We rolled into camp about noon on the first day. Camp was 10 kilometers off the road, so we weren’t for sure we were in the right place until we seen a white peaked roof of a wall tent peeking through the trees. Getting excited now! It was raining so everyone was in Ryan’s Airstream. We met another guide Manny and Earl who’s an aspiring guide. Brian “Big Sexy” Lance was already in camp and itching to get out to the stand.
Bill, AKA Eye Candy, had told Ryan, AKA Dapper Dan, before we left home that I like to hunt bears off the ground. No problem he said, I know just the spot. And boy did he ever!! The spot he had picked was another 9 kilometers from camp. For those of you who have been at Ryan’s camp you may remember Determination. Well this is about 500-600 yards past that bait and is set up as a Pressure Relief bait. Bill was going to sit with me to video, so we had to take 2 ATVs to the bait. During our adventure ATV ride we encountered some minor problem with one of the ATVs. Leaving us with one ATV, Bill and I had to go in one at a time. Bill went in first to set up the video equipment and then Ryan came back to get me.
When Ryan came back to get me he said, Oh it’s going to be a good night. There is already a bear on bait and it wouldn’t leave when Bill and I went in, I hope it’s still there. How big I said. Young one, not a shooter and NO it’s not BLONDE! Ok! Ok! I’ll try to restrain myself and not shoot the first one, which is hard for me since I am an equal opportunity hunter!
Sure enough this black 120#ish bear is STILL on the bait. Ryan and I go in, I get settled, talk some to Bill and it’s still there. He would look up every now and then to make sure we were still there, but obviously was not concerned. He stayed for probably an hour or so and got up and left.
Less than 30 minutes later another young black bear comes in and flops over like our German Shepherd pup and starts shoveling in the bait. Cool I thought, he has no idea we are 8 yards from him. Rope-a-dope, as we came to call the bear, was nice bear, long and tall, but skinny. He looked like an immature bear. Not what I was after. I looked over my shoulder at Bill who has the googly eyes for this bear and he’s saying that’s a nice bear. Yeah it is, but it’s young I said. Bill’s like you’re crazy, give me that bow! I finally convince Bill that I am NOT going to shoot this bear and we settle to watch him.
He did finally get our wind about 20-30 minutes into his feeding frenzy. He didn’t run off though. He got up and circled around us trying to get a better idea of what we were. He came close to us a couple of times. And when I say close I mean 3-4 yards! At one point he did a side step bluff at us while huffing and puffing up a storm. I have to admit, I was a bit nervous. I made sure Bill had the bear spray handy just in case he thought about coming closer.
He didn’t though. I think he just wanted us to know this was his food and he wasn’t going to take any guff off us. He went back to the bait, checking us over his shoulder every now and then. He was there for at least 1 ½ hours before his posture changed and he looked off into the woods behind us.
Tracy
Topic: Manitoba bound Tracy's story is started on page 5 (Read 2582 times)
