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Canadian Black Bear Hunt - Spring 2007
After months of anticipation the time had finally arrived,
the 12 hour trip north to Flin Flon, Manitoba to go black bear hunting.
Joe Hall, Mike Martin, Darin Pytlik, and myself left Bismarck at
5:30 in the morning. Willie Hettinger and Paul Keminitz were in another
truck convoying with us. It was a nice and relaxing trip up my future
brother in-law Mike drove the whole way up and there were no issues
at the Canadian border. We arrived in Flin Flon around 6:00 pm, we
checked in at Westwood Lodge and we were greeted by Tim Lies the
owner and operator. After securing our hunting and fishing licenses
and bear tags, it was decided that 3 people could get flown in that
night to our hunting and fishing area. The area we are hunting is
on Kipahigan Lake which is 150 KM north of Flin Flon. It is a fly-in
lake only; it takes approximately 45 min. to fly from the airport
to Kipahigan Lake . It was decided that Willie, Paul, and Darin would
fly in that night and the rest of us would fly in the morning. The
float plane ride in is worth the money when it clear and calm. You
can see moose and bear and it just gives you a good view of the area
your hunting and fishing.
After all of us arrived at the outpost camp we got organized and
decided to do a baiting run. The outfitter was not able to get all
the baits out ahead of time due to bad weather. There are 9 established
baits on the lake. After baiting all the baits and putting up tree
stands we came back to camp and organized the cabins, shot our bows,
and took showers in preparation of the nights hunt. We had drawn
names earlier to see which bait we all would be hunting. I drew Joe’s
bait for the second time in two years of bear hunting. Joe’s
bait is famous bait in that there have been several huge bears killed
off it. Three bears have gone over 20 inches and several in the 19
inch range. Two years ago I drew this bait and shot a big boar that
went 290lbs and had a 18 5/16 P&Y skull. So needless to say I
was excited. The bait was actively getting hit but the first two
nights of hunting were uneventful not one single bear. The third
day it started to rain and get cold and when we checked the bait
is was not hit. So, the third evening I decided to sit another bait
that did get hit, it was called North bait. We had found a good track
and the bait was cleaned out it looked promising at North bait. The
weather was still bad it was cold and rainy sometimes it was snow,
but when you only have 7 days to hunt you hunt in any conditions
even though bear activity is usually slow in bad weather. On the
third night it rained the whole time and I got skunked again, not
one bear. In 10 years of bear hunting I have never sat for more than
3 days without seeing a bear. I was starting to wonder if my luck
bear hunting had run out. We awoke on the 4th morning to the same
weather but the forecast looked better, it was supposed to clear
in the afternoon. It did the skies opened up and the temperature
started to rise. The night was looking promising.
On the 4th night of my hunt (May 29th) in Manitoba I had an average
size boar and sow in the bait all night. It was a great change from
the 3 previous nights. I had the video camera going when these two
smaller bears were in the bait. But unfortunately I ran out of tape
and I didn’t want to take a chance of spooking the bears off
the bait to get a new tape in the camera. Remember these where the
first bears I had seen on this trip. So, there my camera sat not running
when at 9:45 I heard trees and deadfall breaking and teeth popping,
it was like a Mac truck was headed for me. Then just to my right a
mere 10 yards this big old warrior came in as the smaller bears exited
the scene. He stood up with his back against a pine tree and reached
up with his paws and pulled the pine tree over and started rubbing
his back. This bear had cuts and scars, missing half of his left ear.
This bear was a scrapper. When he was done rubbing his back he went
down on all fours perfectly broadside to me at 10 yards. I drew my
Mathews Ovation and sent my carbon express maxima tipped with the Muzzy
MX-4 through both lungs he made it 30 yards before expiring. This dinosaur
buried the needle on my 450 pound scale. Later, when I got home and
fleshed the hide the skull green scored at 21 2/16 P&Y. What a
bruiser, it is my largest bear to date. Hunting is like a roller coaster
it has high’s and low’s this was definitely a high.
Scott Hettinger |
