Utah Draw

[2065toyota]

How many points on Lasal bear?
I didn't draw that, this year.
My whole town moves there in the spring.

i think 8

same group, we go with them every year

[double moo]

I drew a multi season bear tag for the Kamas/North Slope unit. There are 5 seasons stretching from 3/30 to 11/20 with a few weeks break here and there. It's the first year they offered this tag and I was fortunate enough to be a lucky reciepient.

First season is pursuit or spot and stalk. I spent a lot of time waiting for th snow to recede, then a lot of miles hiking and glassing - no luck. I was a bit discouraged as I thought about my chances. I was hunting private property that has been in My wifes family for 118 years. I have been married into the family for 34 years and spent a lot of time up there during every season of the year... never seen but one bear... though the amount of bear shit on the trails leads me to believe they are out there. My Brother in Law has a lot of pics on the trail cams over the years.

Season 2 allows baiting. We identified 2 locations and got the bait stations registered. I set up at the easier of the two to access. I decided I did not want to strat out with 2 stations and have to continually pack food into both. I set a tree stand and two cameras at the station and crossed my fingers. 3 days later I went in for the first check... food still on the ground - depressing. While there I hung some smelly bait 8' aboce the ground hoping to be a better attractant.

2 days later I went back in again - all food gone, hanging stink bait pulled down, and pics on he cameras! the hunt is on...

Over the next week I went in every other night and restocked the bait and food collecting a lot of pics of various bears. I set up a spreasheet of days and hours to graphically track the bear hits on the bait station. By week 3 I had pics of 7 different bears hitting my station... time to start sitting the tree stand!

I had a couple of very cool experienes with bears coming in while I sat the stand - 30' away and they had no clue I was there. Very cool to watch that close. I had been nervous that trying to raise my gun or bow would scare a bear off. While a sow was in the bait claring I started waiving - no response - then I grabbed my rifle off the hanger and pointed it into the video I was filming - no reaction from the bear. This was a great confidence boost as I now felt that when the right bear graced my station i would be able to make it happen.

The last week of that season I set the stand every night, and tried mornings on the weekends. My times match the pattern I had recorded but I wasn't getting on the Boar I wanted. A few times the camera revealed that as I hiked in with the food i scared the bears out... close!

On the second to last day of the seson I got in the stand at 2:45 pm vowing to stay until dark - a long time for my short attention span. At 6:30 that evening I had the boar I wanted come in. He was very skittish and kept sniffing my direction but couldn't get comfortable so he bolted up the hill. A few minutes later a sow came in from the same direction he had come. I filmed her on my phone for a minute then he came back down the trail again. She got to the food and sniffed for a moment then bolted where he had gone before. I readied my rifle in case I got the opportunity on this boar. He hung around briefly then bolted up the hill again. As he got to the edge of he trees he turned full broadside for one last sniff. Boom...

Boar spun, jumped, startled just like you see in the hunting films. He headed NW from the tree stand. A few moments later I heard his final death gasps. My route out was int eh general direction but not directly where I heard him die. I knew better that to go check on a wounded bear without waiting 40 minutes or so. Mhy buddy was at home ready to come help me pack it out if I was successful. Knowing I was 30 minutes from phone reception, and he was another 90 minutes from driving to me - figure that against only haveing 3 hours of light, and I made the decision to head out immediately instead of waiting the recommended 40 minutes. I saw no signs of the boar as I hustled off the hill to my truck.

2 hours later, with my buddy in tow, we headed in to find the bear. My estimate of direction was correct... my distance was off! We searched a wedge shape heading out a hundred plus yards finding nothing. Finally my bud decided that the creek was flowing high enough that the sound was very loud, and that I couldn't have heard the bear die from that far out. He went back to the bait station and started the wedge wlk again. He found the bear 20 yards from where I shot it. By now it was dark and we were operating by headlamp. We caped it out and loaded up the hide head, and some meat. Loaded into the truck and on our way off the mountain by 11:15.



All told I ended up with over 180 pics and vids of the 7 different bears hitting the bait station. Very cool experience. Pulling the trigger was rather anti climatic and kind of a let down after all the time I spent in there trying to get just that chance.

[middlefork]

Nice bear! Congrats on the tag and success.

[BruteForce]

Wow! Nice and thanks for sharing the story and photos!

[rockgremlin]

I've heard bear meat is gamey. Please confirm.


Congrats on the bear. Very impressive. I have so many more questions but I can wait until the Ute games to ask in person.

[oldno7]

Very nice report/pics/bear

[2065toyota]

Nice

We seen about 15 bears while hunting. We've seen and killed enough of them that I was being pretty picky on color and size so didn't end up taking anything. We had a great time though and will be back again next year as someone in our group has a tag every year.

[rockgremlin]

I don't know who they're giving permits out to -- I've been skunked on the draw for three years in a row now. Do they still give out permits? At this point it think it's a myth like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster.

[oldno7]

I didn't think results came out until the 31st,ish.

Sure your not being punked

I gots nothing yet.

[oldno7]

Thank you for applying in Utah's Big Game hunt drawing. Your results are as follows:

************************************************** ************************************************** ***

UNSUCCESSFUL: General-season Buck Deer


************************************************** ************************************************

UNSUCCESSFUL: Desert Bighorn Sheep


************************************************** ************************************************

UNSUCCESSFUL: Limited-entry Bull Elk


************************************************** ************************************************

[oldno7]

My oldest grandson.


Thank you for applying in Utah's Big Game hunt drawing. Your results are as follows:

************************************************** ************************************************** ***

UNSUCCESSFUL: General-season Buck Deer


************************************************** ************************************************

UNSUCCESSFUL: Desert Bighorn Sheep


************************************************** ************************************************

UNSUCCESSFUL: Limited-entry Buck Pronghorn


************************************************** ************************************************

[rockgremlin]

^^^ geez, who's getting the permits then? I know of 2 others who've been skunked as well.