Sunrise came to a beautiful Manitoba morning.
After breakfast, Kevin once again took Matt and I out for fishing. We went above the rapids. Fishing was a little better than the previous day. We hooked into several fish and the pike were on average a bit bigger. We still didn't hook into any whoppers, but at least a bit better. There was one keeper pike in the bunch that I didn't get a picture of (and regret that slightly). Both Matt and I caught decent smallmouths too. Matt's was much larger.
We ended the morning by Kendalls which is usually really good for smalleys, but I did quite well with the northern pike there while Kevin and Matt ended by jigging for walleye - catching a few keepers.
After lunch Vance took myself and Sawyer (sp?) out to one of the road baits. I was on Construction which was a nice comfortable double. When I first got situated, it felt a bit weird to not be near the river and there were no other animals running around. I was worried it could be a long lonely afternoon. I knew there were bears in the area since there was quite a bit of poop, including a pile near the base of the stand (which looked oddly human...).
Around 4:00 I saw a flash of black near the bait and three cubs came out. I've seen cubs before so I knew I could be in for a good show.
Even in the relatively short time I watched these bears, I could see distinct personalities of the cubs. The two larger cubs were aggressive and fought a lot. The third smaller one bolted at the slightest risk.
These four bears were around for around two hours. The sow was a very good-sized bear. I noticed she had a large chomp taken out of the side of her face right near her right eye - almost certainly from a fight with another bear. I took a look at it through the scope at one point and could see it was red and oozy; it looked painful.
The bears would wander around, eat, fight ... it seemed to be a normal bear day. The more timid cub spent quite a bit of time in the tree next to me.
The sow spent quite a bit of time right next to me. She knew I was there, but seemed content to sleep. At one point all three cubs laid down at the base of another tree next to me while the sow went up to eat popcorn for a while. There was some obvious food-coma going on as they had eaten quite a bit of popcorn by this point.
After about two hours of fun, the bears got nervous and started looking away. Mom walked in that direction and while I couldn't see what happened, there was a knock-down fight which lasted a minute or so. All the cubs were in trees, including one hanging out in the tree right next to me.
They made there way down and out of the area and shortly another bear came out. It was smaller than the sow and not a shooter.
It stayed for a while until someone on an ATV came up somewhere behind me. It was close enough that I could hear the cooling system cycle on and off. It was really annoying and made the bear very nervous. The bear tolerated the ATV until it turned around and went back the other way. I thought I was going to be alone, but it only lasted a short time before another bear came out. It was a much nicer bear and I really thought about shooting it. But I could not get a good look at it since it immediately flopped down on the ground when it came in. It was definitely a 6+ foot bear, but I couldn't tell how much "+" it was.
It left and either came back or another similar bear came in with the same ambiguity for size. It stayed for a while before I saw another bear lurking in the woods beyond the bait. I could see cubs too, so I wasn't sure if it was a different sow, or the one I had already seen until I caught a glimpse of the chomp on her face.
She came into the bait and attacked the bear that was there. It was intense? Scary? Disconcerting? These two bears started tearing around the area in a skirmish that lasted several minutes. They were snarling and screaming and knocking down trees. At one point they tore, screaming their bear heads off right under the treestand. I wish I could have gotten video, but I could only catch glimpses of them. But seeing a knock-down, drag-out bear fight was wild. It was ... exciting.
Eventually the sow convinced the other bear to stay away, although I could hear both of them chomping their jaws at each other. The cubs came back out.
As it got dark, I heard Vance come in to get me. All four bears (sow and cubs) climbed the tree next to me. When Vance saw this he said, "Aww F*ck!" This is not what I want to hear my bear guide say. I ended up having to get out of the tree with the meanest sow in the woods about 6 feet off the ground and 10 feet away from it. She was still snarling and snapping her jaws.
Quite frankly, it was one of the most exciting days of bear hunting ever - even without ever firing a shot.
Back in camp Curt and Reagan (sp?) had both shot bears very early. Kelly and Glenn (sp?) also shot bears.
I was exhausted after dinner and fell asleep reliving snarling bears.
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