WEBVTT - Opening Day In Oklahoma 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:04.640 You're listening to the Sportsman's Nation podcast network powered by 0:00:04.840 --> 0:00:08.520 Interstate Batteries from your truck to your trail camera. Interstate 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:12.480 Batteries as you covered. Visit your local Interstate Batteries store 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:17.880 today or online at Interstate Batteries dot com. Interstate Batteries 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:34.600 outrageously Dependable. My name is Clay Nukeleman. I'm the host 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:38.240 of the Bear Hunting Magazine Podcast. I'll also be your 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:41.600 host into the world of hunting, the icon of North 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:46.120 American wilderness and bear. We'll talk about tactics, gear conservation. 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:49.080 Will also bring you into some of the wildest country 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:55.360 on the planet. Chasing bar. Welcome to the Bear Hunting 0:00:55.440 --> 0:01:01.200 Magazine Podcast. It's October the first, and if you hear 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:07.720 the hum of a Silverado Motors Altra entires, it's because 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:13.080 I'm recording this podcast alone in my truck. I'm headed 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:18.319 to Southeast Oklahoma today. Is uh Is it almost a 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:22.000 sacred day for me? October one has been the Oklahoma 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:26.600 opener for several years now, and I look forward to 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:29.080 it as much as any date on the calendar. I 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:34.880 truly do so. I'm I'm heading to the red Neck Blind. 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:38.600 Some of you may have been watching the watching the 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:42.920 Bare Hunting Magazine YouTube channel and seeing our vlogs. But 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:46.720 back in August, we put up a red neck blind 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:51.880 in southeast Oklahoma on private land. We can bait bears 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:55.680 on private land and in Oklahoma in four different counties. 0:01:56.560 --> 0:01:59.200 And I put up this red neck blind on a 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:02.480 any on a proven property. And now it wasn't new 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:05.559 actual bait side. I'd never baited in that particular spot, 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:10.880 but I had baited bears within let's say five yards 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:14.080 of there, so it was close enough that we knew 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:18.639 that it would be inconsequential in terms of drawing in bears. 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:22.560 But it was a new bait site. Put up a 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:30.639 redneckline because because there this site had this place had 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:33.840 proven to hold big bears year in and year out. 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:38.040 There were usually some really big, over mature mail bears 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:42.120 that would be that would be utilizing the bait. But 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:46.000 they're always super hard to kill. And usually what happens 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:49.560 is if they are coming in in the daytime when 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:54.880 the season rolls around, they just know the system and 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:58.880 they know to scent check these baits and and and 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:01.680 basically they'll get down on wind of debait. They'll smell 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:03.400 a human in there and they won't come in and 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:06.480 you won't kill them. There's you know, as a white 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:08.240 tail hunter, sometimes you think, well, why don't you just 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:11.800 get the wind right? Well, this really is a unique 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:14.400 situation and you're and you're dealing with an animal that 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:17.120 I don't want to say the reason more than a 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:19.120 white tail deer because I don't know that an animal 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:22.640 really reasons. But you're not dealing with a white tail deer. 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:25.959 You're dealing with an animal that's coming to a specific spot. 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:29.800 You're dealing with an animal that knows there's a human involved. 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:31.880 Like when we come in and bait, we're not trying 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:35.360 to hide our human presence on this particular bait. We 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:38.360 drive right up to the bait, we get out, we're sweating, 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:40.720 we're handling the food that we're feeding these bears. So 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:45.480 these bears know that there's a human involved. They know it, 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:50.360 and so the trick is is too on the day 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:54.440 you hunt, convince them that there is no human there. 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:58.640 And from a tree stand, that's pretty hard because these 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:01.360 big bears, they know the city, them their scent, checking 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:05.480 these baits, and in the mountains of southeast Oklahoma and 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:10.000 the mountains of Arkansas. I have yet to hunt a 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:16.920 mountain area where the winds weren't variable. I mean, if 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:19.640 the wind is predominantly out of the southwest and you've 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:22.039 got your stand set up accordingly to blow your scent 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:24.359 away from the bait, well that's just the direction the 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:27.800 bears come from. They they really play the wind. Well, 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:32.320 so this red Neck blind, it's a big one. It's 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:36.440 the Buck Palace. It's been up for two months. The 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:39.800 bears don't mind it. The bears have not torn it up. 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:43.119 The bears have climbed up the ladder and they've messed 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:45.760 with it, but they have not hurt the blind in 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:50.760 any way, which was a big question going into this 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:53.800 this hunt, because what the bears just shredded. Bears are 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:58.640 notorious for shredding anything that is a patrolling based product, 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:01.440 like a blind that has a rubber on it. If 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:05.360 you if you left a uh four wheeler set out 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:08.039 at that bait site, even though they know it's not food, 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:11.680 there's no calip caloric value inside that seat, they would 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:15.040 just shred it. And we were uncertain of how they 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:17.920 would respond to it. But they have not bothered it 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:22.440 in the least. Now, granted we have not used the blind. 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:25.919 There's there's no human sent in there, there's no food 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:28.520 sent in there, there's nothing. We've just been in there 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:33.240 a very little time. So today I will be entering 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:37.120 the Redneck blind, and like the ARC, I'm gonna shut 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:43.159 the door and the hunt will be on. But the 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:48.000 reason for the Redneck is for scent containment. The Redneck 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:54.080 is not one hundred percent sent free because it it's 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:57.000 not an airtight box. I mean, you've got to breathe 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:00.880 inside of there. But I do believe that it reduces 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:06.640 your scent dramatically, dramatically. All the windows on that blind 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:12.240 are sealed with rubber gaskets. There is one small air 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:15.760 filter hole in the blind that's designed let it air 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:20.520 in and out. Uh. But I don't I don't think 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:24.279 it's gonna be enough two to alarm the bears. And 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:28.280 you remember this bait site already. These bears, no, I mean, 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:31.920 these big old mature males. I mean they know the system, 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.520 they know those are human involved. They just want to 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:38.120 come in there when that human scent is dissipated enough 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:42.120 that they think that we're nowhere to be found. So 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:47.680 it I'm running a little bit late. It's currently about noon. 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:52.320 These bears are typically not coming in until the last 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:58.080 hour of daylight. And we're on a once in a 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:02.360 decade pattern right out with these bears in Oklahoma. We've 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:07.520 been hunting this property since so let's see, we hunted 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:11.320 it fifteen sixteen, seventeen eighteen, so this is the fourth 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:15.400 year that we've hunted it and the first year that 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:19.520 we hunted it. These two bears that are coming in 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:23.560 right now were there. We call them yellow Tag and Batman. 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:27.320 Yellow Tag was a big, big bear with two yellow 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:31.120 air tags. And the other bear his ears curled out 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:34.000 in a unique way and he looked like Batman. To 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:38.440 meat called him Batman. Both these bears big males. I'm 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:40.680 not gonna tell you what I think they weigh and 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:44.600 felt just a little bit later, But that first year 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:47.040 we baited it was almost like the honeymoon phase of 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:51.280 this property. And the bears didn't They just kind of 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:53.119 felt like they found a bird nest on the ground 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:56.200 when they found our bait, and they treated it very, 0:07:56.800 --> 0:08:01.840 very haphazardly. And any way, I actually let a friend 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:08.680 hunted that year and he he he wounded the Batman 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:11.400 bear to what I believe was batman bear shot him 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:14.840 lowing the brisket. The animal did not die, it was 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:19.640 just a flesh wound and he missed. Yellow Tag. Yep, 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:23.240 veteran bow hunter guy, have a ton of respect for 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:27.760 had never hunted bears, and both of these bears came 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:29.880 in the first day we ever hunted the property, and 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:32.400 at the time they were probably three fifty two four 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.120 hundred and over a little over four hundred, you know, 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:39.960 both these bears. Well, these bears have become like characters 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:42.480 at this bait side, and that's the cool thing about hunting, 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:47.040 these hunting bears over bait cameras out and bears are 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:54.840 quite distinguishable by many many things, coloration, muzzle color, body shape, um, 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:59.200 white patches on their chests, just their different features, just 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:01.720 like humans, they just all are a little bit different. 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:05.840 And so these bears have become mainstays at the spait. 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:11.439 But since that time, these bears have been unkillable, absolutely unkillable. 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:15.840 Nothing we've done has allowed us to to slip their radar. 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:18.920 Last year, my good buddy James Lawrence, I did not 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:21.680 hunt Oblama last year. Last year James hunted it and 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:24.040 he had Yellow Tag come in on the first day 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:28.160 that he hunted and the yellow tag smelled him and left. 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:36.440 So these bears are smart. But it is today's October one, 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:42.320 and as of yesterday, these bears were still pounding this bait. 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:47.199 These bears ate roughly three pounds of bread in the 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:51.040 last two days. They've eaten a tremendous amount of food. 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:54.240 So they're really they're really doing what you want them 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:58.240 to do, which usually right now they're starting to fade 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:02.359 off the baits when we start bating in early September, 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:05.600 these baits are these bears are coming out of a 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:08.160 stress period, which is the late summer when it's hot. 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:12.120 Bearris are dried up. It's a it's actually a stress period, 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.320 just like for white tails, and these bears will almost 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:17.400 need anything. A bear will be coming to bay. He'll 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:19.440 be there during the daytime. He'll be sleeping in front 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:21.600 of your barrel. And all these guys are sending me 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:25.400 pictures saying, man, I got a huge bear, What tax 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:30.600 german should I use? You know? And I I myself 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:34.040 have fallen for that trap before, is that man? Just 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:36.920 because you've got that bear coming in like crazy, even 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:40.439 in mid September, it doesn't mean a thing. I'll tell you, 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:44.679 the only thing that counts in baiting bears in Arkansas 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:47.760 and Oklahoma is when you've got a bear in front 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:53.480 of you the day season opens. Because in twenty twenty, 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:58.160 well you know what we bought that we've we've been uh, 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:03.559 we've been bathing that property since fourteen because in Batman 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:08.160 and Yellow Tag we're coming in and two days before 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:12.000 season they left famished, never to be seen again. At 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:16.079 that bait, I ended up taking a lesser bear that 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:21.520 was I believe a hundred pounds lighter than Yellow Tag 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:29.200 or Batman. So I actually harvested the bear that was 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:32.880 the lesser of those two. He weighed three d sixty 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:36.439 pounds and had a skull score of twenty and eight sixteenths, 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:38.600 which made him qualify for the Boone and crock At 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:40.880 All Time awards. I mean a Boone and crock At bear. 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:46.160 So my biggest bear today has come from southeast Oklahoma 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:50.120 right here. And the bear, the biggest bear I've ever killed, 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:54.679 skull size is smaller than these two bears that I'm 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:57.200 on today. I want to back up, though, because I 0:11:57.240 --> 0:12:02.439 got my dates wrong. My buddy at wounded Batman and 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:06.640 missed Yellow Tag that would have been. So we've now 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:09.880 been hunting the space for five years. So these two 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:13.560 bears are still here. And bears have a much longer 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:17.560 lifespan than a white tail. These bears can live twenty 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:21.520 five years. They really can't, and I don't I don't 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:25.440 know how old these bears are, but there, they're mature animals. 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:28.760 They've been around because they were big and mature five 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:36.480 years ago. So this is a tremendous I mean, my 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:39.440 my emotions almost don't really even know how to respond 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:43.959 to a day like today. Um, it's it's so exciting 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:46.840 to me. But at the same time, I don't want 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:48.920 to get my hopes up too much because these bears 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:52.560 have given us a slip so many times. But today 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:56.439 is a great day. And man, I'm just grateful, absolutely 0:12:56.520 --> 0:12:59.680 grateful that we can hunt bears in Oklahoma, that we've 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:03.640 got bears over there, and that I get to hunt 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:07.280 them as nonresident So for that I am. I am 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:13.120 truly grateful. So yesterday I was personally not able to 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:14.880 go over and bait. I wanted to go over there 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:18.160 and bait and check the cameras and really know exactly 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:20.280 what was going on. I wasn't able to do that 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:26.440 because I'll tell you why. Because we were tracking a 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:29.320 bear in Arkansas, and I want to tell you a 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:33.680 heartbreaking story and I just hit the high points. But 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:37.280 in Arkansas, we gained access to a landlocked piece of 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:42.679 property that have basically has no roads to it. The 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:46.080 property has an old trail to it, but there's no 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:48.160 way to drive a four wheeler. There's no way to 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:53.080 drive a car now, so there's no roast of this property. 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:56.000 And it's surrounded by national forests, so you can't drive 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:59.600 a four wheeler to it. And we have been using 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:05.160 our rules to pack in bait, gained access. It's about 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:11.600 an our mule ride, our walk back in to this area, 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:17.560 and for whatever reason, I just had in my mind 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:20.680 that that's where I wanted to take my fifteen year 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:26.000 old daughter River this year. River is River kills a bear. 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:28.400 Two years ago Rivers killed the buck with her boat. 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:32.720 The river is really an outdoors won't she truly is? 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:36.280 She really loves hunting. She gets it. She's tough, there 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:41.960 is and I mean this, she is tough. There's if 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:45.560 I were going on like a you know, a five 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:51.720 mile backpack trip to do something like really hard, I 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:54.720 can't think of anybody else I'd rather take with me, 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:57.320 just in terms of bringing someone that wouldn't complain, that 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:01.680 wouldn't want to go home, that wouldn't get bored. I mean, 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:08.600 like she's she's a real deal and she loves bear hunting. Anyway, 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:12.520 about ten days before seasons when we gained access to 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:16.640 this property, which was pretty late, and we started baiting 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:20.360 the property. We took two mules in there, and we've 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:22.760 never been up to the property before. It's been a 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:24.360 long time since we've been there. I had I was 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:28.080 there once when I was younger. We get to the property, 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:31.240 we bade bears to put up our camera. The way down, 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:35.200 I've got two mules. We've got one riding saddle on Izzie, 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:40.520 my easie mule, and the river was pretty tired, and 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:42.440 and I said, hey, you want to ride the mule 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:44.520 down and I'll lead the other one. Because the other 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:47.920 one had a had a soft buck on it just 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:51.800 like pack saddle couldn't ride it. So I said, would 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:53.520 you like to ride Izzie down the mountain so you 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:55.840 don't have to walk? And she said yeah, And so 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:59.200 rivers a river is a pretty good rider. So river 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:01.520 gets on Izzie, but the River is not used to. 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:04.000 Is he is he as young? Is he's three years old? 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:11.280 And is he is now pretty fresh because she's had 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:14.000 this she's had all this weight on her back all 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:15.480 day and all of a sudden it's off of her 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:19.480 and then now rivers on her back. And I felt 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:22.280 like she was kind of spunky, almost like just fresh 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:26.640 out of the trailer, and she was acting a little spunky, 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:29.880 not bad, just spunky. And I was given I was 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:32.960 instructing River about what she should do. You know, hey, 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:35.160 don't let her push you around a lot of times. 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:38.760 For those of you who have not written equine animals much, 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:43.400 I mean a really just dead broke, old horse or 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:45.760 old mule might not act like this, but a young one, 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:48.840 you get on one fresh, they're they're kind of gonna 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:50.360 want to do what they want to do. They're not 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:53.000 necessarily gonna want to buck you off. That's not what 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:56.000 happened at all, but just just wanting to try, wanting 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:58.800 to go faster, wanting to go their way, and they 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:02.240 need an experience rider to just tell them and show 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:05.560 him whose boss. And so River was trying to do that. 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:10.480 We get a little ways down the trail and the 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:14.800 trail is brushed in, there's limbs, and so limbs are 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:19.680 whacking river and and there. That's really not a problem. 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:22.000 But there was a limb about as big as your 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:25.479 wrist that was hanging out that was gonna hit her 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:28.600 about in the chest when the mule was going under it. 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:31.800 And so when she saw it coming, she ducked off 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:34.600 to the side, grabbed the saddle horn with her hands, 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:38.480 dropped the reins and was just gonna go under the 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:40.600 limb and then pop back up and grab the reins. Well. 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:43.320 When she went unto the limb, I believe what happened 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:45.840 is she squeezed her legs to stay on the animal. 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:48.360 When she squeezed her legs, that's the cue that I've 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:52.280 taught Izzie to to go faster. So as soon as 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:55.000 she kind of leans off the mule going to this limb, 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:59.360 the mule starts to trot well, River starts to lose 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:05.040 her balance. River squeezes her legs even harder. The mule 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:11.360 starts to lope. They're going downhill in the woods. River 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:16.000 no longer has the reins in her hand, and she 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:20.640 is She never really regained her balance from stepping under 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:24.760 the limb and so I see all this happening, and 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:30.920 basically Ellie is running loping down a pretty steep incline 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:34.720 with the river just barely hanging on, and they basically 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:38.840 run out of sight, and I'm hollering and I run 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:42.439 after river. And as a as a father, this is 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:48.240 as it was happening. I knew this was the moment 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:52.960 that I thought would someday happen, but I prayed that 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:56.600 when it did, that God would be merciful to us. 0:18:57.680 --> 0:18:59.760 And it was happening right before my eyes, almost as 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:03.320 slow motion. I mean, the river was totally out of control, 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:08.199 the mule was out of control, and this mountain is 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:15.520 littered in boulders, steep, rugged, rough, and it was, it was, 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:20.960 it was frightening. I run down the mountain and and 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:25.480 the last I had seen Izzy was kind of dropping 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:27.680 over the horizon at the slope of this mountain. You 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:31.360 could probably see fifty yards before the mountain just kind 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:36.919 of crested down, and I see the mule running, and 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:40.879 I see river coming off the side. I mean, I 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:44.800 see her just start to fall off the animal, remember 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:47.960 at like a full almost at a full gallop, I 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:53.239 I don't know, And I crest over the hill, and 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:56.920 I see the mule turned back towards me, looking up 0:19:57.160 --> 0:20:00.360 towards me, where their ears perked up, and no river. 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:04.320 And then I run a little bit further and I 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:09.000 see Rivers sprawled out in the woods on her back, 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:12.720 with her feet up the mountain, her head down the mountain, 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:19.639 and man, it scared me. She was obviously crying. I 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:22.399 run up to her. I tell her not to move. 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:26.680 I touch her neck, I touched her shoulders, I touch 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:30.680 all around on her legs. I knew that if I 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:34.560 if I touched something that was broken, that she would 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:38.600 be really that should be really sensitive to it. I 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:42.040 could not find anything that I believed was broken on her. 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:45.439 The only thing is when I ran my head my 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:48.200 hand on the top of her head. My my hand 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:52.440 was covered in blood. So I just raised her head 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:56.600 ever so slightly, and she had just smashed her head 0:20:56.600 --> 0:21:00.679 into a rock man. We who we sat there on 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:02.760 the ground. I got that, I got the mules tied 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:06.040 up and caught, and I just told her to lay there. 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:10.280 And we she laid there for probably solid ten, maybe 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:15.000 fifteen minutes. I'll tell you exactly what we did. We prayed. 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:21.240 I just asked God to help her. I thank God 0:21:21.320 --> 0:21:27.000 that she was alive, and uh, and I just kind 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:30.920 of lamented the decision that I had made as a 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:39.919 father to let her ride down that mountain. And anyway 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:43.080 off the mountain we came. We still had another hour 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:46.600 to the truck. River said, was you know, she was 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:48.600 bleeding all down her head and all down her neck. 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:53.639 So we go to the emergency room and the little 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:56.879 rural town we were near and spend a ton of 0:21:56.920 --> 0:22:00.000 time at the e are a ridiculous amount of time actually, 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:03.920 and uh, she had eight staples in her head and 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:07.600 for not to be too gruesome, but the cut was 0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:09.520 about two inches long on the back of her head 0:22:09.560 --> 0:22:13.080 that you could actually see her skull. So River had 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:15.679 a pretty major crash. They did a CT scan on 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:19.080 her and there was no there was no cracking the skull, 0:22:19.160 --> 0:22:22.719 there was no damage done to the actual brain. So 0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:28.160 River River really took it, took it in the face 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:31.560 on that one. So that was day one of our 0:22:31.760 --> 0:22:34.400 bear baiting on the mountain. We'll call it the pack 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:37.840 End Bait. So that was day one of our bear 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:43.320 baiting at the pack End Bait. Well season against to 0:22:43.400 --> 0:22:46.159 roll around. I make it one other time up to 0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:51.720 the mountain debait by myself. We had several bears coming 0:22:51.720 --> 0:22:57.119 in there and opening day comes, which opening day in 0:22:57.200 --> 0:23:01.640 Arkansas was September. We had ter ricial rains come through 0:23:02.119 --> 0:23:06.600 on September twenty one and two. To get to the 0:23:06.640 --> 0:23:10.600 place where we had to across the river to hunt, 0:23:10.960 --> 0:23:12.920 or to get to where we needed to park to hunt, 0:23:12.920 --> 0:23:17.600 we had to cross a a stream. Well, the water 0:23:17.640 --> 0:23:20.480 had risen so much that we could not cross the stream. 0:23:20.560 --> 0:23:24.080 So on day one we couldn't even hunt our bait, 0:23:24.840 --> 0:23:28.919 and so the river and I said, you know, on 0:23:28.960 --> 0:23:30.480 the first day when she banked up her head, we 0:23:30.560 --> 0:23:35.040 said the mountain one Newcomb's ze Road. On day on 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:37.119 the first day of the Arkansas season, when we were 0:23:37.200 --> 0:23:40.200 unable to even get to the bait, we said mountain 0:23:40.480 --> 0:23:44.800 to Newcomb's z Ro. On the on the second day 0:23:44.800 --> 0:23:47.159 of the season where we were able to cross the 0:23:47.200 --> 0:23:51.120 creek and go hunt on the mountain, and we went 0:23:51.200 --> 0:23:53.960 up there check the camera. There was a big bear 0:23:54.000 --> 0:23:57.000 that had been coming in at night at a time 0:23:57.119 --> 0:23:59.359 or two late in the evening, and it was a 0:23:59.359 --> 0:24:03.000 big bear, I mean like a four hundred four fifty 0:24:03.200 --> 0:24:08.639 maybe even bigger type four and river decided that she 0:24:08.680 --> 0:24:11.920 wanted to wait for that bear, and so she did, 0:24:12.520 --> 0:24:16.800 and she passed seven bears on opening day at that 0:24:16.880 --> 0:24:20.600 bait site, and not a single one of those bears 0:24:21.080 --> 0:24:24.080 was over about a hundred and eighty pounds. So she 0:24:24.200 --> 0:24:27.840 passed all those bears, and it was an amazing day 0:24:27.840 --> 0:24:31.040 in the stand when there was hardly a ten minutes 0:24:31.080 --> 0:24:34.880 section where we weren't watching bears. You'll, you'll, you'll have 0:24:34.960 --> 0:24:38.760 hunts like that in Canada. You rarely have hunts like 0:24:38.840 --> 0:24:41.159 that down here. Most of are hunting over bait. Here 0:24:41.160 --> 0:24:44.760 in Arkansas is you're seeing one or two bears, and 0:24:44.760 --> 0:24:47.520 you're usually seeing them at last life. You usually don't 0:24:47.560 --> 0:24:52.000 just get the viewing opportunity like you would and Canada. 0:24:52.000 --> 0:24:53.560 I mean, you go to Canada on a really good high, 0:24:53.600 --> 0:24:55.160 you're gonna see a lot of bears. You gonna watch 0:24:55.200 --> 0:24:57.600 a lot of bears. But not so here. I mean, 0:24:57.640 --> 0:25:01.040 we're we are usually by open day, we are usually 0:25:01.119 --> 0:25:04.200 hunting the juvenile stragglers because our season dates are set 0:25:04.240 --> 0:25:08.120 up such that older mature mails are typically gone from 0:25:08.119 --> 0:25:11.159 the bates or they're nocturnal by the time season opens. 0:25:11.160 --> 0:25:13.800 And it's what it's done in Arkansas has it's it's 0:25:13.840 --> 0:25:15.920 created a culture where a guys shoot the first bearer 0:25:15.920 --> 0:25:19.160 that they see. I really wish the game departments would 0:25:19.200 --> 0:25:22.480 move our seasons back to where they originally were. Originally 0:25:22.480 --> 0:25:26.280 they opened on September for many many years, and it 0:25:26.800 --> 0:25:29.119 really doesn't make sense. The numbers don't add up. I 0:25:29.119 --> 0:25:32.040 think it's an issue of convenience, but we need to 0:25:32.040 --> 0:25:36.159 get that earlier opener in order to harvest older, mature 0:25:36.200 --> 0:25:39.000 mails because we're building the hanging culture where we're just 0:25:39.119 --> 0:25:44.280 killing juveniles. And uh, I mean I haven't seen the 0:25:44.320 --> 0:25:46.640 staff in a few years, but most of the bears 0:25:46.720 --> 0:25:48.879 killed in Arkansas are two and three year old bears. 0:25:49.320 --> 0:25:52.080