OP
OP
Fishing was great on morning 2. We were putting lots of Walleyes and Perch in the boat, and the Northerns were hungry but we did our best to avoid them. After a late breakfast of Walleye it was time to assemble the gear and get ready for the afternoon's hunt. We were all headed to new stands and anticipations were high! We didn't leave until 2 on this day and with some long 4 wheeler rides it was 3-3:30 before getting set at the baits. I was in a ground blind about 12 yards from the bait. Let me tell you it was TIGHT. Any bears would be 12 yards or less before I could see them. I was only a few yards off a small creek...this made for some amazing breeding grounds for the mosquitoes. It took about an hour for me to get them cleared out of the blind. Thank goodness for Thermacell!! It was near 10pm as shooting light began to fail. I quietly packed my gear and slipped out the back. After a half mile walk I hopped on the 4 wheeler for the 13 mile ride back to camp. Pulling in I saw that the guys' wheelers were there, but nobody was around, so I drove straight to the skinning shed. Sure enough they were working on Larry's bear. He made a great shot on a nice boar and the Iron Will made a short tracking job.
Literally we only went a few hundred yards and fished for a very short time. Fresh Walleye was on the menu for breakfast. So back to shore we went and it was time to clean and eat. Upon finishing breakfast it was determined we still had a few hours to fish before Brian and I had to make the drive to the bear baits. So out we went again, literally boating a couple of hundred walleyes over the next 3 hours. The fishing is absolutely incredible here. Walleye sandwiches for lunch, shot our bows, and got ready. Today I would have an 18 mile 4 wheeler ride to a new bait, and Brian had a 23 mile ride back to the same bait he sat on night 2. The talk was rampant about this "secret" lake that we were missing out on fishing because we still "had" to bear hunt. Brian and I were getting itchy.
The smaller of the two came in and went directly to the bait. The bigger one came in a few seconds later. When it hit the small opening around the bait he instantly looked up right at "me" in the stand. He marched the 9 yards right to the base of my stand and looked up and stared at "me" again. I never moved while those bears could see me, there is now way he knew I was there. Just goes to show you how they can pattern us as well. After 20 seconds or so he turned and I thought he was going to leave. However he turned and moved into and around the bait and found a spot to snack. As he was doing this I had already come to full draw. I've fought target panic for a long time. Last year I started to work through it and have become better. He continued to move around and get settled and I continued to hold and bring the sight picture together. When he finally settled in he was at a somewhat quartering to angle and 9 yards away. I was shooting a 73#, 28" draw Mathews Triax with 100grain Iron Will tipped Easton Full metal jacket arrows. As I worked through the shot process I knew I wanted to take out the leading edge of the front shoulder. When everything come together the arrow was gone amid the growl and jump of the boar as he flashed briefly through the thick underbrush. In a few seconds there was a couple of loud "breaths" and then again total silence.
