Florida Bear Hunt Approved

[RADunfee]

Baiting will be allowed starting this year and Dog hunting will be allowed during the 2027 season. FWC is still completing the Bear Population study 4000 bears is the previous population numbers and numbers will most likely be a lot higher. Is a 187 bears a huge number no, but it's a start. This was brought up again in 2019 and it's taken a long time to get here against a huge opposition from anti hunters. So bad mouthing this hunt doesn't help and it severely undermines the amount of volunteer work that other FL hunters have done to get here. The biggest difference between this hunt and 2015 is there will be only 187 tags issued unlike 2015 where anybody who applied got a tag that's why the season ended in 2 days going over the limit. FWC hope is with baiting being allowed hunters will do a better job of harvesting bigger bears and not killing sows with cubs or the first bear that walks out.
Hopefully in future years permit numbers will be higher, currently there is a lawsuit against FWC in an attempt to stop this hunt. FWC Commissioners and staff did a good job approving this hunt, lots of public opinion and emotions were against this and FWC didn't kneel to it and followed the science.
My deer lease is in one of the bear hunting areas and hoping I am one of the lucky 187 and with baiting allowed it wouldn't take long to get the big bears back as currently we can't even use corn on our lease because the bears push the deer off. I just wish they would have capped the number of $5 entries to per person and no offense the first season not have allowed nonresidents.

I thought baiting was only going to be allowed on private land.

 

[Doc Holliday]

I know an outfitter down around Lake Okeechobee. He mostly does duck hunts, osceola turkey, gator, and hogs, but I texted him about this the other day when the news broke, asked him if he had any spots. He has a bunch of large landowners who he leases from on the above hunts, and have bears coming to their corn feeders regularly. He said it will be $7,500 a pop!

 

[ScottP76]

I thought baiting was only going to be allowed on private land.

It is only allowed on Private. I mean I’m just a guy on a forum that’s done his best to follow along should always double check what anyone says.

 

[BernieH]

I have shot several bear and truth be told a Fl bear is not on my radar for first choice, but it would be cool to have one under my belt.

 

[lost_in_the_wma]

It is only allowed on Private. I mean I’m just a guy on a forum that’s done his best to follow along should always double check what anyone says.

Because of pelt not needing to get too thick? Or diet/ other factors?

 

[kscowboy01]

https://www.sierraclub.org/florida/stopthebearhunt

Looks like the Sierra Club is encouraging members to apply for permits and not hunt. This is why we need to have a hunter's safety requirement when applying for limited tags.

 

[lost_in_the_wma]

The thing I'm confused about (and admittedly should just ask FWC but thought someone here might already know), since the bear opportunity hunt is specific to BMUs and not individual WMAs, does that mean if you draw you can try for bear at any WMA within that BMU?

 

[kscowboy01]

https://www.news-journalonline.com/...y-permits-hoping-to-lessen-kills/86325149007/

It's kind of humorous that this woman shelled-out $2,750 for .34% draw odds in hopes of saving a bear. Their hearts are bigger than their brains.

 

[Andrewlonghi]

So just going throw this out there, if anyone got a bear tag in Florida and can hunt in Putnam county or the Ocala National Forest with there tag I have plenty of bears coming onto my property I hunt and I’m more then willing to let someone attempt to take them when the hunt starts.

 

[lost_in_the_wma]

I have more bears than bucks on my cameras. And to answer my original question, unfortunately not anywhere within a BMU is gonna play nice, for example the superintendent of big cypress was asleep at the wheel on this one so this area won’t be included despite a clear overpopulation of bears competing with panthers (and me) for venison

 

[nickyman22]

Would love to see some Florida bear pictures now that the hunt is nearly wrapped up! Have heard of a couple harvests. I also spend a lot of time in Big Cypress and experience an overabundance of bears there, was disappointed to see that it was excluded from the hunt.

 

[FLHunter87]

There's been plenty of bears harvested for sure. FWC is actually doing a good job too not allow the crazies know anything. The timing of the hunt and permits are still terrible. But oh well. Weather has been a lot warmer than normal so I'm sure they are moving just fine. I've seen about 35-40 harvested this year just from internet. But that's just the people that post pictures.

 

[nickyman22]

There's been plenty of bears harvested for sure. FWC is actually doing a good job too not allow the crazies know anything. The timing of the hunt and permits are still terrible. But oh well. Weather has been a lot warmer than normal so I'm sure they are moving just fine. I've seen about 35-40 harvested this year just from internet. But that's just the people that post pictures.

Dang, where are you seeing all those pictures? I'd only seen a couple in some FB hunting groups. I just saw the official harvest number given by the state was 52 bears. A little lower than I would have expected.

 

[FLHunter87]

Dang, where are you seeing all those pictures? I'd only seen a couple in some FB hunting groups. I just saw the official harvest number given by the state was 52 bears. A little lower than I would have expected.

Yeah I just see them around and people talking about it. 52/172 is a meh number. But have to remember they picked zones strategically and issued x amount for each zone. I havent seen the data yet in that regards. But also remember its a winter hunt, which is a bears advantage, even though it hasn't been too cold it still affects the movement in my opinion. I still think this was not the right thing how they did it, but I could really care less. And we really dont know how many tags were taken up by non hunters. It may nice to get a deep dive into the numbers. I would honestly think if everyone had a tag and went hunting how they should, there should have been easily 100 bears taken. With he limited amount of tags you would think the ones that applied already had bears lined up and just seeing if they were picked or not.

 

[nickyman22]

Yeah I just see them around and people talking about it. 52/172 is a meh number. But have to remember they picked zones strategically and issued x amount for each zone. I havent seen the data yet in that regards. But also remember its a winter hunt, which is a bears advantage, even though it hasn't been too cold it still affects the movement in my opinion. I still think this was not the right thing how they did it, but I could really care less. And we really dont know how many tags were taken up by non hunters. It may nice to get a deep dive into the numbers. I would honestly think if everyone had a tag and went hunting how they should, there should have been easily 100 bears taken. With he limited amount of tags you would think the ones that applied already had bears lined up and just seeing if they were picked or not.

Good points. I think I'd heard somewhere non-hunters were claiming they scored around a quarter of the tags. Regardless of how many they took, even 52/172 seems like a solid success rate for about any hunt. Just happy it happened and is paving the way for future Florida bear hunts. Replaced batteries in a trail cam in BC the other day around noon and had a bear investigate it within a half hour.

 

[OXN939]

Anyone on here fill a tag? From what I've heard, seems like this year's hunt went off without a hitch relative to the 2015 attempt