Hits came slow and with the season starting on Sept 1 we were getting worried but one bait got hit just before the season started. It was an old bait site where the oldest person in our group shot a 250# bear 4 years ago. The other two of us said he had the honors of using that bait without having to draw for it. First night of hunting came with rain in the evening, we talked him into passing on that day as nice weather was forecast and the bait was't hit very long. Second day paid off. About an hour into his hunt he dropped a 160# bear right on the bait logs with his Ruger 44 mag. He does not care about size so it turned out to be a perfect scenario for him. I was waiting by the truck (no active bait to hunt anyway) and heard the shot so we had that bear out and butchered in nothing flat.
It took 2 more days to get a second bait hit. Then another the next day. By then we were quitting baits and starting new ones. We had 4 baits that were way farther north that were not hit so we quit those first. When setting those 4 we heard wolf sounding off and while walking out from setting one of them we stumbled across a fawn leg bone with traces of red meat still on it.
Anyway the other two of us continued hunting. The other guy had found a nice thick spot near some corn. He had set a bait there that got hit quickly with bear scat near the bait that looked like corn soup. After hunting it he just got to his truck not far away and almost got run over by a big bear. Next day he jumped a bear going into his stand. Next day we baited it and when he got to the truck (which was close to the bait) a bear ran across the road 15 yards from him. He hunted it that nite but nothing again. His last day to hunt (last Saturday) he hunted one of 'my' stands that had an average bear on it but saw nothing. By this time I had only seen part of one bear as it moved past a little opening in the trees like 50 yards out. I also saw a portion of what I think was a wolf that was approaching that bait but backed off. The attached picture is of a decent bear at that bait. I had a tree stand and a ground blind on that site and I alternated use between them based on wind. So I was focusing on that bait when the wind was right for either bait.
The last day of the hunt for the other guy that still had a tag he chose to sit on another bait that was being hit reasonably good. He did not see anything. Anyway that evening I sat on his stand where he saw the big bear. The guy that already shot his bear had been getting itchy to be done about 3 days after he shot his. He was bugging me to get it done so we could head home. With the other guy calling it quits for lack of vacation the other guy that had his bear (and rode up with me) was bugging me even more to get it done. So on the 9'th I started to consider taking any decent bear. (we are both retired so vacation was not an issue and our wife's are fine with us being gone) I really wanted to hunt longer but with the other guy without a bear leaving the next day with his trailer that we were using to sleep in and the other guy tired of waiting for me to punch my tag I was considering taking an average bear. When a decent bear came out of the thick stuff about 5 yards from me I thought for a while as he just stood there. Then he gave me an even better angle so I ended his free meals and our hunt. We did not bother to weigh him but I am guessing he was somewhere around 220, maybe 250 max.
