Bear Trip 2023

 

   

     Second trip to Stony Brook Outfitter in New Brunswick for a spring bear over bait hunt. This year I brought my new Bowtech Carbone One bow setup with heavy FMJ's. First night in the tree stand I had a sow walk into the bait. I waited and watched a long time to make sure there was no cubs with her. After what felt like a long time, no cubs showed up and I was preparing to make a shot. Just as that thought crossed my mind, she grabbed something from the barrel and started walking away. I pulled back, and made a hasty poor decision to punch the trigger on my release and launched one over her back. The arrow stuck into the base of a tree. She took off at first and then came back, leery about what happened, but still interested in the bait barrel. She stared in my direction for a long time, sniffing the air. She eventually went back to the barrel. I was able to gather another arrow and knock it. I waited until she reached forward into the barrel, exposing her vitals. This time, I took my time and made the perfect shot, double pass through. She ran about 20 yards and let out a partial moan, where she died quickly. 

    This trip was later in the season, early June (4-10).  I felt like the bear hunting was better around this area, and we had really good weather. The black flies were the same as in May. The white perch were not running, which meant, no fish fry.  There were some bigger bears taken this week. One in the mid 300 range that someone shot with a crossbow.  I was able to do a lot of fishing and even went with my guide one evening to help bait sites and check trail cameras, which was actually a lot of fun.  I was able to help find a small bear that one of the guys shot. It was his first bear, and first ever animal he had taken while hunting so he was pretty excited.

    The fishing went from frustrating to an absolutely lights out blast. The smallies were not hitting the normal streamer patterns. I noticed a large hatch of mayflies all around the lake, with the casings littering the surface. I switched to dry flies and as soon as I threw a chubby chernobyl the top water exploded.