In Search of Trophy Black Bears
I promised my good friends at Bowhunting.Net that I would do a daily report on this bear hunt that all their viewers could follow along with, and hopefully enjoy. As I sit here in a lonely hotel room in Edmonton, Alberta I find it hard to know exactly where to start. I guess the best thing is to start at the beginning.
For over twenty years (and a total of 43 hunts!) I have searched for a fair chase opportunity to harvest a black bear with my bow that would score above the magic 20" mark (this is the minimum requirement for entry in the Boone & Crockett "three year" record book, and my personal goal). I have hunted both spring and fall, and from as far west as Alaska to as far east as Newfoundland. I have hunted from as far north as northern Quebec to as far south as Massachusetts (yes, we have bears!). In all these years, and all those hunts, the largest bear I was ever given the opportunity to shoot was a nice trophy in Alberta that scored 18 8/16 P&Y. A nice bear, but not the one I have been looking for. I could do a series of articles on all the mishaps, screw ups, and outfitter problems that, coupled with general bad luck, have kept me from reaching my goal, but that is a story for another time.
For the past several years I have not been able to book a spring hunt at the optimal time, if at all, due to my involvement with tournament archery and the schedule conflicts it involved -- this spring would be different! With a schedule opening to take advantage of, the research began for the optimal hunt opportunity for a true trophy class bear. While big bears can be found almost anywhere inhabited by bears, the odds of seeing a great trophy bear in most places is far less than "poor". In most eastern locations (which I have favored due to lower prices and cheap transportation) the prospects of locating a 20" bear are so remote they hardly warrant discussion. Alaska, BC, and NWT all have large black bears, but baiting is not allowed, which again thins the odds too far against the bowhunter looking for a monster bear. Alberta, however, is another story all together!
Alberta is famous for big bears and huge whitetails! They should also be famous for huge moose, giant bighorn sheep, elk, mule deer, and antelope, but I digress. At any rate I decided to once again travel northwest to Alberta to pursue my quest of a giant bruin. For the record, I am also looking for a first class operation to send clients for trophy bears, so the search wasn't/isn't for one huge bear, but an operation that can produce trophy bears on a consistent basis. Alberta not only produces large numbers of large bears every year, they offer color phase black bears, less bug problems than eastern Canada, and two tags per license. In theory you can shoot the first "good" bear that comes in and then hold out for a "hog" with your second tag. That is an attractive combination! There is also the potential to harvest a wolf on these hunts, which is a huge bonus.
Once I decided on Alberta I needed to pick an area and an outfitter. Actually these go hand-in-hand. The first call I made was to Eric Grinnell (Silver Tip Outfitters). I wanted to know what he had going, because I know a number of friends and clients that have hunted with him over the years and all gave him high marks. Eric has been guiding serious bowhunters to trophy class black bears in Alberta for over 20 years, and numerous articles and feature stories have been done on him and his camps/hunts. He only takes a few clients each season, and moves around from area to area every few years to assure his clients that they are hunting areas that have not been "stripped" of a large portion of the bigger/older bruins. I needed to know what he had going on, and if there was an opening this spring for this old arrow slinger.
The contact with Eric went better than expected. He was going to try a brand new area this spring that had never before been hunted, and had seriously limited his bookings until he got a chance to get "his feet wet" in the new area. He was willing to take a few "guinea pigs" along on an experimental basis, but was limiting the opportunity to a couple close friends. I talked him into adding me to the list. It wasn't all that risky in my opinion, as Eric is as good a bear baiter as you'll ever find, and a great woodsman. Give him a couple weeks in the bush, and I was sure he'd find the bears! Besides, the area has so much opportunity/potential that I had to get in on the ground floor!
Eric just secured eight tag allocations for black bear in the northwestern most hunting zone in Alberta. This zone only has thirty-eight allocations (for an area almost 7,000 square miles!), which means the maximum number of non resident hunters each year for bear in this area is thirty-eight! The outfitter that owns the other thirty allocations hunts areas off existing roads with easy access, leaving the back country "untouched" just the way Eric likes it.
To make things even better, the area is bordered on the west by British Columbia and to the north by the North West Territories, neither of which allows baiting for bears. With an area this large, great genetics, and a heavy bear population, eight hunters a year will never put a dent in the potential! That means this is an area I could send clients to for the foreseeable future and not worry about declining trophy potential. This is what I had been looking for! Plans were made, deposits sent, flights arranged, and now I find myself sitting far away from home waiting for the morning light to continue my journey to bear camp. I hope you all will join me.