June, 2007..All bait site leases are confirmed with land owners and paid for. Our bait arrives, all 10 tons of it. A trip to all sites is necessary in order to make sure they are are all accessible. Due to winter damage we always have to drain beaver dams(repeatedly), cut up trees, brush roads and fill in ditches. Our 54 sites cover 25,000. acres and encompass over 100 miles of travel on Maines logging roads.
July...Another trip to all sites is necesary to place tags and repair and rebuild bait bunkers. Many sites have to be relocated due to timber harvesting. This year we relocated and built 6 new sites and man were the deer flies thick and hungry, along with the hottest temperatures on record. In July we also clean out and brush the ground blind areas so when it is time to put them in all the housekeeping has been done.
The weekend of July 29th was opening weekend for baiting and thanks to the help of our son Aaron we got that done over a 3 day period. He hurt his back near the end of the run and has been laid up for the last week but should be ready to go soon. I also hang pails of dead fish and water at each site to create a scent( not a good one for sure) the black bear can smell for a long distance. It works very well but I can never get anyone to help me. They all have weak stomachs. We do a lot of fishing during the summer to get the fish we need for the bait sites. Once black bear come in on this fish scent and find the food they will return. After they visit the bait site we will put 5 gallons of fryolator grease there so they can track it back into the woods and get the attention of other black bear in the area and they will also follow the trail to the bait site.
August...We will wait a full week before we check the sites for the first time to give the black bear time to find the sites. I will expect to have 25-30% of the sites hit on this first visit. Week two will have the sites visited twice and then the frequency will increase as the hits increase. Should any site not be active by opening day it will most likely be shut down.
August 4th...Aaron and I checked all 53 sites today, a 12 hour run and we found 50 sites had been hit by black bear. This has never happened this early before. We don't have much sign yet but to have this many hits this early is very exciting. Now we will begin to bring in grease, so black bear can track it into the woods, placing several cameras out and erecting our ground blinds. Baiting will now be done 3-4 times per week.
August 13th....Just completed the second half of a two day run. Each run was over 9 hours because I put out grease, bait and put up the ground blinds, all on the same visit, so it took much longer. Yesterday I did 24 sites with 24 hits and today I did the other 29 with 28 hits. All but one of the sites was CLEAN. With a bit more housekeeping this week all sites will be ready to go. In addition this week all boats and motors will be given their final check and taken to the river. Our game pole will be erected and all material for our Sunday meeting will be taken to the camps, to include tables, stools, butchering stuff, targets, archery bear target, black bear silouettes etc. The raspberries and blueberries are in full glory and there is evidence of black bear feeding on them.
August 16th...We just finished out last bait run and all 53 sites are being hit and cleaned out each time we go. Looks like we are setting up for a great season.
August 31, 2007....This is our first week of hunting bear and our hunters brought in 4 black bear on opening night. a 205, 220 230 and 105 dressed. On Tuesday there were 3 smaller bear at 100, 105, and 110 with one missed and one wounded and not found. Wednesday had several sightings of sows an cubs along with several that we could not get a shot at as well as a 250 lb dressed boar. Wednesday brought a lot of rain, thunder and lightning and everyone hunted with no results. Thursday had intermittent showers and then the sky opened up fron 5:30 til the end of the evening. All hunters were very cold and wet. One groupd went out at 0700 this morning and came back in at 8 PM tonight. Great guys from Ohio named Don and Steve. One day left. One bear shot Sat. night. Our week ended with 10 bear shot and 14 of 17 hunters seeing bear. Two bear were shot and lost. Not a great week but it is what it is.
Week two had only 4 hunters. Four black bear were shot but again two were lost. Two hunters did not see any bear. The other two guys each wounded and lost one and later in the week they both harvested a black bear. One with a great white "V" blaze on his chest. Two days were very hot and humid with temps in the high 80's. One week left with only 3 hunters in camp.
Well, week three has ended with 4 hunters in camp and 1 small bear shot. Our PA. hunters hunted hard including some morning hunts. We faced some rainy and windy days including getting rained out on Saturday. Sites gradually began to not be hit as the week progressed. From examining the contents of the Bears stomachs it appears they have very little good food to eat. Their stomachs were full of grass. There are no acorns or beech nuts in any numbers, so it appears they are traveling great distances in search of food. Saturday and Sunday were spent cleaning up bait sites and cleaning up the camps. We did pick up some additional land that has never been hunted and we are very excited to take a look at that for a few more sites.
I hope you enjoyed our daily log and look forward to seeing you next year. Happy Hunting.
Gary Tourtillotte
We are expecting a very good year next year and already are 60% booked. Some Guided as well as Outpost hunts are still available. Give us a call.
Moose Season,
Aaron took Major Erich Knox to Zone 3 for a cow hunt and they were successful on their first day. I got called at the last minute to help Jack and Donna Madore from New Jersey with their Bull Moose hunt here in Zone 18. After some heavy scouting on Sunday evening and Monday morning Jack was able to shoot a nice Bull first thing on Tuesday morning. It had a spread of 54" and you can see his picture in our Photo gallery. Nice job Jack.
Aaron and I have just returned from Ohio on a Bow hunt for whitetail and we both shot bucks. Aaron shot a nice Pope and Young 8 pointer and mine was a bit smaller. We had a great trip. Our long cold winter is beginning to set in and we plan to do some coyote hunting and ice fishing this winter.
2008 Bear Season......
January:
Bookings are coming in with good regularity. We have about 50% re-bookings and have 16 hunters from Ohio as well as 6 other states represented. Our bait has been ordered for 2008. Six new ground blinds have been purchased for some new un-hunted land we have acquired. Now the long wait until summer when we will begin to clean all the winter tree damage from out roads and bait sites. We had over 40 inches of snow in December so it looks like it will be a good old fashioned Maine winter.
March 1, 2008....We have had several cancellations as of late and we now have several openings for weeks one, two and three it you are interested. With about 120 inches of snow this year after tonight we may be hunting from igloos!!!!! Winter snow total close to 140".
April 1st...Bait has been ordered and will be coming in June. We still have 2-4 feet of snow on the ground.
April 28th...Due to a great April most all of our snow is gone in the open areas. Also we have just had a full cabin open up for guided Black Bear hunts for week 2, August 31, 2008. Call now and get a discount on this hunt.
May...Snow has disappeared and "yes" the black flies and mosquitos are here. After Memorial weekend we will hit the woods to see what the roads and bait sites look like and scout a new 1500 acre area for several new sites. Usually trees are down, roads may be washed out and the beaver have usually caused some problems. Also some areas have been heavily logged during the winter resulting in a need to move a number of sites to other areas if possible.
May 30, 2008 My first visit into the woods show very good bear sign. Many dead logs are torn up as well as rocks rolled over as bear look for insects. A number of good tracks of boars and sows were spotted in the mud as they walked the logging roads during the evening hours. Many of our roads are vry muddy from the Spring rains so I will wait for them to dry up a bit before making another scouting trip. Bait is cheduled to arrive on June 27th.
June..30,000. lbs of bait has arrived and been disbursed to various hunting guides. Our first trip to the hunting grounds will be July 8th. Sites will be brushed, blinds repaired and erected, tags placed, bait bunkers restored and prepared for baiting which begins July 28th. Most of July, 1-2 days per week will be spent readying these 58 sites.
NOTICE......We just had a cancellation for Week ONE of 2008. August 24th for a party of 4..... call for special pricing for your group.
July 27, 2008...Well during the month of July all sites have been readied, as stated above. The initial baiting began on July 25th and lasted thru July 28th. All sites have now been done and will be checked for the first time in one week. The initial baiting takes longer than the rest because there is so much to do at each site. That includes the bait, a call bait(deceased fish)and water in a bucket to be hoisted into a tree. Anise oil and peppermint oil spray. A 25 lb solid block of bait was also placed at each of the 56 sites. Next weekend will be spent visiting all sites. Talk to you then. Last minute hunts are still available due to cancellations. Call Now!
July 28,2008
All sites have been baited for the first time. Each site has 25 lbs of bait in the bunker. I will wait for one week to give the bear enough time to find the site for the first time. Next weekend we will check all baits.
August 4, 2008
All baits were visited over the weekend and we had 27 of the 56 baits hit.
an ample supply of bait has been placed at each site to last the bear several days. Our next visit will be next weekend when we will begin to add fryolator grease to the sites. After next weekend bait runs will be done daily.
thanks for reading our daily log. We still have openings for week one due to cancellations. Til next time.
August 12, 2008
Well is is our 36th wedding anniversary today and I took my wife baiting all morning. Don't tell your wives that they will think I am an animal. Well aside from that we have completed our third round of baiting all 57 sites and our hits are up to 54/57 which is really good for the third round. I expect them all to be hit in this next week. We have identified several sows with cubs on camera. The preseason weather has been anything but good. All pre baiting preparation in July was done in very hot and humid weather. Since baiting began July 27th it has rained nearly every day. We have not had one sunny day so far in August but we are hoping for some soon.
Sept.1,2008
Week #1 has come to a conclusion with fair results. We had 14 hunters in camp and 10 shot at Black Bear. 7 hunters from Ohio shot at bear and 7 went home with one. Two of them went home with record book bear dressing over 260 lbs. Go Ohio!!!!
A problem we have been having is excessive feed in the wild, mainly blackberries. Three weeks of rain in early August caused these berries to become ripe very quickly. Some sites are being hit sporadically and others are not being opened at all. Many are being hit only after dark. We did however manage to keep 4 digital cameras relocated daily and filing pictures daily by site so we could have as much information as possible to help make the best site selections for our hunters on a daily basis. As we speak with other outfitters around the state we find a very low kill rate the first week. All of the bear we cleaned during the first week were completely full of blackberries.
As we had 10 hunters with small deposits no show up this week and not even call, we only have 2 hunters in camp. Three bear were spotted by one of those hunters but no shots were taken. We hope conditions will improve as the days pass. Hunters are traveling with me on bait runs and have been able to witness bait site activity whether it be good or bad, they view our photos and hit records of each sites. Our hunters are fully involved in our hunts. We want all of our hunters to be successful and some seasons are more challenging than others. We want you to understand what is going on in the black bears world. It is usually food, food, food. Until next time.
Week two: Jake Zeller and young middle schooler from NJ stayed over on Monday from his previous weeks hunt to give it one more try before heading back to school. He made a great shot on his first Black Bear. He should be proud of his trophy. Good job Jake and Dad John.. See you next year. We only have two new hunters in camp this week as we had 6 "no shows". Both had opportunities at Black Bear. Chris passed up a nice bear on Monday thinking it was smaller than it was. He saw three bear on Monday. On Saturday night and 3 sites later he saw a Sow and twins. Jason, on the other hand, killed his bear (first big game animal ever)on Friday night. We found it the next morning and after a several hundred yard drag we had it in the truck. It was a nice 170+ pound dressed Boar. Congratulations to Jason. He shot his bear at 10 yards from the ground and now knows what a true adrenalin rush is.
Week three...WE have 6 hunters in camp from TX and LA. The remnants of hurricane Hannah passed over the weekend and we have back into nice weather. Bait sites hits are still spotty be we have 26 sites still open and being hit regularly so we are hoping for some good results this week. I'll let you know as soon as we do.
Week three has concluded with poor results. It has been our worst week in 11 years with no bear killed. One hunter had an opportunity with no results. Apparently I am hearing of similar results statewide. An abundance of natural food seems to be the problem. We have plenty of bear. Four digital cameras show multiple bear on most sites at all hours of the day. Our hunters fought a hard battle be hunting as much as 8 hours per day. We hunted morning and afternoon splits, mid day, one hunter off a site and another hunter on. Several days of heavy rain and wind along with moonlit nights did not help the cause any. We changed our bait type, baiting schedule and used various scents to attract bear to the sites early. All to no avail. We finished our season with 22 hunters of which 14 had shot opportunities. Two did not shoot, one lost and one missed and 10 bear killed. My thanks to all of the great hunters we had this year that hunted so hard and did everything we asked
With an abundance of bear we are expecting a great year in 2009. It will be my last year personally involved in the guide business and I am really looking forward to a fun year. I hope you will come and enjoy our final year.
My son Aaron will be operating the business on a bit smaller scale and we are also planning to be opening a Whitetail operation in Southern Iowa and Northern Missouri. All of our Bear hunters will be mailed final information as soon as the details havae been worked out. Our initial hunt costs will be reduced the first year in appreciation of all of our Bear hunters that have hunted with us over the years.
We currently have over 20 hunters booked for 2009 so if you would like to come and be a part of my final season call soon. We will have prize give aways each week as well as free hat and possibly T-Shirts.
Thanks again for reading my Blog. Many of hunters have told my how much they enjoyed it and I do not know of another outfitter that provides one. What we do is no secret. You will always know what is going on, no BS here. Our sincere thanks to all our great hunters this year and how prepared they were when they arrived. From our family we wish you all the best during the rest of 2008. Our best wishes to you all and thank you for your patronage.
January 2009. Hunt preparation packets will be mailed out to all hunters that have mailed in their deposits. Our order for 2009 bait will be placed.
We will be getting our bait delivered today and we have just made arrangements to get our cooking grease from a local restaurant for the season.
ALSO..I have just had three openings for WEEK ONE due to a cancellation. Many hunters like the first week so if you are interested here's your chance.
Gary
1-23-09....NOTICE...NOTICE...NOTICE....WE WILL BE ATTENDING A MEETING NEXT WEEK WITH THE PENOBSCOT INDIAN NATION TO DISCUSS A FIRST TIME SPRING BLACK BEAR HUNT FOR OUR AREA OF CENTRAL MAINE. THESE ARE AREAS THAT HAVE NOT BEEN HUNTED BE BLACK BEAR. THIS IS A GREAT CHANCE FOR INTERESTED HUNTERS TO BE FIRST FOR THIS HISTORIC HUNT. EVENTHOUGH IT IS SHORT NOTICE WE THINK WE CAN PUT TOGETHER A GOOD GROUP OF HUNTERS FOR THIS FIRST YEAR. IF YOU HAVE INTEREST LET US KNOW ASAP. WE WILL POST MORE INFORMATION ON THIS BLOG NEXT WEEK IF NOT BEFORE.
March 11, 2009
Hello everyone! I guess I need to put an entry into this log as 3 people have asked me this week what is going on up here in Maine. Well, many of you have forgotten we are not far from the North Pole in this part of the world. My yardstick on the back lawn says we still have 28" of snow there with much more in the woods where the sun does not melt it as rapidly. There is still 2-3 feet of ice on our lakes and snowmobiling is going strong. Oh ya, it is snowing hard today. Once the snow is gone in late April and the roads dry up a bit in May we can enter the woods in June and July to make sure all sites are accessible. In 2010 our son Aaron will be running our Bear operation and I will assist. Kind of a role reversal. In regards to the Spring hunts with the Penobscot Nation. It looks like we will not be doing those hunts this May and June due to the short time frame and the lack of an Indian guide available(a necessity)to assist us. We'll keep you posted here on any changes. Hunting spots are still available for 2009. As most of you know we will be opening Antler Alley Outfitters (www.antleralleyoutfitters.com) in Missouri and Iowa this Fall. We are currently have 6 hunters booked and ared looking for one additional party of bow hunters for the first week in November. If you have any club, shop or other location you can post information let us know and we can send you business cards and posters. Thanks for visiting our site and pray for warm weather.
Gary
NOTE: I WANTED EVERYONE TO KNOW THAT READS THIS BLOG THAT AARON AND I HAVE OPENED WWW.ANTLERALLEYOUTFITTERS.COM. WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO VISIT OUR WEBSITE AND TAKE A LOOK AT OUR WHITETAIL HUNTS IN IOWA AND MISSOURI. WE OFFER DISCOUNTS FOR WHEN YOU BOOK A BLACK BEAR AND A WHITETAIL HUNT AT THE SAME TIME EVEN IF IT IS FOR DIFFERENT YEARS. ALSO, GROUP DISCOUNTS ARE AVAILABLE FOR GROUPS OF 3-4.
Thanks. Til nest time.
Gary
March 20, 2009
The calender says Spring is here. We still have 18" of snow and 24" of ice on the laces but some melting is taking place when we get some nice days. Moose applications can now be done online. Go to www.maine.gov/online/moose and click on Moose Permits. Application deadline is May 15, 2009. If you are interested in applying call us for the right zones to enter on your application.
We now have 2 groups of hunters coming to hunt with us in Missouri at Antler Alley Outfitters. We have room for two more groups in 2009. If you know of anyone that would like to hunt Whitetails in the Midwest please direct them to our website at www.antleyalleyoutfitters.com
Thanks,
Gary
April 24, 2009
Here's a story most of you won't believe, but I do because I know how well my son Aaron can see and what a good hunter he is. Several days ago while traveling South on I-95 here in Maine at 70 mph he spotted a shed deer antler in the woods. (So he said. There were many doubters, but he did have two witnesses in the truck with him). He just called me this morning and said he stopped and found not only that shed but the matching side. A nice 8 point. He was great to see him so excited. I can't wait until his friends see the proof.
I thought you might enjoy this story. If it stays dry we will be in the woods in May cleaning up our bear sites and looking for several new ones. It is good to get some of the work done before the mosquitos get thick in June.
Have a great Spring and Summer.
Gary
May 2009
MOOSE HUNTING...The State of Maine has decided to have a controlled Moose hunt in order to control the number of Moose in selected locations. You can read the details at www.mefishwildlife.com. We have entered the drawing for the 15 guides that will be selected. If we are drawn we will receive 3 moose tags, 2 cows and 1 bull. The season runs from August 17 to Sept. 19. We will be offering these hunts to our Black Bear hunters first and to the general public next. These hunts should be relatively easy as we will be shooting moose that are destroying farmers broccoli fields. The hunts will take place 3 hours North of our current location. The drawing for guides will be on June 15th, 2009. If you have any interest in one of these hunts let us know and we will contact you should we get drawn.
Regards,
Gary
June 6, 2009
Today we received notice of a death of one of our hunters and the complete party will not be coming so we now have an opening for a party of 3-4 hunters for the opening week of Black Bear season beginning 8-31-09. If yoiu are interested let me know.
Thanks,
Gary
June 12, 2009
We just found out today that one of our paper companies we lease land from has taken away 5 of our bait sites because they are closing the roads due to the excessive dumping of trash by the locals. We are glad we have more sites than we need at times like these so it will not be a problem. It was the worst road we have and will save us over 100 hours of baiting time. Maybe it is a blessing in disguise. My truck will like the news!!!!!
June 15, 2009
Sorry Everyone!!! We did not get drawn as one of the 15 guides for the controlled Moose hunt in Maine for 2009. We are not surprised. Better luck next time. Don't forget the regular moose hunt lotter is on June 18th.
Til next time,
Gary
June 23, 2009
We are into our 14th straight day of clouds and rain and the forecast is for 6-8 more days of this. We have driven all of our bait site roads and the downed trees are cleared. Starting July 1st, rain or no rain, I will be in the woods brushing out each of our 50 bait sites. August 1st will be the first day we can begin baiting.
Have a great summer,
Gary
July 18,2009
Most sites are ready for bait. I only need to build two more and brush out four more existing ones. This will all be done early next week. Over the next 10 days I will be getting my "call bait" material ready as well as preparing all scents and baits for the first bait run on August 1st and 2nd. It will take two days or more to do the first bait run. I will not check the baits for 7-10 days to give the bear time to find them, but during that time I will begin to install all of our ground blinds. This will be done before August 15th.
I am not sure how the excessive rains we have had this summer have affected the natural feed. There appear to be plenty of berries and I suspect we will have a average to good crop. I have spotted a good deal of torn up logs and rolled over logs as bear are foraging for insects. I will post again after the first week of August.
Gary
August 3, 2009
All 50+ sites are brushed out, roads and trails cleared. Blinds are up, call baits hung and sites are all baited as of today. It still continues to rain and several sites still need to be moved if the rains do not stop. The beaver are working overtime. The baits will not be checked the first time for 7-10 days due to the inconsistent hits. It takes some of them a while to find the sites. Wild berries seem to be a bit scarce due to a lack of sunshine. They certainly have plenty of water. We look forward to seeing this years hunters soon.
We have two good groups of hunters coming to Iowa this year to hunt whitetail. Check out our website at www.antleralleyoutfitters.com
See ya soon,
Gary
Saturday August 8th
All baits have been checked for the first time and 42 of the 50 baits have been hit. This 84% hit rate on the first bait check is very good. It may be just circumstance or the lack of the usual number of wild berries due to the absence of much sunshine this summer.
8-12-09
It is our 37the wedding anniversary today and I took my wife bear baiting. How romantic can one get???? Our son Aaron did half and I did half. 50 baits and 50 hits. We are very pleased with how quick the baits have been hit. The first part of the plan has come together rather nicely. This coming week we will put 5 gallons of fryerlator grease on each site and see if we can get the bear to track it into the woods and get more bear to come to the site. A little competition is good. I noticed today that blackberries are slowly beginning to ripen as we are getting some warm sunny days in August. Raspberries are gone and blueberries are about average.
On a side note.....I have six 55 gallon empty metal bait barrels with locking covers behind my garage. Last night 3 of them were taken into the woods behind our house by a black bear. We are in a sub division and no one has ever seen a bear here. I guess they are hungry.
Gary
Gary
August 22, 2009
All baits still being hit well. Bear have torn down 3 blinds and disabled 2 digital cameras. We have spotted 4 sets of sows and cubs and we will avoid those sites unless we spot a shooter bear at the same sight and then we will use it only if necessary with an experienced bear hunter. Many of the bear are appearing during daylight hours which is good. As usual some are AM and late night as usual. We look forward to seeing you all real soon. There will not be any additional notes in this blog due to the very busy schedule this coming week. We will be doing 3 bait runs this week, taking 3 boats and motors to the camps, setting up our game pole as well as the bear processing area and getting your camps ready. All of our trucks will be going the garage for their final check before the season to make sure everything is in good order. Our 1990 blue Chevy that has hauled nearl 200 bear over the last 11 years has some rust issues so she has a new frame and rear body and will be ready for next Monday. Everyone travel safe and we look forward to seeing you soon.
2009 Recap
2009 was a year with no natural feed in our area and it appeared that bear began wandering over large areas to find food. We shot 16 bear and none had berries in their stomachs. Most had grass, one has wasps and several others were empty. All sites were being hit very well early in the season and began to be more sporadic as time went on. 23 of our 34 hunters saw bear and 16 shot bear. These are not the type of results we had planned on but sometimes they happen. All of our hunters should be commended on their shooting prowess as we had no lost bear. Most went between 0 and 50 yards with one at about 70 yards.
We will be heading to Iowa and Missouri with our Whitetail clients in late October.(www.antleralleyoutfitters.com) We'll be back next Summer as we begin to prepare for our next black bear season. Thanks to every one that hunted with us as well as all of you that visited our websites.
Regards,
Gary, Karen and Aaron Tourtillotte
Gary
NOTE....10-7-09 Aaron shot a 240 lb sow this fall with his bow and aarow and it had a tag in its ear. Today I spoke with Maine's bear biologist, Mr. Randy Cross, and he gave me the details of this bears life. She was born in 2001 in far Eastern Maine near Machias. In 2003 she was bothering bee hives used in the pollenation of the blueberry crop of Washington County. She was caught and relocated to the East near Brandy Pond. This area is actually West of our hunting area about 50 miles or so. She has crossed some rough terrain to get to Aaron's bait site, including crossing the Penobscot River. She was 8.5 years old. The original report stated she was a boar but I informed Mr. Cross that was not the case.
November 23, 2009 We just arrived home from our 30 day stay guiding hunters and hunting whitetails in Ohio and Missouri. See www.antleralleyoutfitters.com
January 3, 2010
We wish you all a great 2010. We have seen a good amount of hunter inquiries since Christmas. We have only 2 guided spots left available for week one, 8-30-10. Our popular "Outpost" semi-guided hunts have several spots available for week one as well. Group discounts available.
March 1, 2010
We have had a great winter in most of Maine with less than normal snowfall along with moderate temps in February. We have made arrangements for our bait and due to the lack of snow we will be going into the woods in the next week or two to get some of our serious road and site clearing done before the biting bugs decend upon us. We have a number of sites to relocate due to new landowner restrictions. We also have some new property to scout. 2010 openings are still available.
March 18, 2010
Aaron and I were in the woods today and brushed out about 200 yards of logging roads that had grown in or had trees down from winter snow damqage.
March 31, 2010
We picked up half of our bait today and will be putting it into 55 gallon drums to store it for the summer.
April 8, 2010
We finished with 17 drums of bait. We will be picking up another load this month and plan to have 45-50 barrels when we are finished. We hope to have all sites and roads brushed out by the end of May. We will wait for the Spring and early Summer batch of black flies and mosquitos to subside a bit before we begin to install blinds and work on the bunkers in July. Baiting will begin at the end of July.
Have a great Summer.
Gary Tourtillotte
July 22, 2010
Hello fellow hunters. My apologies for not having any entries in the log for a while. Aaron and I have been very busy cleaning and clearing baits sites and roads to get them ready to bait next weekend. All 50 are finally done. The weather has been extremely hot and humid this July. We are now getting our bait, special scents and cameras ready for the initial bait run. We look forward to a great goup of hunters this year and 2011 bookings are coming in quicker than expected. Have a great summer everyone.
Gary and Aaron
July 31, 2010
Aaron and I spent the weekend doing the initial bait run on all of our bear sites. Tags were put up, special scent to call bear in, 5 gallons of grease and bait. It was hot but we had a good time. Now, we'll let a few days pass to give them time to find the sites and return at the end of the week for another bait run and install cameras on the sites that have been hit. I would expect at least a 50% hit rate on this next run. We have a lot of blueberries and raspberries. Due to the extremely dry summer most of those berries will be gone in a week or two. There are still a large number of black berries that are still green and need some rain to ripen. We look forward to seeing you all very soon.
Gary and Aaron
August 7, 2010
We have finally completed our first check of all baits and we have 26 hits out of our 48 baits. We are happy with that number. I will return on Wednesday and Thursday and would expect an additional 10 hits or so. Several of our sites we need to move because once we had them all set up and baited they moved in a timber harvesting operation. We should get that taken care of this week.
See ya,
Gary
August 22, 2010
This is our last week of preparation and things are going very well. The camps are all set up and ready, and all baits have been hit but two.
We only have 6 sets of sows and cubs versus 14 last year. A number of excellent bear have been seen on our cameras and most bear are hitting at good times. We are now feeding them excess food to make every attempt to retain them at the bait sites as the berries are beginning to disappear. We look forward to welcoming our first group of hunters on Friday.
Gary
Sept. 3, 2010
We had 17 hunters this week. Our final tally was 16 hunters saw bear with 14 shooting bear and one lost. Our largest bear was a 265 pound dressed sow. It was a very hot week with temperatures over 90 degrees all week. All tracking jobs were under 100 yards with most under 50 yards. Thank you hunters for a job well done. Hurricane Earl gave us 7 inches of rain with wind on Friday night and Saturday AM. We had the remaining hunters in early just after the rain stopped and one was successful with a nice boar with a "V" blaze on his chest. Thanks to all of our hunters for a great week. We had 8 states represented.
Gary and Aaron |
