Speaker 1: Spring is here and across the West. That means spring
Speaker 1: bear seasons are opening up. Why many people will be
Speaker 1: out there hunting them spot in stock. He can also
Speaker 1: be very effective at calling bears in. That's why today
Speaker 1: I brought on Douglas Bows, the author of the Ultimate
Speaker 1: Guide the Black Bear Hunting and the creator of the
Speaker 1: Ultimate Predator Calls Out. He's very well versed on everything
Speaker 1: black bear hunting, but today I brought him on here
Speaker 1: to talk specifically about calling bears. Welcome to the show, Doug,
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me, Jason's pleasure to be here. Thanks
Speaker 1: for being here. How's everything going? And uh in your life?
Speaker 1: And then give the listeners the two minute version to
Speaker 1: who is Douglas Bows before we get started. Everything in
Speaker 1: life is going well, thank you. UM. Just a little
Speaker 1: bit about myself. I was born and raised in Washington.
Speaker 1: I started and hunting at the age of twelve. Um,
Speaker 1: usually just deer on the weekends. Uh. And I didn't
Speaker 1: get into black bear hunting until my late twenties. UM.
Speaker 1: And you know I I my brother kind of got
Speaker 1: me into it and then I kind of branched out
Speaker 1: on my own. And UM, I'm basically just a middle
Speaker 1: class family man with a house and a kid and
Speaker 1: a couple of dogs. Um, much like the rest of you,
Speaker 1: and I just enjoy hunting, enjoy the outdoors, um, and
Speaker 1: like to share my knowledge with anyone who will listen. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: we appreciate it. And can you tell us specifically kind
Speaker 1: of how you got you know, your your laser focused
Speaker 1: on you know, you do hunt everything, but you kind
Speaker 1: of became laser focused on black bears in in you know,
Speaker 1: specifically black bears. Yeah. So I got my first black
Speaker 1: bear kind of by chance. The way a lot of
Speaker 1: people get there, um, black bears that you know, they'll
Speaker 1: buy a tag just in case they see one deer hunting.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of what happened with me, is that
Speaker 1: I bought a tag and I was out deer hunting
Speaker 1: and I got dropped off and I was I was
Speaker 1: walking this ridge line and I happened to see a
Speaker 1: bear across this gully and I thought, oh, man, you know,
Speaker 1: there's there's a sweet color phase bear. And I took
Speaker 1: a shot and I dropped it and ended up killing it.
Speaker 1: And so then I called up my pop on the
Speaker 1: radio and I was like, hey, the shot of bear,
Speaker 1: you know, come get the truck and let's get this
Speaker 1: thing out of here. Thinking it was huge, and so
Speaker 1: I screwed down there, and you know, as a bear hunter,
Speaker 1: you'll come to know the term ground shrinkage. And I
Speaker 1: realized that it wasn't a huge black bear. It was,
Speaker 1: you know, an average It was a smaller bear. It
Speaker 1: was a sow, but it was a color phase with
Speaker 1: a beautiful coat. Um. And but that just kind of
Speaker 1: started the fuel for the fire that is bear hunting
Speaker 1: for me. Um. And so that started it. And then
Speaker 1: as you know, kind of time progressed. Well, let me
Speaker 1: just back up for just a second. That was really
Speaker 1: the first bear that I had seen in the wild. Um.
Speaker 1: I hadn't seen a bear before that, um, And so
Speaker 1: I wanted to learn more about how to spot bear,
Speaker 1: how to find them, what to look for, and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. So that really just kind of fuel that fire.
Speaker 1: I want to know more about them, how to hunt them. Um.
Speaker 1: There's such a cool animal. They demand such respect. Um.
Speaker 1: And so that's that's really where it started, was that
Speaker 1: first bear. Gotcha? Gotcha? So we're gonna roll right into
Speaker 1: the questions here, um, Doug, which we typically do well,
Speaker 1: We'll take a couple of user questions. I'll take a
Speaker 1: crack at it kind of my answer and then see
Speaker 1: if you have anything to add, and then we'll jump
Speaker 1: into that discussion where I'm gonna kind of ask you
Speaker 1: all the questions I have for you or kind of
Speaker 1: UM can relate to, and just see how you do
Speaker 1: things compared to the way we do things. So UM,
Speaker 1: the first question, and actually I'm gonna back up, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna let you know that if you want to submit
Speaker 1: your own questions to the podcast, you can email us
Speaker 1: here at c T D at Phelps game Calls dot
Speaker 1: com and we'll we'll scour the emails, UM try to
Speaker 1: pick out your good questions and then go ahead and
Speaker 1: answer them here on the podcast. But for today, UM,
Speaker 1: the first question is what predator calls do you carry?
Speaker 1: So for me, UM, it depends on the time of
Speaker 1: the year, but um, spring, UM, late spring, when you
Speaker 1: know the fawns and calves are starting to drop, Well,
Speaker 1: we'll carry a fawn in distress, will carry, um, you know,
Speaker 1: a calf call or a calf and distress call. And
Speaker 1: then just kind of your standard, um, you know, rabbit distress,
Speaker 1: we'll carry a cotton tail, will carry a jack rabbit. Um,
Speaker 1: I haven't got too much into it. We do have
Speaker 1: some you know, bear cub stuff I've been playing around with,
Speaker 1: but I've never went out, you know with bear cub
Speaker 1: um and you know try to target bears with those. Um.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of kind of a real quick and
Speaker 1: dirty answer. You know, both open read and close read
Speaker 1: is is what we kind of use. What do you use,
Speaker 1: Doug when you're you're out there? Just in general, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure we'll get into more bear specific stuff here
Speaker 1: in a little bit. Sure, In general, I I prefer
Speaker 1: clothes read. I have open read stuff. I usually have
Speaker 1: one of those in my pack. Um. The question is
Speaker 1: is kind of similar to what what does a fisherman carry?
Speaker 1: You know? It for me, um, predator calling is almost
Speaker 1: like an addiction. So if I see like a new
Speaker 1: call that I might not have, especially like a new
Speaker 1: hand call or something, I usually pick it up just
Speaker 1: for a different variants of of calls to have. But
Speaker 1: I usually always have like a call in my pack
Speaker 1: and a call around my neck, and I put the
Speaker 1: one in my pack in case I forget the one
Speaker 1: around my neck. And generally both of those are closed
Speaker 1: reads and usually it's like a rabbit squall or um.
Speaker 1: Just any sort of nasty, raspy sound that you can
Speaker 1: make that would that would pique the interest of the predators.
Speaker 1: So I mean, it could be a rabbit, it could
Speaker 1: be a fond distress. The very first time I ever
Speaker 1: called in a bear was actually with a h a
Speaker 1: calf um distress kind of call, or really just a
Speaker 1: calf mew. I was trying to call in a bowl
Speaker 1: elk um, and that was all I had on me,
Speaker 1: So that's what I was using. UM. So yeah, that
Speaker 1: I usually just have um like a rabbit distress, but
Speaker 1: both of them are closed reads. Usually. I think we
Speaker 1: can all agree that bear hunting maybe easier if you
Speaker 1: don't try to use a call. You may be able
Speaker 1: to correct me or have different experiences. But you know,
Speaker 1: if I was going out just trying to kill a bear,
Speaker 1: I would let my glass do the majority of the
Speaker 1: you know, walking, and I would do more spot in stock.
Speaker 1: But the question was what is the most important thing
Speaker 1: um when it comes to being a successful bear hunter.
Speaker 1: So let's take maybe calling out of the equation. Like
Speaker 1: if you just wanted to go out and kill a bear,
Speaker 1: what would you do and I would just you know,
Speaker 1: first you have to be in the area with bear.
Speaker 1: So for us around here in industrial Timberlands or if
Speaker 1: I'm in the high country, is like follow their food
Speaker 1: source at that time of the year, whether they're pilling trees,
Speaker 1: whether they're in jack for patches, whether they've got you know,
Speaker 1: berries are on that time, or whatever it is. Is
Speaker 1: getting the area where those bear like to be, and
Speaker 1: then just spend a whole bunch of time glassing. Um.
Speaker 1: If you think you've sat there long enough, sit there
Speaker 1: for an extra thirty minutes, um, and and just let
Speaker 1: your glassing, you know, do do the majority of the work.
Speaker 1: Because we've we've been on many, many bears, especially here
Speaker 1: in western Washington where the cover is so thick you
Speaker 1: can't see you know, everything you need to see, and
Speaker 1: that bear can be sitting there for thirty minutes, you know,
Speaker 1: peeling a tree, um, chewing on the same berry bush,
Speaker 1: whatever it may be. And so we've just found patients,
Speaker 1: which I'm not great at, but that's probably the most
Speaker 1: important thing aside, you know, taking calling out of the mix.
Speaker 1: Has just spent a lot of time in the bears area, um,
Speaker 1: doing a lot of glassing and so your answer to
Speaker 1: that is basically patients and glassing. Is that correct? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what if we're not talking about calling. Sure, no,
Speaker 1: and you kind of stold my stold one of my tips.
Speaker 1: So you know I wrote down patients and persistence, um,
Speaker 1: and they kind of go hand in hand. Um. But
Speaker 1: you know, like the number one saying that you'll hear,
Speaker 1: especially from the beginning bear hunters is find the food,
Speaker 1: you'll find the bears. And yes and no, that's kind
Speaker 1: of true, and we can get into that more later.
Speaker 1: But I really encourage people to have patients when they're
Speaker 1: hunting bears and be persistent in And the reason I
Speaker 1: say that is like sometimes people they'll they'll predator call
Speaker 1: or they'll say, hey, you know, I predator called for
Speaker 1: twenty minute, it's nothing showed up, so I gave up.
Speaker 1: Or I've predator called for half an hour three times
Speaker 1: and nothing happened. Well, you're losing patience with yourself. You
Speaker 1: might not have seen anything come in, but something might
Speaker 1: have came in you just didn't see it. Um. And
Speaker 1: so I just encourage people with patients. And then the
Speaker 1: persistence aspect is you know you will hear somebody oh,
Speaker 1: I shot a bear and um, I lost the blood
Speaker 1: trail or you know there there wasn't much blood and
Speaker 1: so you know I I looked for three hours and
Speaker 1: then I didn't find nothing. Well, I encourage people, especially
Speaker 1: with bear, to have persistence in tracking um because the
Speaker 1: hair and the fat of a bear kind of clog
Speaker 1: up that entry and exit wound. And it's not uncommon
Speaker 1: for bear not to bleed a ton because they have
Speaker 1: such you know, thick coats on um. They're not like
Speaker 1: a deer elk that have a very form fitting um height.
Speaker 1: And so persistence, be persistent with it, don't give up.
Speaker 1: So let's jump into the discussion here, uh, Doug. So
Speaker 1: we've got a lot of similarities between you know, the
Speaker 1: old ways that we used to hunt bears or the
Speaker 1: old way I used to hunt bear where I would
Speaker 1: get up on a landing, get up in the high country,
Speaker 1: sit down on a very very good, you know, um
Speaker 1: glassy knob and just let your glass do all the work.
Speaker 1: Whereas if we're going to turn this into we want
Speaker 1: to go out and specifically target a bear with our calls. Um,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a lot of similarities, but there are
Speaker 1: gonna be some differences. And then that's really what I
Speaker 1: want to dive into here with with you today during
Speaker 1: this conversation. So you know, calling bears you can you
Speaker 1: can do it anywhere from the spring seasons, um, all
Speaker 1: the way through fall seasons. And one of the things
Speaker 1: I want to really hit on is knowing where to
Speaker 1: be at that time. And so in my opinion, UM,
Speaker 1: that is determined by the food sources. UM. So you
Speaker 1: can you tell me a little bit about like how
Speaker 1: you focus on food sources, what you're looking for as
Speaker 1: far as you know, like old sap trees, um. You
Speaker 1: know the berries are on you know, calving and fawn time,
Speaker 1: like they switched to a meat diet and then they
Speaker 1: switch back to a berries. You know, if you're in
Speaker 1: eastern Washington, you they may be in the onions or
Speaker 1: the sunflowers. Like go into a little bit of how
Speaker 1: if you're going to call for a bear, how you
Speaker 1: start to think about their food sources and how that
Speaker 1: helps you determine like where you're gonna be sure, no problem.
Speaker 1: So you know that that kind of goes back to, UM,
Speaker 1: find the food, find the bears. And so in the springtime,
Speaker 1: let's just start at the beginning of the season. In
Speaker 1: the springtime, the first thing to kind of come available
Speaker 1: for them to eat is grass, sea areas, UM. You know,
Speaker 1: like old logging roads, UM, southern face and slopes, stuff
Speaker 1: that gets a lot of sun and some water. So
Speaker 1: I focus on fresh shoots of green grass. And then
Speaker 1: from there um usually like skunk cabbage will start to
Speaker 1: show up. And as the as the kind of progresses
Speaker 1: that sugary sap the cambium layer in trees that will
Speaker 1: start to come up, and then the bears will start
Speaker 1: to peel those UM. And so in the spring I'm
Speaker 1: looking for that that early food source and a good
Speaker 1: key to finding those food sources, especially in in areas
Speaker 1: with uh five to ten to fifteen year old trees.
Speaker 1: When I say trees that they're peeling, make a sea
Speaker 1: out of each of your hands like the letter C
Speaker 1: and then put them together. And that's about the size
Speaker 1: of the tree that they start to peel. And then
Speaker 1: you bring that those that see apart in your hands
Speaker 1: a couple of inches. You know, it's it's about that size. UM.
Speaker 1: They're not huge trees or younger trees, and what they
Speaker 1: do is they'll they'll peel those trees, and they eat
Speaker 1: that cambium layer because it's a sugary substance that is
Speaker 1: an early food source. And so in your hikes, say
Speaker 1: you're shed hunting or or fishing, whatever it might be,
Speaker 1: as you're wandering around the woods, keep an eye out
Speaker 1: for hillsides that have like dead red trees or dying
Speaker 1: yellow trees, or um trees that are obviously peeled. And
Speaker 1: you can see examples of this online or in my
Speaker 1: book or wherever it may be. But they peel that
Speaker 1: right down to the ground. And what that does is
Speaker 1: not every time, but lots of times, it will kill
Speaker 1: that tree. And I've seen bears strip you know, seven
Speaker 1: eight trees within an hour, and so you can imagine
Speaker 1: the damage that several bear um can do to a
Speaker 1: timber stand. Um through the course of a month or two.
Speaker 1: Will they're doing that um. But the that that yellow
Speaker 1: in that red colouration that I'm talking about in the trees,
Speaker 1: that should be kind of a clue to hey, there
Speaker 1: was a spring bearing here tearing things up, um, you know,
Speaker 1: the year before or the year prior, so, maybe a
Speaker 1: couple of years back. So that's that's a point to
Speaker 1: start um. And so in the spring. That's kind of
Speaker 1: where I start. And then once I kind of find
Speaker 1: food sources, I'm looking for sign. I'm looking for scatt
Speaker 1: I'm looking for tracks in the mud, like any time
Speaker 1: I walked by a mud puddle or something like that,
Speaker 1: I'm looking for tracks. Um. And once I find sign,
Speaker 1: and hopefully not a lot of people, because that's another key.
Speaker 1: Lots of times bears don't, you know, they don't like
Speaker 1: to be around a lot of people. So if I
Speaker 1: can find areas it's kind of secluded that was not
Speaker 1: much hunting pressure, that's that's what I'm looking for. Um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's that's kind of how I start to
Speaker 1: look for it. Now do you want me to go
Speaker 1: into fall there real quick too? Yeah, we can't. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna touch on, um, the jack for the thing
Speaker 1: that you had mentioned. Those you know, those young trees
Speaker 1: which you know I refer to as like jack for
Speaker 1: patches there you know, anywhere from ten to maybe twenty
Speaker 1: years old. Um. You know, we do a lot of
Speaker 1: that when we're when we're looking at elk crabs, you know.
Speaker 1: And so if you're looking across a jack for um,
Speaker 1: you know, a grown up jack for patch and you've
Speaker 1: got you know, trees that are dead with no needles.
Speaker 1: That bear was probably there two years ago, um, potentially
Speaker 1: red needles. You can you know, assume that it was
Speaker 1: last year, potentially two years ago. Yellow is last year,
Speaker 1: and then you know green is obviously still alive. And
Speaker 1: so you can start to put together a little bit
Speaker 1: of a pattern, like, all right, there of ben bears
Speaker 1: here for obviously more than three years. They're using the area.
Speaker 1: It's probably got a high density. It's probably a good
Speaker 1: spot to focus your time if you're trying to bear hunt,
Speaker 1: you know, spring or fall. Um. So I just wanted
Speaker 1: to kind of add to that, like you can put
Speaker 1: together a pretty good timeline, like you know, the number
Speaker 1: of bears that are in the area, plus if they've
Speaker 1: been there within the last two or three years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and usually you know, usually if they're there in one spring,
Speaker 1: they were there a couple of springs prior, or they'll
Speaker 1: be there a couple of springs after, provided not a
Speaker 1: whole lot of change because those trees are going to
Speaker 1: remain that kind of same size for the next you know,
Speaker 1: several years, and so that can be a good spot
Speaker 1: to go back to. And you know, I've mentioned it
Speaker 1: before on another podcast, but there's a lake right by
Speaker 1: where I live, and there's there's a hill outside the lake,
Speaker 1: and you can actually see, like now, they're they're completely dead.
Speaker 1: But when I moved here, they were yellow and then
Speaker 1: they turned red. But you could almost follow the path
Speaker 1: of the bear from the bridge line all the way
Speaker 1: down to the lake where he's stripped the trees. You know,
Speaker 1: It's just it's interesting to watch. But yeah, just be
Speaker 1: aware of that. And even when I'm driving, Man, I'm
Speaker 1: driving around looking at if I see red flashes of
Speaker 1: a dead tree or something on a hillside, I'll stop
Speaker 1: and take notice, or I'll get out and check to
Speaker 1: see if if that's what caused the death of that tree. Gotcha, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And then let's let's dive in a little bit how
Speaker 1: the food source changes from that early spring, you know,
Speaker 1: the bright green grasses, the new shoots, the bark um
Speaker 1: of the trees, and then we start to roll into
Speaker 1: a little bit of you know that mid to late
Speaker 1: spring early summer where they will at least the black
Speaker 1: beers in this area switch their diet to fawns and
Speaker 1: calves um. And then we'll roll into like the berries
Speaker 1: and stuff that we start to focus on huckleberries and
Speaker 1: you know low blow blackberries, blueberries and stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: moving more into the fall. Yeah, so you know it's
Speaker 1: sometimes food sources can change by the month, by or
Speaker 1: even by the week, and sometimes uh, in the late fall,
Speaker 1: almost by the day. Um. You know, so as things progress,
Speaker 1: as things heat up, everything starts to become green, and
Speaker 1: that gets more and more difficult to be able to
Speaker 1: focus on a food source as to where that bear
Speaker 1: could be. UM. So when everything is kind of greened
Speaker 1: up like that, that's where they really kind of focus
Speaker 1: on stripping those trees. And so that's where I look
Speaker 1: for and they'll do that for like a month, month
Speaker 1: and a half maybe even to um be stripping those
Speaker 1: trees for a bit. So that's when I kind of
Speaker 1: focus on that especially. And then by then you're also
Speaker 1: kind of getting into calving season, like you said, um,
Speaker 1: And so that's that's a nice time to predator call
Speaker 1: if you're up to it. Um. And then you know,
Speaker 1: shortly after that berries will start to show up. Um.
Speaker 1: It's not you know, not long that the salmon berries
Speaker 1: start to pop in. Huckle Berries will start to get ripe,
Speaker 1: shortly thereafter and so but and then you know in
Speaker 1: in early fall, in like August, there's food everywhere, and
Speaker 1: that can make it kind of difficult to focus on
Speaker 1: all right where or the bear hanging out because there's
Speaker 1: brush and there's berries and and stuff everywhere. And then
Speaker 1: as as August progresses, you know, different type of berries
Speaker 1: come in. And so I almost related lots of times too,
Speaker 1: um like a like a like a half pipe for
Speaker 1: a for a skateboard. You know, at the at the
Speaker 1: very bottom, you've got food that's starting to grow. Um.
Speaker 1: And then as as things progress, more and more food
Speaker 1: comes out. And then as as fall gets later and
Speaker 1: later into winter, then that food just kind of drops
Speaker 1: back down. With early fall, you definitely want to focus
Speaker 1: on on berries on um, cooler areas because the temperature
Speaker 1: is going to be warmer, the bearer getting warm, um,
Speaker 1: they're gonna want to be in those cool creek draws. Um.
Speaker 1: And and and I usually focus my hunt's my hunt
Speaker 1: times in the in the mornings and in the evenings. UM.
Speaker 1: But you know, as as as fall progresses, UM, things
Speaker 1: can fade away. So salmon berries they kind of die
Speaker 1: out first. The huckleberries will kind of leave eventually and
Speaker 1: then real brushy blackberries they'll come in. So you you
Speaker 1: really need to spend time and it changes per area,
Speaker 1: changes per region, So you just spend time out in
Speaker 1: the woods wherever you live and and figure out what's
Speaker 1: ripe and when it's ripe, because that will that will
Speaker 1: dictate where you should be hunting bears. Because I might
Speaker 1: not be hunting bears in in spring peel damage tree
Speaker 1: stands in the summer because there might not be necessarily
Speaker 1: a ton of berries in that specific area. I might
Speaker 1: be in a completely different area. So the bear, you know,
Speaker 1: they they roam where the food is, and that's what
Speaker 1: you need to do. Don't get stuck focusing on well
Speaker 1: they're here in the spring, they've got to be here now,
Speaker 1: that's not necessarily true. Or they're here in the fall
Speaker 1: and they got to be here now that's not necessarily
Speaker 1: true either. Yeah, yeah, I couldn't I couldn't agree more
Speaker 1: with that. You know, it's it's super cliche and and
Speaker 1: it you know, it sounds oversimplified, But you can't kill
Speaker 1: a bear if you're not hunting where the bears are
Speaker 1: at at that time. So you got to find that
Speaker 1: find fresh ion fresh scat um tracks, you know, lay
Speaker 1: eyes on them, and then you know, get to that
Speaker 1: level or that area or that food source. Really. Um,
Speaker 1: So what that that said you kind of already alluded to.
Speaker 1: My next question for you is that bears become fool
Speaker 1: or satiated differently at different times of the year. And
Speaker 1: with that in mind, are there better times the call
Speaker 1: bears versus times that it's going to be very difficult
Speaker 1: to call bears based on what they're you know, their
Speaker 1: fuel gauge is telling them, um, and how much you're
Speaker 1: able to eat. I like to call bears when there's
Speaker 1: less food around, so in early spring and then in
Speaker 1: later fall. But that doesn't mean it won't work when
Speaker 1: there's plenty of food around. For example, I've i've predator
Speaker 1: called bears before where I had one coming in, you know,
Speaker 1: like on a string, and then he ran into a
Speaker 1: big pile of huckleberries and he could care less about
Speaker 1: me or am I squalling and whatsoever. He just sat
Speaker 1: there eating huckleberries like the rest of the time. And
Speaker 1: I was like, all right, whatever, that's that's cool. Um.
Speaker 1: But then again, last year I was predator calling in
Speaker 1: mid August and there was blackberries all over the place,
Speaker 1: and I had a bear come in right at forty
Speaker 1: five minutes at twenty yards and that's the bear I
Speaker 1: took that year. So in general, if there's less food around,
Speaker 1: they're more likely to come to a call in my opinion.
Speaker 1: Now that can change, you know. I think as as
Speaker 1: you hunt bear, you'll realize that bear I wouldn't say
Speaker 1: are individuals, but they have their own kind of personality
Speaker 1: or or individualistic traits. I guess some bear will come
Speaker 1: running into a call, some will sneak, you know, some
Speaker 1: are more aggressive than others. Um And so that really
Speaker 1: just kind of depends, you know. And I always say
Speaker 1: if if you're in an area that looks bearish, whether
Speaker 1: it be in the spring or the fall or whatever
Speaker 1: it may be. And when I say bearish, I mean
Speaker 1: it looks like it holds bear. You know, as a
Speaker 1: deer hunter, you can look at a valley or something
Speaker 1: to be like, man that looks like that holds holds
Speaker 1: some deer in there, or a bass fisherman. You know,
Speaker 1: if you see a submerged log in a lake, you're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's probably a bass under that log. If a place
Speaker 1: looks bearish to you, those are the type of places
Speaker 1: I like the predator call, even if you're not seeing something.
Speaker 1: A lot of the areas that we hunt, it's super brushy,
Speaker 1: like you know, it's it's twenty ft tall of brush.
Speaker 1: You can't really see what's going on. Predator calling allows
Speaker 1: you to knock things loose and hopefully see something come
Speaker 1: in the chance to have a shot. And so that's
Speaker 1: that's why I enjoy predator calling because you never know
Speaker 1: what's gonna come in, could be a coyote, podcat, cougar,
Speaker 1: bear or anything. Yeah. Yeah, And and we have did
Speaker 1: the majority of our spring hunting on the East Side,
Speaker 1: more specifically in the Blues Um where they've got such
Speaker 1: such an you know, uh an over abundance of food
Speaker 1: there in the Blues you know, in spring hits. And
Speaker 1: so we've always wondered. We have tried some sets, and
Speaker 1: we always carry our predator calls, but you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's really set up for spot and stock. But I wonder,
Speaker 1: you know, in those situations where they have so much
Speaker 1: grass and so much to eat early in spring as
Speaker 1: they follow that snow line up, Like I'd be curious
Speaker 1: to go back with an intent to call in a bear,
Speaker 1: like if you could actually even get them to pull
Speaker 1: off of the wild onions and and you know, the
Speaker 1: the sunflowers and whatnot, that they're just they they can
Speaker 1: never run out. They don't need to go chase or
Speaker 1: waste any energy chase in a deer or a calf
Speaker 1: around you know. Um. And so in those situations, we
Speaker 1: we've just you know, like the with the intent to
Speaker 1: kill a bear, we just have not picked up the
Speaker 1: caller or or you know, we've tried to maybe get
Speaker 1: one out, you know, a boar or a boar we
Speaker 1: wanted to kill out of like a thick brush patch.
Speaker 1: But the majority of the time, I think, even early spring,
Speaker 1: in those situations, they're just they're not super interested. I
Speaker 1: would agree that you know, the food might keep them
Speaker 1: locked down. How long are you calling for? You know,
Speaker 1: I grew up on the days where like it was
Speaker 1: the Wayne Carlton calling all bears, you know VHS state
Speaker 1: we would would pop it in it and that, and
Speaker 1: so he just said, sit for a long time, and
Speaker 1: when you think you're done calling, sit for another thirty minutes,
Speaker 1: you know. So I would say our normal sets or
Speaker 1: you know, an hour plus with a half hour away
Speaker 1: at the end before we get up and move. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, and I just maybe we can't see it, Steep.
Speaker 1: It's real broken country. I don't know if maybe stuff
Speaker 1: has come in, we haven't seen it. Um. All of
Speaker 1: my calling successes actually came in the fall when I'm
Speaker 1: trying to call Elkin and these you know, these black
Speaker 1: bears are looking for an easy meal. Um. So I've
Speaker 1: just always wondered, you know, like the food obviously affects.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna I don't think you're gonna call h
Speaker 1: a bear. That's you know, stuff to the gills into
Speaker 1: your feet. But at the same time, like you said,
Speaker 1: they are temperamental. And I was just kind of curious
Speaker 1: on you know, early green you know, in certain areas
Speaker 1: at the springtime, like it's still may be difficult to call.
Speaker 1: I think, I think it is difficult. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: difficult to call even when there's not a lot of
Speaker 1: fool around. But it's it's it can still be productive. Um.
Speaker 1: And so like for me, and especially over in the
Speaker 1: Blues or an area that is very large and broken
Speaker 1: but fairly open, like you can see quite a ways
Speaker 1: in the Blues compared to for example, Western Washington. For me,
Speaker 1: I will let the sound do the walk in for me. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, similar to what you're doing with glassing. I
Speaker 1: will predator call down into a draw or a rocky
Speaker 1: cavern you know, uh, rocky valley, anything like that where
Speaker 1: that sound can carry out and just see if I
Speaker 1: can break anything loose and then put glass on it.
Speaker 1: Um if I'm not seeing nothing, if it looks like
Speaker 1: in a to bear for me, um, And I'll do
Speaker 1: the same for Western Washington. Now, it might not always
Speaker 1: break something loose, UM, but again it's you're you wanna
Speaker 1: just peak their predator interest. And and so when when
Speaker 1: people first start calling really quick, this kind of pertains
Speaker 1: to that it doesn't have to sound perfect like with
Speaker 1: ELK kind of know, you know, you want to sound
Speaker 1: real natural. With ELK, I think you would probably tend
Speaker 1: to agree with that. And with Bear you're just trying
Speaker 1: to spark that predator interest, like what is making that noise?
Speaker 1: And can I kill and eat it? Um? And so
Speaker 1: a lot of new callers will come to me and
Speaker 1: be like, you know what, I sound horrible. I don't
Speaker 1: sound good, you know, I don't sound anything like a rabbit. Well, hey, man,
Speaker 1: don't worry about it. Like I predator called in bear
Speaker 1: in Alaska using a you know, a jack rabbit call,
Speaker 1: and there's not a jack rabbit within a thousand miles
Speaker 1: of there. So the point is is to peak their
Speaker 1: interest is um, and you know it. It's a it's
Speaker 1: a nice way to break up the possibility of being unsuccessful.
Speaker 1: So if you're sitting there and you're watching a canyon
Speaker 1: in your glass and glass and you're not seeing nothing,
Speaker 1: and you're thinking about packing up and leave, and we'll
Speaker 1: spend an hour there and and predator call and see
Speaker 1: if something's not hidden down in those crevices and whatnot,
Speaker 1: because they can be hidden down and you know, the
Speaker 1: easiest of spots that you would never think a bear
Speaker 1: was um. For example, I was bear hunting in the
Speaker 1: fall and I I hopped up in this power line
Speaker 1: cut um. You know, there was blackberries all over the place,
Speaker 1: and that wow, I'll just predator call into this tree line.
Speaker 1: And so I started predator calling and within five minutes
Speaker 1: there was a color phase bear within like forty yards
Speaker 1: of me. I had no idea that thing was even there.
Speaker 1: And if I wouldn't have called, the wind could have shifted.
Speaker 1: It could have smelled me. You know, I might not
Speaker 1: have ever known that bear was even there, So it
Speaker 1: can be very handy. Just a predator call. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: were over in the dayton um had a big, dark
Speaker 1: brown you know, bore probably had a thousand yards and
Speaker 1: we really didn't have you know, a little bit too
Speaker 1: far out of shooting distance for sure, and we didn't
Speaker 1: have many options. There was no way to get closer.
Speaker 1: Basically a solid wall uh uh, you know timber canyon
Speaker 1: between us and I hit uh, just a calf call
Speaker 1: that I had um on my binal harness, and that
Speaker 1: bear looked. We did another series and that thing literally
Speaker 1: came like bolting straight at us, and we picked him
Speaker 1: up a couple more times and the timber as he approached.
Speaker 1: We did sit there for another forty five minutes. The
Speaker 1: bear never showed, but at least it gave us hope,
Speaker 1: right because at that point you had no other option
Speaker 1: during that that spot and stock hum. But by having
Speaker 1: the predator call, we watched that bear break and literally sprint,
Speaker 1: you know, at least the first four yards directly at us,
Speaker 1: and then you ultimately he didn't show up. He got
Speaker 1: distracted somewhere across in the canyon. But it was just
Speaker 1: you know, the ability to add to our spot in
Speaker 1: stock Um where there was really no other option to
Speaker 1: be successful. Anyways, it's a handy tool and for you know,
Speaker 1: for me, like if I'm if I'm not seeing something,
Speaker 1: if I'm getting board, I'll definitely just break out the
Speaker 1: predator call. I don't want to care where I am.
Speaker 1: I'll break it out and just see what comes in. Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's talk about the setup specifically, so we figured out
Speaker 1: the area. We know there's bears in the area, Like
Speaker 1: what are you looking for as far as like where
Speaker 1: you're gonna sit down and where you're gonna you know,
Speaker 1: start your calling. I'm I'm gonna have to assume you know,
Speaker 1: similar to any other calling. You want good advantage, UM,
Speaker 1: you want to be able to shoot in multiple directions
Speaker 1: with this, uh, you know, a steady rest. But are
Speaker 1: you looking for this bear to come in you know,
Speaker 1: thirty or fort yards bow range? Are you you know,
Speaker 1: depending on the season and the weapon, Like you just
Speaker 1: trying to make sure that you have a really good
Speaker 1: shot when he comes in. Like what does your setup
Speaker 1: look like? Um? And then you base like the way
Speaker 1: that bears tend to come in, Like, do they have
Speaker 1: a tendency to come in certain ways and you're trying
Speaker 1: to account for that in your setup. Yes, So it
Speaker 1: depends on the territory. So for example, if I'm if
Speaker 1: I'm over in eastern Washington and I'm el hunting, um,
Speaker 1: that's a fairly open ish type of area, I can
Speaker 1: see a lot longer distance, and so my shot might be,
Speaker 1: you know, further than in western Washington. But for me,
Speaker 1: I want vantage, So I want like a good rocky outcropping,
Speaker 1: or I want a brush pile in in western Washington,
Speaker 1: usually like a stump pile I can climb up on
Speaker 1: and then tuck myself into. And that kind of serves
Speaker 1: us twofold one. You can see a little bit further
Speaker 1: throughout the brush and too, if you're on a stump
Speaker 1: pile with brush and whatnot, you're gonna hear if something's
Speaker 1: coming up behind you. Um, And so it serves as
Speaker 1: kind of a protection as well. Although I've never been jumped,
Speaker 1: but I've had bear and cougar close enough. Um. So
Speaker 1: I want to be elevated. I want the wind Ashley.
Speaker 1: So some people may think this is counterintuitive but I
Speaker 1: would prefer no wind, or very little wind or across wind.
Speaker 1: But if the wind is is blowing to my back,
Speaker 1: I want my shot lanes in that direction. I don't
Speaker 1: necessarily want the wind in my face. And the reason
Speaker 1: I say that, especially with calling, is that predators they'll
Speaker 1: they'll circle to try to get your wind. So if
Speaker 1: there's a predator in front of end the winds blown
Speaker 1: in your face, it might circle behind you. You might
Speaker 1: never even see it. Um, Lots lots of times predators
Speaker 1: they'll they'll get that down wind. So you want your
Speaker 1: shooting lanes to be down wind. And I get that
Speaker 1: information from the late grade. Well he's not late um,
Speaker 1: but the Mr Randy Anderson from calling all coyotes primos um.
Speaker 1: That's what he suggested, and that's kind of how I
Speaker 1: started off, um predator calling. So you want those shooting
Speaker 1: lanes down wind. If you have a shooting partner, kick
Speaker 1: him off to your side, left or right, but you know,
Speaker 1: for safety reasons, know where they're at. UM another guy
Speaker 1: available if your predator calling is very hand d because
Speaker 1: it's another set of eyes. And there has been numerous
Speaker 1: situations where I have been predator calling and totally thought.
Speaker 1: I didn't call anything in, and the guy to my
Speaker 1: left or right spotted it coming in because the bear
Speaker 1: was smart enough to stay hidden from me making my noise. Um.
Speaker 1: And I've taken bear that way. My brother killed a
Speaker 1: bear up in the snow. Um. I called to bear
Speaker 1: in and one came right behind me, like fifteen yards.
Speaker 1: I never saw it, and then another one up on
Speaker 1: a tree line further up behind me. My brother ended
Speaker 1: up taking that one, but both of those bears, I
Speaker 1: w I had no idea that I called him in
Speaker 1: if I didn't have a second shooter there. Yuh so yeah,
Speaker 1: so you want advantage point shooting lanes. And most of
Speaker 1: the time when I shoot a bear, it's well under
Speaker 1: a hundred yards, usually under fifty UM. A lot of
Speaker 1: my shots or twenty yards or less. And that's not
Speaker 1: necessarily on purpose, it's just kind of what happens. UM.
Speaker 1: A lot the areas I call into our our brushy.
Speaker 1: I like to call into that stuff because the bear
Speaker 1: are hidden. Um. But you have to call him in
Speaker 1: close to get a shot. Uh. Just last summer, I
Speaker 1: was preda to calling with my son and he was
Speaker 1: he was in front of me. I was on this
Speaker 1: uh stump that was like twelve ft in the air.
Speaker 1: So I was sitting on that thing calling the boy
Speaker 1: was in front of me, but we were in a
Speaker 1: brush are area to where we only had a couple
Speaker 1: of shooting lanes, not a lot, And I actually wanted
Speaker 1: to kick him off to my left. Um, but I
Speaker 1: wanted to keep an eye on him because he's still
Speaker 1: a new hunter and I want to make sure everything
Speaker 1: went good. Um, So I really just put him out
Speaker 1: in front of me. Anyway, I predator called and this
Speaker 1: this bear came into about twenty yards almost just to
Speaker 1: our left and started shaking a tree and getting all
Speaker 1: aggressive and stuff. But we unfortunately we couldn't get a
Speaker 1: shot just because there wasn't a shooting lane that way. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know, lots of times predator calling for me,
Speaker 1: they'll they'll come in under a hunter yards easy, sometimes fifties,
Speaker 1: sometimes closer. You know, last year I had several bear
Speaker 1: under twenty yards. Gotcha, gotcha. So let's get into the
Speaker 1: My favorite part of it is is what calls are
Speaker 1: you going to use? And then calling your cadence and
Speaker 1: then we touch on a little bit, but how long
Speaker 1: do you sit? How long do you call for and
Speaker 1: then how long do you wait from your last call
Speaker 1: before you change? Um sits? So like you, I kind
Speaker 1: of followed Mr Wayne Carlton, and that's that's what I've
Speaker 1: stuck with. It's Uh, there's DVD out there called They
Speaker 1: Come to Eat and he talks about predator calling bear
Speaker 1: and cougar and stuff, and so I like to call
Speaker 1: for about an hour and then I'll sit there for
Speaker 1: another twenty minutes or so, depending on if my butt
Speaker 1: is completely asleep and if my knees want to work. Um. So,
Speaker 1: the cadence, we'll start off with that. I got this
Speaker 1: from Randy Anderson. He always said, build, build a scenario
Speaker 1: in your head. And so you know, with with the cadens,
Speaker 1: I'll start out kind of quiet, and so that means
Speaker 1: that your sound isn't going super for it, but it's
Speaker 1: going out a little ways. And you don't want to
Speaker 1: necessarily start off like your full lung power, because you
Speaker 1: might blow animals out. But if you start off kind
Speaker 1: of quiet, that's pushing that sound out and that might
Speaker 1: draw them in. And then just as time progresses, you
Speaker 1: increase the the distress or the frequency or the crying
Speaker 1: and the volume of that. So as as time goes on,
Speaker 1: you increase that volume and the distress, and then right
Speaker 1: before you were gonna stop, I will either trail off
Speaker 1: like I'm dying real slow, and so I'll go back
Speaker 1: to being very very quiet, and then I'll just be
Speaker 1: quiet the rest of the time, or I'll just completely
Speaker 1: drop it off like I've died. So there's a couple
Speaker 1: of different scenarios. Um. Sometimes I will I will do
Speaker 1: like a fond distress, rabbit distress, whatever it may be,
Speaker 1: and I'll throw in a coyote yep or a coyote
Speaker 1: howl or a coyote distress with it. Um. I've had
Speaker 1: animals hang up with just a standard you know, rabbit call,
Speaker 1: and then I throw in that uh kyote distress, and
Speaker 1: you know, the breed comes barreling in because maybe he's
Speaker 1: heard standard rabbit calls before and got educated, but but
Speaker 1: that ky out whimper put him at ease and he
Speaker 1: wanted to come in and see what was going on.
Speaker 1: So switch it up a little bit. Um, sit there
Speaker 1: for an hour, do that, do that cadence like I
Speaker 1: was saying, And and as far as what calls I'm bringing, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I reallyate this too. When car alarms first
Speaker 1: came out, then this kind of puts my age, you know,
Speaker 1: ages me or whatever. But when Carlin's first came out,
Speaker 1: when you heard one in a parking lot, you'd be like,
Speaker 1: oh man, there's car alarm, like someone's car is getting
Speaker 1: broken into. And then six months later, no one cared
Speaker 1: because everyone's car alarms were going off and everyone had
Speaker 1: already heard it. So if everyone in the world is
Speaker 1: blowing a rabbit distress or a cottontail distress, lots of
Speaker 1: predators are probably educated to that. Um, So switch it up. Try.
Speaker 1: You know, I actually went and bought just a couple
Speaker 1: of days ago, a um a coon squalor. So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna try to do some coon squall and for bear. Um,
Speaker 1: try different things. Try you know, a pig squeal, um, anything,
Speaker 1: goat distress, whatever you can think of that's different. That
Speaker 1: is a nasty sound that might get a predator coming in.
Speaker 1: Use that, I mean, I use rabbit calls. Don't get
Speaker 1: me wrong, But you know, like I said at the beginning,
Speaker 1: the first time I called a bear in it was
Speaker 1: with a calf call, and that was just kind of
Speaker 1: a you know, just kind of a lonely call, but
Speaker 1: it got that bear coming in. Um, so switch it up,
Speaker 1: don't don't be shy about trying something new as far
Speaker 1: as predator calls go. Yeah, And like I said, the
Speaker 1: majority of all of the bears that you know myself,
Speaker 1: for all my buddies have called in and killed, have
Speaker 1: just came in during elk season to a calf call
Speaker 1: or a cow call, you know, or or me me
Speaker 1: blowing both of those calls. And you know, they usually
Speaker 1: coming very slow. They're they're picking the ground apart. And
Speaker 1: you know the only reason I'm able to spot him
Speaker 1: if I wasn't paying at and they'd be very very
Speaker 1: tough to spot. Um. But you know they're coming in cautiously.
Speaker 1: But I'm looking for an elk to come in because
Speaker 1: usually if I'm actively calling, um, you know, but those
Speaker 1: bears are coming in you know typically you know, very slow,
Speaker 1: very cautious. Um. You know, I don't know. I try
Speaker 1: to like figure it out in my head. Why you know,
Speaker 1: if if there's a calf there, like, are they is
Speaker 1: something already there? Is there already another you know, a
Speaker 1: more dominant predator there? Um? You know, are they sneaking
Speaker 1: into this kind of U you know, assess the situation
Speaker 1: before they fully commit. But um, yeah, all of our
Speaker 1: all of our bears that we've killed um behind a
Speaker 1: call have come from you know, calf specifically, and that's
Speaker 1: because we're out there doing a different activity. The bears
Speaker 1: are just kind of a byproduct of calling for elk
Speaker 1: and and sitting after that you've called. So say you
Speaker 1: say you call for an hour and you're you're done calling,
Speaker 1: it is important to sit there for another ten fifteen,
Speaker 1: twenty minutes if you can. UM. And I give this information,
Speaker 1: but sometimes I don't follow it. And the last time
Speaker 1: I didn't follow it, I was l hunting, but I
Speaker 1: wasn't having much luck without so I went Predator called
Speaker 1: and then I've been there for like an hour. I
Speaker 1: was calling down into this rocky ravine UM and nothing
Speaker 1: came in. I'm like, all right, I'm gonna hike back.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like ten fifteen minutes to my truck,
Speaker 1: and it was kind of shaped like a U. I
Speaker 1: had to go around this little galie. So all the
Speaker 1: time I get to my truck and I started driving
Speaker 1: down the road, I can see a color phase bear
Speaker 1: barreling down like right toward where I had just called,
Speaker 1: And I think if I would have just sat there
Speaker 1: another ten minutes, because I didn't. I didn't sit around.
Speaker 1: I just called for an hour and then I left.
Speaker 1: If I would have just stayed there for that ten
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes, I could have had a shot at that bear. Um.
Speaker 1: And one other quick tip too, I forgot to mention,
Speaker 1: like when I first sit down and I'm I'm getting
Speaker 1: ready to predator call, I will take five ten minutes
Speaker 1: to let things kind of settle down around me. If
Speaker 1: I made a bunch of noise going in, and I
Speaker 1: will take the time to memorize as best I can
Speaker 1: features around me, um, stumps, brush, things like that. Um,
Speaker 1: so I know if it changes. You know, sometimes a
Speaker 1: barrel crawl up on top of a stump and look
Speaker 1: at you, and you know you in your mind you're
Speaker 1: looking for a bear on the ground. You might miss
Speaker 1: a bear standing on stump. Um. Another really good tip
Speaker 1: that I tell people too, is if you're predator calling
Speaker 1: and you hear birds or squirrels going nuts like a
Speaker 1: couple hundred yards out, and then a few minutes later
Speaker 1: into your call, more squirrels are going crazy, like closer
Speaker 1: you know, maybe a fifty seven yards closer, and then
Speaker 1: closer and then closer. Pay attention to that. Focus your
Speaker 1: viewing in that direction, because squirrels, like every deer hunter knows,
Speaker 1: sound alarms as you walk through the woods, and they'll
Speaker 1: do that with bear they'll do that with predators. And
Speaker 1: there's been numerous times where squirrels and birds have tipped
Speaker 1: me off, like, hey, that squirrel three yards out, he's
Speaker 1: not yelling at me, he's yelling at something that's right
Speaker 1: within his eyesight. And now a two yards squirrel is
Speaker 1: is barking. It's queueing you into that thing walking in.
Speaker 1: So pay attention to that. And that that bear that
Speaker 1: my I called in with my son that was shaking
Speaker 1: the tree at twenty yards. There were magpies and stuff
Speaker 1: going absolutely nuts at the tree line. Prior to that
Speaker 1: bear coming in. I said, hey, Hayden, there's there's something
Speaker 1: coming in that those those birds are tipping us off.
Speaker 1: And sure enough that thing came right in and those
Speaker 1: birds gave us the hint. So pay attention to that.
Speaker 1: That's an important tip. Yeah, that's a that's a great tip.
Speaker 1: Um specifically on calls, have you used bear cub very much?
Speaker 1: Or tried it, and I've always thought it could potentially,
Speaker 1: if done right or in the right area, would work
Speaker 1: really well because I think you could pull in both
Speaker 1: the boars and the cells. But I was just kind
Speaker 1: of curious, because you know, a bear cub in distress,
Speaker 1: those those boars are out there trying to kill those
Speaker 1: cubs so that the you know, the sal will come
Speaker 1: back in that year versus the sALS you know, having
Speaker 1: the motherly instink to come and check it out even
Speaker 1: if it maybe isn't there, cub. Have you ever had
Speaker 1: any success using bear cub you know squalls specifically, or
Speaker 1: that's that kind of annoise you kind of stay away
Speaker 1: from and just you stick to the rabbit and you
Speaker 1: know the other sounds. Wait, are you telling me that
Speaker 1: dad bears and mom bears and baby cubs don't live
Speaker 1: together in a nice little family unit. We'll save that,
Speaker 1: We'll save that, that that conversation for a different day.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think a lot of people want us
Speaker 1: to think that that's how bear families are. But no,
Speaker 1: we we're gonna We're gonna stick to the fact that
Speaker 1: the you know, the bare dad wants to kill the
Speaker 1: bear baby so that he can procreate with the beare Mom. Okay,
Speaker 1: I was just clarifying. I had no idea that that's
Speaker 1: really what happened. I have a bear cub squall. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't really use it. Not to say that I'm
Speaker 1: against it. I just haven't. Um. I think I bought
Speaker 1: it last year or the year before, and so you
Speaker 1: know a lot of the calls I have their custom
Speaker 1: calls from like custom call makers, like they're made out
Speaker 1: of Elkhorn or or antler um, their honed or whatever,
Speaker 1: different different tunes to them. Um, I'm not against it,
Speaker 1: I just haven't used it. But I I really think
Speaker 1: they sound very similar to a lot of the calls
Speaker 1: I'm using. They might be a little more deeper, a
Speaker 1: little more throaty like the cub squall kind of is
Speaker 1: um yea, But yeah, I just I haven't used it.
Speaker 1: Got you, and I I've watched you know, tons and
Speaker 1: tons of YouTube videos of barcup distress and and I'm
Speaker 1: fully convinced that with most of my jack Rabbit um
Speaker 1: you know tunes and voices, that I can make the
Speaker 1: same thing just by changing the length of it. You know,
Speaker 1: you stretches that Barcup squall out a little bit and
Speaker 1: you're not so quick like the jack rabbit. And um,
Speaker 1: just something I was curious if if anybody's been using
Speaker 1: barcub you know, very very successfully. It just seems like
Speaker 1: some of the YouTube videos I've watched where you have
Speaker 1: both you know, the boars and the stals coming in.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of times it's around bait um
Speaker 1: so you're able to like see all these bears interact
Speaker 1: to each other in very close proximity. But usually when
Speaker 1: that cub starts to squaw, you know, the every every
Speaker 1: bear and ear shot comes you know, relatively close. So
Speaker 1: it seems seems like in theory woud work. I just
Speaker 1: I've never went out there specifically and tried it. A
Speaker 1: couple other things that popped in my head too that
Speaker 1: I want to share with the audience is, um, you know,
Speaker 1: rabbit lungs are very small compared to a human set,
Speaker 1: and so if you're wailing on a call, I always
Speaker 1: tell people to try to make it, you know, sound
Speaker 1: realistic as best you can, but you know, it's really
Speaker 1: just to pique their interest. But you know, so do
Speaker 1: a do a short little you know, squall with it,
Speaker 1: they'll go, you know, don't use all that long power,
Speaker 1: because a rabbit is not going to have that. Um.
Speaker 1: And the other thing too, is is put heart into it.
Speaker 1: And when I say that, you know, make it sound
Speaker 1: hurt and lonely. Don't just blow on the thing with
Speaker 1: no sort of passion to it. Put a little quiver
Speaker 1: into your into your voice, into your throat when you're
Speaker 1: doing that, you know what I mean. Um. And then
Speaker 1: one other key thing too is like people are like, man,
Speaker 1: you call for an hour straight, Well, yeah, I'm sitting
Speaker 1: there for an hour, but I might call for you know,
Speaker 1: a minute or two, very steadily or pretty steady, and
Speaker 1: then I'll pause for thirty seconds to a minute. Now
Speaker 1: listen because most of the time I hear bear long
Speaker 1: before I see him. Um. And so I'll listen for
Speaker 1: for anything cracking, you know, branches breaking, any of that stuff.
Speaker 1: So it's not you're not blowing on that thing straight
Speaker 1: for an hour. There are pauses in it. Don't feel
Speaker 1: like you have to run yourself out of breath. UM.
Speaker 1: Tryer calling bear. Yeah. Um. And then you know, most states,
Speaker 1: well I don't want to say most, some states you
Speaker 1: can bait in. And one thing we've always found, even
Speaker 1: last year, I got to hunt behind um some dogs
Speaker 1: and the guy we hunted with didn't run baits, but
Speaker 1: he had mentioned like a lot of UM guys that
Speaker 1: are running you know, paid clients all the time. They're
Speaker 1: using you know, baits to kind of concentrate the bears
Speaker 1: and then you know they're running their dogs by the
Speaker 1: baits on the road, you know, to get those started.
Speaker 1: That's also another tip if if you're in an area
Speaker 1: where you can bait, um, it won't hurt to get
Speaker 1: the bears concentrated if you in fact want to go
Speaker 1: out there um and call one in, But it may
Speaker 1: be just as easy, especially if they're on a bait,
Speaker 1: just to sit sit over your bait. If your goal
Speaker 1: is just to kill a bear, you're probably gonna have
Speaker 1: better odds, you know, sitting the bait and and those
Speaker 1: bears are typically gonna be pretty full with you know,
Speaker 1: sugars and breads and whatever else are getting UM. Well,
Speaker 1: last thing, last point I wanted to touch on is, um,
Speaker 1: how often do you glass bearers and then moving to
Speaker 1: call them or are you not that picky? Is it
Speaker 1: not that important that you call in a bearrier? If
Speaker 1: you if you glass them and can shoot them like
Speaker 1: your work's done? Or how many times have you glass
Speaker 1: bearers went over to their hillside or made the move
Speaker 1: and then tried to call him? And then what can
Speaker 1: you say as far as like you know people that
Speaker 1: are gonna go out there and try it, like what
Speaker 1: is their success gonna be? UM doing that? Where they
Speaker 1: go in glass of bearr they no one's in the area. Um,
Speaker 1: it's it's obviously got to help their odds and calling
Speaker 1: in a bear, but like what are the chances that
Speaker 1: that goes goes in their face ever when they go
Speaker 1: over there to call it in? So last summer, last
Speaker 1: bear season, last fall, I had a particularly good call ratio.
Speaker 1: I was about um of me sitting down calling I
Speaker 1: would call bears in and normally I'm around UM that
Speaker 1: I see that I see bears. Now, lots of times
Speaker 1: you might be predator calling. You might not see something
Speaker 1: that comes in or might hang up um that type
Speaker 1: of thing. But those are my percentages as far as
Speaker 1: me visually seeing a bear, UM, depending on where it is,
Speaker 1: like if it's across the canyon or something, my my
Speaker 1: predator call to it to see if I can't get
Speaker 1: it closer, just because I don't want to have to
Speaker 1: hike it across the canyon. UM. You know, if if
Speaker 1: I can get closer to where it's a it's an
Speaker 1: easier pack out. I'm definitely gonna try that UM lots
Speaker 1: of times. If I see a bear, I will try
Speaker 1: to put a stock on it if it's open and
Speaker 1: like if it's in eastern Washington, if it's in western Washington,
Speaker 1: usually the brush is so thick um where I'm where
Speaker 1: I'm at that I might see a bear in a
Speaker 1: in a pocket across the gully. But you know, there's
Speaker 1: so many downfall or down logs and brush and everything else,
Speaker 1: it would be just counterintuitive to try to get down
Speaker 1: to it. So I'll try to predator call to it.
Speaker 1: UM that can be successful. The last couple of years
Speaker 1: I have been very choosy about the bears UM I
Speaker 1: would take. I haven't I prior to last year, I
Speaker 1: hadn't killed a bearon a couple of years. I've been
Speaker 1: involved in it, and my son got one in et
Speaker 1: cetera and so forth. But I'm specifically looking for a
Speaker 1: certain color UM and I took them one last year
Speaker 1: because the area I was in had so many freaking
Speaker 1: predators in it. There was all I had was bear
Speaker 1: and cougar all over my trail camera. I had a
Speaker 1: couple of deer. Um. But so I decided, if I
Speaker 1: see a bearon here, I'm taking it just just to
Speaker 1: ease pardators. Um. But you know, you get better at
Speaker 1: things the more you try it. And so if if
Speaker 1: a guy is is predator calling is not having a
Speaker 1: lot of luck, just just keep plugging away at it. Um,
Speaker 1: You'll get better, You'll learn more. UM. I would say personally,
Speaker 1: if you're a beginning bear hunter and you see a
Speaker 1: bear and it's in a stoppable position, I would try
Speaker 1: to stock it first. Um. If it is a lot
Speaker 1: of brush or a lot of stuff in the way
Speaker 1: that you think you're going to spook the bear or
Speaker 1: or whatnot, hop on that predator call. And like you said,
Speaker 1: that bear that broke lose a how a thousand yards
Speaker 1: or whatever it was and came Barrelyn towards you guys,
Speaker 1: that's a prime example of that call worked. Um. Now,
Speaker 1: you you might not have got a shot, but who's
Speaker 1: to say. You know, if if it was you and
Speaker 1: your buddy, you could be like, hey, I'm gonna stay
Speaker 1: here in predator call, you head down to that tree
Speaker 1: line and hopefully he'll get into that tree line try
Speaker 1: to come up to me. You know you can. You
Speaker 1: can formulate a plot against that that bear and try
Speaker 1: to get a shot. Um. I would just encourage, yeah,
Speaker 1: people just to carry one with him. It's just it's
Speaker 1: just an added tool that is very, very useful in
Speaker 1: certain situations. I'm gonna end it here with one last question,
Speaker 1: Dan doug Let us hear your your number one tip
Speaker 1: for new hunters out there, For new hunters, find food,
Speaker 1: find the bears, and for predator calling, give yourself time.
Speaker 1: So you got to think if your predator calling down
Speaker 1: into a valley, you gotta think how long it's gonna
Speaker 1: take for that bear and say it's on the far
Speaker 1: side of the valley, how long it's gonna take that
Speaker 1: bear to get from point A to you to point B.
Speaker 1: And I I forgot to mention this earlier, but it's
Speaker 1: a very important tip when calling. So when you're playing
Speaker 1: with a kitty a kitty cat and you are, you know,
Speaker 1: using the string, and the cats all interested while the
Speaker 1: strings moving and batting it around, and then you stop
Speaker 1: playing with that string and you just put it down,
Speaker 1: the cat loses interest. They are very very similar with
Speaker 1: the sound. That's why you want to keep the sound
Speaker 1: going as much as possible during the call set, because
Speaker 1: I have noted that bear really only walk or move
Speaker 1: lots of times, not every time, but lots of times.
Speaker 1: They will be moving while you're making that sound, and
Speaker 1: then when you stop blowing on the call, it will
Speaker 1: sit down or it will pause. And so think in
Speaker 1: your head, Hey, every time I'm calling, maybe that bear
Speaker 1: that's across the valley is walking towards me. You have
Speaker 1: to give it enough time to get to you. So
Speaker 1: that keys into the patients, I guess. But I guess
Speaker 1: number one is fine food, find bears, and be patient
Speaker 1: when calling. Yeah, perfect, perfect, Well, thank you very much
Speaker 1: for coming on the podcast, Doug, and good luck this
Speaker 1: spring and falling on your bear hunts and uh look
Speaker 1: forward to see how you do. Thank you, sir. I
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Oh, I'm just real quick. I just wanted
Speaker 1: to thank meat Eater as well for taking the time
Speaker 1: to put in that petition for spring bear for Washington hunters.
Speaker 1: I know that they didn't have to do that, but
Speaker 1: they did, and so I appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was, Yeah, it was crazy times. But hopefully we
Speaker 1: can get that spring bear season back. I don't even
Speaker 1: I've been so busy lately I haven't uh um kept track.
Speaker 1: But by time this podcast comes out, I guess we'll
Speaker 1: know whether we have a spring bear season or not. Um.
Speaker 1: But well, thanks a lot Doug for joining us today.
Speaker 1: Really appreciate all your knowledge on you know, everything black
Speaker 1: bear hunting, especially when it comes to calling. And good
Speaker 1: luck out there this spring and fall bear hunting. Thank you, Jason.
Speaker 1: I appreciate the invite and I wish the best for
Speaker 1: all new predator callers. Good luck. Yeah, thank you. Have
Speaker 1: a good one. M