I thought it was interesting that the word, “poaching” does not appear in the story. It makes sense if you think about it. It’s not poaching to kill a neighbor’s cow. Just because this happened to be a whitetail doesn’t make it a wild animal. In fact the story says as much:

“He basically went in there and killed a pet.” Peabody was a tame deer, and Knight said it may have played a part in the animal’s death by approaching Jernigan.

But not to worry, you can still buy plenty of tame deer. After seeing this article this afternoon I spent a few minutes looking for big high fence deer you can kill. It seems like to me $86,000 isn’t even that good of a deal. Most of the time you don’t even need to go through the farce of buying a hunting license. Makes sense, since you’re not hunting.

For example, take a look at the website here. Now I don’t know the specifics of Ruttnut Hunt’s personally but I found this revealing. From their page:

All of our hunts are totally confidential…. When you are hunting with Ruttnut Guide Service our hunts are kept 100% confidential. Guaranteed.

Why are they offering the same guarantees as high priced hookers? I’ll give you a hint… Sunlight is the best disinfectant… I can see the hypothetical conversation now:

Guy Shooting Tame Deer: Why isn’t he afraid of me?
“Guide”: It’s because you’re such a stealthy and skillful hunter! Now shoot already, I’ve got $25,000 to spend.
GSTD: But we’re just standing here 50 yards away and he’s looking at us like he expects to be fed.
“Guide”: It’s that apple cover scent I sprayed on. Quick, shoot him before he gets away!
GSTD: Where would he go?
“Guide”: Look, we’ve got 200 Million acres of prime habitat he could escape into. Shoot him NOW!
GSTD: Then how could you sell me a 1 day guaranteed hunt for this exact deer?
“Guide”: If you don’t shoot now I’ll sell this deer to another GSTD!
GSTD: You promise I can make up a story so I can tell everyone about what an experience this half day hunt was?
“Guide”: You read about our confidential guarantee didn’t you?
GSTD: BOOM!

Now he’s tried his hand at guiding pig hunters. Some parts of the story might sound familiar. Great story, even better pictures. Take a look here.

I talked to Tred yesterday and his spirits are high. They think they have the cancer under control hopefully!! He should be heading home in about 3 weeks? not sure.

I am trying to find a utv for him to get around the ranch on. We also ordered a special needs saddle that should be done in about 8 weeks.

Thats all I Know.

Thanks Dan

From here.

Tred is now in the process of going through Chemo treatments and will be returning to rehab soon after. For Tred and Anni this is life-changing and life challenging. Tred is not poor by any means but how can anybody prepare themselves for this type of disaster? To equip his house to be handy-capped accessible will be close to $100,000 dollars. I have posted a couple of messages from his wife Anni so you can see what they are going through.

“We just found out today that Tred has full blown Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia, a rare but very treatable form of lymphoma. The aggressiveness and sudden onset leads us to believe that it may be the cause of the paralysis and perhaps even reversible over time. We have been moved to Porter Hospital where Tred’s cell phone works just fine and we will be there for 5 days for plasma pheresis and chemo. This again has kept me from getting a letter out but I promise tomorrow, now that the discovery is done. FINALLY!!!!!! love, ANNI”

“Hi Dan, The damage signals on Tred’s spine are progressing, moving up to his neck now. We are basically starting from scratch now, trying to come up with the correct diagnosis. We have EVERYBODIES attention now, and they are all over us with tests in every quadrant. The good news is that if they can find the cause soon and find a solution, possibly some of the damage could be reversed. Yes, I am way too busy. I am struggling to put together a synopsis of where Tred is right now medically. I absolutely would love to rely on you to manage all the posts and keep an eye on the threads. However, I don’t have enough time to follow the streams but if you can please print them out if possible, for reading as time allows. If you see something especially good or valuable, timely of course forward it to my email or call me. Thank you so much Dan, you are such a good friend!”

“We are trying to put together a fund raising effort for all of his medical and new living equipment needs. They will probably amount to around $100,000 can you believe it. Anyway, if you would send a letter to friends and also pass along to me any websites that you think would be good. Here is the info: Donations can be made in Tred’s name to The Vail Valley Charitable Fund, which is a 501(c)3 charity, and funds are tax deductable. Their address is: PO Box 1275, Avon, CO 81620, or call 970-845-6339 or pay by credit card on line at www.vvcf.org<;http://vvcf.org> Be sure to mention that it is for Tred. You may also make deposits to Wells Fargo Bank, Tred Barta medical fund. Routing #102000076, acct # 8990772827.

Read the rest here.

So I think this makes the 16th consecutive year I’ve been to this lake. We’ve dealt with 3 owners and about 10 different arrangements of transportation and management. This year’s adventure included landing a small private plane on this abandoned airstrip so we could get picked up by the float plane. Beavers had apparently decided to build a dam that backed up water on one end of the runway… not good…

Fortunately our two expert pilots managed to make yet another wonderful landing and within a couple of hours we were fishing.

This year the area had been colder than usual. As a result we didn’t find the concentrations of fish where we often do. The first day the wife and I managed to put 45 walleye in the boat but we didn’t catch any hogs and most of the other boats caught fewer fish than we did. The second day we started to adapt and found that most of the walleye were feeding closer to shore on rocky bottoms. Most of the day I threw a suspending jerk bait and caught a ton of walleye and northern including this guy:

43 inches and good for big fish of the trip (and a few bucks)!

Day 3 the wife and I hiked up to a smaller lake where we often catch big walleye and this year was no exception. We each caught several in the 20+ range including this one:

I also snapped a few pictures of our youngest members really getting into some fish

The fourth and final day was hot and sunny. The wife and I found a windblown bay in the afternoon that was covered in pollen and baitfish. The walleye and northern were in a feeding frenzy like I’ve only seen one other time in my years up there. We brought 76 walleye in the boat plus probably 50 northern. Several times I’d have her wait to bring her fish in so I could get mine back in the water. It was incredible:

We only kept enough fish each day for a shore lunch. We’re booked for the same week again next year after all!

I’ve been fortunate enough to visit Canada nearly every year for more than 25 years. I’ve visited several fishing operations over those years ranging from full service to no-service. Without a doubt this is the best combination of quality fishing and freedom without being uncomfortable. If anyone is interested in contact details drop me an email. Everyone should experience Canadian fly-in fishing at least once.

I started seeing bears almost immediately but again, nothing that would even challenge P&Y. For probably an hour the same bear was wandering around the bait site. He’d eat some meat bones, wander around behind us, then come back and eat some more. Then suddenly his head snapped up, looked off into the woods for second, and ran. I got ready but the intruder followed the first bear into the woods behind me. For the next few minutes it sounded like two giant lumberjacks fighting back there. I couldn’t see it but it sounded like they were tearing trees down and throwing them at each other. Eventually the smaller bear ran past us on the way to parts unknown.

This guy was the victor:

Unfortunately my expert evaluator and I agreed that he wasn’t what I’d been holding out for. You can see on the previous video that he’s about 1/3 of the way up past the second ring on the barrel. The biggest bears will approach or be over the barrel while the minimum for shooting is around the second ring. With an hour to hunt I decided to pass…

But the bear didn’t leave. And no other bigger bears came by to run him off. I was willing to let him walk and hold out for last hour but the stupid bear wasn’t playing along. For the last 30 minutes I was checking the time every 5 minutes. With 10 minutes of shooting time left the bear gave me a broadside slightly quartering shot and my will power gave out.
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So that wraps up the trip. My 20 inch bear will have to wait until next time. But I can promise you there will be a next time. I had no idea how much fun bear hunting would be. I had expected to get bored sitting on a bait pile all week, but I was completely wrong. There are usually bears around and they keep you entertained. It also turns out to be an incredible rush when they get mad and start growling at you.

I couldn’t recommend Garrett Brothers enough. Pat and Brian are like kids in a candy shop. They love bears, love hunting, and genuinely love when someone scores on a big boar. They run a great camp with more than enough sites and a very healthy bear population. We had hundreds of square miles to spread out in and I doubt we even touch 10%. The facilities and equipment were as good as any hunt I’ve been on. Their wives cook wonderful meals and run camp while the boys are out running the river or helping hunters. Frankly, I think the girls worked harder than Pat and Brian.

Anyway, it was a great experience. If any of my readers have questions don’t hesitate to drop me a line: dukkillr@hotmail.com

Bears started appearing almost right away. First a young boar came in a made himself comfortable at the cookies.

This was the bear that really started The Old Man’s fascination with antagonizing the bears. We started off just trying to figure out how much movement or noise you could get away with before they’d spook. It quickly became obvious that they really didn’t care how much you moved around or if you made noise. The only thing that concerned them was when he broke a big stick. We surmised that he cared about that because he thought it might be a bigger bear, not some dumb scmucks up in a tree. He eventually ate all the cookies and wandered off.

Later a bigger boar came in and The Old Man played with him too. He didn’t get scared, he got mad. He came over under the stand growling and popping his jaw. He’d look up in the trees trying to isolate exactly where the intruders are. A couple of times he’d go around behind our tree and start to climb. The Old Man prepared to throw something at him but he never climbed high enough to be a threat.

The final bear of the evening was the infamous beaver stealing bear. We caught his trick on video:

By working the rope tighter he was forcing the beaver within reach of the tree. Genius!

When we got back to camp we discovered that Rick had stuck his second bear, a nice chocolate:

And the only lady in camp had shot a very big black boar:

It measured more than 19 inches and was the second biggest of the 14 bears killed. She was on her first bear hunt with her dad who was hunting in a different stand. This boar climbed the tree before she ever had a shot. After she convinced it not to eat her he presented her with a broadside shot at 3 yards. I hope to get the video of this kill too. You could see steam coming from the 30-30 hole as it ran a few yards and tipped over. Not a bad way to start your bear hunting career eh?

So now there are only two of us left hunting and we’re down to the last day… Stay tuned…

With The Old Man tagged out he decided to run video for me over the next three days. It was fun to have someone to talk to but he developed a habit of antagonizing the bears. The fourth day was cold and rainy and we didn’t see much for the first couple of hours. Eventually we see some smaller bears and shoot some video but nothing of size materializes.

When we got back to camp there were dead bears everywhere. One of the guys had bumped into a nice black boar while walking to the stand. The bear had no interest in giving up his site and made several show charges at him and the guide (who had a rifle). He’d back off and come back at them from a different angle, trying to drive them back to the river. After several minutes of this he turned broadside and the rest was history. Unfortunately this was one of the few kills during the week that wasn’t on camera.

His friend also shot two bears from the stand that night. The bigger of the two actually turned out to be a P&Y sized dry sow. He was disappointed that it was a sow but apparently it’s hard even for the experts to tell the difference when they get big. After all the bears I saw during the week I still considered it a coin flip proposition to tell.

After missing when his cam smacked the stand Rick also got on the board with a good black boar. Great shot, saw it fall, all on video. I’ll post it when I get a copy but it wasn’t on my camera.

Now we’ve got 4 hunters done and only 2 without a bear. Everyone is seeing multiple bears at each sitting but with just two days left time is starting get tight.

About an hour into the sit a bear appeared silently to my right. Immediately my heart started pounding like I was looking through a peep sight for the first time. He was clearly nervous, but I wasn’t experienced enough to know that it wasn’t me he was worried about. After a few minutes he wandered off without ever coming into the bait. 30 minutes later he was back. This time he slowly made his way to the bait. He was still wary but as he got closer to the bait he seemed less concerned. Like most rookie bear hunters I’d already decided to shoot him even though I had no idea how big he was. Actually he turned out to be the smallest bear I’d see all week, but he looked like a shooter to me at the time. The good news is that in Alberta you get to kill two bears… Anyway, I managed to get it on video (fast forward to 5:15, it’s tough to video yourself):

As the bear spun and ran I saw pressurized blood squirt out the exit hole. Good sign. He went down 20 yards from the bait. I didn’t get down since I knew where the bear was and I willing to tag out on the second day if another bear came in before sunset. I didn’t see another bear that night but when the boat arrived to pick me up it had a couple of bears in it already, plus another hunter had stuck two that we were going to look for in the morning. Suddenly everyone was seeing bears.

The next morning we found one of the two bears stuck last night… I might make a post on that whole incident at a later date, but it’s a story too long to tell now. Just a hint: 25 year old compounds, big slow dull broadheads, bent aluminum arrows, and bears don’t mix. Anyway, we took pictures of the bears we had, skinned them out, and got ready for the third hunt of the trip. The weather was warmer and everyone was in high spirits.

I’d decided to hold out for a bear that would at least make Pope and Young with my second tag. By now I’d seen several bears alive and dead and I was getting a better feel for what to hold out for. Actually, I think this is really the only skill on a baited bear hunt.

I didn’t see any bears on the third day but everyone else did. When the boat showed up there was already a large black boar in it. Rick had missed a bear after his cam hit the stand, and The Old Man had made what he thought was a good hit on a “big bear”. He had lost the scant blood trail in the dark and was concerned. As best I can tell bears almost never bleed much. We all agreed that the shot looked good on the video but he still didn’t sleep much that night. The next morning we’d be off to see what we could find…

Since I had absolutely no idea what bear hunting entailed I’ll give you a general breakdown of how it works: First, the guides run the baits checking for activity and the size of the tracks left by the visiting bears. They also check trail cams and consider sightings from previous hunters (we were the first hunters for the 2009 season though). After gathering all the available info, the guides decide where to put the hunters.

Around 4:00 everyone would load up into boats and/or 4-wheelers and head out. Roughly 30 stands are spread out over dozens of square miles so the ride can take quite a while depending on where you’re headed. The farthest require a good boat ride followed by a quad run. We’d arrive anywhere from 4:30 to 5:30 and expect to sit until dark around 10:00. The stands themselves were custom built welded double man stands. While I didn’t test it, I suspect you could put two NFL linemen in one without much worry. The stands were set for bowhunters, with a long shot to the bait being 20 yards. The baits themselves would be a variety of good and bad smelling bear foods. Retched rotten meat sat next to cookies and each bear seemed to have his or her own taste.

Once you’re in the stand there is exactly no skill required beyond bear judgment and shot selection. The bears know you’re there, they can smell you, but usually they don’t care. You can move around a bit, talk quietly, wear unwashed clothes, etc… For most of the hunts someone was there to video and keep you company. On the stands where I was alone I’d set up my video camera then read a book until something ambled in.

The first day was cold and rainy. The bears weren’t moving too much for anyone, and I didn’t see anything except this squirrel:

Of the 8 of hunters, 4 saw bears and the only kill was from The Old Man who stuck this P&Y sized chocolate. I’ll post the video when I get it, but for now you’ll have to deal with a photo:

The bad news? We had 5 days left to kill a bunch of bears. The good news? The first day was the slowest of the trip. More tomorrow…