Speaker 1: Welcome back to another episode of Cutting the Distance Podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Dirk Durham. With spring Bear season right around the
Speaker 1: corner and folks getting ready to set their baits. I
Speaker 1: thought now would be a great time to air this episode.
Speaker 1: I recorded this podcast last year in the spring of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, in the great state of Wyoming with
Speaker 1: my good buddies Cody Wilson and Phelps Game Calls business
Speaker 1: manager Corey Paulson. Now, we recorded this episode without any
Speaker 1: fancy podcasting gear. I'm gonna admit it was with my iPhone,
Speaker 1: so it may sound a little different than normal. So
Speaker 1: let's dive right into the conversation. All right, with another
Speaker 1: episode of Cutting the Distance Podcast. This week, I'm the host,
Speaker 1: Dirk Durham, and I've got a cool couple of cool
Speaker 1: cats here. We're in the crazy Wyoming back country. We're
Speaker 1: in a little camper out here, nice and cozy, sitting
Speaker 1: around a camper table. And on the left, I got
Speaker 1: Corey Paulson, who is the business manager at Phelps Game Calls.
Speaker 1: And on my right we got Whiskey Wilson. We got
Speaker 1: a good buddy, Cody Wilson. Cody advised to come over
Speaker 1: and do a bear hunt this spring. And Corey kind
Speaker 1: of planted the seed or something with him at the
Speaker 1: Western Honting expol last last winter. And here we are,
Speaker 1: So how'd you do that? Did you like our wrestling
Speaker 1: him or something or make a bed or what? How
Speaker 1: did he lose and make him bring us to Wyoming.
Speaker 2: I'm a firm believer, and I'm more lucky than good
Speaker 2: in most cases. So I just kind of looked out
Speaker 2: that Cody lives in this fantastic place with bears that
Speaker 2: you can bait, and with the fact that Washington State,
Speaker 2: my home state, has eliminated the spring bear hunt, I
Speaker 2: I saw the opportunity with the coach Cody, and I just,
Speaker 2: you know, was one of those folks that realizes that
Speaker 2: there's only so many places you can hunt spring bears,
Speaker 2: and knowing that Cody lives here in in Wyoming, I
Speaker 2: just started asking questions and lo and behold, he's an
Speaker 2: expert at this spring bear hunting game.
Speaker 3: Right on.
Speaker 1: Well, let me give you a little background on Cody.
Speaker 1: He's a kind of an all around hunter. You know,
Speaker 1: he's an excellent elk caller, elk hunter, he's a he's
Speaker 1: a guide, he guides hunters in the fall. Sometimes guys
Speaker 1: goes out with a lot of friends hunting. He works
Speaker 1: in the natural gas fields and just a hell of
Speaker 1: a good guy. Helps out with Phelps in the in
Speaker 1: the booth a lot of times in the trade shows.
Speaker 1: He's a good hand, just really good friend. He's been
Speaker 1: with Jason a few times elk hunting and uh, anyway,
Speaker 1: it's a pleasure to come over here and.
Speaker 4: Be hosted by you man. Yeah, no, it's been super awesome.
Speaker 4: I'm glad you guys came. I'm no expert, but it's
Speaker 4: just fun to get out in the spring and go
Speaker 4: chase bears.
Speaker 1: So yeah, So Cody, he's been baiting bears for a
Speaker 1: lot of years and this this spring he's been working
Speaker 1: hard baiting bears. You know, it's funny. We've been having
Speaker 1: kind of a talk back and forth that you know,
Speaker 1: you talk about all sorts of stuff, and and I
Speaker 1: think there's kind of a sentiment amongst some hunters that, oh,
Speaker 1: you guys shot a bearer over bait. Oh that was
Speaker 1: that's way too easy. Why don't you do something that's hard.
Speaker 1: Why don't you that's kind of like the lazy man's way,
Speaker 1: And you know, I feel like that perspective is a
Speaker 1: little bit narrow minded. You know, maybe they see on
Speaker 1: hunting videos, maybe they just see a bear coming into
Speaker 1: bait and somebody's you know, shooting it or whatever, and
Speaker 1: they just don't see all the work that goes on
Speaker 1: behind the scenes. But Cody was telling us about we
Speaker 1: kind of pried it out of him. I don't think
Speaker 1: you really want to tell us how much work you
Speaker 1: put into this, where I actually feel pretty bad. He's
Speaker 1: worked his ass off putting baits out out, starting super early,
Speaker 1: you know, just as soon as he could. And man,
Speaker 1: you gotta tell us about that. You tell everybody about that.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's a pretty interesting, interesting perspective, which
Speaker 1: I wouldn't call the least bit lazy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So it it all starts in the spring, usually March.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm gearing up checking snowmobiles, making sure they're
Speaker 4: running stuff like that. So, like, this winter has been
Speaker 4: really tough. Everybody knows that we've had a lot of snowfall,
Speaker 4: very high snowpack, so getting into some of these baits
Speaker 4: and some of the places that I go is hadn't
Speaker 4: been very accessible this year. So snowmobiles kind of the
Speaker 4: route that I took to get these baits in to
Speaker 4: get bait in them, but it all starts in March
Speaker 4: and lo and behold. Some of these areas don't let
Speaker 4: you use anything processed, so you're only real route of
Speaker 4: baiting bears is either dead calves from ranchers or cows
Speaker 4: or horses stuff like that. You can't use wild game,
Speaker 4: so all that stuff's out. So really you just got
Speaker 4: to have beef is mostly what it is, or horses
Speaker 4: or stuff like that. You can use beavers, you know,
Speaker 4: stuff like that, but you can't I can't go pick
Speaker 4: up dead antelope or deer.
Speaker 1: Any of that. But now a lot of people back
Speaker 1: home where I'm from, they'll they'll raid the bread story,
Speaker 1: you know, they'll get a lot of you know, out
Speaker 1: of date bread, candy, et cetera, and and lots of
Speaker 1: dog food or whatever. But your buddy Dan was saying
Speaker 1: that his bears are picky on his bait. They don't
Speaker 1: like dog food, they don't eat it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so his his baits over on the other side
Speaker 4: of the mountains where you can use processed food. And yeah,
Speaker 4: his bears in the past at least five years, you know,
Speaker 4: we tried some.
Speaker 5: Dog food stuff like that, but they.
Speaker 4: Just they just don't like it, like they'll leave it
Speaker 4: alone for weeks if we don't change it.
Speaker 5: So we ran into that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, even dog foods considered a processed food. Yeah, wow,
Speaker 1: that's that's crazy, and it's every state's so weird. You know,
Speaker 1: they have their their own little set of rules and
Speaker 1: all these little nuanced things that that you that you
Speaker 1: can and can't do. Like an Idaho, you can you
Speaker 1: can pile bait right on the ground or in a barrel.
Speaker 1: And if you use a barrel, has to be a
Speaker 1: steel barrel. But here you can use a plastic barrel. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can use any kind of barrel. It just can't
Speaker 1: be over fifty five gallons. And anything that you throw in, well,
Speaker 1: any bait that you're going to use has to be
Speaker 1: in the barrel. It can't be on the ground. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So back to writing your snowmobile in. He was telling
Speaker 1: us he's going out there after work in the dark, whatever,
Speaker 1: you know, whenever he's got the time to get, you know,
Speaker 1: to rebait. And he's got these these he's got these
Speaker 1: cave frozen fricken calves. He's got them stockpiled at his house,
Speaker 1: and like so ranchers, they have these calves that don't
Speaker 1: make it. They die. So he goes over and grabs them,
Speaker 1: and he's been stacking them up and he's placed there
Speaker 1: and you know in Wyoming it's cold and frozen and whatever.
Speaker 1: But uh as time goes well and things thaw out,
Speaker 1: he's he's running these these calves in, you know, whenever
Speaker 1: he can to get get them into the bait barrel.
Speaker 1: And I mean it's not easy, Like he's a kind
Speaker 1: of described like what you have to go through to
Speaker 1: get those those calves in the barrel. Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I would all these calves that I had stockpiled,
Speaker 4: I would pull two or three out, throw them in
Speaker 4: the back of my truck, jump snowmobile on go up there,
Speaker 4: and I would use just in like a these ice
Speaker 4: fishermen use these big deep sleds. So I would take
Speaker 4: one of them and I would just tie it onto
Speaker 4: the back of my sled on the bumper and i'd
Speaker 4: throw it tours for a calve in and i'd take
Speaker 4: off up the mountain.
Speaker 1: Well, you say sled, you mean snowmobile. You're you're riding
Speaker 1: a snowmobile. But you're pulling, the pulling the sled. Got it? Gotcha?
Speaker 4: And the problem with the snow this time of year,
Speaker 4: you know, it just goes to ship and the bottom falls.
Speaker 5: Out of it.
Speaker 4: It's hard on top, but once the sun hits it,
Speaker 4: like as soon as you break through, it's just like
Speaker 4: sugar and it it's just a wreck, just real rotten. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's just terrible. Yeah, So running calves in there, you know,
Speaker 4: you get in a hairy spot and give her a
Speaker 4: little too much stroddle and lo and behold the sled
Speaker 4: sideways and the slede you're pulling, it's tipped over, upside down,
Speaker 4: and now you've got to go back and reload three
Speaker 4: calves that are not very pleasant to handle. So I
Speaker 4: don't know how many times I dump calves out of
Speaker 4: the sled I'm pulling and then have to go back
Speaker 4: and pull them back up to the sled and throw
Speaker 4: them back in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just a tour. Yeah, that doesn't sound easy
Speaker 1: at all. So that's early in the season. Now as
Speaker 1: time goes by, you know, things are warming up spring,
Speaker 1: springtime is sprung, and your calves. See you said you
Speaker 1: would grab a hold of a leg and sometimes things
Speaker 1: are starting to get tenderized. They don't stay together real good. Yeah.
Speaker 4: No, you grab a hold of a calf leg to
Speaker 4: pull it back up to the ladder or whatever, and
Speaker 4: it just strip all the hide right off of it,
Speaker 4: so there's nothing but bear skin.
Speaker 5: They get kind of nasty.
Speaker 1: It doesn't sound like that kind of bait. Baitings for
Speaker 1: the faint of heart. So yeah, it's funny. You know,
Speaker 1: people they I think a lot of times just on
Speaker 1: social and on videos, they see all the the reward
Speaker 1: they see the bears come in seem to see somebody
Speaker 1: take one. But man, it's a lot of work just
Speaker 1: getting the bait up there and then now now like
Speaker 1: keeping bears on it. So you know, bears have other
Speaker 1: things on their mind. They have they have other food
Speaker 1: to eat, you know, whether green grass, whatever they've got.
Speaker 1: They've got mating on their mind. You know, maybe they
Speaker 1: find a girlfriend, they smell a hot soal and they
Speaker 1: take off and never to be seen again. So you know,
Speaker 1: the bears just don't live right there on the bait,
Speaker 1: you know, live in hand in mouth like like they're
Speaker 1: on some kind of welfare check or something. They kind
Speaker 1: of come and go and sometimes you get one, they'll
Speaker 1: be consistent or especially big bears. It seems like big
Speaker 1: bears are not consistently just living on a bait. It's
Speaker 1: kind of hard to catch those in the daylight hours.
Speaker 5: Is that kind of what you found? Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 4: You know, breeding seasons going on in the spring, so
Speaker 4: you know bears are not just eating all the time
Speaker 4: or hanging out or de bait. They'll go off find
Speaker 4: a sow try.
Speaker 5: And breed her.
Speaker 4: But like big bears, you know, if they do hang
Speaker 4: out on a bait, usually they're they're pretty seasoned and smart.
Speaker 4: I mean, they got big for a reason. And a
Speaker 4: lot of them bears they'll be nocturnal feeders like you won't.
Speaker 4: You'll see them once or twice on camera in the day,
Speaker 4: but you go to aunt them bears and they don't
Speaker 4: show up till after dark.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I've heard. I hear that cement from a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of guys. They're putting bait out
Speaker 1: and a lot of younger bears. You know, you might
Speaker 1: catch them in the daytime, but but you know, we've
Speaker 1: been here for what is this day five? Yeah, we've
Speaker 1: been doing this for five days and we've only caught
Speaker 1: one bear on the bait. You know, Corey, he was
Speaker 1: you know, blessed to shoot a really nice bear. But
Speaker 1: it's not easy. I mean, you don't just sit there
Speaker 1: and watch the bears eat like it's Jellystone National Park
Speaker 1: bears eating garbage or something. I mean, I mean, these
Speaker 1: bears are smart. You know, they have other things to
Speaker 1: eat besides this. And you know, also you got a
Speaker 1: lot of it right now. We've got calves dropping, calf
Speaker 1: help dropping, mule deer, fawns will be dropping anytime too,
Speaker 1: So you know, they have some other things that they're
Speaker 1: probably a lot more appetizing than an old, nasty calf
Speaker 1: that died a couple of months ago. They're probably looking
Speaker 1: at those fresh that fresh food and thinking, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: probably a better option. So yeah, it's not a slam
Speaker 1: dunk by any means.
Speaker 5: Do you think, no, it's it's not.
Speaker 4: You know, there's a lot of videos out people watch
Speaker 4: stuff on YouTube where it's all kill shots, or it
Speaker 4: can be a little deceiving, you know, if you're trying
Speaker 4: to do this stuff on your own, because what they're
Speaker 4: showing you on YouTube is usually a highly populated bear.
Speaker 4: Are you like Alaska or Canada hunts like that. But
Speaker 4: in the States, I mean there's a lot of country
Speaker 4: out there, a lot of real estate, and the bears
Speaker 4: are spread out. You know, we don't have the bear
Speaker 4: population that they do in Canada or Alaska. But yeah,
Speaker 4: now let's switch gears here a little bit about back
Speaker 4: to what we're.
Speaker 1: Putting on the bait. So one of the baits we
Speaker 1: rebated Old Dan's bait over there. We've been checking it
Speaker 1: out too, and there's been some bears on it off
Speaker 1: and on. But we thought we would probably maybe kind
Speaker 1: of get the bears coming on it again by doing
Speaker 1: a bear doing some bear crack. You were basically a
Speaker 1: backcountry meth cook. You you were cooking. You were cooking
Speaker 1: some some stuff and I might even sampled it a
Speaker 1: little bit. I mean it tasted good. I mean I
Speaker 1: can I can see why a bear would like it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm probably not going to taste the calves, but this
Speaker 1: was the bear crack was delicious. So yeah, tell our
Speaker 1: listeners about your process there was to cook up this
Speaker 1: bear crack and and what do you think bears like it?
Speaker 4: Yeah, It's just a mixture of sweets, really, is all
Speaker 4: it is. And the reason I like cooking at debit
Speaker 4: is to get that scent out there. I wanted to walk,
Speaker 4: you know, wave out through the trees and get that
Speaker 4: scent out there so then bears smell it.
Speaker 5: But it's really all it is is.
Speaker 4: I just take some syrup, a gallon of that marshmallows
Speaker 4: yellow mix and just mix it all together and get
Speaker 4: it boiling hot to where them marshmallows just melt into
Speaker 4: that syrup and the jello mix and just it kind
Speaker 4: of makes like a malt.
Speaker 5: And then I just dump it all over the bait.
Speaker 4: But I like to get it boiling to where that
Speaker 4: sin is just wafing out through the trees.
Speaker 1: It kind of boils over the sides too, and it
Speaker 1: gets on the coals and hot coals, and yeah, that
Speaker 1: really makes a lot of smell too. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Absolutely.
Speaker 4: I mean dumping a little on the ground, or if
Speaker 4: it spills out of the pod or out of the
Speaker 4: tin or whatever, not a big deal. It's just adding sin. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it smelled really good.
Speaker 1: And now I know some people kind of get they
Speaker 1: get extravagant with that stuff, whether they're I mean, they
Speaker 1: might even fry bacon right there. They fry up a
Speaker 1: bunch of bacon, got their bacon grease, or maybe they
Speaker 1: get some old secondhand friar grease from the local local,
Speaker 1: uh convenience store or whatever. Get that stuff cooking and
Speaker 1: pour some of that oil on the on the coals
Speaker 1: when they're done to just to stink it up. But
Speaker 1: we did. We were more trying to peel to the
Speaker 1: sweet side. And uh well, also what was our secret?
Speaker 1: So we had some lucky charms, some lucky charms, well
Speaker 1: I think it was the bag version. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: like the generic version lucky charms, same concept, just throwing
Speaker 1: some sweet stuff in there.
Speaker 4: Some donuts. Gotta have some donuts jelly filled, jelly them.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I liked them too. We didn't buy that
Speaker 1: like the day olds. They didn't have any of those.
Speaker 1: We didn't. They didn't have any like old nasty ones
Speaker 1: for that's been sitting around there, go to throw out.
Speaker 1: We had to buy the fresh ones. And and I'm like, hey, Cody,
Speaker 1: get me that one. I want that, the raspberry jelly
Speaker 1: one right there. So Cory and I both which one
Speaker 1: did you get? I didn't know. And then we got
Speaker 1: some fancy ones with sprinkles and stuff. I didn't know.
Speaker 1: He's bearssed. I mean they're living, right, I.
Speaker 5: Mean they get the good stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so fast forward like we did.
Speaker 1: That made all this effort in the later afternoon, you know.
Speaker 1: So then we went down to the truck. It took one.
Speaker 1: So we would always enter enter the bait area a
Speaker 1: certain way, and then the area you want to set
Speaker 1: up to stand and kind of watch from, we enter
Speaker 1: it from a different way. Tell us about that. Why
Speaker 1: do you do that? Yeah?
Speaker 4: So the big thing is there wherever I'm gonna sit
Speaker 4: and haunt the bait from. I don't want my scent
Speaker 4: going from where I'm hunting from to the bait. Now,
Speaker 4: I bait it a certain way, and I bait it
Speaker 4: that way the same time every time. So every time
Speaker 4: I'm going to the barrel, I go in that way
Speaker 4: just so they know that, all right, I'm coming from
Speaker 4: here every time. And now when I hunt it, I
Speaker 4: hunt it from the opposite direction where the wind's good.
Speaker 4: And I never walked from where I hunt it to
Speaker 4: the barrel.
Speaker 1: Yeah. That way they don't connect the dots, you know, exactly.
Speaker 1: And bears are smart, they are, They're very intelligent. They
Speaker 1: can live twenty plus years. Yeah, and they catch on
Speaker 1: demand and their little little tricks and little little things
Speaker 1: they do. So that's a good tip. So okay, we
Speaker 1: set up the bear crack, we burn it. I had
Speaker 1: a little bit of it. It was delicious. I wanted more,
Speaker 1: but you guys were looking at me kind of funny.
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, I'm only gonna eat one marshmallow, but
Speaker 1: damn what I want to do over two or three
Speaker 1: of them? They were good. It was super good. So anyway,
Speaker 1: we let the fire burn out. We poured out all
Speaker 1: the crack, walked back down to the truck, hung out
Speaker 1: the truck shot the breeze for a while for a
Speaker 1: couple hours, and it's like, okay, now the winds have stabilized,
Speaker 1: so we'll sneak in that back door. They weigh and
Speaker 1: go set up and kind of watch the bait, and uh,
Speaker 1: what happened? I mean rain, I mean we have We've
Speaker 1: had so much rain this week. Wilding is rainy and wet.
Speaker 1: I mean there's water running everywhere. There's the creeks are
Speaker 1: like bulging at there. Seems pretty uncommon for what you
Speaker 1: guys normally see.
Speaker 4: Yeah, typically, I mean this time of year, you know,
Speaker 4: we don't have water running down the trails you're hiking,
Speaker 4: and it's been just a hell of a winter and
Speaker 4: this spring. I mean, hell, you guys have seen it.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, the rain has been every day. Yeah, we
Speaker 4: haven't had a day that there's not been rain.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and a lot of it. So yeah, and like
Speaker 1: you said that, you're walking up a trail and it
Speaker 1: looks literally like a creek, yeah, running down it's crazy.
Speaker 1: So I should that should be for some good horn
Speaker 1: growth this year, and you know, yeah, it'll definitely help
Speaker 1: this summer, help all those animals that had a tough
Speaker 1: winter this this last winter and maybe get back on
Speaker 1: the feet. But anyway, so we set up there in
Speaker 1: the rain, watched till dark. Didn't see Jack squat, so
Speaker 1: you know, he would think like, oh, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: this should be a slam dunk. Bears from miles away
Speaker 1: would be coming over here to eat these donuts. But
Speaker 1: it's not really the case. You know, they didn't they
Speaker 1: didn't find it right away. Or maybe maybe it's just
Speaker 1: too close to the time that, you know, too close
Speaker 1: to dark that we did that little burn, because maybe
Speaker 1: there was a bear close by and he just watched.
Speaker 1: You know, I think bears kind of watch sit back
Speaker 1: and kind of watch what we do sometimes. Tell Corey
Speaker 1: tell us about your hunt and the bear you shot,
Speaker 1: and how it all kind of played out as far
Speaker 1: as like Cody checking the bait and then how soon
Speaker 1: the bear the bear came in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, as far as the bait goes, it was
Speaker 2: pretty impressive. We we came in and Cody piked in
Speaker 2: a fresh quarter from a from beef cow a front
Speaker 2: shoulder correct which weighed how much I mean, I mean
Speaker 2: it was probably over one hundred pounds, Cody one hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty pounds. I mean it was a lot.
Speaker 4: Off a bowl that was seven or eight years old,
Speaker 4: So it.
Speaker 1: Was not like that seems pretty easy. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but not We're gonna check the slam dunk fox again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, like it's the lazy man's way to hunt bears,
Speaker 1: all right, exactly, get that straight doughnuts in in front
Speaker 1: quarters of mootcous Yeah right, so he had that freshened up.
Speaker 2: One of the things that would you know, Cody kind
Speaker 2: of pointed out to us was these holes that the bears,
Speaker 2: you know, can access that bait. You know, over time,
Speaker 2: you know, they can get kind of get haullowed out
Speaker 2: a little bit. So having a bigger quarter like that,
Speaker 2: you know, it makes a little harder. You know, they're
Speaker 2: gonna stick around a little longer, so.
Speaker 1: It's kind of wedged in there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you can see that, and it's i mean
Speaker 2: conventional thought. You would think, you know, a bear, you know,
Speaker 2: they're these massive animals. They can do all sorts of
Speaker 2: damage and get whatever they want. And but it does
Speaker 2: cause that problem. And ideally we're trying to get that
Speaker 2: bear to stay around. So Cody had that set up.
Speaker 2: We were able to also, you know, stuff some sticks
Speaker 2: in that hole, so you can, you know, if something
Speaker 2: came around, you can you can get you know, from
Speaker 2: a distance route. We can get what about one hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty yards from that bait ish.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we just sit back at one hundred and fifty,
Speaker 4: just throw the binos up, look at the bait and
Speaker 4: if them sticks are all pulled out or where he's
Speaker 4: eating from, I mean, you know it's been hit.
Speaker 2: So and that was exactly the case. So we the
Speaker 2: morning that we went in kind of mid morning. We
Speaker 2: haven't been hunting these bears bright and early. That's just
Speaker 2: not their their operating Cody's been able to observe and
Speaker 2: use some trailt cameras to to get a lot of information.
Speaker 2: So we're using that information for this hunt. And and
Speaker 2: and based off that, you know, if you can you
Speaker 2: see that bait has been freshly hit, knowing that we
Speaker 2: had put that in there, then.
Speaker 1: That bear more than likely is hanging around.
Speaker 2: And so so Cody and I took a quick run
Speaker 2: in no packs or anything, just just our rifles, just
Speaker 2: my rifle, and I got all set up in a
Speaker 2: nice comfortable shot and he's like, hey, we're well, well, uh,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go grab you know, go back to the truck.
Speaker 2: We'll get Dirk and you know, you're you'll be ready
Speaker 2: in case a bear comes in. I would say, you know,
Speaker 2: five minutes or less.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Then I, after Cody had left me, I saw the bear,
Speaker 2: you know, coming in from the right side in this opening,
Speaker 2: towards the bait, and and just observed him. You know,
Speaker 2: like I knew I had plenty of time. You know,
Speaker 2: you get excited because that's just normal. We're human. That's
Speaker 2: what we love about hunting is getting excited. So that
Speaker 2: bear went right to the bait. And then there's a
Speaker 2: nice down log, and I was able to, you know,
Speaker 2: just watch him through my scope, and he was walking
Speaker 2: on the log kind of towards me.
Speaker 1: Didn't go right to the bait, didn't go to the
Speaker 1: to the.
Speaker 2: That quarter that had already been hanging out that he'd
Speaker 2: been chewing on, and and I realized, you know, he
Speaker 2: was probably gonna steff up that law. So I was
Speaker 2: I was ready for the shot. And mentally, you know,
Speaker 2: you you always think, you know, where where am I
Speaker 2: going to aim?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: That was my thought process, and we talk about it
Speaker 2: quite a bit because you know it's uh, bears are
Speaker 2: a little different, you know, you want to have a
Speaker 2: different thought uh thought process. You know, their their lungs
Speaker 2: are in a different spot than a than an elk.
Speaker 2: Because we're we're all hardcore el hunter, so we always
Speaker 2: compare things to where you'd aim for an elk.
Speaker 1: So their lungs are a little further back.
Speaker 2: So we've talked you know, kind of like middle middle,
Speaker 2: and then we've also talked you know, maybe about you know,
Speaker 2: a hand hand, you know the size of your hand
Speaker 2: behind the shoulder, you know, a couple of different thought
Speaker 2: processes there. But that was my thought process, was was
Speaker 2: middle middle, and as he came off that log, you know,
Speaker 2: I I uh, you know, squeezed off the shot and
Speaker 2: it felt like a really good shot.
Speaker 1: I had a really good rest.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm shooting a three hundred meg so obviously
Speaker 2: plenty rifle for for a bear that they don't need
Speaker 2: a whole lot. And uh, obviously I could tell that
Speaker 2: he had been hit, you know, didn't know exactly where,
Speaker 2: but if everything felt good at that time.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, when you guys first got there, did you
Speaker 1: go over the bait at all? No?
Speaker 4: No, I just we walked to my blind and then
Speaker 4: I just threw my biose up and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 4: it's been hit, you know.
Speaker 1: Okay, that bear came from the right, so probably from
Speaker 1: uphill above the bear the bait.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I had that bear has been on the camera,
Speaker 4: and I had him on the camera at noon, so
Speaker 4: I you know, I knew that the time of day
Speaker 4: it was when we got there, and it was freshly hit.
Speaker 4: Like I highly suspected that that bear was still there.
Speaker 4: So yeah, like he's close, right.
Speaker 1: I think they kind of fill their belly and then
Speaker 1: go and bed down close and maybe even bed to
Speaker 1: where they can watch that bait and in case another
Speaker 1: bear comes in, they want to chase them off. Like
Speaker 1: if a little a little bear comes in, they could
Speaker 1: chase them off or whatever, kind of defend yep or
Speaker 1: maybe watch for the their buddy Cody that brings good
Speaker 1: Eastern drops him off to him.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1: Well, we're still trying to find a bear for me,
Speaker 1: you know, since it's so easy and and you know
Speaker 1: everybody can do it. You know, we've been backing more
Speaker 1: bait in and and uh and it. We just haven't
Speaker 1: had any luck for me yet, which is okay. But
Speaker 1: the weather's been kind of weird, and I'll say rainy
Speaker 1: weather has not been a big producer for for bears.
Speaker 1: For me, I feel like, you know, nicer, clearer days.
Speaker 1: Bears seem to be moving around a little better. They
Speaker 1: don't like they're kind of like me. I don't like
Speaker 1: hunting in the rain, and they don't like hanging out
Speaker 1: in the rain either.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I mean, on top of that, it pushes
Speaker 4: all the scent down that your barrels putting off stuff
Speaker 4: like that.
Speaker 1: But the rain definitely doesn't help, right, Yeah, exactly. So
Speaker 1: tomorrow we're gonna get up We're gonna go check Cody's bait,
Speaker 1: the one that's got the the beef in it. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go check and see if the bears have been back.
Speaker 1: They hadn't. We checked it this morning. We hadn't seen
Speaker 1: anymore sign there from after Corey got his bear. We
Speaker 1: put our scent all over there and when we were
Speaker 1: getting Cory's bear out of there. So we'll go check
Speaker 1: it and see if any more bears have gotten in there.
Speaker 1: We rebated it, and then we're gonna go back over
Speaker 1: the other side of the mountain where Dan's mate is
Speaker 1: and we're gonna check it again. We're gonna do another
Speaker 1: another some more meth cooking, crack cooking, whatever you want
Speaker 1: to call it, backcountry crack. We're gonna cook in it
Speaker 1: some more of that, maybe pick up some more donuts
Speaker 1: and lucky charms and the bait that sucker again, see
Speaker 1: if we can get another bear to come in come
Speaker 1: back in when we're there.
Speaker 5: It was hit.
Speaker 4: So yeah, we walked into Knight and sat it and
Speaker 4: there'd been a bear there, same type of deal. I
Speaker 4: shoved a but sticks in the barrel, so you know,
Speaker 4: they got to pull all them sticks out to get
Speaker 4: to the feed, you know, a six inch hole in
Speaker 4: the barrel whatever.
Speaker 5: I just feel it full of sticks.
Speaker 4: And then when we walk up to haunt it, I
Speaker 4: can just glass and look.
Speaker 5: At the barrel and be like, oh, yeah, it's been hit.
Speaker 5: So there's been a bear there.
Speaker 4: I just we didn't go to the barrel tonight because
Speaker 4: we knew is have the bear crack on it full
Speaker 4: of feed, Like, let's just go haunt it.
Speaker 1: Yep. Yeah. So sometime between wet when we watched that
Speaker 1: that bait the last time and then tonight that bear
Speaker 1: hit it. So we'll try to beat in tomorrow and
Speaker 1: kind of see how it goes and see what happens.
Speaker 1: So as far as a recap, I think, and you know,
Speaker 1: I get this sentiment from a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: successful bear baiter type hunter guys that it's not super easy.
Speaker 1: It's definitely not the lazy man's way. You got to
Speaker 1: put a lot of time and effort into baiting your
Speaker 1: bear baiting your bears because you know, if you run
Speaker 1: out of bait, the bears eat it all, they're gonna
Speaker 1: lose interest and leave. So you got to keep that
Speaker 1: thing full. You have to make the time to get
Speaker 1: up there, and a lot of times it's pretty physical.
Speaker 1: You know, we're not like hunting, you know, one hundred
Speaker 1: yards off the road or you know the minimum legal distance.
Speaker 1: I mean we're hiking a bit, you know, enough to
Speaker 1: where if you're hauling any amount of bait in there,
Speaker 1: you know, it does take a lot of efforts. So
Speaker 1: I think it's super fun to bait bears. It's just
Speaker 1: going to take you some effort. Also, best practices figure
Speaker 1: out what your bears like to eat. If they don't
Speaker 1: like if they don't like doug food or they're not
Speaker 1: liking something, don't keep trying to feed them that. Just
Speaker 1: experiment till you find something they like. Be consistent, make
Speaker 1: sure you keep the the bait full, and then like
Speaker 1: be secretive too, Like don't don't go direct from the
Speaker 1: bait over to where you're gonna sit and watch back
Speaker 1: out the same way you came in to the bait,
Speaker 1: and then use a different a different approach to where
Speaker 1: you're going to watch from. Because bears are smart, they'll
Speaker 1: pattern you, just like tails or elk or anything. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're animals, are they're smart. They figure they figure us
Speaker 1: out pretty easy. So any other closing thoughts that you
Speaker 1: could put into Capstone this out Bud.
Speaker 4: Yeah, go do it if you've got the opportunity, and
Speaker 4: you can bait bears wherever you're at. Springtime super fun,
Speaker 4: super fun to get out, especially after the long winter.
Speaker 4: It's everybody wants to get out. Calvin Fevers like, I
Speaker 4: want to go do some but yeah, it's super fun.
Speaker 4: Like Dirk said, them bears are super smart, so you know,
Speaker 4: use some of them tips and tactics. And I've had
Speaker 4: bears like a big part of the reason I don't
Speaker 4: bait it the same way and hunt it the same
Speaker 4: way as because you know, I've baited baits and walked
Speaker 4: out and I've had bears literally followed my tracks all
Speaker 4: the way back to the road, so they're looking, you know, Yeah,
Speaker 4: there's they smell you, they know you're there, and nerd
Speaker 4: tracking you back to see where you go.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, they're trying to figure you out. Yeah, exactly. Curious. Yep.
Speaker 1: How about you, Corey, what what's your thoughts on how
Speaker 1: things went this week and and baiting bears in general.
Speaker 2: I think it's just it's a really useful tool. I
Speaker 2: think all of us, you know, we just love to
Speaker 2: hunt but also we want to get a nice quality animal.
Speaker 2: I think hunting over bait gives you that opportunity, you know,
Speaker 2: you yeah, you can see and observe those animals. The
Speaker 2: interesting thing, you know, when I was this hunt specifically,
Speaker 2: you know, I was able to kind of watch this
Speaker 2: bear through my scope and I had a little white
Speaker 2: patch on him, which you know, Cody hadn't even seen
Speaker 2: yet on his observing, you know, so at least with
Speaker 2: that bait there, you know, I was able to see
Speaker 2: some some little tidbits of things that weren't you know,
Speaker 2: already known. So the bait was you know, allowing that
Speaker 2: animal to stay around. But you know, overall, you know,
Speaker 2: that's you know, just kind of my thought process. But
Speaker 2: I say also, you know, having good friends along, you know,
Speaker 2: the days kind of get long. Here you're sitting for
Speaker 2: a long time, having people that have really like minded attitude,
Speaker 2: They're hard working, you know, be able to kind of
Speaker 2: pick up your spirits and and just kind of pull
Speaker 2: you through. You know, when some of these sets are
Speaker 2: aren't fruitful because you just never know when it can switch,
Speaker 2: you know, And and and it happened real quick for us,
Speaker 2: and and so having having good folks along is a
Speaker 2: big part of that too, So we really appreciate everything
Speaker 2: Cody has done for us, and and uh, it's been
Speaker 2: pretty awesome. And and learning all his tactics too, it's
Speaker 2: just really eye opening and learning that process as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I agree. You know, we've had just the
Speaker 1: best time at bear Camp. You know, we've we've it's
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not one of those where you have
Speaker 1: to get up at like three o'clock in the morning
Speaker 1: and you know, hike all day. And I can see
Speaker 1: why some people like maybe poo poo on on baiting bears.
Speaker 1: You know, they're are like, well, guys, you guys aren't like,
Speaker 1: you're not rough in it. You're you guys are standing
Speaker 1: a camp or you're not backpacked in you're not hiking
Speaker 1: miles and miles and miles every day. I mean, And
Speaker 1: that's another way to do it. And that's a freaking
Speaker 1: fun way to do it too. This is just a
Speaker 1: little different way. But man, we've had the best time.
Speaker 1: We've we've laughed, we had so many laughs and good conversations.
Speaker 1: We've had good food, you know, Cody's cooked for us,
Speaker 1: and and yeah, it's just been a blast and uh,
Speaker 1: as far as just baits in general too. Like another
Speaker 1: thing you know I'd like to touch on is is
Speaker 1: with a bait. You know, let's says out comes in
Speaker 1: and you get to observe for a while and pretty
Speaker 1: soon okay, now she's got cubs and he becomes evident.
Speaker 1: You know it's gonna gonna hold her, you know, hold
Speaker 1: that bears attention a little longer to where maybe you
Speaker 1: see that she has cubs, and that way you don't
Speaker 1: you don't want to take a South cubs in Wyoming,
Speaker 1: it's it's illegal it is to take a South cubs.
Speaker 1: So sometimes you know, when you're out you know, glassing
Speaker 1: or you know spot in stock or just insideale bear hunting,
Speaker 1: maybe you don't always see those little guys. You know,
Speaker 1: they're pretty they can be pretty small, and there could
Speaker 1: be some brush there you don't see them. They're really
Speaker 1: hard to I've had that happen before where I just
Speaker 1: I just didn't see the cub until later on. It's just,
Speaker 1: you know, so you have to really be careful when
Speaker 1: you're not when you're not at a bait, I mean,
Speaker 1: you have to be careful either way, but I feel
Speaker 1: like at a bait and it's kind of like dogs hunting.
Speaker 1: With dogs too, you can really be sure of your
Speaker 1: target to make sure you make the right decision.
Speaker 4: Well, and sometimes them sows wy'll they'll run cubs up
Speaker 4: trees until they know it's safe or whatever, so you
Speaker 4: may not even see the cubs till five or ten
Speaker 4: minutes after you know, so you really, you know, if
Speaker 4: you suspect it's a sell. I usually encourage people to wait.
Speaker 4: You know, we'd rather take bores and not shoot, but
Speaker 4: I encourage people to wait because you never know. Maybe
Speaker 4: she ran them up a tree and they're just hanging
Speaker 4: out up a tree, and then she's not gonna let
Speaker 4: them come down until it's safe.
Speaker 1: Right. Well, man, I can't thank you enough for this,
Speaker 1: for having us over, you know, bear hunting. I know
Speaker 1: you busted your tail a lot to make sure there's
Speaker 1: some baits here, and but it sounds like that's something
Speaker 1: you do every year anyway, and you love it, and
Speaker 1: we're just thank you for the opportunity to come and
Speaker 1: do it, and thanks everybody for listening. We're gonna try
Speaker 1: to get some more bat baiting podcasts in the cooker
Speaker 1: here coming up, so stay tuned and we'll see you
Speaker 1: in the next episode, and the big time