Bear Hunting

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE BEAR HUNTING.   

Western Washington is 2nd only to Alaska for the highest population of black bears.  Our bears range in average to 175 and get all the way up to 500 pounds. Most of my bear hunting is done South of Forks in the clearwater area.

This is only a few miles towards the quinalt reservations which might ring a bell better for you if your not familiar with the area. Quinalt is getting world famous with people such as Ted Nugent, Jim Burnworth, and other TV hunting show people starting to stay in the lower 48 to film there bear hunts.

They no longer have to travel to AK to find trophy bear and the clearwater isn't any different. The only difference being is on Quinalt lands, you have to have a native guide and it is legal for them to biat.

We use different measures to harvest our bears...sort of. We can't shoot a bear over bait in Washington unless you are indian, but you can use the same methods as long as a bear is not shot over bait, this means attracting bears to a area pre season and then we just focus on the area over the berry patches.

A tree stand and high population of bears over a brushy berry patch is very effective. Not near as easy as baiting but just as smart. AND LEGAL. 

Other methods include hunting the high country at day break and watching over berry patches as well. Berries are all they really feed on after the start of the season.  If you ever need to see for yourself what they eat, you can always do your in-the-feild autopsy and see exactly what they've been eating. 

Bears have poor eye sight and worse hearing, even if they get a glimpse of you, chances are they will try to smell you before they take off out of the counrty. They don't make any noise unless they are popping stumps for bugs but they don't have to do this after the berries start growing.

Keep your eyes open and PATEINCE is the best tool you can hunt with. Do your scouting, they only seem to poop in the roads, find thier food sources, invest in a tree stand and bring a lunch, they will eventually frequent the area.

I can't prove this and is only my opinion but around here, it is far easier to go out and find a bear than it is to find a deer anymore....Lets hope they bring back hounds soon for cats only and try to get our deer population back to what it was before they outlawed hounds.