Category Archives: Bear hunting

Talking Hunting on Maine Outdoors

Maine Outdoors, deer hunting, bear hunting, turkey hunting, Robin Follette

I was a guest on Maine Outdoors on WVOM a couple of weekends ago. Thanks to Kevin Smith for inviting me to be on the show again. It was a blast! I love radio. I slapped my hand over my mouth a couple of times to quell what would seem like inappropriate laughter since listeners […]

My big buck’s shoulder mount – ruined or saved?

whitetail shoulder mount

It’s been an excellent year. Patience has paid off. I’ve put a lot of meat in the freezer this year. My spring turkey hunt produced a large tom with a 9.5 inch beard early on opening day. I shot my first bear on September 4 and have an awesome story to go with it. Finally, […]

Getting Reacquainted & Outdoors Fitness

Hi! Remember me? “How vain it is to sit down to write, when you have not stood up to live.” Henry David Thoreau I’ve been away from this blog for a while. I have been living so much I’ve barely written a word in months. We fished a lot this summer. I caught the biggest […]

Jennifer Vashon, bear biologist, talks about Maine’s bears

Jennifer Vashon, one of Maine’s bear biologists, was a guest with Tom Saviello on Talkin’ Maine. I was happy to see the show on Vimeo as this isn’t a program I can watch at home. Have you ever wondered how biologists age a bear? Are sows pregnant during hunting season? And when do they give […]

Maine Bear Hunting Referendum: hunting with Bob Tigro

This is an incredible story. Refill your coffee and get comfortable. You’ll be drawn in quickly. This is Bob Tigro’s story of bear and coyote hunting at Oxbow Lodge in Oxbow. What do coyotes have to do with hunting bears with bait, snares and hounds? If it weren’t for bear hunting Bob wouldn’t have made […]

Maine Bear Hunting Referendum: Thoughts from an out-of-stater

Pat Rayta and his Maine black bear taken in 2005.

I met Pat Rayta online in a group devoted to saving Maine’s proven hunting methods. It’s a big group, more than 1,300 men and women who love the outdoors, understand or are learning about hunting as a means of conversation, and who are passionate about keeping Maine’s bear population healthy. It didn’t take long to […]

Maine Bear Hunting Referendum: Ballot box biology shouldn’t replace biologists

Tenley Bennett, Registered Maine Guide

I’ve asked people who are involved in Maine’s bear hunt to tell us their stories. We’re likely to be voting on a referendum in November that calls for the end of baiting, hounding and snaring/trapping. If this passes it will affect the bears, hunters, timber management companies, store owners, guides, lodge and camp owners and […]

What’s in your hunting pack for deer season?

I took my first hunter safety class some time around 1974. One of the things that really stuck with me in that first class was what to take in the woods with me. The only backpack I had at the time was meant for school. The list changed little between 1974 and when I first […]

Finally! A bear!

I’m getting comfortable in my own stand. I don’t like it much but I’m adjusting. Today was a big improvement. I didn’t check the bait barrel yesterday. Ava had three harsh seizures and it took her a while to come out of it. I went up this afternoon. I watch the road closely for scat […]

HSUS for Fair Bear Hunting?

HSUS for Fair…wait…did you think the name of this entity was Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting? mmm…so did a lot of folks. “Mainers” in this case is code word for Humane Society of the United States, based in Washington, DC. Their website is fairbearhunt.com, and the name of the website is typed into the software […]

My no-bear bear baiting experience

That’s right…no bear. There’s a bear or two around but they aren’t coming to the barrel. We set up the tree stand and barrel on July 27, the first day baiting was allowed. Taylor held the ladder in place while Steve climbed to the top to secure the seat to the tree. He trimmed a […]

A cow moose walks into a bear baiting station…

This cow moose strolled through the bait station at 5 pm Friday. She looked at the barrel for 20 seconds before moving on. She’s the only thing on the game cam; even the raccoon hasn’t been back. The moose has been walking up and down the road. She’s bigger than I guessed from her tracks. […]

Bear Baiting: a little discouraged

As of yesterday (Monday) afternoon there hasn’t been a bear at my bait barrel. I’ve changed bait from meat and sweet goat chow to doughnuts. The doughnuts did get the attention of one critter on the first night. I was excited for a split second when I saw the tipped barrel and a log on […]

Bear Baiting: tending the bait

Tending the barrel has been quick and easy. I park at the bottom of the hill at the washout and walk a quarter-mile to the barrel. I enjoy the daily trip. I make noise going in to help prevent meeting up with bears at the site. With If I have someone with me, we talk. […]

Bear Baiting: The barrel

I’m using an old plastic 50 gallon barrel the girls had for barrel racing as my bait barrel. Steve cut a hole in it with the chainsaw. The size of the hole isn’t particularly important to me. I’ve seen large holes bears can stick their heads into and small holes they have to reach into […]

Don’t store bear bait in the… (reader shared story)

Bear fur

Steve’s putting together a tree stand for the bear bait site. I’m getting the game cameras’ batteries replaced, cards formatted and inserted, and a little bait together. A cortisone shot in my injured, arthritic knee on Thursday is working nicely today so rolling the barrel up hill won’t be so bad. I need to figure […]

Bear baiting opens July 27

Bear baiting opens this Saturday. I started thinking last winter about where I wanted to put the bait barrel. It seems like somewhere on this 45 acres we own there would be a good spot. There isn’t. For the sake of the dogs and bears, who should never meet, it needs to be far from […]

Bear Sausage Quiche

bear sausage, quiche recipe

I led a workshop called Cooking Wild Game for Maine BOW’s Winter Skills Weekend. One of the dishes we made is Bear Sausage Quiche. Thanks to Jeremy and Gene, generous hunters who donated sausage to my workshop, we were able to taste the sausage alone and use it in quiche. It was a big hit. […]

Yes, I Bait Bears

Bear baiting. It’s probably the most controversial topic out there regarding hunting in Maine. I hated it passionately. How can anyone sit over a bait bucket and shoot an animal? How unfair. It made me furious. I wasn’t a hunter at the time. I had no personal knowledge, only hearsay, but that was good enough […]