Ross Lake Camps Bear Season 2008

Welcome to bear hunting season, 2008 at Ross Lake Camps, where hunter opportunities absolutely abound! The end of the 2007 season had us here already anticipating this year’s hunt with the large amounts of bears that the hunters had seen on our stands. State Biologists were unable to collect very much data in the winter of 2008 because of the record setting snow falls that Northern Maine sustained from January all the way thru the beginning part of April. However, the bears entered the dens last year in great shape due to good levels of natural food crops coupled with the supplemental feed they receive from our hunting stations. The snow didn’t bother the bears a bit, who were just lying up underneath for a long winter’s nap.

The time passed very slowly in camp on Monday morning while waiting for the time to come to go hunting. The weather was mild with just a light breeze, ideal conditions for an opening night to the annual bear hunt. Finally lunch was done, and the time came for us to take our 16 hunters out to the stands for the afternoon/evening hunt. All told, 14 different bears were seen by the hunters that night alone, and 3 of them were brought back to camp. Included was a very nice 121 pounder that Brad Miklosovich took with a compound bow after traveling all the way from Michigan for his hunt. Throughout the course of that week, there were an additional 22 bears seen on the stands, and 6 more of them came back into camp with the hunters. The last was shot on Friday evening by Jon Stover who is an active duty military man serving in the US Army. We congratulate Jon and hope for his safe return home after every mission he goes on in support of his country. The largest bear of that week was a very nice 170 pound boar taken by a far traveling hunter from Lenoir City, Tennessee. We also had a cameraman film 2 very nice bears at his stand, but he was unable to get a shot opportunity with his bow during filming. There was 1 bear wounded and lost during the week, 1 bear that was cleanly missed, and 3 hunters that passed on shooter bears early in the week attempting to take home bigger trophies.

Week 2 started off with some good action on Monday night, but unfortunately a couple cases of Bear Fever were running around camp as well. One of the bruins bringing a hunter to his wits end was estimated to be in a class between 300 – 350 pounds. We still managed to bring a couple beautiful bears into camp weighing 132 and 166 pounds. On Tuesday the hunters did a great job harnessing their emotions, and 7 black bears were brought into camp including what turned out to be the largest sow taken during the season, a 236 pounder shot by Greg Kelley from Pennsylvania. The cherry on top for that night was provided by Mike Rioux of Hollis, NH who killed a 32 pound female coyote after taking his bear the night before. There were 6 other bears brought into camp throughout the remainder of week 2. One of them was taken by our furthest travelled hunter from the Boca Raton area of Florida, congratulations to Paul Lauria on his 178 pounder, his first with a bow. Another notable was Frank Kane of Pennsylvania who made a remarkable shot on a 240 pound boar with his bow using a 2 blade Rage expandable broadhead. All told during 2nd week, 18 hunters saw 29 different bears on stand and took 15 of them home (a camp record for us for a single week here at Ross Lake Camps), 2 clean misses, and 1 bear wounded and lost. Only 1 hunter in camp did not have an opportunity at a shooter bear.

There were a total of 15 hunters in camp during week 3. Out of 33 bears that made appearances on stand, 9 of them were tagged and packed out of camp. There were also 3 clean misses, one bear wounded and lost, and 3 different very large bears that showed up on stands, but did not present a good enough shot opportunity for the hunters to take. 4 of these bears taken broke the 200 pound mark, and the biggest highlight of the week was 12 year old junior hunter Tyler Moats from Pennsylvania, who bagged a gorgeous 216 pound sow on the first night of his hunt! Another great sow weighing 232 pounds was taken by Blake Davis of New York state with a compound bow and arrow.

Hurricane Ike was gathering up intensity over the southern part of the US just like the week 4 hunters were doing at the beginning of the final week of the season. Unfortunately, that Bear Fever virus was contagious, and seemed to keep hanging around camp to rear its ugly head at the most inopportune times. Two different hunters had very good shot opportunities at bears both estimated to be well over 300 pounds, and possibly working their way upwards of 400. One hunter rushed his shot in the heat of the moment and cleanly missed; while the other was so badly rattled he couldn’t gain composure enough to steady his rifle. All you at home reading are probably thinking how something like that could never happen to you, but I assure you that it definitely can. We do thank that hunter for his great decision making to not take a poor shot which likely would have resulted in a wounded and lost bear. We closed out the season with 6 out of 9 hunters in camp during that fourth week of the hunt taking a bear home with them, and there was a 7th one wounded and lost. All told, 16 bears were spotted throughout the week by the hunters on their stands. Many congratulations to Mr. Dick Hlavac who took the heaviest bear that was weighed in with us for the season at 257 pounds, this also was Dick’s 1st ever black bear kill!

We also have a great bonus to add on to our season as well. Camp owner and guide, Don Lavoie, spotted a bear feeding on beech nuts on a ridge during the early moose hunting season (the week after the close of the bear over bait season) while guiding his hunting party. None of the moose hunters had bought the required bear tag to be able to shoot that bear, but they were all great sportsmen. Don did have the required tag, and those moose hunters happily handed Don a rifle with which he made a fantastic 80 yard shot thru some thick brush. The 172 pound boar was discovered to have a wound just a couple weeks old in its hind leg from a bow hunter who had missed his mark.

Although there were quite a few missed shot opportunities, 2008 still turned out to be a great bear season for us here at Ross Lake Camps. Good people, great camp atmosphere, and lots of excitement at the hunting stands are the only things we have to talk about from the bear hunt. All told, there were 58 hunters here who had shot opportunities at 114 different bears. Two separate camp records were set this year. The most bears ever taken in one week of the hunt was set during the 2nd week of the season with a total of 15 tagged. The biggest sow ever taken here with bow and arrow was a 232 pounder that was shot during the 3rd week of the 2008 season. Congratulations to all involved, and we hope to see all of you readers here with us on a hunt in the future!