The Bowhunter Featured Articles
Bears, an Interesting Critter
By Rich Kirchmeyer
There’re bears in them there woods!!!
In August of 2024, I was again given the opportunity by WBH to mentor/guide the Learn to Hunt Bear harvest permit winner from WBH’s annual LTH contest.
Bo Windjue, his mother Lisa and good friends Craig and Steve came north from Strum to fulfill Bo’s outdoor skills portion of the LTH program in early August. I could tell this was a good, tight group of people who respected each other and the great outdoors.
As I looked forward to opening morning of the hunt on the 17th of August, I was a little nervous about the hunting conditions. The forecast called for rain on Saturday, not good conditions for sitting on a bear bait. Normally each year I have 2 baits that I use for the LTH; these 2 baits have condos near them and because I bait in the early morning, I have many bears hitting the bait site in the early hunting hours of the day. This year for some reason or another the morning hits were not there, plus the primary bait that I use had far less bears hitting it this year. Over the years I average better than 60% of my bears being harvested in the morning. The great thing about having a bear harvested in the morning is that you get to track it in the daylight, pictures are with natural light and you have all day to take care of the bear. Yup, I like morning harvested bears! I will acknowledge that there is a certain kind of thrill or challenge when tracking a bear in the dark, but I will take daylight anytime.
I did have bears hitting the baits in the morning, but not as many or consistently as in other years. One bait I started calling the nursery. I had a sow with 4 cubs, a sow with 2 cubs and a sow with 1 cub. That’s a lot of bears coming to 1 bait. Also, I had 4-5 other bears hitting the bait, 1 probably in the 500-pound range.
On the first Saturday morning of the hunt, we sat in a bigger condo so Bo’s mother could share the experience. We didn’t see any bears, but were entertained by ravens and many other wild critters that usually frequent a bear bait. Saturday afternoon we were back at the same bait being entertained by more critters, but still no bears. A real nice fluffy tailed skunk did check out the bait that evening. It was pretty, but I don’t want to hug it or anything like that. Bo had to go back home early Sunday because he is the backup quarterback for his football team and the first-string quarterback had gotten hurt.
I can try to give reasons why we didn’t see any bears, but most of you all know that is hunting, and there are many things that can contribute to the non-movement of bears. One big fact was that we were 2 days from a full moon. Anybody who has hunted bears and keeps records of the number of bears hitting just before, during, or just after a full moon knows the amount of hits during daylight hunting hours goes way down. Bears may tend to move to natural foods during a full moon, as they can see much better as they forage. They then may take longer to get to your baits and/or don’t go to them at all, as they have found a better food source. Acorns had started falling a few days earlier and the blackberries were about 50% ripe. That equates to a lot of natural food. Add to the equation that the corn was starting to come into milk stage, also likely affecting the number of bears hitting baits. Plus, on our Saturday hunt there was absolutely no wind whatsoever. Our scent just hung around the bait site and stayed concentrated there.
An LTH harvest permit is good for the last 2 weekends in August, and during the regular bear harvest season. Bo and his mother were back in Prentice the following Friday and were ready to hunt Saturday morning. I had decided to hunt a different bait then the one we had hunted the previous Saturday, which meant Bo’s mother would not be able to accompany us. We would be sitting the nursery bait because I had 1 bear in particular that was hitting the bait during the morning and early afternoon hours. It wasn’t a huge bear, but it was a legal bear. We were again entertained by squirrels, blue jays, and a skunk throughout the morning. Time was slipping by; I had told Bo I would like to sit until around 10:00 a.m. At 9:44 a.m. we saw a bear approaching from east of the bait. I could tell it was a legal bear, and a bear that I had not seen at the bait before. Bo allowed the bear to open up the bait hoping maybe a larger bear would show up. I reaffirmed to Bo that it was a legal bear and if he wanted to harvest it he could. At 9:56 a.m., bang, dead bear! We then waited about 15 minutes, crept out of the condo, and went home to get the others. It was a great moment when we tracked the bear and found it about 40 yards from the bait. Hugs were shared by all. Congrats Bo!!!
For those of you who have taken your kids or other youth hunting, there is no better feeling than when they get to see game, and better yet if they get to harvest that game. Bears, to me, are near or at the top of the list of animals to watch, to learn about and to be able to harvest. Combine that with the ability to assist a youth’s dream of seeing a bear and harvesting it and it is the topping on the cake!
Thank you, Bo and Lisa, for allowing WBH and me to be a part of the dream, and another chapter in the book of your lives that we all will not forget.
I also had the privilege and opportunity to take 3 other youths bear hunting because of the ability to transfer bear harvest permits to a youth. I provide free hunts for these youth, which is a great privilege for me and my wife, Tonya. One permit was a harvest permit that was donated to WBH. WBH provided the harvest permit to Horicon Marsh Archers, who held a contest and picked a winner. The winner of their contest, Justin Pecha, was an excellent choice and informed me that he wanted to harvest a bear with archery equipment. I emphasized to Justin that he had to be well practiced and confident with his bow. That he was, and he did harvest a bear. I will not go into the story about this hunt because Justin said he will submit a story to WBH for THE Bowhunter magazine. One other youth also harvested a bear and the third was not successful and decided bear hunting was not for them.
For 2025 WBH again will be offering an LTH bear harvest permit to a lucky youth who enters our contest by filling out the application and writing an essay. The WBH LTH 4-person committee than picks a winner from the entries. I will again be mentoring and guiding the youth winner at my place here in Price County.
Please give me a call at 715-820-1083 if you have any questions. And good luck to all who apply!
Member Communications, a Balancing Act
By Dave Peterson, on Behalf of the WBH Website Committee
I remember as a little kid, running into my grandmother’s house, all loud and excited to see her, only to be quickly shushed to silence by her stern voice. You see, she was on the telephone, on the neighborhood party line. When a call came in, it could be for any of four families on that party line, and you had to answer to find out who the caller wanted to talk to. Grandma couldn’t resist hanging on the line to listen in, just to make sure the neighbor ladies weren’t by chance gossiping about her. Boy, how times have changed! Today, just about everyone in the family has a phone in their pocket, with their own private number. They talk on them, text message on them, take pictures with them, shop with them, bank with them, get their news from them. You name it, somebody is likely doing it on their phone. What a great convenience, and at the same time, what a pain in the, well you know, todays “telephone” can be.
At WBH, we recognize what a powerful tool today’s technology can be for staying in touch with you, our valued members. After all, WBH is your association, and as such, keeping you up to date on what is going on is key to our success. But this is a balancing act for us. How do we leverage this great convenience on your behalf without becoming a pain in the, well you know?
The WBH website committee has been working for the past several months to investigate what tools we have available to us to increase our communications with members, both via email and the technology built into your phone. While WBH will continue to utilize our official publication, THE Bowhunter magazine and member mailings when warranted, our goal is to increase the amount of contact we have with you by using the electronic tools we have available to us. Moving in this direction will allow WBH to reach you quickly when needed, for example, in a call to action regarding a legislative issue. Plus, whenever we can avoid a mailing, we save WBH the associated printing and postage expense.
What tools are we talking about? The obvious one is group emails. If WBH has a good email address for each of our members, we can send out a group email to quickly alert you of important information. Another tool we will utilize, via your smart phone, assuming we have a current phone number, is push notifications. These are short messages that appear on your phone alerting you of items that may be of interest to you, such as a reminder about the annual broadhead shoot, maybe a new store item, you get the idea. While both tools can be of benefit to you, here is where the balancing act comes in. WBH recognizes that unwanted messages can be a real pain in the, well, you know. For this reason, part of the committee’s work has been to set up categories for member messaging that we will send out to you, along with a prioritization of those categories. We will also limit the number of messages we send out monthly. Our goal is to keep you informed, without becoming a pain in the, well, you know!
For WBH to really begin to take advantage of these member communication tools we need your help. The WBH office manager, Julie Rettler, along with website committee members Rose Brust and Jill Beres, have been working with the WBH member database to clean up any outdated or duplicate information. And, because we will not send you emails or push notifications without your expressed permission, they have added an Opt In OPT IN column to each member’s data. Here’s where you can help. If WBH does not have a current email address or cell phone number, please contact the office and provide Julie with the updated information, along with opting in your permission, if needed.
For any of you old dogs out there, like me, new technology and new ways of doing things can be unsettling. But in this case, I can assure you that WBH gets it, and will do whatever possible to make these electronic communications a limited, positive and informative experience.
