It was surely a strange day for me on the bear hunting ground. I start out checking my bait pile and nothing touched it. I sat around near the truck calling with a fawn call cause my one year old was with me sleeping. He woke up so I swung him on my back pack and we explored the country side looking for more sign and maybe a lucky shot at a bear. I had tried one of those burn sticks in the berry flavor earlier but wasn't having any luck with it. Well we walked back near my bait pile and noticed a big depression at first glance right in the middle of the pile. I quickly looked up and scanned the landscape when I notice something quite large and brown moving about 130 yards away. I got closer and notice it was a large white faced steer. We closer and a herd got up and took off right down the trail to the main road. They were definately out of place so I set off to get the truck and warn the farmer. I notice the tracks were very close to that burn stick bucket I had set up before. I guess those things are good for herefords. Anyway on the way back from telling the farmer about his cows I noticed a truck on the side of the road and a guy next to it in camo. I recognized the guy as a bear hunter from the year before that just started hunting on the property that I hunt. I asked him how he was and he just kept saying "I'm not proud of what I've have". I stopped and checked him out and there on the ground lay a bear that wouldn't top 25lbs. I asked him, "What the heck is that? I've seen bigger coon." He said that he had shot and trailed the previous night a 300lbs boar the night before and could't find it. On his way out of the woods he comes across a sow and cub, with him in between. He said the sow was coming at him and he tried to make noise and scare her off but she was still coming closer and stopped about 7 yards away. At this point I asked him if he tried to back away slowly and he said that he was afraid of tripping. "OK", I said, then asked what happened next. He stated, "I shot the sow and it ran off." He said that he left cause it was dark and he came back the next day to get her and see if he could find the boar. When he got there the next day,(today), he said that the cub was up in the tree bawling because of his dead mother down on the ground. He felt obligated to shoot the cub. He then called his buddy who came to tag the sow and said that his buddy would only tag it if he could keep all the meat and he agreed to this. When I arrived he said that his buddy had just left with the sow. I believed him but never noticed another truck on the way past the first time to warn the farmer about the cattle being out. I talked to the farmer who by now had stopped twice while driving by looking for the cattle who weren't his but he was helping his brother who was the one who lost the cattle.
Later when helping the farmer get the cattle he said that he never saw another truck and thought the guy was making the whole thing up but admitted seeing the guy last night at about 6:00 pm very tired and scared looking on the side of the road. Pretty wild day for Dan'l and I chasing cows and such. Just thought I would write this all down before I forgot something. I don't no what to think, only that this guy shot 3 bear out of my area and 2 were sow and cub and one is a wounded boar. But I only seen that one racoon sized cub in the back of his pick up. One thing, he did give me the low-down on the bait he was using and even gave me some. It was a 5 gallon plastic sack of that cherry flavored sodapop mix and that he put the bait out 3 days before and first got into the stand on the third day. The guy was using a bow by the way.
GOD BLESS
Charlie Patrick
Eastern Ontario Guided Adventures
http://www3.sympatico.ca/chazpat/wildcanada.html