Ep. 45: Fall Bear with Jeff Roberts

everybody else. Today, P and Wild is a successful small business providing professional imagery and videography, as well as running a podcast and YouTube channel dedicated to showcasing not only the beauty of Washington State, but all other Western states where we can pursue big game. Washington State hosts an amazing fall bear season, allowing hunters to harvest two bears

statewide beginning August first. Over the years, fall bear hunting has become a top priority for him in P and Wild, and in twenty twenty two, last year, the three members of P and Wild harvested seven bears, one being in Montana, six in Washington. And I know they help friends and family with many more so, I figured there wasn't a better guest to have on the show to talk about fall Bear season right in the middle of it, and welcome to the show, Jeff.

pretty early opener around the West. I think we're one of the ones that kick it off, really, but yeah, it's good. I'm super excited to get rolling.

to be late. But then we've had like this accelerated late spring in the summer, so is it going to like speed the berries up or they And it's always kind of interesting to see, are you gonna miss, you know, have like a bad barrier year, you know, at least for us hunting the west slopes of the Cascades or even here where we're picking up huckleberries or BlackBerry bears, like where the berrys at? And are they gonna come on right or late or early or not at all?

So we're trying to sit and wait that out. And what are your buddies seeing right now? Are they are their berries low? Are they still late?

what we were kind of fearing. Mid July, Zach and I went on a scouting trip and we were finding huckleberries ripe around thirty six and last night they were at forty two, So it's kind of accelerated, and just like you said, kind of right in the July, just a lot of consecutive really really hot days, and I think huckleberries, I mean, I know huckleberries are ripe at forty two, and a couple of my buddies are smashing

them right now at four thousand. My buddy John actually went out on opener lat yesterday, which was recording this on August second, So the opener was yesterday and they killed one at forty one. So it's it's right there with maybe on on our normal year. Last year, it was its way ahead last year on opening weekend, we were killing them right around twenty four to twenty six, and that was the only ripe berry source. So it's definitely it's past that, gotcha.

correlated with what I thought. But there was this one spot in the unit that I really wanted you to check out, and you were I think you were over there scouting like every weekend and I'm like, what do you see that. He's like, Oh, we didn't go in there yet or I didn't set a cam there yet.

And it was one of those drain It was two drainages that met, but they were just a little bit kink from each other, so it had these two passes where it kind of connected it at a diagonal, and so the best thing I could do is to make up a story about my neighbor having an elk tag that had been over there scouting as well. It was a rifle tag, but he had been seeing a giant in this area. But hey, Jeff, just just just don't

go tell if you see this guy up there. You didn't talk to me, and so I can remember, real, real vividly on a Sunday morning, I'm like, oh, Jeff Roberts is facetiming me. And as I answered the phone, I actually answered it into the spotting scope and there was a real good bowl there, and you know, I wasn't a giant, but it was like a what three twenty three thirty type bowl, like a.

bowl there. But that was kind of that was kind of a funny, funny little story as we we got to know each other there as we were you know, you guys were just I think that was the first year you guys did anything with p and wild, right, that was your first year of filming and whatnot.

And I just kind of hit the ground running and came across you and your content that you were putting out on the local forums and stuff, and then I reached out to you there. We kind of exchanged numbers, bought a lot of your calls and stuff, and then ended up I don't know how you gave out your cel phone to me. That's a big problem right there, but you did. And then I got a tip from you, like, hey, I heard there was a nice bowl in here, and sure enough went up there and at first light scouted

that bowl out. He was with like two or three other bowls just kind of batched up in that summer stuff, and I was like, holy cow, this is the one Jason was talking about. For sure. Just I had a nice three twenty three thirty bowl or something.

for you. So we got three questions today I'm gonna give these questions Jeff first, and I'll either add to or take away from that, or disagree or agree with them. So the first question we got, which is important right now as I think it's maybe eighty five degrees outside, how do you take care of your bear in the field when it's hot? You know, you got hot weather you're dealing with, which effects the meat you've got Taxi, Dremy, you've got this hot weather. Bears more so than any

other critter, like very quick to slip the hide. You don't want that hair to start slipping. So give us kind of what your your field carry is and what you're thinking about in the you know, the field when you get to a bear after you're done taking pictures.

these taken care of. But I think it's especially for me. I hunt primarily on the East Side in August, early August into that early September. It can dip into the hundreds. It can get really really hot. So one of the priorities that we really prioritize. Prioritize number one is just get into the shade. And if you're if you're not, you got you gotta find some kind of shade, especially when you're processing, because that can take, you know, several hours.

And so this is exactly the process that I did last year. Get these bears into the shade while you're caping them, while you're taking them, you know, quartering them out, whatever you want to do. So get them into the shade. Get cool. Just step one is get get into a cooler place, and if you're next to a creek or something, even better, get down into the shade. Get some wind, going,

get some air to that hide. And like you said, if you're going to keep that rug or keep that trophy, the hide is the first thing that's going to start slipping. But if it started getting to meet as you start quartering them out. What we'd like to do, it's in

that video as well. We just get the quarters off into shade and if you've got to have a buddy, you know, leap frogum one hundred yards down the creek or whatever you're at, just get them into some shade, get them out of the direct sunlight, and get them in a game bag. Hanging the air to that quarter is going to help a ton too. It doesn't have to be cool, it just has to be that air running to that that excuse me, that quarter. So have a buddy, leap frogin or you can get up and

you guys can just take turns cutting. If you're solo, you just got to get it into the shade. And as you kind of work that bear down and you're getting rear hands off and you're getting neck meat off. I would just get that meat out off that hide, exposed to you know, into a game bag and exposed the wind of some sort and some shade and then just like it's cliche, but get back to the truck as fast as you can. A big tip is keep your coolers pre cooled, so don't just show up to

the hunt with no ice. In your cooler. Yeah, expect to be successful. It's gonna pay off if you are spend the ten dollars on ice or a cheap way to do it is just everyone drinks milk at home or has water. If you don't, you know, throw a milk jug full of ice, so freeze them overnight at home. You know, get those coolers nice and cooled down. On

your way to a hunt. We're kings of just weekend warriors and sometimes Friday after work you have that cooler in your truck already filled with you know, those those frozen milk jugs of ice or on at least your way. Get the block ice. This seems to last longer rather than this crushed. So get a couple of things of block ice in your cooler so when you get back to the truck you have the nice cool spot to

put that meat and right away. Unfortunately, we experienced a little bit of spoilage last year on one of Bobby's bears, just one of our seven, just that top layer of the cooler, and it could have just been weigh the way that we stacked it, or it just could have been you know, it was one hundred and five and you know, got to get six miles and that takes some time. And what's in your backpack and it's next to your back, that heat from your body can just

get to that meat. And unfortunately, I don't know if it's spoiled on the way or just you know, the next couple of days after we got back to the truck and continued to hunt, we had a little bit of spoilage in the very very top of one of Bobby's quarters. So it does happen, and it's a reality, and I think just you know, being cautious of it can pay off.

get it cooled down. And one thing to reiterate what you said about air flow versus heat, Like I'm willing to let something if I had to set something down in the shade on let's say a game bag or on my waterproof sack versus let it hang and ninety degree heat, like air is just as important, especially in that first twenty four hours as heat is. Now. Ideally you get both, you know, get stuff to the shade

and hanging. But I'd rather let something hang, you know if it's a little bit warmer, but get air to all, you know, every side of that meat. And then in that first twelve to fourteen hours, I don't pay as much attention into to the meat or not the meat, but the but the the heat. I would rather get airflow to it. And like you said in your pack, when that thing, you know is not able to breathe, and you're like, that's where you're gonna get that spoiled.

So the quicker you can get that thing to air and get it to air out let some out some of that heat. Like it's it's all, it's all to the benefit of the quality of that meat. But yeah, bears, bears are interesting. One thing on the tax germy side. There's a lot of ways to do it. Some people will make a decision down the back and then like case, skin the legs I did. It seemed easier for for

the way I run a knife. For what I thought was to cut down the inside of all four legs and then I connect them with angled lines that connect down the belly. A taxidermist has to sew that anyways. And so as long as don't get too nervous, as long as you're making clean straight cuts, you can connect the four legs down to a center line, you know, come down at angles, meat and then the tax and then case skin out the neck the tax terms is gonna be put that together, no problem, you'll never know.

You know, mine mine had a white chevron on it, the one that I had full mounted, and so I changed. I just changed the angles of my line so I didn't have to deal with like but you still had to take your center line through it, which was it was a little disheartening, but a good tax nurmers will put that back together like it should go.

fairly quickly, especially in the fall. If the berries are right, huckles are right, there's a very small window of time that a bear's not going to be on those, especially the later in the fall you go so early in August, Yeah, sit and sit on a clearcut, sit on a on a berry patch that you see is right for a little bit longer as you progress through the falls, as the huckle berries kind of kick off up higher and the and they're drying out down lower, and they're kind

of going into that fall like vacuum mode where they're just only caring about a food source and I'll just keep checking basins. I'll move faster. So it kind of depends on the time of year that we're in, early time or early season, like right now, Yeah, i might hang out for half a day and just wait for see if something's gonna come out, especially if I'm on clearcuts or something like that. You could sit all day on a clear cut that you know is going to

hold a bear at a point in time. But as you progress through the fall, I'm going to be moving more rapidly, especially if I know, you know, in certain some of our areas where we have so many areas intertwined on a trail system, or if I'm on a ridge line that has base and base and base and basin and the high country like we like to do it. Yeah, I'm moving pretty frequently. I might stopping glass for thirty minutes and see if I can pick something up, and

if not, I'll move on to the next one. And we'll kind of just do a back and forth on a you know, six mile trail or you know, you know, back and forth on a three or four mile a ridge line or something like that, and just keep checking little basins.

have to go below it. So you're your glass is literally on a tripod just swinging at in elevation and and uh, you know, but around now that's different, you know, like when I have the goat rocks, you know, some of our mountainous stuff versus if I'm hunting here on home where I'm industrial timberland, you know I'm dealing with BlackBerry brush or alders or Devil's Club. We were talking about this before the podcast. I can sit in glass, I know that I'm in a spot where we've been

seeing bears. So you know, you're you're just not willing to move clearcuts, right, You're just gonna You're gonna glass this big clearcut all night. But you can literally glass hours and within an instant, all of a sudden, the bear pops out of nowhere. And that's where I feel that if you're hunting more industrial timberlands clearcut type stuff, it's tough to do right because I'm not very patient.

But if you know there are bears in the area, you've seen them there before, Like, your best bet is not to leave a bear to go find a bear, right, I would I hammer that more than than it than going to find a new area. And so I've learned to be a lot more patient. It gets boring as heck.

It seems like you're looking to the same, you know, same thing over and over and over, but it's penciled out more times than not around here versus you know, just driving around looking at new clearcuts that I don't know if there's bears that have been frequenting it exactly.

I'm going to just sit there and kind of back and forth, go to basin, the base in the basin at those elevation lines and tell something is in there. And when they are, man, you got plenty of time to make a play because they're going to be on food for a long time.

we if we match up there? Where are you going to shoot a bear?

being a sow. She turned completely broadside and you can see that I just aimed slightly forward of middle of middle and it was lights out in you know, thirty seconds. So you can't really argue with that. Some people do have the argument of you know, shoulders shooting them if and so this anchorm right there. You hear that on forums and stuff, and it's it works for people. Everyone. There's a nine ways of skin a cat. I guess where are you sitting? Are you? Middle middle guy?

left with what's a body. So if you just you know, for those of you that don't know what we're saying by middle of middle, if you just draw a line, you know, halfway up horizontally and halfway up vertically and set your crossaters there and then just go a little bit towards the front front end of him, like that's where we're shooting.

You know their their lungs are back a little bit further than most you know, compared to our deer and elk that that most people hunt. Yeah, so it's it's it's a more conservative shot. You got more room for air, and the bear's going to die real quick versus trying to break them down to the front shoulders.

lot of attention. But rightfully so, right spring bear there in the whole lot of else going on aside from turkeys. A lot of big game hunters despise turkeys for some reason. I love it. But you know, it was that first time too, man, it was that first time to get back in the mountains kind of chase the snow up those bears are, you know, and but but we don't have that anymore. So here in Washington. We've got a great bear population and our fall hunt is pretty dang

good as well. Not to mention these bears have put on an extra sixty eighty pounds since the spring. There a little bigger, a little tastier, a little more fat. So we've we have to love fall bears season. As

we mentioned, it's a great state. Like I would never recommend anybody come here for dear elk, but if you're just looking for a fall bear hunt in August to get ahead of big game, like I apologize for our pricing for non residents, but it's it can be a pretty it can be a pretty dang good hunt to come here. And we would really appreciate if you helped us out with all of our bears.

But on a more normal year, yes, we're in the field scouting and we're not really necessarily looking for bears, although that's going to be you know, a great bonus if you do find one. We're kind of just keeping our finger on the pulse of the berries, what's going on, where the elevation is, and we're kind of planning out the fall because we've wanted our you know, our local spots or our favorite spots for a decade over a decade now, and we kind of know what to look

for at certain times of the year. You hit these milestones of you know, I got pictures on my phones of you know, the basins that we like to hunt and their snow depth as the as the spring and summer kind of you know, progressed and we're getting closer to fall and and it's kind of like a stopwatch after that snow in those high on those high basins is completely melted off and you're getting the sunlight onto soil. It's a stopwatch and we like to say sixty days

and it's it's right there on on on. Let's just say an average year, maybe not accelerated drought or some kind of crazy rainfall. On a normal year where're just getting kind of normal weather, it's about sixty days and from that snow melting off and getting sunlight on soil, you can you know, pretty much guarantee that sixty days from then you're gonna have huckleberries starting to become ripe. And it's worked out in the past for us. So let's say June first, you got hook or you got

sunlight on soil. You can say that August first around, then give or take a week or so, you're gonna have right berries, and then that'll work on for you know that higher country stuff where you know July first, so that pushes you out to that labor day window and time and time and time. Again we've been able to prove this, if you will, where that it kind of it works out more times than not. So scouting absolutely, keep your eye on weather, keep your eye on the

berry sources, keep your eye on basins. And obviously, like we got to a road last time last year, we got to a road and our main in and out road was closed due to a landslide, so you might not know that when you get there August first ready to go for a hunt, and you can't get there. So now you got an audible right, So it always is going to benefit to keep your finger on the pulse and get in your area, keep glass on the hills, and kind of keep your eye on the berries too.

That's a huge thing. So then you know that, you know, okay, I need to be at you know, forty one for open or not twenty six. This is a huge swing from last year. We're two thousand feet above. And I'm not speaking for everyone in Washington State, so don't hang me out to dry if it's not if I'm talking about areas that don't kind of add up to you, but in our areas, the Northern Cascades were way different

from last year. We're way above what we were last year for berry ripe and and that's why I think it's very important that you should be out in the field as much as you can.

to be once August first gets here. And then once they're out in the field, they can kind of, you know, keep track of them and keep track of how they move and how the bearers are moving up. And like I say, if you're being a smart hunter, you're also going to be able to see where the berries are moving just as you're on the ground or as you're trying to eat the berry path, you know, eat the berries as you go, like you're at the right elevation

when you're trying to eat the berries. So I do want to touch on e scouting, but I'm gonna save that a little bit later in the podcast when we talk about train and elevation and whatnot. So eat scouting is a very important part, especially you know, I think for bear hunters to look for some things, but we'll separate that from scouting. It relates a little more to terrain and and what you're looking for for you know,

finding food sources and whatnot. Do you find that the bears that you guys are hunting travel a long distance or are they just going up and down the mountain? Are they are they pushing out of an area to get back or are you are you guys do you believe they're just going up and down a drain. It's almost like say a migrating deer from where they're danning in the spring, you know, if they come out in April May. What's your opinion on where these bears are

traveling by the time the fall season gets here. Is there a way to scout in me around? Are they just kind of hanging out in an area eating you know, the cadmium layer on for trees and eating the brush that they do that the new fresh grasses kind of what's your opinion on travel or is it Do you guys even try to pay attention to any of that?

going to be sitting there. Like last year, I shot my last beer this season, my second bear of this season, at like one fifteen in the afternoon, and you could see that bear for she didn't she couldn't get away from you know, a mile and a half in each basin. She's in the wide open, very little cover. So it's very fun. You know, they're they're very exposed. They're out in the wide open, you know, kind of making themselves

pretty vulnerable. So anyways, that's at seventy two hundred feet pretty high, sixty eight to seventy two, And you got to wonder where did this thing travel from? You know, where did you where do you den? Obviously down in the valley somewhere, but maybe not. Maybe they do stay up high those you know all I don't know if they're like old gnarly mule deer bucks that just don't want to come down, or but yes, I try to

figure that out. And I know for a fact that they're going to have to come down because it's just it's just too high up there. The food source is just so rare up there. And then at their springtime they're going to be half they're going to need to come down and find a food source in the early spring.

And I have found bears in some of our higher basins in that later springtime, so like early June, you know, you're driving through and you whip the glass out and you're checking out a basin and you're like, whoa, there's a there's a bear up there eating that really lush green grass. You know, at you know, sixty two hundred feet in June fifth or something. But yeah, I don't really have a finger on the pulse as far as they're they're traveling goes, but it is something that's very

curious to me. Where do they go, What are they doing in that time where they're not really exposed up in the alpine, and then in their early August, early August early I guess it's gonna be late summer early August. Then they all start coming out. They'll start they'll start at that thirty two hundred feet elevation is really kind of the elevation I start at in the Northern Cascades on the eastern slope, and you kind of work your way up so you can hunt creek bottoms in August first,

and then as the fall progresses. As we get into fall, you know you're going to find them at seven thousan seventy two something like that. I shot at a bear last year at like seventy three. So they're going to go to the top where that food source carries them. So they're just going to go wherever that food source is going. So you're going to start early August down in the creek bottoms is kind of the vegetation is ripened down there, and they're just really going to go

with it. They're just going to travel that water line, if you will, up to the top when that food source is. As long as that food source is lasting, they're going to be on them.

and then got killed in almost pel Washington. So you know, we're talking fifty miles as a crow flies real old I don't remember, that's thirteen or sixteen year old bear, really really old bear. But yeah, they it just they will travel a long long ways, either looking for you know, during the route, looking for sALS or looking for the right food source. And it kind of kind of snapped my mind a little bit that that a bear let

go there. I wouldn't believe it if it wasn't collared that you know, it travels fifty miles as a crow flies to it, you know, from Capitol Hill to Willipa Hills.

his area. And and one thing that uh, you know, talking to some some bear hunters that have a lot more experience than I do, at it is there are prime spots on the landscape right that that big, big mature bears, bores they like to have the easy pickens, and they're gonna take over that spot as soon as they're their pedigree or there there, you know, their their names on the pecking order. At a high enough place,

they're gonna kick all those other boars out. And so it sounds like on a lot of these spots you can go back almost yearly, you know, as long as you gonna shoot out in an entire area and find those biggest bores and similar spots.

trying to make a move on him. Get up in there to that exact meadow, and they watch this bear go up in over cliffs and I'm talking like mountain goat country type of cliffs kind of watch them go up and over and they're sitting on him hoping he's gonna come back down in the evening, come down on those cliffs and onto that food source, because he was

on a really really ripe, just amazing huckleberry field. And then two or three hours after that big jet black bear went up and over, a little tiny chocolate comes out of the trees and starts feeding in his meadow. So exactly back to that kind of alpha boar or something like that, where they kind of command their respect to the other bears when they're there and they're feeding,

that's their spot. And then after he went up and out, you know like, oh, I'm kind of full, I'm gonna go take a nap, you know, midday after he left, a couple hours later, here comes this tinier, lone boar, you know, two three hours later and just takes his little berry patch. So it is funny to watch that kind of interact and kind of think about that and bears. How many times have you seen, you know, multiple bears in the same meadow and within a couple of days.

not typically your fresh clear cuts. You're gonna have multiple bears all in that same general area. Now they might hang out on opposite sides, they don't want to be around each other, but yeah, multiple bears and similar spots. Because once again we're going to talk about it here in a little bit, it's really tied to the food source in that area, the prime food source. They're all trying to get a piece of that.

that's counting cubs with soals and stuff. But that's a lot of bears in the same ecosystem, and I think, and there's got to be more too. I think we saw thirteen in one day, just kind of doing our ten mile loop, you know, out and around, just kind of hopping basins. You're riding ridge lines and you're looking this way, and you're glassing you know, miles and miles

and miles. But within a you know, five square mile you know radius, seeing thirteen bears out in the wide open and the alpine feeding on berries, you know, just like you say, they kind of g gravitate towards each other. And I don't think it's necessarily because they want to be around each other. I think it's just food sources.

Once there's a really really good food source in that area. Obviously, this localized area that's five square miles, it has just a ton of food sources, water source, cover everything that bears need. And once you find that it's a really you gotta hold it near and deer because that's that's a really good spot. And then every year, you know, year after year, we get back in there and we'll harvest a couple of bears.

food source. So let's jump into That's a great segue into this, because this is probably the most important topic when it comes to fall bear hunting is food sources and what elevation are you gonna hunt at? You know, we talk about all this other stuff, but I would say it's an accessory to this as far as finding bears and figuring out how to kill them. Bears bears, some of them have said to eat you know, fifteen thousand calories a day and be on their feet, you know,

twenty hours a day to do so. You know, so these bears are trying to fatten up. I've also heard stats where they will eat quite a bit in the spring and summer, but in the month of August alone, they may put on twenty percent of their body weight in that one month of August, which correlates very timely to the beerries usually popping, and so I kind of I kind of agree with all of that, but kind of give me, let's roll all the way back to

let's say springtime. You know where they're food sources, grasses and and you know, bark and you know, wild onions or whatever may have in that area, whatever whatever's available, some roots and yeah, yeah, whatever they can dig and scrounge for. Versus we start to get into the fall, like we were through through the beginning of the summer. How does their food change and what food sources they looking for? You know, berries are at the top, but they are still looking and keying in on some other

stuff as well. But kind of walk through food sources and elevation and you know we've we've touched on a little bit, but the process to find them.

to twenty bears a day from one glassing knob. And I went with a guy that I just really just admired lot was Shane Vandergeese and he's in you know, up in the north side of s Gadget County, Wakam County, I think, and just wanted with him and learned from him just on the spring bear thing, and they're so unpredictable and they're just there's everything is so green in the spring, and I think the majority of the stuff that we were watching was them just on grass and

then traveling these ridge tops, rolling rocks, eating grubs, eating these bolsom roots, eating these wild onions, and then they're just kind of cruising, kind of looking for We never saw bears being you know, stationary, and that was kind of more in the eastern side, and then we kind of more moved towards in my experience where I've been out scouting in the spring for mule deer and we're talking early early June, late May, you know, Labor Day or excuse me, Memorial Day is kind of when I

start scouting, you know, getting my lay of the land and stuff, and we'll see bears at five thousand feet in late May, early June, it's still snowing on us and we're finding bears just kind of cruising country. I'm forgiving, but I don't know exactly what they're eating that time of year. It's just got to be you know, you see their scat and it's just full of grass and green stuff. And I'm sure they're doing the same thing

stumps and rolling rocks, neat and grubs. But I think their primary target at that time in the spring kind of moving into summer is is just kind of vegetation. Obviously, they're omnivorous, so they're gonna be you know, if they come across the fawn at that time. It's horribly sad because we need to protect our mule deer, but of

course they're gonna you know, eat that as well. So I think calling, I'm sure we're going to get into this later, but calling, if you're spring bear, if you're listening to this for spring bear help or advice or whatever, calling is gonna be way more effective in my you know, my scope here. Calling is more effective in the spring, just because they're so opportunistic and they're coming out and they're lethargic if you will, Laura Smith, and they're just

so dangerous, you know, vulnerable. You're gonna be more effective in that springtime as you move into the fall time, where I kind of spend more time in the woods, just because our seasons are more Washington State, we don't have a springtime anymore, so I have way more experience in the fall. It is so much onto the berries as primarily as I can say, like I've called it a bear, I'm just trying to get him to stand up,

and alls I needed to do was stand up. It's on one of our films and I used one of your distress calls and try to get this bear to stand up, and he just wouldn't do it. Just lift his head up and look at me. I just need him stand up so I could shoot him, and just wouldn't do it. So that just tells me that their primary focus is not really on they've kind of switched out of that opportunistic If I, you know, find a distressed ane, I'm going to run and chase it down.

I need the calories now when they're on a food source in that fall time, that late summer like we are right now August September. If they're on a food source, that's really all they're going to care about. They're just going to suck up those berries. And like you said, I have personally harvested a bear that I have watched in a meadow on a hillside for fourteen hours. It's on film on our YouTube channel. I spot him right at like five point forty five in the morning on

September eleventh, twenty twenty one. So I watched him, you know, on that barry patch and now he's six miles away. We make our way down there, set up camp, drop camp, and then kind of get my stock on. And I didn't shoot him until eight fifteen at night, So I know that bear did not move. He's in the same exact meadow unless there was a bait and switch in the middle of my transition that I couldn't, you know,

keep an eye on that hillside. But there was a bear in the same exact meadow that I was stalking on, you know, fourteen fifteen hours later. So that's how food driven these things are. Later in the fall, this was September eleventh, So we're kind of getting into that phase of the year where they're really trying to pack it on.

Like you said, they're eating fifteen thousand calories in a day, and that bear, I could guarantee you he was pushing that number and he was on his feet for twenty hours a day, completely exposed wide open hillsides, just sucking berries down. And I did a you know, fourteen fifteen hour stock on him and was able to get over there and get him killed. But with that being said, that time of the year, I think it's just holistically

berries and that's in that country that I'm in. If you it might not work in the area that you're you're hunting, so it might not correlate all over Washington State. You could have bears that are working salmon are you know, kind of spawning you know, sakei or coho or you know, pinks coming into the rivers that they do, and they

can be working on that. But as far as the bears that we hunt and that we focused on, they're just strictly berry bears at that time of the year, working into that fall, and that's been my favorite time of year to hunt them.

And I don't know if you have those there. I've always kind of categorized. We've got three different types of berries here, like more in the Central Cascades. We've got like the very low laying blueberries, which tastes more like a real blueberry to me, but they're only about a foot tall bush, not very tall. And then you got your huckleberries that are maybe two to three feet tall. And then we've actually got like blueberry trees is what i'd call them. They got like this weird crushed velvet

type berry on them that are very good. Yeah, But the one thing that I like when we do hunt in the mountains is if I can get the when those small short or blueberries are on, Like, that's my favorite because those things can't hide from me if I'm half in the glass and steeper and the steeper the better,

because that bear can't hide from me as well. But if you start to get to like moderate slopes or getting close to flatberry fields, like, it's very very tough hide in, very very tough, and so like, you know, those those short blueberries seem to hit just a little bit later, more towards the end of August. But when those are on, like that's very very easy bear hunting because those things are a little more dense than huckleberries.

And so that's just one thing to keep in mind, Like when those come on, like if you can prioritize your hunt around those, like you may see more bears in the right area, or they may be more visible versus you know, and some of those patches of what I call blueberry trees, I honestly don't know what they are, but they're over the top of my head. Like, if bears get into those patches, you may never see them.

But when you're on the ground or when you're on the trails, like you can see that there's obviously a lot of bear scat and bear sign and bear tracks around them. You just can't see into them when you're glassing across the canyon or whatnot.

But this year, like I was talking about on that particular trail that we hunted last year on remember the particular area that we hunted last year, the saskatoons right now are already gone and they can get you know, six to eight feet tall, droop and just be loaded with those blueberries. But there they look like a blueberry, but they're super tart, they're not nearly they're not a huggled, they're not blue.

eight to ten foot. But yeah, those those bears love to kind of hang out in that they hit ripe about the same time as the rest of them, but they're they're more loaded up like in bunch berries, kind of like those saskatoons, and yep, yep, they'll sit on those things forever and not move, which drives me nuts. Versus it's like, all right, at least if you're sitting in one spot out in the small blueberries, you know your glass is a lot more effective, or you can

turn them up. So do you find them on any other food source or is it ninety nine percent berries during the fall?

what's going on. You're completely disconnected to social media and forums and that. If you're just gonna take a person out to the woods and just be like, hey, go find a bear in August fifteenth, you're gonna have a little bit of trouble there because you don't know what's going on. You don't know where you need to be focusing on should I be high right now? Should I be low right now? Where do I need to focus

my time and energy on. So I think it's a benefit to be out and kind of understand the ecosystems, learn the berries when they're going to kick off, keep your eye on the snow lines and elevation lines. You're just helping yourself out. You're keeping so many more tools in your toolbox. It's going to help you be successful. So even let's just say you don't have a big bear hunt planned until September first Labor Day weekend, you could still get out and kind of check berries, check

snow lines, and glass. If you signed a bear, awesome, you know even better, you might even find a bear. Like last week and a buddy of mine, Austin, found a bear at you know, sixty four hundred feet and he was just on grass. The blueberries weren't right yet, the huckleberryes weren't right yet. He was just there on grass. Probably not going to stick around very long. Would be a very hard bear to stock and shoot. If that commute was going to be, you know, three plus hours long,

he's going to be gone by then. But once you find them stationary on that food source, wh is huckleberries, blueberries, and there's all sorts of different species of blueberries, like you're talking about, and they're going to be kicking off at different times, you know, closer smaller to the ground, that snow is on them for a lot longer. If they're only six inches tall. And I know exactly what you're talking about. Those blueberries are the best. They're like,

they taste the best, they're the sweetest. And just imagine if that snow is just on them for that much longer, because they're only six inches off the ground, that snowpack is going to be there until July at seventy two hundred feet maybe even you know, July fifteenth or something. And then as you move to that berry bush the Saskatoon that's eight feet tall, that's exposed by March, you know, so that causes ripeness to be all over the place.

And one tip or tactic, whether they like it or not, is people that like the hike all of our mountain trails will do hiking reports. So let you know where they found berries and what point of the trail. And you're like, all right, I can quickly jump on Northwest

Hiker and figure out who hiked what trail. It might not be in the same area, but it might be a general area where I'm like, oh, they're eating berries at forty eight hundred feet because they like can do berry reports, and so you can get some good information without leaving your seat.

fifty one. There was berries three quarters away to the top. Now you got some ammo in your pocket without leaving your seat. You can be really effective and just be kind of squirrely, you know, look at you use all

your resources and and I'm absolutely guilty of that. If I want to learn a new trail system, I can go to that trail on there and then go through the history of reports and be like, hey, there's berries here all right, that that trail might be worth checking out, And then you drop a pin and go check it out in the summer see if it. You know, oh man, that's gonna be a a nice big basin full of berries one day or you know, in the fall. So absolutely, man,

it's a great tip. We've talked about that tons of times.

the bear is going to be visible? That's where avalanche shoots do kind of come in. I love I love berry. You know, elevations that are at a berry but then are broken up by vertical lines because those bears have to you know, they will expose themselves in them. And

so you can look at some of that. Once you know what you're looking at on scouting, whatever you're using you know, Google Earth, whatever mapping software, and you you'll be able to start to see different bands of barris or bush type and you're gonna keep that in mind

as well. And then once again, if you go back to hiking websites, they've damn near covered every square inch of these forests, and you can usually get like a picture across the canyon and like, all right, that time of year, like what's that look like from this point, and is that gonna be a good spot to glass for bears?

But what I like to play around with is just historical imagery on go Hunt, where you can kind of go back years and stuff as well and check dates and exact dates that you're looking for, and then go back in there and previously look at the year to year and then you can just correlate it to this year and you can see if it was a drought. You know, I'm gonna go back to twenty sixteen, because let's just say twenty twenty three we're expecting a drought.

Go back to your last drought year. Like in the North Cascades, we had a pretty pretty bad drought in twenty fifteen. I know that because I was in there. And then I'm gonna go back to twenty fifteen, and then I'm gonna look at the drought year, and then you can just go to the exact dates that you're looking to go hunting and just pick it apart and

see that, Oh my gosh, and that drought year. The berries were ripe here, The berries were ripe here here, and you start dropping pins on these basins that were are going to be ripe. And I think EAT scouting is super effective. It's never as effective as getting your

boots on the ground and getting out there. That being said, we've found dozens of trailheads and dozens of trails and basins and places that we have found and harvested bears on because of being effective on the computer and ES scouting. I don't know, really, what's one of your favorite tools for ES scouting? What's your trick for bears? Do you have any things tally four bears that you like to use?

Like as much as I would love to e scout, you just have to figure out on the ground, like where those berries are at at that time, and that's elevation you need to hunt. And if you need to hunt that elevation, I start to look at basins that are a little more open at that elevation or where you know, because one one basin maybe have timber at that level, but then a different basin, you know, three more to the north might be might be berries at

that elevation. So I'm really just trying to put myself into a spot where I'm going to be at the right elevation but can still see.

going to be a bear that room's in there. Almost I would almost say to you know, guarantee that if you have a berry basin that eventually you're going to find a bear in there. So just kind of knowing these things, whether it be from like we said, you know, trail reports, eascounting, or your boots on the ground work find the berries, that's really the ticket here.

only hunt mild. I'm just kind of going where the bears are going to be, and in the early season that tends to be a little bit more flatter down on the basins, down in the bottoms excuse me, not basins, but drainages where you got creeks and rivers and stuff like that, because that's going to be kind of ripened first, and as we move up, as we progress to this season,

we'll kind of move into that mild train. And I have I kind of have my elevator of spots where I'm down at the bottom in August first, and then we kind of just progress, you know, two, three four,

five hundred feet per week. Five hundred feet a week is seems to be a little bit accurate, especially if you get these super hot days like brigs now, where weekend to weekend, we're just kind of trickling that five hundred feet until we get to labor day, and by labor day you're at the tops, you're at seven thousand. Most of the time you're at sixty eight, you know, seven th seventy two, towards those tops where you're gonna see bears on berries up at the tops of those

peaks and the North Cascades. That's our top. So if you're listening from other states, that's our tops. That's probably not that's city, you know for Colorado and stuff, but those are our tops. But yeah, as the season progresses, I'm just going with him. My favorite time of the year is that labor time, labor day time frame, and they do tend to be on that super steep terrain where the huckleberries the blueberries are really really thick, and they just don't move. They stand in those fields and

they're just vacuum them up. You might catch them, you know, going down into the timber to take a little nap in the shade, and then they will come back, you know, they'll come right back onto a berry patch if they have a good food source, if they're feeling secure, they're not being buggered up. You know, they're not hearing humans hollering and stuff like that, which sometimes on trails that

we use, you know, popular trails, they do. So when humans start acting, you know, start actively, the suns up and they start moving down these trails, those bears will go those bears, excuse me, We'll go tuck away. And then once the hikers are done for the day, they'll come back out in the evening and they'll just vacuum all night for you know, twelve hours or whatever. But yeah,

it just really depends. Like I'm not picky. I'll just be wherever they are and I'll just kind of follow that berry, that berry line, if you will, up the elevation. As soon as as it starts ripening up high, I'm moving up high with them.

a confidence level. I know I've seen a bear if it was there right versus versus you know, if it's flat or roly, there's there's a lot more spots to hide, and I'm I'm less confident, I'm less you know, confident to move because I don't want to leave a bear to to go somewhere else. But if it's steep there, there's a very slim chance that that thing is able to hide from me.

time frame, late August early September. The steeper the better for us. And it's probably has something to do with that where they don't have any kind of folds and stuff to get away from and to hide into. But that time of year, they're just they're out for so long you feel comfortable that if you're looking at a hillside for ten fifteen minutes you're going to catch a glimpse,

cause yeah, they're always moving. They might be in a little fold or a roll or something, but for the most part, they're kind of just you know, modoring around within a twenty feet circle or something.

system that we use. That when I've I keep going back to when I mentioned earlier in the podcast where we saw thirteen in a day, there is no water source for us. They might they might have some of the basins that we don't know of, but on these trail systems that we're motoring in on. We we have to carry, you know, to I carry two forty eight now deans and then a thirty two, So we're going

in with over one hundred ounces of water. So going in, you just know that it's gonna be a hot one, it's gonna be scorcher, and we're not getting water on this trail. So I don't necessarily know if that I would imagine that the bears are going to have them. The bears that we're seeing, they have some that they know where to go to. But up in they prioritize food over over water as well, so they'll travel to it.

They'll travel to it, I'm sure. But no, speaking of water me personally, I don't prioritize it in the fall in, Yeah, don't prioritize it.

the ground is going to be damp when you wake up. Now, I don't know whether it's like the deer versus elk conversation, where a deer can get the moisture out of the food they eat versus an elk needs to go to water. I'm unsure on bear. But but yeah, I don't think at least the places I've seen bears start the day and where they end the day, like, all right, I watch that bear for whatever, fourteen hours and the thing never had to go get water. Is it going there

in the middle of the night. But yeah, I think some when you're listening outside of Washington, you may have a little different situation. And I do know that they will require water daily, especially in the hot temperature, so water may play an important part, but here in Washington not so.

from the nearest water source. But at you know, for an animal a bear, that that's nothing. They're going to just bail down in the middle of the night, go get some water and they're kind of come right back up to that food. And that one I'm pretty certain because you know, I was on a it was just

a crazy spot to be in. But that bear was completely exposed Rocky Sale shale cliffs and then just right in the middle of the rocky Shell cliffs, it was just this barry patch that he never would have expected to see a bear there, but I did and ended up shooting at him. I guess missed him. Crazy turn of events. But that bear was completely away from water,

So I don't prioritize it. You know, they're gonna they're gonna prioritize food over it, and then they're gonna go travel to their little honey hole of water that they that they know where to find it. So I don't think if you're looking at maps, you need to be like, oh, I need to I need to have water in a basin. I don't think that's gonna ring true to us, but I could be wrong. I've just never prioritized it.

in it. You know. Last year I had actually filmed my wife on her first bear hunt, and we were watching this bear almost shot it, and then a cub came out from you know, behind it, and there was thunder and lightning, raining, and that bear just didn't care. They're just standing right there on top of us. Yeah, we were like maybe two minutes before the storm really got it going and it was on top of our head.

But you know, it was We're in the in this big drainage, thunder and lightning was cracking and going, and they were just still outfeeding. So they're just gonna do animal stuff and as far as the heat goes, doesn't seem to bother them. I filmed a bear midday, two

o'clock in the afternoon. We're me and my wife are in the shade, and I just watched this bear cruise in this hillside, eating, eat and eating, and then kind of comes down, goes through the creek, didn't stop the drink, just goes right through it and then just goes back to feeding. So and it had to have been on a hundred plus triple digits for sure. It was the same day that we ended up harvesting her her suit

for cool bear. And she shot it at you know, three and the clock in the afternoon, so again a hundred degrees. And he did not stop eating from the moment I saw him at like seven in the morning all the way until when she killed them at like three in the afternoon. So just after everything kind of lined up and we kind of got a shot going

for him, we watched them feed. August had to have been fourth or fifth August fourth or fifth hundred degrees outside and they don't stop, you know, the obviously, if they need to, they will, But I don't think when they're on food sources and they're doing what they have to do and the weather doesn't bother them. I think that's just my opinion.

more out in the open. Maybe they don't want to get as wet in the brush, so they seem to kind of get out in the opening, back to that food source and kind of stick out a little.

It's going to pass quickly. But I've been through them. I've been through hell storms, thunder lightning, you know, one hundred degree heat, and been watching bears and all that, all those weathers, those weather kind of variations, and I really truly don't think that it bothers them at all. It's going to bother us more if you're getting soaked or getting haled on.

get to a travel to a glassing knob. But that's you know, on weekends and stuff, you go to work and you get up early, and the blue collar guys are up early all week and then you got to a weekend and you're like, yeah, I would like to sleep in, but when fall bear man like, you just can't do it. And that's just like the truth bottom of my heart. You gotta be up glassing at first light. They're so active and time and time and time again, I've harvested majority of the bears in the first thing

in the morning. They're gonna be active throughout the day. But if you really want to catch them, especially in that September when they're up in those blueberries, they're gonna be they're gonna feed out from that. You know, they're mostly active at night and then actually in that time of year, they're active throughout the day. But if you really catch them, like Jason, I'll start my answer up first light, the first right right, the first thing in the morning, man, my favorite time absolutely.

But yeah, I think morning is just is prime. And then around home where it's like industrial timberlands, My absolute favorite time to be out there is in the evening, right as the shade starts to hit clear cuts, like you know, when you'd expect deer and elk to start coming back out, like that transition from it being too damn hot to just starting to cool off. It seems as like when we pick up the majority of like the Timberland bears.

stationary in that spot. I first bought him and then when the phone scoat footage of me killing him is like eight fifteen at night. So yeah, you didn't have to wake up at daylight to go spot that bear because he didn't move. But we have seen bears that you know, you catch it first light and then they're slipping into the timber at seven to go take a four hour nap. You might not have known that it was there if you, you know, slept in a little bit.

But I'm gonna stick to the guns there and just say, like we prefer in that North Cascade stuff that you're going to see a majority of the activity right at first light at least most the bears are going to be out, and then yeah, you might slip into the timber and take a nap, and of course they can come back out, so just check some balances there. I prefer the morning.

call last season. I always keep it in my binyal harness after kind of like the lampers, uh, you know, on the spring stuff, he kind of mentioned that he keeps one in there and maybe not just to actually call him in, but to get him to stop or to get him to come back out of the timber. I think it's a it's a genius idea. So I adopted that and I actually got to use it last year. So to answer your question, no, I'm not gonna do a calling, you know, set for a bear just because

I've I have I don't have experience with it. But Doug's gonna give you a different answer. Doug's he's got a book on it and he's got an app, so he's he's found it very effective. Me personally, in our experience, we've never done like a calling sequence or a stand specifically to call a bear into But I have used it now to get a bear to stand up, like I was talking about, and we have it on film.

You guys can go watch it. I'm just ripping on this predator call to even get this bear to acknowledge me to stand up, to take four steps out into the open. But he just wouldn't do it. He's just like looking right down at the call. I'm on the rifle, I'm on, I'm ready to take a step. If he just took a step, I could smoke him. But he's just behind this big boulder and you could just see his head and he's just panting like a dog, just

tongue out. He's just panting, and then his head would go down, and I'm like, Zach, what are we gonna do? I'm not gonna I'm getting fried right here. You know, it's August, August sixth or something. It's you know, nine in the morning at this point, and we're just on this bear. We watched him for a half hour or so and just kind of get him to get a shot, and so Zach's like, I'm gonna rip on the call.

So I tossing my call and he just rips and rips, and the footage is crazy because his head would just pop up and he just looked down at us and he'd just go back to panting. And then after two seconds of the call, he just lay back down and then we're like, okay, let's try it again. In five minutes, the same thing. He just lifted his head up and then he and then when he started moving, we thought

he was gonna like come down and check us out. Nope, opposite direction, goes away from the predator call, away from the call and just into the timbers more and ended up giving me a shot and was able to harvest that bear. But just to plug back the food source

that we've just really prioritized this whole podcast episode. Once they're on a food source and they're happy, I don't really think that there's much you can do to pull them away from that, especially if they've been feeding for ten eight hours and they're just plump full of berries. They're pretty happy campers and if you maybe if you caught them, you know, like if Washington State had I'm sure spring bear hunting predator calls are very very useful.

But as far as my experience goes, in the fall, when you have these bears that are on a solid food source of berries or you know, of huckleberries or whatever it may be, it's gonna take some real hard work and a really curious bear to pull him out of that to go down and look for a rabbit. You know, That's my opinion.

a few buddies you know, around home. Our fall bear hunting or any hunting around here is your typical You pull up to a landing, you walk off the edge and you glass right, but a lot of times when you're there you can hear something break and brush down below us. And I've had multiple buddies in the last couple of years just like calf distress call, and they've

all killed bears, like right off the landing. So I would say, like, if you if there's no other option, or if it's available to you, or if it's a if it's a good setup, like there's no there's no harm to be done, it can still be very effective. But I just feel like if I'm in the mountains where there are berries on and the bears know that the berries are on, like I'm better off spending my time and effort like getting to their and glossing.

That thing's supposed to be, but I didn't want didn't want it, man, that's funny.

wil dot com. P and Wild has a YouTube channel releasing a lot of cool hunts, and we did a wholming I'll Hunt in Montana deer hunt that's on our YouTube channel now, and so you can find us on YouTube, and then of course on all your social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram, and primarily just in our website PML dot com. You can find all that information. So appreciate it, man.