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Post by rwh on Mar 31, 2005 12:25:57 GMT -5
What's it like in other parts of the U.P.? Ever since the quota system started here in the Bergland Zone the hunting pressure exploded. The first couple years after the 3rd season was added it was nice...then the bait-sitters started applying for the 3rd season because permits were easier to get. Guess they just don't know the 3rd season is when we get all the bad weather and hunting slows down. So, now it seems like there's more bait-sitters hunting the 3rd season than there are during the 1st & 2nd. It would be nice to avoid hunting where people are sitting on their baits.
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Post by whitedog61 on Apr 1, 2005 7:02:41 GMT -5
yeah i hear you on the 3rd hunt, i hunt close to the mackinaw bridge and get a ton of people come over the bridge and sit down then they blame the hounds for them not seeing any bear, i find by the 3rd hunt the bears have realy slowed down on the bait or stoped hitting them altogether, sence the lottery there is ten time the people trying to bear hunt then when you could get a tag over the countner, i guess its a sport just to draw a tag now, then they get a tag and have know clue what to do with it when they get it, what i find is they bait on the weekends and hunt the weekends i find you should bait ever day if you want to get a bear off bait, well they cuss the hounds for a while then they come looking for a free hunt after they dont see a bear and i am like last week you where cusssing me out for haveing hounds now you want a free hunt, i just say i charge 1000 bucks for a hunt, few of them pay and few of them go home with out a bear.
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Post by rwh on Apr 1, 2005 8:12:26 GMT -5
Whitedog, do you have any big commercial bear baiting operations over in your territory? We've had our fair share around here. One guy from Swartz Creek, Mi got caught by the DNR on video threatening a guy for being near one of his commercial bait sites in the Ottawa National Forest. He was prosecuted, but I don't know the outcome. Reportedly, this guy had been operating out of Bergland for 10 years. Wonder if he ever paid taxes on the money he made.
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Post by whitedog61 on Apr 1, 2005 8:45:05 GMT -5
theres nothing right close to me, over in newberry there is a few and by curtis, there is a new guy to the area makeing a bad name for him self, last year he put baits at 100 yards and about 25 yards for a couple of my baits, i bait so i can have a track, sence i got married i cant afford to take 3 months off to hunt and i need a track when i have a chance to run, so i bait a lot now, i fixed it so this guy wouldnt get a bear kill over these 2 baits close to mine, but i also spoked the bears off my baits aswell, i had a local old timer put a bait close to one of my other baits, we met one day and we both had a good talk, he was a very nice man, and come to find out he had been baitting there years befor me and we agreed to be friends and he did get a bear the first day of the first season, he came to camp and got us and we dragged the bear out for him, he is a realy nice old feller, he went got use a case of beer and a jug of whiskey for dragging the bear out for him, sence then i have treed bears for this old fart and he has come to like hounds very well, i dought he will ever own a hound but he has a better understanding of how we hunt, its these guys that you are talking about that are the problem they think they own the whole fedral forrest and we cant have the hounds with in 50 miles of where they hunt, its these guys that are going to ruin it for everyone, michigan need to make all guide have a licsens to outfit and take classes on sportsmensship, both for the baitting outfitters and the hound outfitters, i hear there is a outfit around baraga that is pose to run me out of there if i come run there this year, i guess the guy is from down state and sets up over there for 2nd and 3rd season, he just does bait hunts, i have got word to him to keep his baits far enuff off the roads that my dogs wont rig them, i will be hunting a lot of privet ground over there this year, i am hooked up with a local and agreed to kill bears for him and his friends in exchange for one myself, if i draw a tag, where are you at from baraga?, i mite work this summer in eagle river wisconsin, thats a short drive to baraga and ill be able to train there on the weekends, have a good day.
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