kidso

220 pounds, nice color phase. Worth an arrow or two!

Very sweet! I was expecting multiple pictures from you!

A man of many tastes. I couldn't have said it better! There is no room for racism.

James, you had me! I skimmed your title and saw only what my mind was thinking.... saw 2 bears today, one red and one tan... my heart skipped a beat for you!

Stay away from canyons with good road access around them. Those are great areas to cut tracks and send dogs in after bears. However, as long as you are not hunting directly off a road, you should be fine. That being said, the further you hike into a roadless area, the better! Unit 23N is a great unit for running dogs, as are all units with well-maintained forest roads, like units 1 and 27 to name a few. However, units are relatively LARGE areas and there is plenty of room for houndsmen and non-houndsmen alike. In my 20+ years of calling for bear, only once have I ever had hounds impact one of my stands. In fact, I have called in more ranch hands and cattle runners than I have houndsmen! So, hunt the areas you have scouted, and statistically, you should be fine! There is plenty of forest for all of us to hunt. And with our poor winter rains, I too would expect very little bear action in the pears. Some will come, as some always come, but they won't be arriving in droves. The manzanita thickets I have seen are looking great this year!

Different bears. First bear is larger. Color or size? Which should you pursue? Entirely up to you!! You know my weakness!

Looks like they are coming to a little seep or spring back there in the brush to cool off and wet their whistles. That first color phase bear is sweet!

You could very well be right. Color phase is genetically controlled.

First, I slice or cut pieces of bear meat the size of chicken nuggets. Next, I rinse them off in cold water. Then, I dab them in flour to cover them with a base coat. After that, I immerse them in a mixture of eggs, water, onion salt, garlic powder, and paprika. Finally, I roll the nuggets around in a bread crumb mix. I bake the bear nuggets in the oven for one hour at 350 degrees, then deep fry them in 375 degree vegetable oil for one minute. Let them cool for a few minutes, then enjoy!

Its time for TJ to do some remodeling and add on another room to his house.

Very sexy!!! Would love to lay by her! Trail cam photo, or your telephoto lens? How far away were you?

My ground blinds are made from downed timber and available vegetation. I shower in scent killer and do all my laundry in scent killer detergent as well. I also spray my clothes down in scent killer, unless I have on scent blocker clothing. That combination works well for me, as I don't trust commercial blinds for bear, unless I use scent-killer all over them inside and out on each trip I use them.

So, did you set the cam up on a recent kill? You could see several bones in a few pictures, then an entire rib cage with backbone. Time to call!

Ground blind. Keep it interesting!

The last photo shows the finished nuggets. I always bake in the oven as described just prior to the quick deep fry, as this generates an internal meat temperature of 160 degrees which is more than enough to kill any trichinosis that could be present. A fast deep fry alone will not achieve that internal temperature. Cooking some more today.

Looks like you had a sow in heat being followed by a boar.

Still crazy in my head to see the javelin in the high elevations, only because I have always hunted them in low desert areas.

All the time. Bear machaca and tamales too!

Update: After six months of working with Jeff's brother to make things right, I became leary of waiting any longer and pulled out. Took physical possession of my blonde bear's hide from last year and turned it in with this year's bear to one of our CWT/s sponser taxidermists. Tom is trying to get the work done that his brother ripped everybody off on, but it is a very slow process. I decided to cut my losses at $360 and try again. If Tom has your capes or antlers he will still try to get them done, or you can pull out like I did and ask for them back. Good luck getting any refunds from his brother, though!

A good number 3 medium, but the sweet color phase is a bonus.

I have wanted an excuse to buy a .454 casull revolver!

Where is pops living? Great job on filling the tag! Nice roasts!

Makes me want to hunt deer!

James, you are correct. There are some raised letters on the black part of the call that seem to spell "woodwise."

Here are some of the calls I usually take with me for bear. I am always changing them up, but have been using the first four on the left most predominately over the past decade. I have called bear in with all of them except for numbers 5 and 8 from the left. The fourth from the left is what scored for me this year, and numbers 1 and 3 called my two bears in last year. Closed-reed and open-reed work equally well for me, you just need to put the drama and effort into them. I am a sucker for buying calls that have "bear" in their description, and am always willing to try something new. Number 5 has been my biggest disappointment in that regard. Good luck!!