I was nervous. Ridiculously so. I was seeing the big bears that we had coming in on the cameras at each site and I knew that I had to make a damn good shot if a bear came in. I has shot three times to get my gun sighted in and knew that it was right where it needed to be - and I was comfortable making those shots. I packed all of my clothes, which were washed in anti-scent detergent and properly washed and stored with anti-scent dryer sheets. I showered with my anti-scent soap and put everything into the car. As I sat in the driver seat of the car going through my mental checklist, I realized that my gun was still inside. A quick run back inside and I was really ready to go this time. At Steve's, I prepped some bait...
BIG BEAR! No one is scaring him off of that bait That is a normal sized milk crate! 300-400lb bear looking at you! My preferred bear: one that comes out during the daylight My shooter. He came out at 6pm. I would gladly shoot him and be...
Lance and Lorri putting some bait into an empty bucket The good smelling bait... mmm strawberry I was sure that beaver was the grossest smell ever, but I was so wrong. It is easily rotten lobster bodies - the kind that are put into black trash bags and left out in the sun and forgotten about. I dont think any of us didn't gag, hold our breathe or pull our shirts up over our noses in an attempt to stop the smell from penetrating into our nostrils. We added it to one of the beaver carcases and for the first time, I really had to question a black bear's eating preferences. Of course, there is also the 'good' smelling bait that looks like it could be a bunch of $7 granola bars from Whole Foods dumped together and mixed...
Here they come! Site 1 and 2 now have bears coming in. Steve said that they are very good looking bears and healthy, too. These are from the trail camera memory chip that Steve puts into his camera. He then takes these photos, of the camera screen, with his phone. Don't worry - in a few weeks there will be a photo of the real thing 😉 ...
Dad has been gathering and rotating the camera memory cards for about a month now hoping to get a picture of something we like. There are a group of does hanging around which we think are the same group that has been there for the past three of four years. We kept telling ourselves that 'where there are does, there are buck' but it's just not the same. Finally! We saw what we were looking for. Just two pictures but this one is good enough to get us ready to take to the woods. Bring on deer season! I called tibs on this guy! A nice eight-pointer walking...
Steve went back out to the sites four days after we had and there were pictures at site 2. Not the best pictures but there are bears around and coming in! We have a couple more weeks until the hunting season starts and then it runs for 14 weeks. I'm trying to work my schedule to get out and help bait one more time before I head into the woods on the last week of August to try my hand at bear...
On left, unopened sweets. On right, the goodies ready to be put out. I was lucky that it was only 73 degrees out! I would have melted after we headed to the first bait site. I carried buckets filled with bait and some secret ingredients to keep the bears coming back again and again. While I was glad to not be carrying the bucket with the cut up dead beaver, I was reminded of my position down wind of it after every few steps. Making a bait barrel While I support bear hunting as it is now in Maine, I did not know a lot about it and felt that if I was going to support this fight, I should know what I was talking about. So, I told Steve that I would try everything, including preparing bait buckets. If...
Here we go! Turkey season has kicked off in Maine and as Dad and I are getting ready to head out with my friend Brian, I can not help but think of where we werea year ago. I wanted to shoot a turkey while I was pregnant so that I could say that I got both a deer and turkey while waddling around in the woods. It didn't happen but Dad and I learned a lot about this new critter that we were hunting, which is why I asked Brian to take us out for a day. We need to learn how close they need to be to us in order to take a successful shot and we need to learn how to get them to come to us. We were successful last year in having them call back to us, but we were not able to get them to come to us. I think (hope) that is...
A few weeks ago, my great-uncle Donald sent me this book because he had been reading my articles in the Northwoods Sporting Journal and thought I would enjoy this find. While this is not super old, it is older than me and it was great to read through the book and "learn" how to hunt, fish, hike, camp etc. The great thing about being an outdoors-woman right now, is the openness and excitement that I have found with other writers and outdoor-men in my life. In order for us to evolve and become more interested in getting outdoors, it takes someone who is willing to teach us. I hope that when Uncle Donald sent this to me, he saw that too. It is a way to pass on a deep hunting heritage to other family members and create...
