kidso

Nice, pretty bear!

Whatever happened to your "King Kong" bear you had on a trail camera last year? Or the year before? Can't recall how long it has been, but his belly nearly dragged the ground.

Me too. No pics?

When does the taxidermist fit into the timeline?

Awesome hunt and write up Lance. Too bad that darn mineshaft was there!

You have to love the ethics of Game and Fish ...kill first and ask questions later. They obviously treed the bears with hounds. Couldn't they just have knocked them out with a little anesthesia and kept the bears in their infamous culvert traps until the DNA analysis was complete? And VERY inefficient and untimely ---sending the samples out to Wyoming. What a joke! As if we, the State of Arizona can not perform that procedure? Any grad student in biochemistry at ASU could have amplified that DNA and analyzed it using electrophoresis in 24 hours. Such a standard and easy procedure.

They need to extend a personal invitation to all the unit 22 spring archery bear tag holders to come and hunt near the campgrounds.

I will abide by the law. I spoke out too soon in anger, as it was my initial reaction. But deep down, I will follow the ruling, even if I don't agree with it, because I purposely do not seek to violate any laws of our land.

I drew a spring bear tag for unit 22 and will hunt it as planned, unless the Forest Service wants to pay me back for gas, time, travel, and food spent on preparing my ground blind on a water hole over the last two months. Not to mention the cost of my bear tag and new arrows I purchased for my bear hunt. Being a school teacher, this is now the time of year I finally get to go out and hunt my water hole, as opposed to maintaining it. The stroke of a pen should not keep law abiding hunters, especially with current tags, off of public land. The Feds need to get a clue from our AZ state legislature which ALLOWS properly licensed hunters full access to public state trust lands. If the roads I use do not have a locked gate across it, I will take it as open access for licensed hunters to drive on. If it is locked, I will park to respect the vehicle barrier and hike in to my blind on public land, which I do anyways, but it will be a bit more of a hike.

Yeah, dust storm in Chandler!

Great job. It may be likely that the chocolate bear was a sow being followed by the larger blonde bear.

Definitely young bears with long ears, long legs, and narrow feet. I think it could be the same bear based on the brown muzzle and shade of hair color.

Called in (to my visual knowledge), a total of two coyotes, one cowboy and his herd dog, and a mystery beast that was coming up a ridge, but turned back down about 50 yards from me and I never saw it. The area I went in was plumb dry and had no fresh bear sign on the water holes, except for a few small tracks several days old. It was not prime bear area, but it is the area in which I drew a late archery bull tag and in which my sister drew a rifle cow tag, so I wanted to check it out and set up some salt licks and put trail cams out on the water for the elk... and there was plenty of them around in spite of dwindling water supplies. But still, it was fun and I covered a LOT of country! I just forgot my sidearm, which was terrible, and I didn't have the confidence of my Glock watching my back while calling, so I avoided the best thickets which I most enjoy calling into, and called into a bit more open areas. It was also a bit scary camping alone at night and not having a 15 round clip of hollow points to keep me company.

Nice job! Were you down in one of the 34/35 hunt units in the south? Is that a scar under the bear's eye?

I use only hand calls as well. Squeel long and hard and keep at it, especially if sign is around. I'm going out this week to call for my spring archery tag and maybe sit some water if if it looks good and I have enough patience to wait it out. I'd much rather hike through a rough canyon and call every half-mile or so, then move on.

What if you are a quick eater and fall asleep in your cot under the stars with crumbs in your beard?

That bear has a nice color mix in him. How many gallons of water in the tub?

I carry a Glock .40 filled with hollow points for honory critters that get too close. Pulled it out of the holster once, but never had to fire it.

Very nice bears, sweet color on the cinny.

Part of him looks...wet. Did he just come out of a water hole where he cooled off with a dunk? Or does he have a rub across his rear back area?

What is the width of the scat? It reminds me of fox scat, unless it is "hot-dog" or larger in girth.

Great job! How far was the shot? What time did it come to drink.

I've never boat fished, but I've shore fished every summer from Morua Estuary west of Playa Encanto/ Playa La Jolla for the last 20 years or so. For bait, I use anchovies/minnows that I catch off shore dragging a 20 feet minnow seine. I fish the incoming tide twice each day, and plan my trips when the tidal elevational shift between high and low tides are the greatest using a Tide Chart. Over a three hour shore fishing session as the tide is coming in, I typically catch between 10 fish on the low side and 40 on the high side. Since my brother, nephews or wife typically fish with me, we toal out with easily 30 fish on a slow day and betwen 100-120 on a better day. About 60% are corvina, 20% flounder, 10% rock bass, and 10% pompano, witha few other species as well. Kastmasters do work, but they are way less effective than using the live local minnows. I've fished with gentlemen on both sides of me using Kastmasters and was conservatively landing 6 or 7 fish to their 1 fish. Each time I waded back into shore to unhook my fish, they would cast into "my spot" several times each and catch nothing. I would wade back out and land another fish in the next cast or two. When I dumped my minnows out at the end of my session, they started attaching them onto the end of their KAstmasters and started catching fish much more effectively. The funnest fishing, is finding a "bait ball" of minnows. Typically, dark shadows of anchovies will appear off-shore and slowly make their way parallel to the shore with the incoming tide. They are balled-up for protection from predatory fish. If you find a bait -ball cast beyond it and reel through it and you'll surely get a strike! Then. continue following it along the beach. You can get a fish on nearly 90% of all casts brought back through such a bait-ball and it is exciting action as long as the bait-ball exists. All my shore fish are about 1-3 pounds each. My record was a 30 inch long corvina. The only down-fall is you'll spend the next 3-4 hours skinning, cleaning, and filleting your daily catch to prepare them for your evening fresh-fish dinner! Got to love Rocky Point! By the way, even a dead local minnow works better than cut bait or lures when shore fishing. So, after your bait expires in the bucket, which they typically do after about 30 minutes, keep using them, as they will work for hours post-mortum!

That is an excellent and well-deserved trophy. Are you having it made into a rug? What are you doing with it?

Hi, I haven't been able to get out yet this spring, but have seen several of you mention in other threads that you were out for OTC bear this weekend in unit 22 or 23. Has anyone found any fresh spring bear sign or spotted any bears yet this new season in any unit? Any shed hunters come across any bears out of hibernation yet? Hope to get out soon, but you all know how often turns out. I'd like to set some trail cams out for bear in the next two weeks if luck is with me. Hope to hear some good reports. Thanks.