← Live Wild with Remi Warren
Live Wild with Remi Warren
Ep. 173 | Bear Necessities Part 1: Targeting Water
00:52:53
Remi gives his first set of tips for hunting bears
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Remy Warren
Foreign I'm Remy Warren and I've lived my life in the wild as a professional guide and hunter. I've spent thousands of days perfecting my craft. I want to give that knowledge to you. In this podcast we relive some of my past adventures as I give you practical hunting tips to make you more successful. Whether you're just getting started or a lifelong hunter, this podcast will bring you along on the hunt and teach you how to live Wild. This podcast is brought to you by Mountain Tough and Yeti. A lot of the tactics I talk about here require you to be in top physical shape. So I partnered with Mountain Tough to help get you ready for the mountain with their science based hunter specific training app. You'll get in shape and mentally tough able to tackle any hunt. Because we really believe this will help you be more successful as a listener to this podcast, we're giving you six free weeks to get you started. Just use code livewild Foreign welcome back to Live Wild podcast, everyone. This week, bear schools in session. And over the next few weeks, I'm going to pinpoint specific tactics for hunting bears. You know, chasing bears in the spring can be a really fun and great hunt. Not just for that adventure that it provides, but the inherent challenge involved. And also just being able to get out this time of year, getting out after winter, and just enjoying that spring weather in the spring. A tactic that we use a lot is focusing on food sources. First find the food, be patient and you're going to find the bears. But there's also other ways to concentrate on areas to increase bear sightings, especially in the late spring and early fall. Now this tactic involves targeting hotter weather and a bear's desire to cool off. So this week we're going to talk about targeting water to locate black bears. Now we're going to dive into week one of bear school by first giving an overview of bear hunting, looking at some spring seasons and the type of tactics that we're going to cover over the next few weeks. Then we're going to dive into this week's topic of targeting water. You know, when it comes to hunting, there's probably not a more contentious topic than hunting bears. Bears of all different kinds, whether it be black bears, brown bears, oh, and then polar bears, or maybe just predators in general. Right? Even think about mountain lions. It's a very contended topic. There's places where, you know, anti hunters, it's kind of the first thing that they target. And why is hunting bears such a contentious topic? And not even just I would Say not even just from between hunters and non hunters or anti hunters, but even sometimes within the hunting community. And I don't know why that is. You know, I think some of it is just, you know, maybe popular media and the things that we grow up with, you've got your teddy bears and you've got your other things and you know, and in some ways, you know, people see predators as is maybe not the best table fare. Although, you know, the majority of states, it's actually mandatory to take the meat just like any other game animal. Bears are. If you've never hunted bears and you're listening to this podcast, you're like, yep, bears are absolutely edible. You know, I think that, like, there's that misconception that the, the idea gets thrown around like trophy hunting or, or whatever, but it can be a fairly contentious topic out there. However, I really like to cover bear hunting tactics for a lot of reasons. I enjoy getting out in the springtime and hunting bears. I think it can be one of the more challenging hunts out West. To be 100 honest. There's just certain things about it that are absolutely frustrating and there's a lot to kind of unlock when it comes to hunting bears. Whether it's a spring season, fall season, I would say the majority of bears that are taken in the west at least, are more happenstance, like incidental to some other hunt. They, somebody happened upon them. It's something that happens every however many years. Most hunts you don't have any bears sightings or spottings, and it's because you really aren't looking for them in one way and two there they kind of are a very solitary, hard to find in thicker areas, can be fairly nocturnal. And so that, that adds to the challenge of finding and hunting bears as well. And like other, you know, like predator species, the populations are always lower. That doesn't mean that they're, they're bad. They're lower and imbalanced that way. And then you need more food sources, prey animals, ungulates, to sustain those populations. And as the bear populations, predator populations increase in areas, often, you know, it has a, you'll see a decline in the prey species as well. And oftentimes they move in, you know, in cycles with each other. It's like as rabbit populations start to increase first then, you know, what eats rabbits, predator populations, but coyotes and other things increase, and then as they start to eat down the prey populations, then their numbers start to decrease as well, oftentimes. But you know, for me, I really like to, to get out and Chase bears, especially in the springtime where some, some states offer spring hunts, some fall only, some both. And the topics that we're going to talk about over the next couple weeks are tactics that can really be employed in either season. We're going to be talking about spring because that's coming up. But these are definitely things to remember for those of you that are like, hey, my state or where I hunt doesn't have a spring season, has only a fall season. A lot of these tactics can be transferred between either season with maybe, maybe a little bit of adjustment, maybe not. Maybe you're saying like, hey, I don't even hunt bears, not because I don't want to. It's just, yeah, I don't, I don't. It's not, you know, I'm going to get out one trip. I'd rather go out and chase elk and deer. And I 100% understand that. Or maybe it's like you just, you haven't dived into chasing bears. Whatever. I think a lot of these tactics as well that we're going to talk about can be applied to other types of hunting as well, especially when we're talking about glassing strategies and, and mapping and planning and that kind of stuff. A lot of these tactics can be used for other species as well. But we're going to, we're going really kind of dive in here to tactics, you know, based around bear hunting. And there's a lot of, you know, different seasons and different types of hunting. But when it comes to spring season, you know, we're focusing on emerging bears. So the, the interesting thing about bears compared to other species, even other predator species, is they do a form of hibernation where they go, they go dark. It's like they, they stock up from spring through fall and then sleep through the winter. And it's kind of an interesting thing because it, it really, you know, allows you to kind of like once you start to understand whatever species it is you're hunting a little better, it helps you pinpoint tactics and figure it out. I think for me over the years, and I've said this before, like bear hunting especially even like spring bear hunting was probably the most challenging hunt for me. Like growing up, it was just I really wanted to take a bear. Never found bears. It was like they just the. A unicorn of sorts. Like, I didn't really know where to look or how to hunt them. So I just kind of wandered around aimlessly and didn't have a lot of success. And then I started to kind of figure out A few things really understand what makes bears tick and not just talking about ticks that time in the spring season, but what makes bears just bears. What are the things that they're focusing on. And then by being able to pinpoint those things, I started consistently being able to turn up bears, consistently harvest bears, consistently guide people to bears, and have a lot of success on something that took me a long time to, to figure out. And even now, like, I think that bear hunting can be one of those things where everything could be right, you know what to do, and you still get your butt kicked because for whatever reason, they're maybe nocturnal or they aren't coming out in this area, or they're just, they're just plain hard to find sometimes. So in the spring season, we're focusing on emerging bears. And those bears are post hibernation. They're coming out, they're starting to feed in. A bear's entire life cycle is really so based. I mean, everything is based on food, but bears really rely on that food because of the hibernation factor. So on the spring, we focus on emerging bears. On fall, we focus on gorging bears. It's like the final, the final getting in that final fat count. And it just all starts in the spring. What they eat starts to change throughout the year. But focusing on food is a really good way to kind of pinpoint potentially where a bear is going to be and narrow down the potential area. When you think about the density of, let's say elk versus bears, there's a lot fewer bears per square mile than there will be elk and mule deer. In some places it seems like I've been other places where, man, it seems like all you see is bears, but for the most part, lower densities and so per square mile, there's a lot more places they could be. And the goal is to find anything. Right. It's like the needle in a haystack approach. Well, if you have a specific area of the haystack, you know where the needle is going to be. It increases your chances of finding it. So we're really looking at where they might be in the narrowing down those places. So we can kind of hone in on their particular habitats and habits and turn them up more often. One of the things about bear hunting is there's actually, you know, every state has different rules and different types of hunts. So in nearly every state where there's a bear season spot and stock is an option. So. Or some form of that where it's just like any other hunt, you there's you can go out, you got to find the bear first and then, and then make your move. That might mean a lot of different things. It could mean glassing long range and long distances. It also might mean, you know, cruising feeding areas, still hunting, that kind of stuff. But in other states there's also other tactics that can be allowed which involves the use of hound hunting or hunting bears with dogs. And then some states also allow the use of baiting. And some states a combination of one, two or all three of those, I guess. And I think that it is very like with, even within bear hunting, you know, I talked about earlier bear hunting being sometimes a contentious topic. The, the interesting thing to me is that even within the hunting community, you know, it can be the form of bear hunting, can be contentious within the hunting community. It's like some people like, I'm spot and stock only, you know, and then the hound hunters are like, I really like to chase them with dogs. And then there's guys that like, like to bait bears. And other people, they're like, nope, I don't like baiting bears. I'm a spot and stock guy, or I'm a hound hunter or whatever. You know, I think that that is like a major disservice not only to the hunting community, but, you know, protecting what we like to do as well as hunters. You know, as somebody that, you know, I actually have yet to hunt bears with dogs. And not that, I mean, I've hunted cats with dogs. I just haven't had the opportunity to hunt bears with hounds. It's, it's a awesome, like cool way to hunt. Watching the dogs work probably well. It's definitely a very challenging, it can be very physical way to hunt. You know, I've hunted bears with bait, both baiting myself and then like hunting with friends that have, you know, baited in different areas or whatever. And I've hunted bears spot and stock in some ways. And we'll talk about a lot of these different tactics in the future in a couple future podcasts because I think that it's good to kind of COVID all those topics. But you know, I think sometimes in unity of hunters is like, hey, let's understand all the different forms of hunting and why they might be beneficial. A couple of the advantages of hunting with hounds and hunting with bait is you can really target the gender and age class of a specific bear population. It's an incredible way to manage the resource. You know, you can, you can take those older age class bears out, you can make sure that they're males, you can kind of sustain the population in a way and also be very selective, you know, in spot stock hunting. Yeah, you can do that, but you, you don't have the same consistency or reliability of that judgment as you do with baiting your hounds. And I think one of the things, you know, I was thinking about today is, you know, bear hunting comes under attack by so many different groups and other things. It's one of the things that in many states is the first thing to kind of get attacked because it garners public support that maybe just doesn't know anything about the American model of conservation. Actually, great organization, Howl. It's like if you're, if you aren't familiar with it, it's howl.org you can go and, and sign up, be a member. Because what it does is, like, allows hunters from all over to kind of talk to legislators and try to, you know, support hunting initiatives and different things. There's a lot of states that are trying to shut down bear hunts in different places or have taken away a certain form of bear hunting that all manages the resource. For me, I think that bear management is extremely important. I love seeing bears, I love chasing bears and being able to hunt bears, but I also think that their populations need to be managed. I, I really enjoy hunting elk and deer, and I like to see mule deer populations thrive. And for me, a lot of the, in some ways, a lot of the desire to chase bears or predators is for ungulent conservation. Primarily for me, mule deer, like, when I go out with a bear tag in my pocket, I know that I'm definitely trying to help the mule deer population in the area. I go. And I like to target areas where, and I've said this before, like, I like to target areas during that fawn and elk calving time and those big mature bears that are just slurping up baby deer because, you know, you can't not see the, I guess, the impact that predators do have on ungulent populations, like whatever you want to say. Like, I've been to places where there are no predators and the populations just explode. They just, they grow with places like New Zealand. And I'm not saying that that's the right balance. I'm saying there needs to be a balance of predators. But in a lot of places, a lot of our mule deer and elk populations are struck. Well, primarily mule deer. A lot of places, elk are doing pretty good, but due to habitat loss and other things, they're struggling. And so if I can get out there and hunt predators in that area and maybe control the predator population or do a little bit of my part in it. I, you know, you start to see benefits to other populations of animals within the area. And it's just, it's an awesome and a fun hunt and a big challenge as well. You know, we talked about the challenges of baroning. They can be hard to find. A lot of areas can be big and you need to narrow down that area. And so the tactics that we're going to talk about over the next few weeks, we're going to kind of talk about gear selection and just like in that spot and stock phase, like some really good glassing tips. We're going to do some deep diving into glassing spotting country. I think that one of the other topics that I'd like to talk about is baiting bears and the challenges that that provides. I think people think oh, baiting bears, that's the easiest way to kill a bear. I think if you were just to go out, let's say someone else was doing the baiting, maybe you went on a guided hunt and baited hunt for bears. Yeah, I think that that would probably be an easy way to do it if you're baiting yourself. I actually think that spot and stock between hound hunting, baiting and spot and stock, probably spot and stock is the easiest because it requires the least amount of gathering things like consistency. You can just go out, you don't have to like think about it, plan it. Finding good bait sites and actually like getting bears to come in is actually very challenging in a lot of places. It's not just as easy as throwing out some food and bears show up. It can be, I guess but I can definitely share my experiences and the struggles that are involved. Like there's a lot more that goes into it than people think. So I think it'd be kind of fun to talk about that and some of the strategies for those that are maybe like yeah, I'd like to go an area and bait for bears, some strategies for that. So we're going to cover a lot of different bear topics over the next couple weeks. Just really kind of deep dive into different ways to hunt bears and some of the things to look for, but a way that I hunt them a lot is by spot and stock. And like I said, it's mostly out of like convenience and ease. I can just go out whenever. I don't have to have too much pre planning or whatever. I can, I can just go out and look for bears. It's, you know, I've got the, the right Necessary gear for can be a challenge, but it can also be a very successful way to hunt. So we're going to look at that this week. And really, the key to spot and stock is going to be narrowing down a large area into specific conditions and then targeting those specific conditions to increase the opportunity to find bears. So what we're going to talk about now is focusing on water. This can be in arid areas in hot seasons through the spring and early fall, or just targeting a bear's behavior to like to wallow around and cool off. When it comes to consistently finding bears, the name of the game is narrowing down country. Now, when it gets hot out, bears will utilize water in a few different ways. They'll drink water, which they drink, you know, need water intake all times a year. They'll take a swim in it and essentially wallow, which is kind of different than a lot of other animals, like, I think the bears. And this is one of the things that I didn't really realize until a lot later. I was actually using trail cameras during the springtime and summertime, well, mostly during the summertime to scout for elk. And there was certain places where it was just like bear after bear after bear coming in in the middle of the day, just rolling around, taking a swim. And I'm like, man, I didn't even know there was that many bears in this particular area. And here I've got five to seven different bears on camera over the summer that are utilizing these elk wallows or whatever to roll around, to cool off, to take a swim. But it's not, you know, when we're talking about targeting water, it's not only a tactic when it's hot, because water can be a great place to target bears or at least have an area to focus on, no matter the type of country or the type of terrain. But what we're going to do first is break it down by looking at the type of country that you're hunting and then how to utilize water sources in that. And then we're going to go into different hunting strategies for that water. So let's first look at probably one of the more popular types of habitats to hunt, especially for springtime, would be that mountain west, the rocky Mountain kind of terrain. You've got big pine forests, you've got probably big canyons, maybe wildernessy type canyons, steep mountains. And in the springtime, water everywhere. You got runoff. Like every creek is flowing to the brim. There's just water everywhere. So when you have something like that, and this can also go for really any species. But when you have water everywhere, you kind of don't think of water being a place to focus on. It's everywhere and we're always looking for the thing that's in least supply. Now what I will look for is like, if there's water in every draw and everywhere, okay, well, what are some places that maybe hold isolated water in that kind of country? I try to find those little bit isolated elk wallow spots. Those can be great. And that's actually how I kind of started targeting these, was finding elk walls and looking for elk. And it turns out, oh, bears are using these. If it's legal to utilize trail cameras, it's a, it's an awesome, you know, advantage to know, okay, are bears mostly just to know if bears are around or if they're utilizing that particular water source. If not, like, let's say can't use trail cameras, don't have them, don't want to use whatever. If not, it's a place to look for tracks around those wallows and water sources. A good place to look for sign. Now I have the, the nice thing about being able to utilize a trail camera is I, I like putting them out just to kind of know, okay, what's going on when I'm not here. Because there's been many places where I'll look and I don't see any sign and then look at the camera and there was bears on there that day or the day before in the water. So, you know, depending on how wet it is or the kind of dirt and makeup around the water, sometimes you don't always catch, you know, significant sign. Now what we're doing by targeting these wallows is kind of having a more isolated place on the mountain. That's a place where, you know, bears can easily go and hit and probably roll around. These particular spots are going to be more utilized during those hot days, I would say. It seems to me that like, over the years of, of setting out trail cameras and just trying to kind of observe their behavior, I find that they mostly utilize them when it's hot out and some seasons close before it gets hot. Some seasons, you know, it doesn't really get that hot. So it might not be a good strategy for where you're at, but it might be something to think about. Now they don't always utilize them as hot, and we're going to talk about like a little bit of that in different types of terrain. So the other part about water, let's say it's wherever it is and you start to See this more drastically as you get into drier country. So drier country could just be that high desert kind of stuff or that more like where the mountains meet the prairie kind of terrain where you've got a lot of pine forest but then you've got, the amount of water is further away from the snowpack. So you've got main creeks and then you've got maybe other creeks but not as many water sources in every little nook and cranny of the mountain. And when you have that, what you notice around those longer, we'll call them like longer water sources, creeks, running water is you notice that there's often good vegetation and that good vegetation often provides really good cover for bears and, and good food sources as well. Especially early and late and especially in that more dry country. But even in places where there's water everywhere, where those creeks flow often has that a little bit better bear habitat. Especially those maybe not, you know, full time creeks, but it's like you've got these seeps and they run half the year and they've got more vegetation than the places that don't have the creeks. The bottom of the draws or whatever coming down the mountain have that thicker vegetation. This is the places where bears like when you can't find bears, that's where they're at. They're in these places of thick cover, they're hard to find. They're in the alders, the willows, the, the like thicker berry brushes, whatever. I mean there's, it just depends on where you're at in the country. Like they're in, they just tuck into these like thicker little spots. They can lay there all day, they aren't bothered, you know, you don't see them. Nobody really walks through a lot of that stuff. It's bear habitat. It's places where bears go and where bears live. And so in these situations, water is not just for that cooling down. And I also find that bears often travel these natural waterways. So it's a, it's a really good way to like narrow down as you're hiking up. You know, like I think for other species I often take the ridge and many times for bears I might take the draw where I'm like looking if it's like an open enough creek bottom or whatever. A lot of times bears will follow these natural corridors. Bears can be very habitual in the places that they go and the way that they do things. And they'll often kind of cruise these like water sources. Whether it's a one side of a raging creek in the springtime, or just a little draw or seep that comes down from May, a slide or other things, they'll. They'll often hit that brush line and, and move kind of in the shadows, per se. So. So really looking and targeting those kind of water sources can be good. And as we move into maybe more drier, more arid country, really concentrating on those creek bottoms can be the recipe for success. I know like this, this pertains to the fall season, but it could pertain to the spring season as well. In Nevada, where there is no spring season, but it's an early fall season, it's kind of like a late summer season where it's like, I can't remember when it starts. Might even start in August, but definitely in September. And the place that, like, one of the best places to target is those creek areas because you're going to get the food sources of things like rose hips and other grasses that might not be around. In the more arid type of country, there's other food sources that pop off all the time too. It depends on the year, like pine nuts and things like that. But around the water, there's always generally some kind of good food source. And then it also provides a lot of good cover. So by focusing on those areas, you can say, okay, this area is a place where bears are moving. They're kind of using this as a natural corridor. And that happens everywhere. It happens in the mountains of Montana to the kind of prairies of, you know, or like the foothills in Wyoming. They'll follow these waterways as these, like, kind of natural corridors, and they're a great place to look for sign. So as I'm moving, like to an area or scouting or looking to figure out where bears are at, this could be a place to concentrate, to turn up bear sign, whether it be tracks, scat, what have you. I think the thing for me for water is it gives me a place to narrow down, to focus in on and try to even add it into addition of other kind of things that I'm looking for. But as I'm moving or traveling can be a great place to try to look for, okay, evidence that bears are here. And, you know, this is, this is even something that we've done in the past is kind of found these places where, okay, we're getting bear sign on these corridors and we'll put up trail cameras that have really, it's more just like on a path or whatever. It's like there's good, good travel along this one creek bottom or whatever, and you're you're often surprised at how many bears will like follow through these routes. And I think some of them, they get on like a. Maybe it's a scent trail, maybe it's a whatever. Maybe it's just what they've always done and that's just the way that they move. But you'd be surprised how many bears are in certain areas that like I've been into places where I've never seen bears in the day. Like just, you know, don't know if there's bears here and then you know, see some kind of sign or something and end up putting out a camera and going, oh geez. There's like five or six different bears that cruise through this like creek system. And maybe they're there for a day and just moving through. Maybe some of them kind of live in that area. But it is definitely a good place to focus as far as travel corridors and something to concentrate on. There's this one spot that kind of always strikes me and this is more like when it's hot out. I've probably seen more bears in this one little spot than anywhere. And it's a rocky Mountain country, small creek that comes down this like, I don't know, just like down the middle of a gully. Not a main system, just like very seasonal. Goes into the like into the like beginning of September I would say it runs but maybe it kind of like off and on. Maybe like depending on the year, might run all year. Close to. But just a very small trickle and then it's. It's real thick, it's real steep, it's real rocky. It's great bear country. Nearly impossible, the glass is so thick. But there's this one spot where it kind of benches off and there's a like an old logging road been abandoned for probably I wouldn't even know, 60 years, 50 years. Like you couldn't even. You can barely walk on this like partial portion of where the road maybe kind of used to come across. And the water comes through there and like puddles up because it was just like a man made flat spot on this from whoever for however long ago. And it's. And on hot days I catch a ton of bears in there because it's. There's water up and down this entire canyon. But this is a particular spot where they can lay down and roll in that water. And so it's kind of keying in on that behavior of bears when it gets hot. You think about a bear like they've got a fur coat on all the time. Like if you, if I was freezing outside of Muskox hide, I think the next best thing to wrap yourself into would be a bear hide. I mean like bear buffalo, something like that. Like they're, they're just walking around with a massive fur coat all year. And as the season starts to get warmer or hotter, they're going to find ways to cool off. They're going to stay in the shade, which is often real thick, dense country on those north facing slopes where there is naturally more water anyways. And then they're also going to utilize those wallows and water sources to cool off. Not just drink, but just cool their bodies off. And so this, when it's hot, this is an area that I go and I check and I'm like, man, more times than not or probably, I don't know. Seems like a lot of times with the right conditions, I catch bears in this one particular part of this creek because it kind of narrows them to a specific spot where the entire thing, you know. However, 3,000 vertical feet up to the top. There's not many places where water pools, just trickles, goes underground, comes back out, whatever, there's water. But this one particular spot, it pools up and they can roll around in it. And because of that it really narrows down a place that I can target for the be. Now another in this kind of mountain type country, another thing that I look for, and this is even high country, if you're going, hey, I'm in an area, it could be even high desert type stuff. And you get up high and you'll see these seeps or springs. Maybe there's no snow at this point. Later in the season, maybe there is snow. Whatever you'll see seeps off the mountain and it's just like where spring starts to come out, maybe in a more open area and those places get really good grass growth. They have a ton of forage and other types of foods around and they can be targeted a lot by spotting. So seeps are another like water source that I focus in on when I'm glassing. And you can glass this whole hillside and go, you can tell where water runs. Maybe it's seasonal, maybe it's runoff, maybe it's. Whatever it is, it's like there's just more grass, thicker grass, more growth. In this one spot it's often this little wet spot. I've seen bears like walk into those and just lay down all day. I've also seen ones where maybe it's not as tall a grass, but bears will come out of the COVID and feed in those places early in the spring because it's got some of the first growth and it's got a lot of other species that maybe aren't necessarily only popping up certain times of year. Like it's just, it's got continual water. So it's got better grass growth, better different kinds of plants. I mean, some of these, like I found. You'll like, look around. There's a lot of like tubers and root type plants that are edible. I even see like wild garlic in them or wild onions, whatever you like to call them. And you'll, you'll see a lot of even like the wild licorice and stuff like that around these like real wet spots. You'll see like a lot of mint and other things, like things that actually we can eat. And you go, oh, okay. Like these are, these are areas that hold the value. Nettles. Like you'll be glassing this hillside and there's all this grass and then this little seep and the bears are just hammering this thing. And you go, okay, there's something there that they like. Maybe it's. I've seen it like the fiddlehead type ferns that start to come out of some of this stuff. A lot of it's like nettles are a great food source for bears. Also good food source for like people. I've had them. It's like this, you know, it's like spinach if you cook it right. They stingy if you touch them, but you can get, get rid of that and cook them and eat them and you know, so like the nettle is like a really good. And if you don't pay attention to it, you just look over it. You just say like, okay, it's all, it's all the same. I'm glassing all these areas. Where should I concentrate? Well, this, these seeps have water longer so they can have more aquatic type plants. Often those plants need water year round, but then they can continually grow. And you get these patches of nettles up on the side of a mountain and bears just hammer them. They know that they're there. They go in there in the spring and they know that, hey, they can get that first really nutrient growth out of it. They can also get it later in the fall too, where there's like more grass, especially as things start dying off in the fall. I would say in the fall I'd probably target seeps more than even in the spring because the food sources start to dwindle. There's, there's more Mass crops in the fall. Like, depending on where you're at, it could be acorns off of scrub oaks, There could be pine nuts, There could be berries, but that's not every year. It could be manzanita berries in some places, but then sometimes it's just those things don't exist. And they're trying to find whatever food sources they can. And there's still good grass and good forage around some of these seeps. And so late in the season, I target those, or like, I guess in the fall, late summer call it, target those seeps pretty regularly. Now, if we're looking at like that arid southwest, maybe even prairie country, There actually can be some pretty good bear hunting in those areas. And water sources, there are more a means of survival, Especially in places that might not have like, cactus or something like that, where they can get more water source. In those places, you know, water is going to be. I mean, it could. It could be the cooldown factor for sure, but it's almost like those. Those bears are more inclined to, you know, I think they're always hot. So in some of that country, or even just like more prairie country where it's not hot, but water is few and far between, there's fewer bears for sure, but there can be some really big bears, Some decent bear hunting, and they're a little bit more tied to water. And so in those areas, like, I would just mark them on my maps and kind of pinpoint the water source and make that the basis for the hunt plan. And that's like any hunt. What I want to do is find what's needed for them to survive and what's in least supply. And then I'm going to start looking there in those areas of. I mean, you might even think of it as like high desert or, I mean, more arid type country. Doesn't even have to be like real southwest desert. It could be in the mountains, but just a little bit dry. You've got sage. It's like good meal deer habitat. And there's bears in that country and some really good bears as well a lot of times. So, you know, you can kind of pinpoint that in what I do. My hunt plan for that is I actually think about water as needed for survival, really. And drinking. You can't really target drinking water in like the mountain west, where there's a spring out of every creek and like, every morning there's, you know, it's just water everywhere. But in those places where it seems dry, it seems arid, I'm going to start My hunt plan based off of where the water sources. Now one of the things that I like to look at as well is, is the time of day. You know, spring bear hunting especially, or even early fall bear hunting is the best time to target some of this water stuff because it can be hotter or hot in the middle of the day. And I've noticed that like in the, in that time frame that like mid morning to evening is when most of them try to cool down. But it depends on where you're at too, because you might see some of this. It's like, oh, well, they, they come in at night as well. But for the most part, like I've actually seen bears hit some of these water sources, kind of that midday portion or before it gets real hot or after it's already hot, like in, let's say between 11 and 4pm sometimes it can be frustrating in some ways because the days are long. Like do you hunt the mornings, do you hunt the evenings? Do you hunt all day? There's not a lot of time for sleep in some of this. And I mean to be 100 on it just wears you out after a week. I've, I've hunted hard for weeks in like two hours before sun, up till an hour after dark, sleep for a few hours, get up and do the same thing. And man, you can just burn yourself out in some ways, like makes your glassing more inefficient. And then there's day. There's times where I've just hunted mornings and like seen just as many bears or hunted evenings and seen just as many bears. But on those hot days I actually, I actually don't mind like utilizing the heat to kind of target water sources, especially if I know the area and have like an area where I know that there's some places that they go to cool down. So if they're a bear, that's maybe so that's like if it's hot and the conditions are right for that. You don't always get that kind of condition when bear season's open. Like, honestly, it can be tough for those conditions to line up. So what's another time that I would focus on those water sources and when it comes to like, maybe I'm hunting in a more arid place so they're using it as drinking or a place where there's lots of water. But I'm looking at those seeps like we talked about earlier. The early and late hours are going to be the most beneficial for those. They're kind of doing it toward the edge of darkness or maybe even during those after the sun's gone down. But if I'm in an area where there's just water everywhere, it might not be that hot. I'm going to. I'm going to focus on those seeps and I'm probably going to, like, look at those in the mornings or evenings, like, really, you know, kind of concentrate at those times when bears are up and moving. Generally, if it's an area where it's arid and they're using that water for drinking, they're probably going to be closer to dark on either end. I would say more likely. Like, to me, water seems more productive in the evening over morning, I think for a few reasons, like, the day gets hotter and longer. So in the mornings are often cooler. So I think that that plays a factor into it. But in the mornings, it depends. In areas where there's a lot of water, the mornings actually can be very productive because it stays cooler longer. So they're often out longer in the mornings. And so you kind of just have to play it on, like, the area and what you're seeing and. Or even like a lot of the conditions of when might be the best time for a particular area. And when it comes to water, there's. There's three ways that I would hunt, Whatever, any. All these kind of water sources. One would be still hunting, where you're just moving around, glassing, moving. Another one would be an ambush tactic where you're just actually set up on the water. And the third would be glassing tactics, mostly like for the seeps and other things where you're glassing water sources. And it also, I mean, glassing can be really effective in that more open country. So you get back from a creek that runs for three miles, and then you can just glass up and down the edges of that in the mornings or evenings. It's a pretty effective tactic as well. So when it comes to still hunting, One of the things that I like to do, let's say it's a hot day, we're going to target bears Utilizing water to swim around and cool down. What I like to do is I move through the timbered areas, Glassing and looking. I get into the wind and I try to hit those places. Like there's some place where the creek runs down and it benches out multiple places where bears could go. And I'll kind of still hunt through all that Or I'll find an area where there's. I got a couple places that I like to hunt. I know that there's a Bunch of different wallows. And I kind of move around to those different spots looking for sign, glassing for bears, trying to catch something, moving to one of those. And you could say like, well, why not just sit one of those? And you have to remember that bears can also hit water at night. We're trying to find them during the daytime, during shooting hours. And so for me, sometimes I think that I like to increase my odds of running into one by moving through maybe some of the potential travel corridors. Trying to catch one up and moving and going from spot to spot to spot. Now, ambush can be an effective tactic. Saying like, hey, go sit this. Like I've told people many a times, like, I just want to, I want to get a bear. And it's like the conditions are right primarily on hot days and you have to have some prior knowledge of the particular area. So if, if you can run, this is, I guess realistically this is best with trail cameras, like where you can run cameras. And there, there's many places where the, a bear might have multiple spots that they hit. So keep that in mind. Like there's some places where there's a creek nearby, there's a wallow, there's another wallow. There's like five wallows in the spot. They might not hit the same place all the time. So it could be that they hit it every day of this one spot and then they just don't show up again or they go there every. They're just kind of whenever they're passing by. It depends on the food sources around as well. Now the ambush is really good in those more arid places where they're going in to cool down. There's more isolated water and they're more tied to that water source. You're more likely to be able to sit there and turn them up in the middle of the day. I had a buddy that came in from. I guess it was, I don't know, it was quite a few years ago, but was hunting from Australia and he wanted to get a bear. And so it was like a late summer, early fall hunt. I was like, man, just go sit this water. It's up and it's like on the top of this ridge there's this little spring on the backside. There's water all around in the bottoms. But the bears like this manzanita patch and these rock slides and it gets hot in the middle of the day and they're going to come in there. And so he, I was like, you know, glass in the mornings and go sit this in the middle of the day. Like you're doing anything anyways. Just go sit that area instead of. Instead of ripping around and then go get on your glass. Advantages in the evenings and morning skin. And he was sitting there and dozing off because it's just like a long day. And he hears this just like thrashing, right? He was pretty close to the water and this bear just in there. He didn't know what was going on. He thought he was going to get attacked. The bear had no clue he was there. And I think when he woke up, he scared the bear as much as the bear scared him. Didn't work out. But that's one of the things that I'll do is like, man, I'm just hanging out in the middle of the day anyways. Maybe I'll go sit one of these little wet spots and kind of pay attention and see if anything comes in, Especially if the weather is right for it. Or I'm in an area where it's a little more arid. And then the glassing technique is going to be those early and late. I like to cover a lot of glassing, Glassing those fringes of the water and then the open areas around those really long runs, like long creeks. Think about high desert country where it's like sage and other stuff. And then you've got these, like, creeks that come down the mountain, they hit the valley, they're in the foothills, and it's just this long area of COVID and stuff around maybe some sparse timber or something like that. I'll get on a vantage where I can see as far as I got my tripod and spotting scope or whatever set up. I'm just glassing up and down the fringes of that. You'll see them pop in and out of that stuff. You'll see them cruise from one area into that and out of that. It can be a really effective tactic to target that long water source, Knowing that they use it as a travel route, but they also, you know, utilize it for other things. Maybe the food sources around it, maybe just to get water. But it allows you to kind of concentrate on an area where everything might seem equal. But hey, there's this long run of water that I can sit back in glass also. Even in areas where there's lots of water, sometimes it funnels and narrows the country where, hey, if bears are going from point A to point B, Here's a real cliffy spot. Here's a creek that's just ripping and flowing that they might not want to cross. And here's an opening where they're going from COVID to, to open. And I can sit there in glass and watch that kind of country and utilize that area as a place where it'll kind of narrow down the bears or even work as like a, a natural funnel for me to, to spot bears. And if I can get an area with multiple things like that, where I've got, say, a face and it's got three draws with creeks and maybe a couple seeps up top, I'm really feeling like I'm in the money there because I. I know that, okay, I can sit here, I can cover all these places, and it's all these little micro habitats that have everything a needs. And I have a lot more likelihood of spotting that bear by being able to cover that country with the glass. I think the biggest thing to remember is when it comes to bear hunting, we try to narrow down country. There's so many places bears can be, and they can be in a lot of different country. And there are going to be bears in places that like, you might not be able to see them ever. But when it comes to, like, trying to specifically target where bears might be utilizing the kind of outside temperature, the type of terrain, the water sources in that area, and how they might utilize those water sources, by targeting water, you can really narrow down some places to look. And it's a great way to focus in and find bears. I think bear hunting is a lot of fun, and this time of year it's fun to start thinking about, especially the spring seasons, but there's some phenomenal late summer, early fall bear hunts out there. And so it's just good to kind of talk about these tactics and some things to think about, because the water targeting is really good in places where you know that that season might even start earlier in the fall. Season can be some incredible hunting that time of year as well. You know, next week we're going to kind of gear up and bear down and we're going to look at the number one spot in stock bear hunting tip, which involves glassing. For me, I love to be able to get into big country, Set up my optics and just pick it apart. It's a, it's a highly effective way in a lot of different places because like we were talking about earlier, bear densities are low and you need to kind of. You gotta find the bear before you can go after the bear. So it can be a really good tactic to utilize. So next week we're gonna do a deep dive. So our part two is just gonna be this deep dive. Into glassing techniques for bears. And then we're also gonna cover a little bit collection and then look at maybe the ultimate type of habitat and country for spotting bears, especially when it comes to spring bear hunting. Also, I want to mention before we go, an incredible supporter of this podcast, Montana Knife Company. If you're looking for a hunting knife, I just looked what I like to do. There's a lot of things that I like to do. Sometimes I like to go on their drops and just see how fast they they sell out. But also I like to look at, I continually look at what's in stock. This could, by the time this podcast airs, this is like a day before they have some magnacut blackfoot 2.0s with orange and black handles available in stock. They also had quite a few of their chef knives and kitchen knives in there as well. And then they had a couple of their, like, I guess it was the, the knife that was designed, I think it's called the sharp tail, but it's like an upwind knife. However, I'm like, I actually got that knife because I'm going to, I carry that as like a really good caping knife as well. So I've got that in my kit. And honestly, I actually did a whole deer with it last year. So, I mean, they, they say it's a bird knife. I don't know, like, it's about. It's a really good sized blade, I think. So those are actually available in stock. And then, you know, if that's, if there's a different kind of knife, you can go on their website and see the knives that they have and read about them. And then when they do a drop, just make sure that you're signed up for their email list. Because when a drop happens, you just want to be on there and ready to, to buy it as soon as the drop happens. So the best way to know about that is be on their email list. But we still get people asking like, oh, hey, I want to get that knife. And they don't know how Montana Knife company does their drops. So the way that it works often is they build as many knives as they can for one type. Because, you know, to. It's just, I think a lot of people think it's just like this massive company. It's like out of a smaller building essentially in Josh's backyard for the most part. But they're building a new building which I think will help them kind of keep up with the demand. But the way that they do it is they, they build set like a run of knives, as many as they can kind of do with that run and then they package them, they do that and they start building the next knife and then they do a drop for that knife. So you want to be on and know about the drops and the email list is the best way to do it. And then. Yeah, and I don't really know of any of the. I can't really forewarn anybody of any drops coming up, but just get on the email list because that's pretty much how I kind of find out about what's. If there's something that I want. Like that white tail knife, I really liked that one as well. And the last drop that they did for it, I actually picked up another one because I really liked, enjoyed that knife as well. So there's all. There's always some new stuff coming out too. So just get on that email list. It's a really good way to kind of keep tabs on it. And then I'm just going to say until next week, bear down. We're going to get after it. Catch you guys later.