Bear Season 2011 - So Far, So Bad.

Dad and I applied to bear hunt in zone 12 in northwest Minnesota this year, which is where we do most of our deer hunting. This bear season was planned to serve three purposes. 1) To maybe have a chance at a really big bear and get it on video with either a gun or the bow. 2) To view bears simply as predators to whitetail fawns and do some herd management. The running statistic is that bears are cause for almost half of fawn mortality by predator. 3) To be able to spend some quality time with my dad planning and pursuing game in a new area of hunting. So far, only number three has been going well. We started baiting around the 20th of August and still have not had even one bear visit the sites. Sure the food kept disappearing, but it's all been small critters and birds. We set up two bait sites that were really great locations in my mind. They were right on the backside of a ridge with great trees for backcover and nice 30 yard shooting lanes to fairly natural openings. There were already trails made from bears this summer in these locations. The bears just left.

I talked to a few people who have been baiting nearby and they've said similar things - the bears were just hammering their bait sites and all of a sudden, they just disappeared. The logical conclusion is: acorns. Bears will leave everything sweet and fatty for acorns. Bears breed in June and into early July. However, the fertilized egg doesn't implant into the sow's uterine wall until November. Interesting, huh? If a sow doesn't get what she needs by that time, the egg will not implant. So as soon as she knows acorns are dropping, she becomes obsessed and overcome by her biological makeup. Regardless, the bears have nearly left the area.

My only hope at this point is to move bait sites, wait it out and try again, or sit with the rifle over a 300 yard cut strip that I anticipate bears will cross heading to the sunflowers in a couple weeks. I'll keep you posted as to what I will do. I for sure don't want to keep baiting if there are no bears around.