Saskatchewan Bear Hunting Memories

icon of North American wilderness, the bear. We'll talk about tactics, gear, conservation, but will also bring you into some of the wildest country on the planet Chasing Bear. Welcome to the Bear Hunting Magazine Podcast. We are here at the global headquarters of Bear Hunting Magazine. Jedas right outside, probably gonna be barking a little bit. It is October the twenty six October, and I have with me in the office too of my really good friends that have done a lot of

stuff with me over the years. I got Brent Reads here sitting at about eleven o'clock, and I got Ryan Grab sitting about one o'clock. They're sitting pretty close to each other, awkwardly close, but I'm glad at six. But no, these guys. These guys traveled up. Brent traveled up from central Arkansas. Ryan traveled up from western Arkansas to meet here,

and we're gonna talk about Saskatchewan. What we're gonna cover in this podcast is the last three years Brent, Ryan, and I in a conglomerate of other Arkansans and a Wisconsin I I by the name of Mark Cuddyback have have traveled to Saskatchewan. Martin just the last two years, but all of us the last three years, we've traveled the northern Saskatchewan to hunt with Bear Pro Safaris and Colby Morrison. And this hunt has become something really unique

for me. I mean, I get to travel a lot with Bear Hunting Magazine to a lot of different outfitters, and I've hunt with some of the best outfitters in the world. I really do. The Saskatchewan hunt has become so fun primarily because of the boat ride on the first year, the sixty mile boat rode. So these are the iconic moments that have made Bear Prosafaris what it is.

The iconic boat ride, sixty mile boat ride and high water high seas the first year and then the second year seventeen, the the hunt for the color face bear, which became a pretty well known hunt because it's bear came in touched my era Brent video that the video I think has one point six or one point seven moving views on YouTube. But that hunt was like as far as bated bears bear hunts going the north, that was one of the most spectacular hunts of all time.

Number one, I missed a huge probably probably Boon and Crockett class bear with a tread bow. We saw you're rubbing the salt and still, and we saw we saw bore breeding the south. We had this big color phase bear come in and run these other bears off, and so bear prostafaris to us is this unique, unique place. But before we get going with that, I want to I wanna hear from you guys. So Brent, Brent w Reeves, uh not. Brent's filmed with me for several years, written

some articles for me, done some bare recipes. But Brent, tell us a little bit about yourself. That's a that's such a dumb question. Every podcaster asked, tell me about yourself.

You already, oh man. I grew up in South Arkansas and I've been in career wise, I guess law enforcement for the almost twenty eight years now, and got into the Guide in Business, the Duck Guide in Business with my brother, uh about gosh, close to thirty years ago, I guess, and we retired from that, and I just got interested in filming, and I've been filming uh hunts,

you know, all over. I've been fortunate enough to to be taught by some really good videographers and uh and then I've pretty well told Clay how to do everything

what Ryan didn't tell him. Yeah, that's that's right. I kind of started him at first, he finished him up, so uh but I've it's just been a crazy trip, man, as far as what that camera has allowed me to do, in the places I've got to go and the things I've got to see and the people that I've met that I mean, that was cool, you know when you talk about that Saskatchewan the last three years, the first year anytime people experience a near death experience and all

of them lived through it. You know, you were brothers for life, whether it's a combat or in a boat on whatever lake that was Wallaston Lake that tried to kill us in Canada. So it was I was holding on too empty um empty gas cans, like thinking, when I end up in that water, I'm gonna have my life vest and I'm going to have this jerry can as the Canadians call the lids off of them. It was, you know, we were it was it was two boats right whenere you were and Kobe in one boat and

always three boats. Three boats, yeah, three boats. So this this was twenty first year we hunted, and so Kolby was Kolby's camp was on the back side of this lake. It was. It was fifty fifty five. It was fifty five miles as the crow flies and then but we were hugging the inside bank of the lake because we couldn't get out in the middle. I don't know if you'll remember that. Colby said, there'll be it'll be a little bit longer for boat ride today. We're gonna have

to stay close to the bank. And I was like, we were all like, okay, it's like a thirty minute thirty minute boat ride. Yeah, no, man. I kept looking at my watch and in my crucifix and they just kept was. It was long, man, it was the longest boat route ever raining it was. It wasn't pouring rain, but it was I was trying to fish, but we were running just a little too fat. He was trolling. He had his five and diamonds spoon up the side, trying to catch a pike. It was so so that

that year was iconic. That year I killed the bear on the first day. It was a nice bear. It was a poping young bear, but it was not It was not the bear that you go to Saskatchewan to take him. It was a good one, right, and so you fill me on that, you feel me there. So we were done after one day and then Ryan hunted and you killed the bear. On the fourth day. It was the Yeah, we had one more day to hunt, and Kobe took us to the new place. It was raining, put a tarp over her head. I was kind of

thinking this wasn't gonna work. It sounded like popcorn popping above her head, hitting rain, hitting that tar. But we wasn't there what thirty minutes and board and sale come in and yeah, we talked about it for a little bit, but we end up taking the board and but anyway, it was a good hunt. We had a good time. The fishing was phenomenal. You know, the camp was exceptional the food, and it was I wish we could go back to that exact location. We didn't realize how spoiled

how well we had it that year. Hey, before we get too far off track, this was an introduction, So Brent Rufe was introducing himself. So you were talking about you talked about being a duckt guide, being in law enforcement. You talked, then you transitioned into you've you've followed people around and filmed and hunted all over the place for the last couple of years. Yeah, well I got the last couple of last ten years. Yeah, about probably fifteen years. I met a guy out and they didn't even make

cameras fifteen years. Well, that's where VCR take. I was drawn on the OKA, on the side of a kve That's where I started. But I was filming a or hosting a film crew at my guide's service, my brother's and I guide service, and became friends with one of the videographers there, and that's that's how I got started. So it was by accident. But your history with me is that probably six seven years ago with Arkansas Black Bear Association, which at the time I was running, you

contacted me and we were. We just talked about filming bear here in Arkansas coming up to me. I sent you an email, I think, and then I called you and uh, I was like, I told you what I was doing. That I was, you know, kind of a freelance videographer and I'd like to come film you. And you were like, okay, whatever, and pretty much that was it. You hung up. You kind of blew me off there for that. I didn't you got to hear from you. And then the next year, next year, you called and said, hey, man,

come on here and let's do some filming. And I've taken you under my wing. And I can't count how many times I've saved you life and I've I've been a big blessing to you. Collect you know that's true. Well, very good, So Ryan Grab, right now, let me let me give let me give a little history of Ryan Grab,

Ryan Grab. When I have a question about bear hunting in Arkansas, I call Ryan Grab, Ryan Grab, and I will if this could be disproven, I would love I would love for it to be but I believe this would. I believe this is true that nobody has killed more bear in terms of weight in Arkansas than Ryan Grab. And I'm talking about collective weight, Like, however many bears you've killed? Bush? I mean, Ryan kills a big bear almost every year. When I say big, like, I know

you you'd probably shoot a three it. I think a few years ago you shot up three or something. But usually you're killing barrel over four hundred. The bear you killed this year away three, and then a couple of years ago you killed the four forty. You've killed the five hundred and four pounder. I mean Ryan, for we've been able to bait bears in Arkansas since two thousand and one, and basically since then, Ryan's killed the bear almost every year, and um and so anyway, so I

consider Ryan Grab a bear hunting expert. And then Ryan has also gone with me to Canada man the first when I acquired bear Hunting magazine. I got the magazine in July and all kind of happened really quick, and I contacted this outfitter up in Ontario and he was like, yeah, come and hunt. I called Ryan and said you want to go it on Terry. He was like yep. So we jumped in the truck, drove to Ontario and uh.

It took about three days hunting within fifty yards of gravel roads and uh we killed two bears and the one that I killed was I think the biggest bear they had ever seen in the camp in their life. I mean, these guys were shocked when we showed him to the bear. I mean because Ryan and I we were we were like, man, this is not good. I mean we were Ryan could hear them Jason Aldeane playing in the wind, and I could sing along what was

on the radio, and they were close. So it was no, it was no uh wilderness hunt and uh, but we we were. It was a super fun hunt. Anyway, we ended up both killing bears and and good ones. So that was our first like real outing. And ever since then, almost every time of hunted in Canada, maybe not every year since then, you've gone with me to Canada, I think almost. I didn't go with the year y'ad went to Alberta. Wish I wish I had went on that trip because you all had a big time success on

that go around. Oh yeah, that was you're right. I think every one of you guys killed a couple of pairs of piece, didn't you. Yeah that was since fourteen. Yeah, you know, we killed six three of us killed six pairs. So tell us about yourself, Ron, I've just I've grown up in western Arkansas and uh, kind of cutting my teeth just bow hunting growing up Fort Chaffee. You know wildlife manage. Don't you tell them where you hunt? Man? Yeah, it's not a secret anymore, but you kill all the

big deer out of there. Yeah. But anyway, just on my own small business right now. But I'm fortunate to get out and hunt quite a bit. And I met Clay back and I guess the water around two thousand and ten you kicked off the and Saw Black Bear Association and fortunate to get to know Clay. He's pretty good and he invited me on several of these trips and we've gotten to be pretty good friends over the years. And I would that far. But yeah, but anyway, all these trips we go on, we've had a blast with

the guys we've got to meet. And I can to aggravate Brent when he's there a lot of times. But also here hunting in Arkansas for bears and in Oklahoma. You know, we share some secrets and tips and yeah, it seems like I'm always helping Clay get his animals. Out of the woods. But let me say something about Ryan. If Ryan does something, he is gonna be really good

at it. If he hand fishes for catfish, he and his career are gonna catch the biggest catfish if he's if he's deer hunting, he's gonna kill a big deer. If he's bear hunting, he's gonna kill a big bear. Rises all around woodsman and I have a time of kind of respect for him, and so it's, uh, it's been fun to fun to travel. Yeah, well, okay, so we got we got these guys introduced and uh, and Ryan's been on a couple of episodes of Bare Horizons.

Brent has been on episodes of Bare Horizons. So Bare Horizons, for those of you who don't know, is our is our bear hunting show that's on Carbon TV. It's also it's mainly on YouTube at this point. But this is our fifth year Bare Horizons. So these guys have been on and off through there for a couple of years. But so now to the topic at hand is Saskatchewan.

And let me let me start off by to somebody that doesn't know much about bear honey, which us being from the south ten years ago I didn't know a thing about spring bear him. It never really entered my mind other than I knew that I wanted to go. I knew that it would be fun. It was like, hey, it'd be fun one day to travel up north in the spring of all times and going a big game hunt.

I mean that was like far off and I just envisioned like maybe one day I'd go one time and kill a bear and just be you know, I have this great time. Well, now this is something that I'm doing every year. And to be able to hunt a big game animal in the spring with your bow in May and June, it's something that you don't get to do. There's a few sheep that you can hunt, but how many of us can afford going to sheep hunt in in today's culture, with where guys are becoming more and

more passionate about year round hunting. I mean used to when my dad, who was as hard acore hunter as there was on the planet, Man, he didn't start thinking about deer hunting and tell about September the one I mean, you just didn't. You just didn't do it. That's when you started shooting your bow. And then as I got a little bit older. They started shooting three D archery tournaments in the nineties and so it kind of became

a little bit more of a year round thing. But now hunt and it's like a year round passion for all of us. We're thinking about it. We're on social media where YadA YadA ya, Well that's where to me, spring bear hunting plays in a major play for the hunters and southern hunters even particularly to be able to escape the heat of the South and go up north. To me, isn't it is something that oh absolutely, it

would be hard to replace. It is so stink and cool to leave Arkansas in late June, because that's when we go to Saskatchewan late June and travel thirty hours, whether by plane or whether we drive. Brent and I have driven the last two years. We'll talk about that. But get up there and it's like, I mean, it's cool and you're building the fire. You know, everybody's sitting

around the fire. We're headed in. You know, it's June, late June, as hot as almost as hot as it's going to get in Arkansas, and we're packing our winter closed to go hunting and Saskatchewan. Your little pink union suit that you bring every year. You look, really, I've got it on now just in case we were going to go up there today. So to me, that's one back to the point here, fellas. That's one of the coolest things about about that is being able to just

leave here and go there. The last two years Brent and I have driven it's thirty hours up to northern Saskatchewan and we usually break up the trip well, stop in North Dakota and fight and fight, Uh what are

we doing? You know what? I'll tell you what when I this is like really neither here nor there, but on the way back, Okay, on the way there, when you when you get into Canada and southern Canada is like these big crop fields and flat and it's like, to me, the color of the sky kind of changes and like you feel like you're there the next like the next ten hours, it's like your home. On the

way back home. When I feel like I'm home is when I get to Kansas City and then you start driving and you start seeing all these like uh, what am I trying to say? All these like Ozarkian restaurants, Like I just feel like I'm home. We stopped the little gas station on the way back when we stopped at that little the little like cracker barrel looking like, man, we're home road trip, thirty hour road trip. Yeah, when you can get uh chest your chicken, that's it. That's it.

And the in the gas station your home sweet tea a little don't get me started about sweet tea. Did is an anomaly if you can find it anywhere overseas. So spring bear hunting. Spring bear hunting is truly unique. So when we go up to northern Canada and Saskatchewan, the cool thing about what Colby is doing is that his hunters boat based hunts. So he's on these big water systems in in the in the lakes up in Canada. This wouldn't be it's kind of unique because these lakes

and rivers kind of like flood. Well, the river's flowing to the lakes and then just on the backside, the river flows right out of the lake. So you never really know if you're in a lake or a river. I mean, even though they're named typically, but these big water systems and some of these lakes are gonna be huge, I mean like fifty sixty miles across. In the case of where we hunted a few years before. Yeah, when you you're on a lake and you can't see the

bank on either side. That was what was foreign to me, because it's it's nothing, and you said we're gonna be hunting lakes and rivers system. It's nothing like what I had pictured in my mind? Was it you? Now? Not seeing another boat, It's like you're the first people to ever be on that water. There's there's nobody, you know, it's like a different planet up there. You actually feel alone. I mean, if something happens, you're thinking, how am I

going to God, He's gonna come find me now. So on the road trip up there, we actually we drive north until the pavement ends. I guess around Missing Nippi, the little community Miss Nippi or is it Larrange where the pavement ends in La Range rons the Skatchewan You

can look it up. And then from there there's it's two hundred and fifty miles or dirt roads to get where we turn off to go to Colby's camp, and from from his camp we access boats and travel up and down waterways as far as twenty two miles in any direction. The first year that we hunted there, Brent and I got in a boat and we would travel twenty two miles to our bait side, which took about an hour. You know, he's running I don't remember what what horse power motors. Yeah, and so you can you know,

we're traveling about twenty miles and hours. It's not a bass boat traveling seventy anyway longboat rides. But so, but but what he's able to do by getting that far north is is he's able to access unhunted bears. I mean, I deal with a lot of Canadian outfitters through Bare Honey magazine, and what Canada has that we don't have

is truly massive, massive amounts of true wilderness. And by true wilderness, I mean places where there are non vehicular, no roads that a vehicle can drive down, I mean there there were places up there that we were walking and scouting that I would you know, you get the impression you may be the only person that's made a

track in there totally untapped resources. Yeah, yeah, yeah, wrote you know, there's only a couple of roads that I mean, the Gold dirt road that we were on was the only north south road for like sixty or seventy miles, like to the east to the west. So I mean this, you're completely remote when he takes us to these Listen to this. The gym Sessions told me that in the United States, the furthest that you can get from a road and be sitting in wilderness and as the crow flies.

The closest road like the furthest you can get away from the road is thirty six miles and it's in uh it's near the headwaters of the Yellowstone River and Wyoming. And uh So if that's thirty six miles, okay. In Canada, places like that are everywhere. I mean of the population Canada lives within a dred miles of the U. S. Border. I've heard that statistic before. And then Canada goes forever north. I mean, it's a huge count tree and there's just

nobody that lives up there. Yeah, well you think also, you know, not only roads. I think back over the last three years and I've been keeping up with it, man, I paid attention to it. You don't see a commercial jet flow over. If you see an airplane there, aircraft of any kind of it's got floats on it and it's taking somebody fishing. And that was rare. Hey, when I was in Alaska talking about wilderness when I was in Alaska. I've been to Alaska twice, south central Alaska.

You'll be you'll have flown into this river system in Alaska boat based hunt there as well, and there is hardly a moment when you cannot hear a bushplane flying overhead. I mean, I'm serious, Like in all the videos and stuff I do, you can't hardly talk for all the bush planes. It's a little distracting because you're having this wilderness experience and constantly bush planes. And I mean that's the method of travel in Alaska. And the time of year that I was there was when a lot of

people we're hunting, so it was a busy time. But I mean it was like you were in the wilderness. Yeah, you were probably the only one within miles of where you were sitting on the ground, but in the air there were planes all over the places. And not taking anything away from Alaska, but by GOLLI the most remote place I have ever set foot was the first year when we drove the boat sixty miles to the camp.

I mean, and that's what that's when you or somebody brought up Hey, there's not even commercial airlines spine over and and I mean that was true wilderness, true wilderness, and that's that's a commodity that I mean, as we continue to move into the current time that we do with the encroachment of civilization, the loss of habitat, urban sprawl, people populations of humans are increasing, It's like wilderness is really something that is valuable. It's valuable to humans, valuable

to wildlife, valuable to the planet. Anyway to going to spring bear hunt in northern Canada, you get to partake of that and it's like one piece of the puzzle. Absolutely you get to partake of that. And there's also something really unique about being really familiar with the world that you live in. Like all of us are outdoors money and I mean we're contoisseurs of this Arkansas outdoor

life that we live. We really are. And to go up there and to really know nothing, you know, I mean like I'm asking I'm asking Colby, like what kind of tree is that? I mean, like I feel like I feel like the city people that you know come with me somewhere and they see a wide oak and are like, what kind of tree is that? All three of us, it's been our whole lives in the woods and gone, you know, adventures hunting or whatever. But that place up there is like testosterone and steroids at a baby.

I mean it is, it's there's you just you can't describe it really, and it's it's a It is not majestic beauty. Like I've had a lot of people say, is it beautiful up there in Order Saskatchewan. It's absolutely beautiful. It is not majestic beauty. Majestic beauty would be I would define it like rocky mountain beauty, big grand vistas and rock formations and stuff that's just really really visually appealing.

This this to me, is like a rugged, nuanced beauty, and the beauty is in the fact that there's this massive expanse of wilderness. But what what you typically have on the ground is that reindeer moss. Is that what they call it. It's liking. I mean, it's like white. It's almost like you're walking on the moon. And then jack pines, which are these small coniferous trees evergreen. The biggest they get is about six inches at the base.

Part of the reason we hunt on the ground up there because the trees ain't big enough to get I guess you could maybe lean the ladder stand on some of them, but yeah, and it probably bend over if the wind blows, you will be so in Yeah, you couldn't. And that that is the northern boreal forest. I mean, that is the boreal forest. And those trees grow for like four months a year. I mean that's I guess

technically because they hold their needles throughout the winter. They actually are going a little photo census throughout the winter. But I mean the reason that those trees don't get big is because they don't grow there. They've they've been They're designed to live in heavy snowfall. And so to me, the beauty the appreciation of that place is realizing that

every creater that's here is an extreme survivalist. I mean, like down here where we live in these kind of mild latitudes, like you got a pretty big lee way of ecological niche that you can live in, if I could describe it that way, I mean like they're specialists here, but like not that specialist in terms of like how an animal adapts. But man, when you get up that far north and then you gotta go through eight months a hard winter, seven months of hard winter, five ft

of snow. Yeah, I mean there's not a whole other can live. Well, there's there's three, there's four things. There are four big game animals in northern Saskatchewan black bear, moose, caribou, and wolf. And that's it. That is it. Now there's some small game species, but I mean that's that's all that's there. And and what is the king of the north Woods trick question. Bears? I mean they dominate the landscape. I mean the moose, moose populations. Moose is a low

densey animal. I mean you don't you don't see a lot of moose. The caribou up in that part of the country, Colby says are rare. Yeah. And now wolves, now that's a different story. But there's there's more bears and wolves. But per like if you were just doing a population density the Northern Woods, black berry is the dominant animal, no doubt, way more bears than you know people probably could even imagine up there. Yeah, no doubt. Have you ever have you done any research to what

the density what the population density is in that area. No, I don't know the specifics of that or even if they have a well some of these bears that Kobe's hunting right now are collared. They're doing a study up in that part of the world right now, and I guess it's a population study, but I don't know the details of it. But you know, population density is a bear, that's a good question. Like a high population of bears

is a bear. One bear per square mile. High population of deer is like forty five deer per square mile.

So when we say, oh, man, there's a high population of bears there, we say that relative to other things, like you know, I mean high high density of bears in Arkansas, it's like one bear per square mile, which that's a good bear population, and it's actually the same up there, if not even there's just so much ground that you know, there's there's bears are spread out, and bears are load inst the animals they're not like white tailed deer, they're not they're not a herd animal, you know,

they're not gregarious. But but there's a there's a ton of bears up there, and we see exaggerated our situation a little exaggerated in that we're hunting bated bears. So these bears are coming in from a lot of different places, you know, but those bears don't act like to do in Arkansas. You know, these bears too are places Kobe's access and that has probably never been hunted, never been bated. In fact, next year he's going to a totally different

water system. It's probably never been bear hunted before ever. Yeah, you know that's something that was hard for me to grasp when you told me how big the area is that he hunts, and it was I can't even remember, to be honest, it was over a hundred thousand square miles and even twice that much. It was. It was more than an outfitter could hunt. Oh gosh, you yeah, in a lifetime. Yeah, and so and and and I'll say, and as this pertains to other Canadian outfitters, Kolbe is

not unique in that situation. I mean, these these Canadian outfitters have vast areas that they can hunt, and most of them, a lot of them, are the only people that are hunting them. I mean, so um, you know, just as a plug for other outfitters as well, there's a ton outfitters that have some crazy good wilderness highning. Only certain ways to access a lot of this, A lot of it you can't. There's no way to get in there too. Yeah, you couldn't drive. You couldn't drive,

you could fly on a float plane. Everything in Canada's access by water because there there, you know, it's a aracial glacial formed regions. So there, I mean, you look at a aerial photo or satellite photo on Google Earth of any of those Canadian provinces and it is littered, I mean littered with lakes, river systems, unbelievable amount of water it's flowing out of Canada. And so that's the way they get in there. They don't have dirt roads,

that just little pig trails that go every direction up there. Yeah, so we have established that this is a wilderness hunt. That being said, we drive to our camp. The last two years we've driven our pickup trucks right to camp. Uh. This year we stayed in wall Pence. The year before, we stayed in these little wooden takedown cabins that cold

be made. And the government actually wouldn't let him use those this year because of fire danger and they were afraid those things would burn and they needed to he need to be able to pull evacuate quickly, so they said, you can't have those semi permanent structures and so we had wall tents. We we so we do drive right into camp and then we take the trucks down to a boat ramp and get in there and go hunting. Talk a little bit about the schedule of the hunt.

Ryan kind of like like daily, like a daily routine that we would do. Well. You know, it's uh, you get up there and it don't get well, I guess it don't get dark completely, but probably the darkest it gets is two o'clock and the sun's rise and by what three in the morning, So kind of misses your mental state up, you know, trying to sleep when there's

daylight now coming through the tent wall. But you know, we sleep in in the mornings, eat some breakfast, and we'll get out, you know, late morning and do a little fishing. And the fishing is spectacular. Most these places fish don't know what they've never seen tackle, but you know, do fish and have good time, hang out with the guys, come back, eat, uh, you know, lunch, noonish or so, and then we'll have a little seemed like bowshoot and make sure everybody's you know, on target, and we gather

our stuff and off we go, you know. In the trucks to get down where the boats are parked. And you know, some guys ain't got as far as boat ride, but some of us are going it seems like the other side of the earth to get to some of these. Yes, I mean, some of the really good baits are within two or three miles of the of where we're putting. So it's not always there's not a necessarily a correlation with the big bears are way back there. I mean.

But the thing is Kobe goes up there in the off season two and looks for these places where bears naturally travel. I mean, some of these places bears if used for generations that are beat down, like he's narrow razorback rich cops will have a game trail on it that is beat down, like you know, deep trenches, and you know, bears travel them a lot. Sometimes they're in pinch pointing around the end of the lake or between

the marsh and a ridge top or something. He strategically puts these baits where guys can you do have good success, you know, And that's a key right there. Nothing about what he's doing is based on convenience. Hey, he wants to see his hunters. You know, shoot bears. He loves that, and I thought it was It's interesting and I've I've tried to pry as much as I could out of Cobit about how he chooses where its baits odes are.

He tries to spread them out. I've noticed at least three to five miles up art right, that seems to be the trend. And he likes putting these baits on in areas where there are bear trails. And there are bear trails up there right, I mean, which you don't see that much around here, and uh, he he puts them like on waterways, you know, these bears. You there's creeks that are smaller feeder creeks that are running into these lakes and rivers, and he'll put baits up these

creek systems there. Even though it's relatively flat there, there is some topography. There's some you know, small rises, kind of rolling hills. I'm glad you mentioned now. He told me that he looks at contours topo maps and he will follow on contour too. And a lot of those game trails bear trails where you want to call them. I mean, it looks like for the folks that haven't seen it, it looks like a cow trail in a pasture.

I mean there's there's just flat beat out and it's dirt, and it's his wide you know, eight some of them ten inches wide and beat down. And it's when you think about the four big animals that you said to live there. How long and how old are those you said? You said a hundred years, ten thousands? I mean that basically the current time frame that we live in. You know, ten thousand years ago was when the ice Age kind of turned, you know, the Plisto scene turned into the

modern era. The glaciers are treated. All the current animals that we have in North America all of a sudden, we're here, you know, not really all of a sudden, but they were here. So I mean, yeah, so these not much has changed in the last ten thousand years. Yeah, it's pretty cool, you know. And this is an unaltered I don't want to interrupt you, but let me just say this, and then this is an unaltered ecosystem. Like down here, there is no such thing as an altered ecosystem.

It was yeah, fifty years ago. I mean, that's what's cool about these kind of hunts. Yeah, I was just gonna say, you know some of these these bates that you know, drop the first guy off while we're waiting, you know what, castarat out just where he pulled the boat up and catch four or five pike just within five or six minutes, or you know, wally or something. It's just you don't find that down here where we're at, you know, true wilderness. Yeah, and and that's that's what

you've got to appreciate. And there's all different factors of these hunts that give them value. Like if you're white tail hunting in the Midwest, I mean you're not really Wilderness is not really what you're valuing on that hunt. Your your value in the white tail deer and his antlers and big bucks. When you go to Canada on a baited hunt, it's not a typically a test of

physical endurance. It's not like a rocky mountain elk hunt, where really the limiting factor and the thing you're after is is you know, testing yourself up against this mountain. Like every every hunt has this angle that makes it valuable. When I hunt right here close to my house, I love it not because I have trophy deer right here. I love it because I walk out of my house. Tell my kids buy while they're playing basketball, jump in my truck. Drive a minute, get up my truck, and

go hunt and be home at dinner. You know. I mean, like, so that hunt has value to me. This hunt has value because of wilderness. It's not it's not a technical hunt. I mean. And I want to talk a little bit about hunting bears over bait, because it's massively misunderstood. Even in the hunting community. People are like, I hunting bears over donuts. Man, don't knock it till you try to come hunt with us and tell us that it's like

hunting bears in a in a you know. I mean, it's it's just a it's a unique hunt, and it's not just for the kill that makes it unique. Well, I had a different I had a different opinion of it, only because I had never done it. Not it wasn't a bad opinion, you know, I've not against it at all. It wasn't against it at all, But I thought, you know, how easy can that be? It's like catching catfish in the bathtub. Not that I have. You would be selective on animals, you know too? Then bears a bear don't

know what we are. We pose any threats, so you can sit back and and watch bears for days and most of the time and try to, you know, wait on that bear that you're looking for, right, And that's that's a massive key for hunting over bait, is it allows you to be highly selective, highly selective, and that's a key for conservation. That's a key for all kinds

of different stuff. But I was just building this episode of Bear Horizon, which will probably be out about the time this podcast comes out, so go to Barony Magazine YouTube channel and check it out. Brent Reeves and I we watched more bear behavior in six days of bear hunting up there then the average hardcore woodsman will see in a lifetime, probably three lifetimes and six times as much as we did in the last two years up there,

because we hunted like two days now. We that's the key feature of this video and you haven't even seen it yet. We gotta watch it. It's it finished exporting here is that we saw bears, breeding, bears, fighting bears, interacting with us bears, doing everything that bears do. And there's no other big game hunt where you get to watch and see animals for as longer period of time at close distance. And I mean when I say close distance, I mean like ten yards on the ground, not looking

through a fence. I mean like there is no other big game hunt that is like this, and so that is an angle into this bated thing that a guy's got to look at, like if you're trying to evaluate you know, a hunt man white tail deer hunting. I love it, absolutely go bonkers over it and always have and always will. Man, that big buck when I see him, typically I'm watching him for a very short period of time. I mean he enters my life for like seconds before

hopefully I'm able to harvest him or not. Last year I didn't even see a shooter buck. This year I've encountered one, and we won't talk about that, but alert the what I'm saying is is that these bated hunts are really unique. Get to watch these animals and and man, there's something that you just you come away with a

deep appreciation when you get to watch them. Yeah, we were on like day four or five, I can't remember, and we had bears to contend there was not There was one hour maybe when we were on bait that we didn't have bears out in front of us, and it wasn't a bear that you wanted to shoot. I can remember making you laugh. You turned around and looked at me at one point and I just said, Bory, I didn't mean it. I was just trying to be funny.

We got tired of watching bears. It was the I don't know, man, it was like watching Channel two for a while there. It was this is a good place to actually talk about the specifics of our hunt. So Brent, Brent was with me, Brent was filming, were hunting for five days. Kolby took us down a creek and when I said creek, it was like seven yards wide, like a small cook. Didn't go down it. He went left

and right. Yeah. Yeah, oh man, look at the drone footage and you'll see what we're talking about from the video. But Kobe and this was a pretty unique bait. There was a creek that was navigable. Yeah, it's a good word. I didn't quite set right. Uh about five miles he could take his boat, his inflatable boats. Oh jeez, we gotta talk about we got a lot to talk about um. And so we went five miles. It took forty five minutes of just zigging and zagging and dodging limbs, and

we went way back in here to this bait. He had very very as far as you can take the boat. Brett and I hunted there for five days, and within ten seconds of us sitting down the first day, two bears were coming. And that was a trend every single day when we sat down, and you'll see it in the video every time I do my interview first day, because we did it real strategically this time. Every single day I did day one, this is what's happening day to day, three, day four, day five. That's how the

video lines out. Every single one of those clips, there's a bear within ten yards of mean while I'm talking. Yeah, And it wasn't like we were just you know, messing around getting ready. We were son. We would sit down and I mean scramble to get our gears. What was coming. We knew what was coming, and I just knew that, you know, probably the big shooter was gonna walk in, and so I mean we were just scrambled get everything together, and man, the bears would be there. And we watched

bears for eight hours a day for five days. I mean, there was hardly a was there a two hour section where there wasn't a bear in front of us a seconds, a few minutes ago. I don't think there was an hour there wasn't be in front of That's true. That bait was phenomenal in terms of seeing bears. I think maybe the most bears we saw in a day would have been like seven or eight. This was also a brand new never started it three weeks ago, three weeks before.

So these these bears have never never been hunted. They they probably never Kolbe was probably the first human they ever smelled. Yeah, so we're hunting off the ground, We're we're just immediately just bears all around us. And so it's late June. The bear rut okay, typically, oh man, we could get into a big deal about the bear rut. Bears.

Bears have a unique reproductive methodology called the lady implantation, which means the Souths get bread in the summer, but they don't start gestation until the winter, early winter, late fall, once their bodies have decided whether they can rear young or not. Bears are low density animals, so they need this big long window of ovulation and ability to breed. Of the salves come in like a white tail rut.

A dough is in heat for like three days because she's got a bam get bread, so that that fawn is born at the exact time for the highest probability of fond survival. A bear low dense, they animal. If a bear had a sal bear had a three day heat, she may not get bread. So they have these long,

longer heats, long spans of time. They get bread. And so everything about when everything about a breeding cycle has to do with fawn arrival or cub arrival in this situation, right, so when that animal is gonna pop out, well, they they bears regulate when their cubs are born because that that fertilized egg doesn't attach to the uterine wall until a specific time, usually in early November, and the cubs

are born hairless, underpound in the den January. Bizarre. You couldn't have off that up if you were writing the science fiction novel. I'm trying to forget it now. So that brings up a long road here, boys to say that June is definitely in the window of bear breeding. So all these bearriers are at the space and Brent and I just know that any day, any hour, any

second for five days. We just know the next flash of fur that we see is going to be this tank bore that we've come to Saskatchewan hunt that that in itself, for it's been extended that long time, was worth the price of admission. I mean you were fueled up before we ever got in the boat to get there. I mean because you just knew today was the day. Yeah, we just knew what We've seen it before. Yeah, we've seen it happen, and we've seen it happened fast there.

You know, we got spoiled. The first two years we hunted up there were killed on the first day the first two years were there. Yeah, and target and you know the the big the color face bearer we killed last year up there. I mean that was a bear wasn't even on the and they didn't even have pictures of right, he just showed up and showed up. So that that's the experience that we were looking you know, to repeat. Yeah, in in the logistics of this bait, Kobe didn't have a camera out at the time. Just

the logistics of it. It's hard to understand, but there was so we put up a camera when we got there. Almost all Kobe's baits have have have cameras on them. This one didn't, so we didn't know exactly what was coming in there. But there was so many bears. I mean, it was just like, there's for sure a shooter board coming in here. Within the first day when we get there. One of the first bears that is there within ten seconds of us sitting down is a nice color face

bear that probably most bear hunters wouldn't have passed. I mean it was I don't even want to say the size of it because I don't know, and it was a that weight. Really isn't how you evaluate these spring bears because they're thin. They're coming out of the probably probably a four year old boar, three to four year old boar. I mean, nice bear, beautiful like blaze orange color. You guys have to watch this video again. It's's he's so pretty. So this bear comes in like right off

the bat. And and we basically watched this bear every day for five days, and we just keep waiting in the in the big board just doesn't come, doesn't come, doesn't come, doesn't come, and uh, and it doesn't really make sense because the places covered in sous and uh, and we saw three different color phrase boars that were just I mean just right. And I have very high standards when it comes to bear hunting. I mean I do.

And uh So, if I was just wanting to take home a good, good boar, it could have easily done it the first first day. But I was I was waiting for a tank that so I went up there and it just it didn't come. And that's the that's the that's just hunting. That's just that's just part of it. It wasn't everybody was seeing, not everybody, we were seeing big bears. Ran ended up killing a big bear spoiler,

We're gonna get to him. And just to cut to the cut to the chase of what happened to me is on the final day, well on day for Brent, I actually said, I'm not going to shoot that bear today, but I might tomorrow. And what was also in the back of my mind was Brent had a tag and if I killed early, Brent wasn't gonna get to hunt. And uh and so in the back of my mind, I'm thinking I'd like to get this done. That wasn't

why that was in the front of life done. Yeah, and so anyway, the final day after watching the bear all week, shooting a traditional bow, shooting a takedown recurve fifty two pounds inches um Man, with a traditional bow, you just can't take anything for granted, nothing, I mean, And and that to me is the way that I have balanced the scales in some way. Every hunt that I do, there's an angle in my mind that I want to limit myself. And on baity bear hunts in Canada,

typically I do it with a traditional bow. It's just why I want to roll, It's just what I want to do. In Oklahoma two weeks ago, when I killed the big bear, I did not want the weapon to be the limiting factor of that hunt. The limiting factor of that hunt was just getting that bear in front of you. So some people are like, why don't you used to trad bow clay Man. I love trad bows

and that's my primary weapon right now. But every hunt has a little different angle, and you that's the beauty of hunting, as you can cherry pick where you want the limiting factor to be. And so shooting a trad bow and a I made a bad shot on the bear. I mean, what was so hard was that we'd watched this bear for so long. It was such an easy shot, probably ten yards. And the truth is is I was.

We can watch the video again. I hit the bear at the back edge of the scapula, which is the shoulder, So I hit him about three inches high and just slightly forward, and if it had been lower it would have been per Really, it was only about that far high. You guys have to watch the shot. But I smacked that bear right in the shoulder and he ran off with my era and uh, the bear is still out there being a bear today. I mean it didn't. It didn't.

It didn't get any penetration, just stuck in that scapula. And man, I gotta say all the things that I gotta say here. It was a terrible experience. Made me evaluate all the different things that you know, was was I practiced up? Was I ready mentally? And all those questions it all just boils back down to just human error. I mean, you can't win them all. I had actually been on an amazing traditional archery streak. That was the first bear I've ever shot and not recovered ever. Yeah,

I was about that one bear. In all all these years of bear hunting, I've never lost a bear and U and actually been on a tremendous streak of with white tails and bears with a treadbow. And it's this is what I told Misty, my wife. I said, if you ride bulls, you're gonna get your teeth knocked out. If you shoot a traditional boat, you're gonna miss stuff. And it just comes with a turf. It was. It was.

It was a roller coaster, you know that whole time we've sat there and when it comes in and you decide, okay, we're gonna do it, you know, and we're rolling video. Man, it is some of the best stuff I've ever shot. And it was from all the different actions and of the bears that we got what bears being bears, and then we decided to, you know, pull the pin on this thing and get it done, and it just didn't

work out. It was it makes you appreciate more that the times that we had before, that the success we had before, because you know, we appreciate I mean, I you know, I think about those hunts all the time and how much fun we had in the interaction we had with each other and the bears. And but even though the kill is not the the the reason you travel up there. You know, it's it's everything combined. But it was you know, it was a letdown, and it was a letdown. It was a life lesson and a

hard one. But the reason you can't appreciate the good unless you get some of the bad the year before that also, everything everybody in camp, I mean it was done. Yeah, everything worked every great. Yes, I mean it really made you appreciate how good that hunting was before, and the hunting was excellent this time, you know, and you know sometimes the shot just we struggled so well. Listen to this, you know, the old adage, and I've heard it on a few in a few places, even the last few

days on social media. Don't take anything. Don't shoot anything on the first day. Wait is that right? Don't shoot anything on the first day, you wouldn't take on the last. Don't pass anything on the first day, you wouldn't shoot on the last. I passed the bear on the first day, shot him on the last day. I walked away with a bad taste in my mouth from that. I truly did it. Just it just didn't feel right, and I

kind of evaluated my motivations for shooting that bear. You know, it really wasn't what I came up there to shoot and I shot him and it and it didn't turn out right. And let me tell you how I applied this into my life later. Is the exact same thing happened in Manitoba in August. Is that I on the first day of the hunt. First day I hunted, I filmed the guy. The first day, I had a color phase bear come in that probably two people in North America would have passed me and Rhyan. Now I was waiting.

I really wanted a big, heavy, like four plus pound fall bear. This was This bear was gorgeous, and I passed him on the first day and then because I felt like the hunt was gonna be pretty easy. We're seeing a lot of bears in any way, the last day came in in the outfitter. It was like that bear is coming in there. He's still there. If you want to go hunting, you can. And I knew that if I went in there, I would shoot that bear and it would have It was a bear that anybody

would have been proud of. And I actually regretted not shooting him on the first day. Okay, but because of that Saskatchewan deal, I said, no, I ain't even going back in there. Put me over on this other place. We hadn't even been where. There. It was a bear that I really wanted to type, a bear that I really wanted to hunt, was there, and I went over there to that bait. The final day of the Manitoba hunt, sat there and never saw the big bear. Came home without it with a with a with tag my pocket.

And so I actually felt good about that. I really did even did out. Yeah, it did it. It felt good to come away losing because I lost twice. I mean, I went to I went to Saskatchewan, came over with a tag in my pocket, went to Manitoba past bears was playing it conservative, came home with a tag in my pocket. So man, it's it's it's no fun coming back from I've rarely come back from Canada with a tag in my pocket. Yeah, well that is not that is not the um. The primary goal, I guess is

to go up there and fill one. So it is so a sobering Yeah yeah, to come back with it. But you know the what's good about that it was your choice. You know, you made that decision and for whatever reason internally, you know you did you did you feeled your tag. Yeah, your conscience tag or whatever you want to call it. You did that. So yeah, you didn't come home empty handed, you know. And he's probably so nervous he just couldn't pull back. And I was nervous.

I don't tell you. My legs were shaking. Yeah it was. And I think that what that had a lot to do with it. I really do, man, I really think because I've seen you snapshoot at a at bears before and it was just money. Yeah, I've seen you, you know,

three yards. You know, it's hard to miss one at three yards, but at twenty five yards when you shot that bear the second time last year, I mean, it was it's definitely easier to shoot when your brain doesn't have time to catch up with your your the mechanics of your physical body, like just to just to shoot bam, you know. And that that's a big factor. And that to what I'm like, in traditional archery, you go through these stages and I kind of felt like I was

on the honeymoon stage the last three years. I mean I was just it was like, what's the big deal, what's the big deal? And then and then now I'm I'm I'm getting a little bit panicky when the deer walks up or bear walks up because of partly for missing that bar in Sasketch. But that that is the beauty of traditional archery. I mean, if I if I didn't want the weapon to be my limiting factor, I'd be shooting the compound bow. And that that's just the game I want to play right now, and it may change.

Just because you would have had a compound don't mean you would have killed it off. That's true. That's true. Slapped in the face with a dead red reality up there, you can still feel it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know you're right. I mean it anything could happen with any weapon they the So that's what I'm working on. What I learned up there from that miss was I really have to pick a spot. That's so easy to say. It's so easy to say, pick a spot, small man.

You gotta have a machine for a brain to pick a spot when you shoot an animal the traditional bow. And I'm still learning how to do that. Uh oh, I'm still learning now. Going back to me being nervous, like the anticipation of seeing this bear walking, and we watched it for thirty minutes before took the shot, and I mean I was, I was nervous as a cat. And I'll tell you what I do love that that

I still get excited when I shoot a bear. And will you also add in the fact that regardless of the outcome, the world is gonna know one way or the other because I'm sitting back there with a camera. And as soon as I did it, I knew that I could not make an episode about it. I knew that I could not, you know, I had to come out with it and and just and and hopefully somebody will learn and something from this. Nothing else is just just realities. Yeah. Yeah, So two days ago, two days ago,

let's talk about man. Two days ago, I missed a for around here, a whopper white tail buck, A good one. I mean, not like a one fifty, but for around here, a good one. Best deer I've missed in a long time. I will stand by my statement that I believe I hit really close to where I was aiming. Just a deer onen't there. When the air I got there, I text Ryan and Brent and tell him I missed, and

I made the statement on text. I said, Man, I watched that deer for twenty minutes before I shot, and Brent goes, You're not very good if you have time to think about it, I've noticed that you don't perform real well. And that is when I drew the line in the sand and I was like, too soon, Brent, we can no longer to be friends. I said, I'm

still in the tree. The dust hadn't even settled from where that buck kicked up, the leaves running off, And Brent's like, yeah, you're not very good when you have to think about it. You know, he volunteered the information, right right, and like we said, you know, he could name the episode, you know, if he makes one out of it, Missing this Year's Shooters this year. Yeah, that's a good. Uh. We we got a deal going here where well we should we tell the name of your podcast, Brent.

I'm just kidding. No, yeah, yeah, the tagline of this podcast, missing this Year's Shooters. That's the inside generale no so ms ms A bear. It's all all h A journey of traditional archery and the discipline of traditional archery. That's what I love about it, I mean, and so to me, that's just where I'm at. I want to I want to do it with a treadbo. That being said, I'm

going to Manitoba. I'm carrying a compound bow tomorrow, going to Manitoba, and the limiting factor is not I don't want it to be the bow, you know, so I'm gonna take it. But man, Ryan tell us, uh, tell us, uh, the phone ringing Citro Nella, Alabama. No mosquito is there. So so on the on the day that I shot my bear, I get a text on the garment and reach from Ryan and he says, just shot a big one. And so on day five is when you killed your bear. Give us, give us just a little rundown of the

high storm. Well, I shot my bear on the fifth day, and you texted me while Brent and I were waiting at the boat. Yeah, it was a stif day, you know. The first day, Uh, he took me under to a different bait, which I had my heart set going to where I was going to hunt the rest of the week. But I went to this first bat and just seen I think it was a younger sale, probably twohundred pound sale.

That evening it's the only bear i'd seen. But the next day I asked him, you know, if we could go back to where I'd killed the year before, he said, absolutely, which was a lot longer boat ride. So I took plenty of pain mids for the boat ride to get there because the wind had been blowing. But now I just kidding, but uh yeah, he took me to this bat and before I could even get settled in the

blind of bears coming in. And but you know, that evening I'd seen I don't know, three or four bears, one really nice probably probably close to three hundred pound bour come in right off the bat. And as I've setting there, I'm trying to film self film h just over the know, here comes a big bear, a really big bear comes in, commits to the bait and about twenty five yards and he just does not give me the right angle. But in the meantime, I've got this

other board circling within arms and reach. So I'm trying to shoot, you know, out of the looking over your shoulder bear trying to sniff you over here. Yeah, I've got a whopper just right out front that I'm waiting to get broadside, and this other one's you know, in my pocket, and no one stick set him. But anyway, this this bear never get a shot head. It ends up running a smaller bear off the bait and just kind of disappears for the evening. And which that's that

first day was what a day? And it was that a two Monday. Monday was the first day. Yeah, Monday was at the other bait. Tuesday, I didn't get shot. Wednesday that same bear come in and the smaller bear, no, the bigger bear. Man, I've missed my days up. Yeah, I don't want me read anyway. I end up getting a shot at this bear I've seen the day before, which was a big bear, and I end up with him shoot right and dream I forgot about that Ryan. Huh.

Now we can talk about Ry with a compound bow and everybody in camp the shot and shot and shot every day, you know, so everybody's dead on and I don't know how, but I shot, you know, just low and I was sick about it. Hey, And let me just tell you I was shocked when I heard that. I mean Ryan grabbed it and miss bears with a compound bow off the ground. Yeah, I was down and out,

but he wasn't that scared. And what's worse than that is he ended up coming back in later that evening and he stayed hid behind the barrel, wouldn't give me the right shot again, And finally he goes to mosey off at about thirty yards broadside. Again, I shoot and shoot right and dream and I'm ready to we're going to end the podcast on this. But yeah, I forgot it too. I forgot you missed it twice. I'm glad because y'all haven't been giving me a hard time. Round

two starts today. Yeah, but the I think it was the next day, wasn't there maybe an hour and a really nice bear comes right in. We'd actually moved the barrel up there just a hair closer to you. I'm doubting myself, you know. And but anyway, this other bear comes right in, does what I want him to. I mean, I just center punched him. He actually run a half circle behind me and died just down there at where

they pulled the boat up. But also while this is going on, I'm filming the whole week, self filming and get all the spectacular footage. I shoot this bear thing. Man, I've really done something, you know. And as I'm doing a little post hunt interview there, I noticed that red dots not light and needless to say, I didn't get any of the the bear coming in the shot anything, and I just it would have been a full episode to Bear Horizon. You robbed the people. I didn't. I didn't.

I thought I'm leaving Canada without a scalp because he was gonna take Oh man. It was it was like getting somebody kicking sand in your eyes when you were down. Because Ryan was like, I killed a big one. I was like, yes, at least we got we got one good bear. Ryan's filming, and then like ten minutes later he said, but I didn't get oh man, I wish I had. Hey, your last year's video that you self film has a hundred two views on YouTube. Yeah, this

is incredible. The same same spots probably could have been some of the same bear as you saw. It might have been the bear end up killing this year. You know, I had not seen that bear that whole week, you know. Okay, see, I didn't realize that was a new bear. See. That's what's so unique about this kind of honey is that we set on just a red hot bait for five days and never saw just a whopper whopper bear. You said, on a red hot bait, and there were three whopper bears.

And by a whopper, you know, a three hundred plus pound spring bear is a big bear. And the and the big one that you missed was probably in the four hundred pound range, okay, pushing for yeah, so I mean that's that's a monster spring bear. Monster spring bear. And then the one, the one you killed. How how big you think it was? I want to say it

was three. You know, time was winding down, and I mean it was a good bear, right and uh, you know, I just decided to see if I could miss that one too, but yeah, it hitn't even Yeah, so it was a it was an awesome hunt that Ryan was was in. He was in his favorite little spot over there, did really good, had a lot of action. And then the sixth day, final day, Brent was up to bat. And here was my deal. I shot that bear on the fifth day and actually had another full day to hunt,

and I just didn't feel right about it. There's no that in Saskatchewan I could have continued to hunt. I still had an unfilled tag. But I told Brent, I said, my hunt's over, I'm done. You're up to bat and uh so Brent actually went in where you killed your bear, and I knew for sure we were going to get a bear. Oh man, I mean I had a great feeling. I mean we had one full I mean all it takes up there is an afternoon had been destroyed from

the day. Yeah, I couldn't believe it. We set for six hours and saw one bear that wouldn't even hardly come into the bait. And so it's just you just never know. So Brent got to hunt one day and and he could have shot this smaller bear that was there, but it just wasn't what we were after. So go back. We're gonna have to go back against Brian didn't if he's gonna go about out of errors. Yeah, I'm gonna

have to get some new arrows. Yeah. Well this it's it was a phenomenal hunt Bear pross Safari's Northern Saskatchewan, and we're probably gonna end up probably end up back there this year, some conglomeration of us. We're not sure, rights not sure if he can go. You know what I'd like to say is there's nobody doing what Kobe's doing up there that we're aware of. That's you know a lot of these outfitters, you know, it's places it's

baited year after year after year. Some of them may not be that far from you know, access road or something, but Kobe takes you somewhere away from you know, the norm and put you on fresh bears. And he don't take no shortcuts. And you know, it's it's it's amazing us in what he does, the hard work that him and Dustin do, and you know, I'm amazed at their woodsmanship and you know, like I said, their work ethic and you know, there's nobody else I would go with

the fare. I don't think that he spoiled me. Yeah, yeah, man, I have a ton of respect for all these bear outfairs. It's a tremendous amount of work. I mean, those guys are just made of steel. They really are. Yeah, they're

they're purpose driven. You know. I was talking to Okay out in California, UM about doing about some bear hunt by some film and stuff the other day and this is before the Arkansas opener, and told him, you know, we had a bear bait going and he put it pretty good, and he said he couldn't think of any other hunt where you have more sweat equity and involved and invested in something than than abated bear hunt. You know, I love all types of bear hunting. I love spotting

stock hunting in the West. I mean, there's just something special about it. There's something special about hunting with hounds. There's something special about hunting in in these big woods. The way we do. You couldn't really call it spotting stock, but almost like spotting stock. But the hardest hunts that I do in terms of volume of work, are baited hunts, you know, and and not taking anything away from a spotting stock hunt, takes a ton of skill. It's technical.

You gotta be in good shape. But man, bear hunts a lot of work. You know. I've helped you a little bit in the past on a few baits, like right before we get into camp, you know, a couple of days early and we would bait, you know, and I would film some stuff for you or maybe totally little bait in or whatever. But this year, with me and a friend of mine, we started that that bait. That's when I really realized, Man, this this ain't nothing easier.

But what I tell you, you know what he said, the dream is free, but dream is free, the hustle is sold separate. I ugh, like that. But it's true, you know. I mean, and it's you gotta stay on if you wanted to work, you gotta stay on top of it. And usually bears here, Um, you gotta do some work to get to them, to get where they are. You can't just drive throw a loaf of bread out. They're just gonna take some logistics. You gotta do a lot of things right to kill the older, mature, bore

over bait, especially in Arkansas, Oklahoma. I mean, that's the best way I can describe it is that you gotta do a ton of stuff, right. You gotta do a ton of stuff right. Yeah, we almost destroyed the Polarish Ranger having to get into this place they get, they get the bait to get just to get the barrel in there. I mean, it came out looking like something the climates were driving around when we were we got those hounds. It was terrible. That's where the bears are.

You got to get to them places, right, It's all about location. Well, we'll have another podcast at some point with Ryan and maybe probably Brent too, but about Arkansas bears and about what we're doing and how we're targeting these bears. You know, bears are so cool because they're so diverse. I love hunting over bait, and I will never not love hunting over bait. I also love going out in the mountains national forest and just hunting them one on one. I love. I'm probably gonna end up

out in Tennessee later this fall hunting over hounds. I mean that there's such a diverse animal. They cover such a wide geographic range they cover, they overlap so many different types of hunting cultures. I mean that it's just such a unique, unique animal to be able to hunt. Whatever is happening ecologically in North America, it's beneficial to bears.

You show me a bear population that's in decline, a black bear population that's in decline in North America, they're just they're just not I mean, they're there where they're they're they're expanding every direction out of Arkansas, in the eastern Oklahoma, southern Missouri, western Mississippi, northern Louisiana, northeast Texas. I mean, I grew up in southeast Arkansas, and if you wanted to see a bear, you had to drive

a long ways away. And I got a buddy works for the US Fish and Wildlife service down Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge. You want to see a bear, He'll just go out and show you one. They're covered in bears everywhere. Yeah, So this is a great time to be a bear hunter, you know, and I think for bears are kind of overlooked in some ways. And that's what we're trying to change your Bear Hunting magazine, And we're trying to educate two people to about the conservation angle of this type

of hunting. I mean, spring bear hunting is strategically half in during fawning times. So you take a bear out of that population, it's one less bear that's gonna be able to target a moose fawn or a caribou fawn or a whitetail fawn. I mean there's we use the meat. I mean, bear meat is fantastic when it's handled and cooked correctly. We use the hide, we we we take the skulls. I mean, there's all these wildlife commodities we've rendered down the fat, there's all these things that we

do with bear and we're learning more every day. I mean, I'm I'm I've made it a mission and what I do to try to learn more about how to utilize this animal that we that we love, value, appreciate, and so you just can't be a bear hunter in ten and expect this to continue unless we're pretty dern educated and even articulate. What I want to do with bear any magazine, and with this podcast and with our videos is to put words in people's mouths that they can

then begin to say. And not that I'm the one that started it. I mean somebody told me how to say it, but just just this idea that if we want the bear hunt for charismatic megafauna, for big predators to continue in the politically correct, urbanized, civilized, concrete ized society that we now live in, we're gonna have to get super smart. And even in this world of social media, which I don't have a good answer to, it'd probably be better if we never, none of us ever put

anything on the internet about bear hunting. But that's just not gonna happen. I mean that's kind of like saying, well, it'd be better if nobody drove cars, because people would dyeing car x those one wouldn't be depleted. And it's like, well, we've kind of we're too far steeped in blood. We

can't not drive cars. The world knows we bear hunt, so we might as well get educated and and our goal is to put out some quality media that has a a a solid perspective on to portray it as it actually is and in the right way to what we think is the right way to do things. Yeah, for the for the species in the sport. Let's yeah, species first. Yeah, that's right, that's right. Hey, check out

the Bear Hunting Magazine YouTube channel and watch this episode. Uh, it's it's gonna be the most recent episode about Saskatchewan. I don't even know that. I hadn't even named it. It swinging a mis swinging in this swing too soon, brother, um so, but you'll be able to watch you'll be able to watch this episode. Hey, check out our print magazine, Shameless plug Man, We've got an awesome print magazine. We're the only bare hunting magazine in the world, only print

barhunting magazine in the world, and you know, check it out. Subscribe, Thanks for listening to podcast. Check out our YouTube channel. Man. Keep the wild places why because that's where the fays live.