A good friend of mine deer hunts down on the coast of North Carolina. He told me they were seeing alot of bears while running dogs and in some of the fields at night. Well, that got my attention real quick! Most of the guys he hunted with did not care about shooting bears because they saw them on a regular basis. I, on the otherhand had never even seen one in wild and would jump at the chance to hunt one. This soon turned into what I consider one of my most memorable hunts.
I took a week off from work. Joe and I went down on Sunday and spent the day scouting around places my friend said bears were seen. With his help, we found several places where there was alot of fresh sign. One place was what they call a 'ridge' (about 2 feet higher than the water... lol) that had some white oaks on it . This place was only accessible by water. Monday morning, we hunted a farm where a huge bear had been seen several times. That afternoon, I decided to hunt the ridge. I set out in a 10 foot john boat with a trolling motor to go out in the Pamlico Sound. Then I had to make my way up a canal ditch between tall bullrushes for a mile or so. The fact that I could only see a 5ft strip of water in front of me and I knew bears were in the area made me a bit nervous. Once I got to the ridge and was finally in my tree, I felt a little better.
The white oaks around me looked like a hurricane had hit them. Bears had been climbing the trees and breaking branches almost as big as my wrist to get the acorns when they fell to the ground. After a 20 minute wait, a nice male came into range and the hunt was over, or so I thought. I shot the bear and he ran into the thickest cutover you have ever seen. Joe was on the other side about 600 yards away and could hear and see the treetops as the bear plowed though them. I knew the shot was good and could not wait long. Joe wanted me to wait but I did'nt want to go in the dark. The brush was so thick I could not carry my rifle so I left it behind and crawled with a 357 in hand towards where the bear had gone. About 5 minutes later, I heard Joe shoot and I almost had to change shorts! I called him on the radio and he said he had shot a bear too. I finally made my way to my bear and flagged a trail so I could get back after getting help.
The afternoon hunt had lasted a total of 45 minutes. We had 2 bears on the ground! Well, bears are not as easy to move as deer. It took 5 hours from the time I pulled the trigger until that bear was on my truck! We had 5 men averaging 170 pounds and a 400+ lb bear in my 10 foot jon boat. The boat was so low in the water we had to back it the entire 2 miles back to my truck. I just wish I had a camera or video of that crowd. Joe and I have an understanding now and if we decide to go back again that, bear better be in a field that a truck or tractor can get to or we won't be pulling the trigger!.
