Okay, I guess you guys have called me out. As background, I've hunted with Stickflingers for the past five years. Over that time, I've seen some great bears come out of the Manitoba bush. More importantly, I've always had great fun in Ryan's camp. Ryan runs a top shelf operation and I've been fortunate to share some quality campfires with some great bowhunters. I've been going up each year with the Tall Tines group and we always have a great time.
Over the years, I've passed on several really nice bears and a couple of years ago I was fortunate to kill a nice color-phase bear. Last year, I had a unique encounter with a very large bear on the "Shirt Sleeves" stand but it never presented me with a good shot opportunity. This year Ryan and my guide David mentioned that Shirt Sleeves had a big chocolate colored bear as well as a very large black bear roaming in the area. They suggested I hunt Shirt Sleeves again and I was happy with their recommendation.
I sat Shirt Sleeves for the first two nights and only saw a single, average-sized bear each night. On day three, I told them that I was ready for a change of scenery. They agreed and quickly recommended the Fishing Lake stand.
Fishing Lake is a remote stand that requires a twelve mile quad ride. I had sat this stand in previous years and saw some good bears but nothing huge. I was in a "go big or go home" hunting mode. Shortly after getting settled in my stand, I had bears working their way towards me. Within the next couple of hours, I videoed five different black bears but never picked up my bow. During the last twenty minutes of the evening hunt, I glassed a large bear slowly working his way in my direction. This was a "no doubt" kind of bear and I waited patiently for him to close the distance. Slowly but surely, he progressed towards my stand. At the end of the evening, the bowstring slipped from my fingers as he walked by at seven yards.
I guess the picture will tell the rest of the story...
Topic: Stickflingers (Read 6758 times)
