After a larger breakfast than I normally eat, Drew took Bill, Sam and myself out for fishing. The day was temperate with a bit of wind - good for fishing.
We started by jigging for walleye which I don't find a very engaging way to fish. Drew knew this (my reputation for wanting pike is well known here), but I made a serious go of it. It wasn't productive, so Drew suggested I cast for pike as we got closer to some island weed beds. I brought in a bunch of pike. They were all small(ish), but it was still fun to bring them in.
We moved to another spot and again tried a mix of jigging and casting. At one point I had a fish on the line which felt oddly non-pike-ish. Bringing it in, I had caught a decent walleye ... on a spinnerbait.
We fished that area for a while longer; jigging brought in a few more walleye while I caught a couple more pike. Overall a decent morning for fishing.
After a nice lunch, it was time to go out for bears. Vance took Sam and me to the road baits. Sam was dropped off first while I waited. It was hot with some humidity. I was wearing my rain suit since rain and thunderstorms were expected. I was not very comfortable.
Then it was on to Joyce Trail where I saw the meanest sow in the woods the previous year. I got situated while Vance baited both the normal barrel and a roll barrel. As Vance left, I dropped a shotgun slug. I briefly thought about just ignoring it, but I knew I would overthink it, so I got down and did quickly find it. Once back in the stand, I was uncomfortably hot and felt drenched in sweat. Ugh.
I did what I could to settle down and get situated. The first bit of time passed slowly. It always takes me some time to settle into the rhythm of bear hunting. Around the time I was cooling down I saw a bear nosing towards the bait from far trees. It meandered around and finally came in to the roll barrel first. It was a smaller young bear, but nice to see so early (4:40).
It stayed around nervously for quite some time. When it left another slightly bigger bear started to come in. I was starting to wonder if these could be the bear cubs I had seen the previous year - one year older and bigger? Unlikely, but at least remotely possible. It never came all the way in, but just sat down and watched from a short distance away.
This bear hung around for a while and a third bear came in. This was definitely a new bear and was much bolder than the first two. It almost scared me how fast it came in. It stayed for quite some time, munching on popcorn. There was enough wind that it was hard to hear much, but I was, once in a while, clearly hearing some of that very characteristic light walking sounds that suggests other bears were nearby.
Around this time, bears were definitely working the area while I sat there trying to keep track of what was going on. One bear was a decent size bear - maybe six feet? But that might be optimistic due to most of the other bears being smaller.
While I could tell some of the bears apart based on demeaner, I had a hard time keeping track of all the bears. The bears were charging each other from areas I could not see - sometimes almost right next to me, sometimes farther away.
At one point there was a bear directly to my right and bear at the barrel when I heard a big ruckus to my left. It reminded me of the movie Reservoir Dogs, where all the criminals are trying to be one-up each other in how tough they are, more so since they don't know each other. And also like the movie, I think there were a total of 7-8 reservoir bears total for the afternoon.
The thunderstorms that were predicted had materialized through the afternoon. I had gotten out my waterproof cloth to keep my stuff dry, but most of the rain dissipated and went north and south of where I was. I was glad about this, but the extra layer on my lap made the hot afternoon even less comfortable. When one of the bolder bears was at the barrel, I was able to at least set things aside (and even stood up at one point since my leg was cramping).
As it got dark, there were at least three bears near me. One of the bears had scrambled up the tree to my right. I was worried about a repeat of the previous year where I had to get out of the stand with bears in that same tree, but it got down - yet remained in the area.
Eventually Vance came to get me. I'm quite sure not all the bears left as we made our exit. It was a very exciting night, even if I didn't shoot.
Sam had shot a decent bear - his first, so he was happy.
Back in camp as people rolled and boated in, lots of people had seen bears, and a few had almost-opportunities on big bears. But Sam's was the only shot.
After a salmon dinner I headed to bed. It was late by my standards. Stealers Wheel song Stuck in the Middle with you played in my head as I thought of those reservoir bears. I, of course, started overthinking the afternoon. Maybe that bigger one was even bigger than I thought? Maybe they were all bigger than I thought? Maybe I won't see any more bears this week? Maybe...
No comments:
Post a Comment