Minnesota Black Bear Hunt - Zone 26
Castle Creek Outfitters
2005 Black Bear Hunting News Articles:
ARTICLE FROM OUTDOORNEWS.COM
Heat
cools bear, Sept. goose hunting success
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By Joe Albert and Tim Spielman
Outdoor News Staffers
He expected a banner season, which opened Sept. 1. So far, it's been anything
but.
"There's not much to say about the bear
hunting," the owner of Chalstrom's Bait and
Tackle said Tuesday. "It's been three or four a day getting registered.
Then yesterday it shut down, and we didn't register a single animal."
As of Tuesday morning, Chalstrom's had registered 15
bears. In the past, that number might have been 35 or 40.
The
situation isn't as bleak in the far north. As of Monday, the Gateway Store in Kabetogama had registered 47 bears, though that's down 11
from last year, according to the store's owner, Phil Hart.
The store was on par with last year through the first
two days of the season, when it registered 27 bears. The kill dropped over the
weekend, then eight bears were registered Monday.
Both Hart and Chalstrom
point to the weather as a possible culprit for slow hunting. Some cold weather
would help, they say. "It would put things in the right direction,"
Hart said.
Jeff Lightfoot, DNR Region 3 wildlife manager in
Bear hunters are less likely to go in the woods when
it's hot out, and bear activity wanes, too. "They tend to slow down and
become a little more nocturnal," Lightfoot said.
That was the situation most Duluth-area hunters
described, Chalstrom said, though some weren't even
getting their baits hit anymore.
"A lot of guys were having pretty good baiting
before the season opener, but as soon as it opened people were hardly getting
their bait hit anymore," Chalstrom said.
That's despite a lack of natural food in the area.
"With it being so dry, there wasn't hardly a berry crop this year, there wasn't hardly a hazel crop this year," he said.
It was the opposite in Hart's area, where moisture
and natural foods were abundant throughout the summer. Now, the berries are
gone, and hazelnuts are getting picked over, Hart said. Bears have been hitting
baits mostly at night, but he expects bears to hit them during the day if the
weather cools down.
Hunters in the Ely, Tower, and Orr areas have been
seeing bears, and are having their baits hit, said Tom Rusch,
DNR area wildlife manager in Tower. In those areas, it's been dry and natural
food supplies should wane as the season progresses, he said.
"I think we're going to have a pretty decent
year," Rusch said.
Conservation officers around the state provided mixed
reviews of the first five days of the bear season:
€Bears are hitting hunters' baits in the Warroad
area.
€Hunters in the
€Hunters in the Grand Marais
area had good success and shot several nice bears.
€Hunters around Two Harbors also reported good
success.
€The season is off to a slow start in the Ely area,
in terms of hunter numbers and bears killed.
€Success has been low in the Brainerd area, and
hunters speculate they've become nocturnal.
Collared bears
Before the bear season began, the DNR asked hunters not to shoot
any of the 40 bears it is monitoring with radio collars.
Through Tuesday morning, hunters killed seven of
them, according to Dave Garshelis, DNR bear biologist
in
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Kelly
Shepard, a Grand Marais guide, doesn't think it
will be difficult to attract bears to his baits this fall. Dry weather during
the second half of summer made for a light berry crop in the area, he said. Most "The
harvest the past few years has been averaging about 3,500 or so," Garshelis said. "That would be our target, to keep
it in there." The number
of hunters applying for Hunter success rates for bear hunters has remained fairly
constant at about 26 percent. And although the number of hunters applying for
permits has declined, the number of hunters has declined only slightly.
That's because some hunters don't apply for permits by the May deadline,
instead waiting to buy leftover permits in August. About 13,000 hunters
participated in last fall's hunt. — |
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