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!
