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Early Bear 2018


Rattler
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A couple buddies and I are going up north the 21st for early bear. This cool weather sure puts me in the mood to be sitting in the woods. Will be sighting in my new bear rifle this afternoon in preparation while it’s so nice out. Saw my breath in the air last night and it put a huge smile on my face!

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I was up in the central Adirondacks this past weekend.  The weather was hot (low 80's) and the foliage was still up and green.

 

I might make an attempt in some areas next weekend if the weather cools down, as it is predicted to do.  But the foliage will still present a problem...there wasn't much visibility in the areas that I had checked out.  I appreciate the DEC's gesture by allowing for an early bear season, but I haven't found it all that productive over the past few years.  Trying to still hunt a black bear in warm weather with heavy foliage on the trees in a place like upstate NY is a tough endeavour.   

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16 minutes ago, Padre86 said:

I was up in the central Adirondacks this past weekend.  The weather was hot (low 80's) and the foliage was still up and green.

 

I might make an attempt in some areas next weekend if the weather cools down, as it is predicted to do.  But the foliage will still present a problem...there wasn't much visibility in the areas that I had checked out.  I appreciate the DEC's gesture by allowing for an early bear season, but I haven't found it all that productive over the past few years.  Trying to still hunt a black bear in warm weather with heavy foliage on the trees in a place like upstate NY is a tough endeavour.   

I have tried it a few times too without any luck for those same issues.  Last year was the straw for it as we went in late Sept and it was 93 degrees.  Glad we had some fishing planned and it was even too hot for that except early in the morn.  Had a good time hanging out with some buddies but bear hunting wasn't worth the effort.   This year they are coming out the last weekend of Sept and we are just gonna fish for the weekend , cook out and have a beer.  

 

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Weather is looking nice and cool for the weekend. Looks to be a bit wetter than I’d like though. Doesn’t look like super hard rain so hopefully it’s not so bad. Rain or shine we will be there!

My one buddy just picked up 3 kayaks and even a trailer for them to boot. We are gonna tow them up so we can do a little mid day fishing. Wives are making us lots of good food to bring along and we got lots of cold beer. Gonna be a good time no matter what!

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So at 10:45 this morning, I was at my house, in my dad's passenger seat.  He stopped by, so we are chot chatting, and I see a flicker of black in the woods.  A lot of thick pines here, and deadfall in the woods, so we both are squinting in trying to see if it was a black squirrel, or bear.  So we get out, and sure enough a lone bear.  Decent size, we see 10's of bear here in this area, throughout a year, and I woukd say it was on the larger end of the average size we see.  I bought my hunting license last Friday, if I was out back, I would have seen the bear to harvest by the looks of where it came from, lol.  Took a pic, ran down my driveway quick before he crossed.  Never gets old to see bear.  My dad headed home shortly after, and saw another about 25 miles away, this cooler weather, seems to help, at least thats when I notice more.

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Good to see the cooler weather has them on their feet!

Weather forecast looks better for the weekend now. Less rain at least. Only a passing storm tomorrow night. Temps drop into the 30s Saturday night! Woohooo! High of 60 both days also. I’ll take that kinda weather any day.

I’m trying to make it through a 10 hour shift tonight then it’s home to finish loading up. Stop over to my buddy’s and pick him up then we are off. I really need to learn to use a extra vacation day for the night before leaving on trips because it’s like torture being here knowing I’m off to go hunting in the morning!

Good luck to everyone headed out this weekend after a black Bruin!

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Well we had a good weekend. No bear sightings but had a good time regardless. We did some walking around and found a ton of bear sign and ALOT of deer sign. Thinking of taking another trip back during gun season because of all the sign we saw.

Weather was nice and cool, almost down right cold Saturday night and Sunday morning but it felt great. Didn’t take many pics as we had no service and it kills the phones pretty quickly but I snapped a couple of camp and the one river we came to on our walk.
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O and I can’t forget the part about the DEC officer driving up into our camp at Mach 1 and jumping out like he was busting a illegal poaching operation haha. This officer gets the ninja of the month award for sure. We had a small Bluetooth speaker going with some music and we never heard him pull up at all. I just got done picking a fresh beer from the cooler, crack it open and I turn around to this DEC officer fast walking around the front of his Jeep and walking up next to my buddy who didn’t hear him either. My buddy about jumped out of his skin when the officer says “how’s it going here boys!?” The officer goes on to ask what we are hunting for and even tries to trick us by asking what kind of bait we were using. Asked if we had our licenses and when we all said yes and offered to hand them to him he declined to see them. Once he figured out we were just some regular legal joes he calmed down a bit and went on to tell us that our campsite was his number 1 favorite spot to catch poachers. Then he asked us to give him a call if we heard any gun shots late at night or any other suspicious activity. He told us we were in the best area to be for bear but maybe a couple weeks early but encouraged us to come back in a few weeks for some better hunting action. We thanked him and said we would be back later this fall for some more hunting and he got back in his Jeep and left. Pretty nice guy but man did he scare the crap out of us haha

And then on the way out, just before we got back to the paved road we run into 4 state troopers a DEC officer and a paramedic. There was a street bike off on the side of the road and no rider around. Cops are blocking the road so we stop and wait a min and a cop walks up to us and says they are chasing a bunch of street bike riders and one bailed his bike and took off into the woods. Asked us if we saw anyone and we told him no sorry. He got the other cops to move their vehicles and off we went. Pretty crazy end to a fun trip!

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Thanks fellas. Sure will be a trip for the ol memory bank.

Learned something new while up there. Coleman folding propane grill grates are NOT, I repeat, NOT made of real metal haha! Don’t try and set one over a open fire to burn some burger residue off, otherwise you’ll be like me and melt half of it away in about 45 seconds. It’s my buddies grill, and I’m never gonna hear the end of it about how I burned half his grill grate up while at bear camp haha!

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