another thing to look for is saddle ridges between two tops....or connecting leads. The right ones will have a trail suddenly appear as the knoll narrows thought the saddle, and then it will disappear just as quick as it nears the next knoll or lead.
Seems the bears pilfer around these ridge tops, and use the 'spines' to travel to the next 'pilfering' area.
These trails can be 100 yards long, or 1000, but the trails will be packed down, not 'crunched' up like deer trails....and, most likely, it will meander by every mature white oak along the way.
One more thing.....
If you do decide to hunt in the Morning....and you have a REALY hot spot....don't go 'into' it while its still dark.
Lay back a little distance till dawn, and ease in there.....that way you wont' blow em out...and you will have the added thrill of an early morning stalk.
Once again I'll reinstated the most important thing you can do is hunt over fresh sign....meaning fresh scat...so fresh it has flies on it...or like my bear a couple of years ago, so fresh it doesn't even have flies on it yet.
If you aren't on fresh sign....KEEP WALKING!!! You will have better luck bumping into a bear by walking and looking for fresh sign than just hunting an area that 'looks good' with a bit of old sign.
Also learned that year....when you have a lot of rain all summer, the acorns will hold onto the trees longer....we never heard it 'raining acorns' this year. I usually run bears out of trees the 1st two weeks of the season...but I killed my bear this year the last day of the season in a tree. So, pay attention to whether they are dropping or holding while scouting/hunting.
Topic: Spot & Stalk Black Bears? (Read 252 times)
