After putzing around a bit, I turned on the TV. I haven't previously stayed in this cabin and apparently this is one of them where the TV is hooked up to satellite. I watched several episodes of The Office - while I love the show, I also found this a little sad while in bear camp. So it goes.
Soon enough we all met for breakfast before dividing up to go fishing. Nathan (Minnesota) and I went with Drew. We started out jigging which was mildly productive, even if it isn't my favorite way to fish.
After jigging for a while we trolled with bottom bouncers. Earlier this year Lake Erie was the first time I had heard of bottom bouncers, so I'm not sure how long these have been in use (probably forever), but it is at least odd that these come up right after each other. This was also mildly productive.
We ended the morning with a bit of casting around structure and weeds which wasn't terribly productive. Drew was dragging a jib behind and under the boat and ended up pulling in more fish than Nate or I did while casting.
While the volume of fish wasn't huge, we certainly had the species covered with northern pike, walleye, perch and small mouth bass.
After a good lunch, I got ready for the first afternoon on the bear stand. There was a not insignificant threat for rain, and I was to sit in a single hang-on stand - so I left my pack at the cabin, wore my rain gear, and just packed in what I could in my pockets. While it never did rain, this was probably the right thing to do as I was as comfortable as I could be.
I was dropped off down river at Blueberry Mound? (wasn't that a Beatles' song?). The ladder up to the stand was narrow, but I'm not that old (yet). Once settled in, I was in for a wait. Being the first night, it was a bit hard to get into the stand-sitting mode. There was a bit of wind and the mosquitoes were just present enough to be annoying. They would come in groups and just as I'd give to light up my Thermacell, they would all leave. I should have just lit the friggin thing.
My times may be off since my watch was set to home time, but I think around 6:30 I saw a bear off to my left. It slowly made its way toward me, eventually walking about 10 yards in front of me. Of all the animals I've hunted, bears are by far the hardest to judge. It looked like a pretty but still juvenile bear. It never even went into the barrel, but milled around in front of me before bolting off to my right.
I saw a few pine martins which I know are plentiful in this part of Manitoba. But I don't recall seeing them since my first bear hunt 10 years ago. It was neat to see a couple of them underneath me and near the barrel.
About 45 minutes later another bear came into the barrel. This one looked smaller than the first and it stayed around for quite a long time. Again, it was hard to judge, but I think holding off was the right thing to do. It was getting dark as this bear slowly meandered away.
On every stand hunt, there is a time period of about five minutes when I could probably shoot, but also know I shouldn't. I always plead not to see anything during this time - and on this night another bear came in right about then. I probably could have shot it, but judging its size was nearly impossible in the fading cloudy light. Again, just watching was probably the right thing to do.
This third bear stayed around until well after dark - to around dark, dark, dark. I was wondering when I was going to get picked up when #3 tore off to the right. I thought this was Dave picking me up until I looked down and saw a fourth bear nearly right underneath me. With almost no light it was just a dark blob, but this was probably a really good sized bear. I (sort of) watched it saunter up the barrel and it stayed in the dark, murky shadows until Dave came and got me. I knew it had moved off when I saw Dave's flashlight, but I didn't realize it was only a short distance until I dropped my seat cushion and heard it tear through the woods behind me.
Nate had shot a bear that night, but Dave and he hadn't been able to recover it in the dark. It was forecast to be cool, so it would be all right overnight. But it was also forecast to rain - which could make tracking a bit harder. Nate wasn't feeling too happy about the situation - understandable.
Back in camp, tall Arizona dude (I don't think he's a "K" anymore...) had gotten his bear. His wife was fishing so this allows them to fish together the rest of the week. Several others had seen bears, but nobody else had shot.
Everyone in camp ate a beary late supper before we turned in immediately after.
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