Meet the newest member of the family

[Bwana]

I apologize that this is hunting-related but thought some might still appreciate it. ;-)

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[Bwana]

Guess I should have consulted with my sister prior to posting.

[Thumper]

Guess I should have consulted with my sister prior to posting.

All of us thought you'd figured that out by now! ;)

Great pics buddy! That sure brings back memories of my annual bear hunts in N. Ontario. Congrats!

[BarryBobPosthole]

congrats!

And just fyi, your camo don’t match.

BKB

[quercus alba]

Clarence's lawyer is on line two

[Hombre]

Congrats Bwana! Those are some great pics....now the trip report is a bit sparse!

[Chicken Dinner]

Would have been a nice bear in another year or two![emoji6]


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[Bwana]

Trip Report:
Left last Saturday for a locale in western Manitoba 650 miles away where we were then hauled 13-14 miles across a lake by boat to the camp on an island where we were for a week. The first two days the extreme winds and rain kept us in camp, day 3 two of us shot a bear (crossbow and bow), day 4 was again weathered out, and the last two days resulted in no other bears harmed during the course of hunt. Though the other two gents were looking for a special bear, one gent didn't see a single bear while the other gent saw a couple of smaller bear and one shooter, but it failed to offer a decent archery shot.

When I was at this camp before, 4 years ago, the weather was much warmer so both the mosquitoes and fish were much more active, but given a late spring the ice only came off the lake a week before our arrival so things were a quite a bit slower.

One thing that was reaffirmed on this hunt was just how effective a sharp stick can be. I used a borrowed go-pro to video my hunt and can honestly say that my bear was dead within 3-4 seconds of being shot.

Another thing I learned was though it seems like a good idea to sit on a stand just to photograph and video bear, doing so without a sharp stick or gun when one has to walk past the bait station to leave the area, doesn't seem so great when there is a bear between you and the boat.

[Hombre]

Sounds like a great trip, thanks for the report.

[Penguin]

Good deal. I've only seen a very small percentage of Canada, but every square inch was impressive. Lovely country. Good to see you have a memory making trip man.

Will

[Chicken Dinner]

That does sound like an awesome time. I’ve got Canada and Alaska pretty high in my list and need to get out there while I’m still young enough to really immerse myself in the back country.


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[Thumper]

Canada is a beautiful country and I consider myself blessed to have been able to spend so much time up there. For many years, I went up to Northern Ontario (way north, above the Arctic Circle) twice a year to bear hunt and fish for walleye .... with some slimy Pike (locals called 'em Pickerel) thrown in for good measure. It started in the old days when you could hunt on your own and they had both a Spring bear as well as a Fall bear season. It was always tough on me because I was a poor working man with limited vacation time and had to squeeze in Fall bear season in Canada, then deer season in Ohio. In the Spring, I had to juggle with Spring bear season in Canada and turkey season in Ohio. I took many unpaid vacations in those days, but it was worth every penny lost. Once I became self-employed, it still hurt financially, because the Fall and Winters were my "season" (heaviest business months). It was a bit of a relief when Canada halted Spring bear season mostly due to the anti-hunting crowd protesting that hunters were killing sow's with cubs. Maybe so, I really don't know, but OUR party was always extremely careful to observe before shooting, to make sure there were no cubs in the vicinity. We could usually tell a boar from a nursing sow, but it wasn't always easy, so we'd let a shot pass if there was any doubt. With the end of the Spring bear season, they also made it mandatory that one could only hunt bear with a licensed guide. We'd been going up for so long, we had excellent rapport with our outfitter and since our camp was so remote, he'd let us continue on our own as always (although we still had to pay his guide fees). It started getting a bit more pricey though, because we used to be able to buy our license and tags at Walmart, but with the changes, they'd just allow each outfitter to have X-amount of tags and they had to be purchased through the particular outfitter. What that meant was, the outfitter only had that limited number of tags and they could only be filled on his property, so he could pretty much ask for any price he wanted. If he had a high number of hunters looking for tags, why would he give them to us at a highly "discounted" rate. To add to that, even though we didn't use his services, we'd still pay the guide fees as he could always tell us to jump in a lake as he could easily fill the slot with another hunter who would pay full-pop. Bear hunting was beginning to get more expensive with every year and finally got to the point we'd just go up for the fishing. I'd killed so many bears it became a "been there, done that" thing for me anyway. That said, I still miss the beauty of the remote bush and the camaraderie. ALL of my old bear hunting/walleye fishing buddies are dead now, but the memories will last forever.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Great trip report! Sounds like a good time, disregarding those weather days.

BKb