Bear questions

[woodview]

I'll be heading out bear hunting with my bro this coming weekend. It's the first time ever for both of us, but he has bear on his property. Sorry if I'm rehashing previous posts, but I'm kind of curious about a couple of things.

1) does anyone ever use fish as a bait? I'd think that taking a fairly fresh fish skin and smearing on some trees along with fryer grease or what not would be devastating.

2) Most of the people I've talked to have told me that bear is very tasty, but almost always talk specifically or only about it for burger. Personally, a good venison roast or those little tenderloins or steaks with some hashbrowns and eggs on a snowy sunday morning are hard to beat.

So, how are the steaks and roasts off a bear? What do most of you process yours into?

Even though it's a ton of work, I really do prefer to process my own rather than bringing deer to someone else. A bear that could be 300+ lbs might be a little different. How many of you cut up your own and just how bad is it? Will have to try to find a butchers chart for a bear. Rough estimate on how much it costs to bring one in?

3) I know that a bait station has to be marked but exactly what are the regs on where the sign/s must be placed? I would have thought the best place would be right at a trail head. It would probably keep small game and deer (bow) hunters from heading down that trail so it'd be in the best interest of the hunters. Plus I stumbled across 3 stations that weren't marked that well Sunday. One had no sign on the trail until you got to his stand, 2nd and 3rd had signs 100 and 300 yds in.

I obviously hot footed it out of the areas and didn't look to see if they were currently being worked or not so it's possible these guys had had multiple signs marking their stations (including at trail head) and just forgot to take one down.

4) How many people hunt from ground blinds? Ran across one that looked just like an old german bunker. Small camoflauged shed with two windows facing the bait station. Really thought it seemed pretty cool - they had a real nice shooting lane cut down a steep slope to the bait. They didn't have any bait out anymore (I'd been watching the dog work so didn't notice this one till I looked up and saw a small building out there - then got a bit nervous trying to see where they had their bait site only to find the hole and logs about 8 feet behind me), nor was it posted so I assume they'd already scored. All around I was pretty impressed with the effort and setup they had. Mostly just curious to see how successfull ground hunters actually are.

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5) Anyone ever see the show where a guy takes a bear with a spear? Not sure where that'd be legal.? I know that I saw it quite a few years ago, but no idea what show it actually was but would love to find it if it sounds familiar to anyone.

Just saw the throw and the guy showing off the type of spear - It was a modern design - right where the tip and the shaft met it was kind of wiggly - trying to figure out how to explain what I saw - imagine a sidewinder snake's track in the sand or a couple of capital S's stacked right on top of eachother - know there's some sort of plastic thing I've seen recently that was like it. Same show had the guy using a javeline sized spear with an atl-atl (spear thrower) take down a buck (6pt) (talk about a knock down shot - he had to trail the thing from where it'd been standing and feeding on acorns the entire 5-6 feet the thing got knocked back.

While it'd be neat to try I can't even imagine the practice it'd take to feel confident of a good kill shot at even ten yards (he'd said that the entire point to the flex part of the spear was that it was designed so that even if the shaft didn't fly completely straight the tip would still hit point forward - seemed weird but also seemed to work). I also remember another show about primitive people where the guy makes a spear from scratch by stone knapping a tip and then takes a small buck with it.

Wonder if she'd let me set up a spear target in the basement for some winter fun? By the way this guy was on the ground and he mentioned the old footage of Fred Bear taking a griz with his bow as his inspiration and showed an old vid of it where he successfully cuts off the griz and hides behind a huge boulder; as the bear comes around it he zips one in and starts backpeddaling real quick. Bear took off in opposite direction, but there's gotta be so much adrenaline going I'm surprised his head didn't just pop or spontaneously combust.

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Oh ya, was supposed to hunt this last weekend, but it got postponed. So, of course I ran across as many stations on Sunday as I've seen in the last 10 years. (May be due to the fact that most of my old grouse honey spots have gotten pretty big now and I was hitting some new areas (know where people station in my normal areas and so give a wide berth).

Plus I saw two bears - one pretty small and one that was huge (not a good judge and it was on a really steep bank up above the road as I drove past so take "huge" with a grain of salt or just a grin). Not sure who was more surprised.

The last time I actually saw a bear in the woods with me I was bow hunting and had forgotten all but two tree spikes so I was only up about 7-8 feet and the thing came from behind me. He wasn't big but when you're holding a bow and it's getting dark with a pretty good hike back to the road; plus when he got into my scent he didn't seem too worried, more curious. Not sure I've ever held that perfectly still in my life...

Fred Bear had some big ones is all I can say.

[luckey]

1. Most people don't use fish for a couple reasons. First of all bear do eat fish much and secondly, it stinks to high heaven and rots too fast.

2. Bear is a relative of the pig. If you like pork roast, you will love bear roast. It's not too hard to butcher.

3. The big game regs have the details on how to mark a bait. I think the sign must be fairly close to the bait station. I don't think the trail head will cut it.

4. Ground blinds can work, but I'm too chicken. If you ever had 3-4 bears at your bait at the same time and it is getting dark, well you get the picture. I have used a ground blind but it was along an open field and I was 90 yards from the bait.

5. The spear thing is another urban legend spread first by Fax, now by email. If it starts out with "this is a true story", you can pretty much blow it off.

Good luck.

[big drift]

Actually the spear thing was legal in Canada, and it was in the video promoting a tree stand (cannot remember the name) from the early 90's. An actor from "road house" helped to promote it. The use of spears was dropped just after it was released. A special permit is now required. Unless in an indigenous peoples hunt.

[Jackpine Rob]

There was a guy who lived up in NE Minnesota who speared for several years, and was featured in a number of articles. His significant other also got into the act, and I recall a picture of her up in a treestand with a spear. In the articles the guy mentioned that he made his spear heads out of old lawnmower blades. Can you imagine the marketing possibilities: "Mow down that bruin with Craftsman!" "Bore that Boar with Toro!" "Give that Bear a Dirtnap with Lawnboy!"

The DNR prohibited the use of spears several years after the first articles appeared.

Had the rules not been changed, a whole new season of darkhouse use may have developed. Hoisting the house up in the tree may have been a bit of a challenge... Imagine the fun the woodcarvers would have had fashioning Bear Decoys!

[Neiko]

I used some Lake trout after filleting them and the only thing they do is get a stink going which may help the bear find the pit but we will not use them anymore.

The sign needs to be 20ft from the sight and between 6-10ft high. We have put out "Bear Hunter Ahead" signs on the begining of trails. They serve 2 purposes. 1 to keep people from coming into your bait site and ruining your hunt and second is for their safety. Some bears can get protective of the bait site and if someone stumbled in at the wrong time it could get ugly for the unsuspecting person.

Bear roast are awesome. I love the tenderloins. Steaks can be good if it is young but older bears tend to get more grissle in them then I prefer.

If you do a ground blind make sure your back is covered so they can't sneak up on you. They are extremely quite and can scare the heck out of you.

[89Bronco]

(2) If you already process your deer yourself, you should have no problem with a bear. We do all of our own, deer and bear, and wouldn't have it any other way. One thing with bear, however, that may be different from deer is that you should butcher it as soon as possible. Skin it, get the fat off the meat, and cool the meat as soon as you can. We have done this everytime and the bear meat has been excellent. Better than venison IMO and I love venison. Even my mom, who has not liked venison as long as I can remember, likes the bear meat we cook up.

(4) My first bear was taken while on the ground. I was sitting in a natural blind on top of a ridge with a large tree at my back and a blow-down on either side of me. Straight down the hill about 20 yards was the bait pile. Beyond that was an alder swamp, a creek, and more swamp. Luckily he came up from the swamp. After seeing him run and growl and snap like a big black Tazmanian Devil after being hit with my .44 I've been hunting from a tree ever since!

[iceman16]

The man that used a spear from NE Minnesota is a great guy.i dont know if it is the same man you all are talkin about but he was in the news paper. I have meet him and seen the spear and let me tell you that thing is heavy couldn't imagine flinging that thing at an animal.

iceman

[Ben Nicholson]

Quote:

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We have put out "Bear Hunter Ahead" signs on the begining of trails. They serve 2 purposes. 1 to keep people from coming into your bait site and ruining your hunt and second is for their safety. Some bears can get protective of the bait site and if someone stumbled in at the wrong time it could get ugly for the unsuspecting person.

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We had always done this too. Then last year I was walking in to check a bait and a DNR Officer was walking out. He told me you couldn't put those signs on federal land. I thought that was odd because at the MN DNR bear clinic we attended a few years ago they recommended it. At any rate I didn't argue with him and took the "baited area" signs down.

Didn't put in for a tag this year... going through withdrawl now!

-Ben

[Boar]

hey wood? Bear is awsome but some have had bad experiences with the meat, mabey a dumpster bear or an old bugger. The bear I have shot have come from no qouta zone in north west MN. an these are basicly naturaly fed and crop fed bears. Just like fatting a cow. The burger is awsome, I make what I can, probebly 2/3rds of the meat is burger, steaks are tough but delicious, so I choose to crockpot em' in soup or beans Yummmmm.. Neck roast...... cant touch it, there are no words. Youve heard of "better than sex cake" Mabey? Well.. sorry honey I'm eating bear roast tonight!! All roasts are this good. I wish I could shoot bear as often as deer but where would that challeng be. My bear this year was dressed at 325 an when I inspected him as I was dressing he smelled like bear should, just bear nothing else. I get upset at my wife when she told me she took some roast to work to have her freinds try, What!!Dont do that again... Why? First of all its hard to come by an second $40 for license, $400 for shoulder mount, $75 for skull, an effort in draging an butchering, brake that down to a dollar per pound, Why do I do this? The adrenaline rush an the for the yum yum.. Anyway, Bear is awsome. Later boar