Ep. 842: Jani's Hunt for a Manitoba Giant | 12 in '26

Summary

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The MeatEater Podcast

Ep. 842: "12 in '26" – Jani's Hunt for a Manitoba Giant

Host: Giannis "Yanni" Patelis (with Corey, Phil, and guest Craig McCarthy)
Date: March 3, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, the hosts dive deep into Giannis Patelis' first experience hunting black bears over bait in Manitoba, Canada—a hunt documented for the “12 in ‘26” film series. The conversation unpacks both the practicalities and controversies of baited bear hunting in Canada, discusses ethical debates, reviews gear and tactics, and addresses listener questions about hunting methods, bear behavior, meat quality, and personal reflections. The discussion is factual, candid, humorous, and loaded with insights for both experienced hunters and the bear-curious.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction to the Manitoba Bear Hunt

[03:04]

• Yanni clarifies this podcast is a companion to the new “12 in ‘26” hunt and fish video series.
• Sets the stage for the Q&A format focusing on burning viewer questions, especially surrounding baited bear hunting.

2. The Baited Bear Hunt Controversy

[05:07–10:04]

• The crew reads both negative and positive listener comments about baiting, highlighting the ethics debate.
• Sample Negative Takes:
  • "This is not hunting. This is just killing.” – MarkMcMurphy9507 [06:11]
  • "If you can't hunt it fairly, don't hunt at all.” – Christopher O Dash K2 [06:36]
• Sample Positive Takes:
  • "It's population control…baiting can be part of wildlife management.” – strugglebusoperator [07:24]
  • "Birds use bait in the animal world, it’s not just humans." – some random gamer1260 [08:07]
• Yanni reflects on his own limited experience with baited hunts and recognizes the unique aspects and ease, but also values them as viable, ethical, and educational.

3. Is Baiting Bears Different from Baiting Deer?

[12:34–14:44]

• Yanni acknowledges "consternation" about being comfortable with bear baiting but uncomfortable with deer baiting due to its influence on animal movements.
• Compares sitting over a cornfield for deer (legal) to sitting over a bear bait, drawing parallels in ease and ethical judgment.

4. Manitoba Bear Habitat & Hunt Timing

[16:57–21:55]

• Manitoba has vast, ideal bear habitat: a mosaic of aspen--bur oak forest and agricultural fields.
• Hunt timing is dictated by the June bear rut; mature boars’ hides stay better, as opposed to rubbed younger bears.
• Most hunts happen just after farmers plant crops.

5. Bear Bait Ingredients and Effects on Meat

[25:44–33:07]

• Craig McCarthy explains bait tactics: Oats, corn, fryer grease, commercial bear lure, birthday cake, and beaver meat.
  • "They eat anything that’s soaked in fryer oil." – Craig McCarthy [26:33]
  • "But that sweet beaver meat, they love it." – Craig McCarthy [29:05]
• Discussion of how baiting (mainly corn and oats, plus sweets) does not noticeably affect bear meat flavor or quality.
• Only year-round baiting has been shown to cause health issues (ex: tooth decay in North Carolina, [33:39]).

6. Bear Behavior Around Bait and Human Proximity

[41:49–47:44]

• Bears become very habituated and bold at bait sites; younger bears compete aggressively.
• It's a risk–reward calculation for bears—the boldness is due to competition for high-calorie bait, not domestication.
• Sows with cubs are especially defensive and quick to tree their young when a boar appears.

7. Gear, Shooting, and Recovery Details

[35:07–38:56]

• Yanni’s bow setup: Matthews Lift X at 70 lbs, 30" arrows, 500 grains total weight, iron will single bevel broadhead.
• Describes the challenges of shot placement at close range due to the all-black target and fading light.
• Reflects on safe (or not entirely by-the-book) practices for stand climbing and gear hauling.
  • "Kids, when you’re climbing into those stands, you should always use a rope to pull up your bow." – Yanni [40:57]

8. Bear Intelligence and Problem Solving

[56:22–59:39]

• Bears demonstrate remarkable problem-solving skills, especially with accessing hard-to-reach bait (beaver carcass hung on a branch).
  • "Black bears are proven to be the most curious and problem-solving animals on our continent." – Reference to Clay Newcomb’s research [58:41]

9. Meat, Hide, and the Value of Bear Hunting

[63:27–73:35]

• Yanni’s boar: ~388 lbs, green scored 19+" skull, squared 7.5 feet.
• Rendered about 2 gallons of fat; describes it as pure, flavorless, and highly prized.
  • "Bear grease would land in the oils that are...most flavorless and odorless." – Yanni [32:12]
• Yanni emphasizes hunting for the meat/fat ("such a nice change of pace from all of the super-lean venison”) and plans to continue hunting bears mostly for the meat, not trophies.

10. Regulations, Future Plans, and Accessibility

[73:48–78:13]

• Regulations on baiting and bait types vary dramatically by location and state/province.
• Yanni plans to return to Manitoba, possibly hunting bears from a ground blind next time for a closer, more immersive experience.
  • "100%, no doubt [I plan to do it again]...I want to still...there’s more there that I did not get to experience yet." – Yanni [73:48]
• Baited bear hunts are recommended as excellent opportunities for new bowhunters.
  • "It’s a great animal for people to get their first bow kill." – Yanni [77:45]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Baited Bear Hunting:

  • "I don't think there's anything wrong with it...the thing that has caused me the most sort of thought is, well, if that's okay, how come I'm not okay with baiting deer?" – Yanni [11:39]
  • "Just because one version of hunting is easier, it’s not improper or unethical. It’s just different." – Yanni [14:22]

• On Hunting Ethics:

  • "Set your expectations, right? You’re not going to have that big, emotional moment...but it shouldn’t take away from it." – Yanni [14:14]

• On Bear Meat Quality:

  • "Bear grease is odorless and flavorless...in the oils that are the most flavorless and odorless." – Yanni [32:12]

• On Bear Intelligence:

  • "That was worth the price of admission, to watch that bear problem-solve that." – Yanni [59:14]

• On Why He’ll Keep Bear Hunting:

  • "What I do need more of is bear meat." – Yanni [67:21]

• On Baited Bear Hunts for Beginners:

  • "…It’s a great animal for people to get their, like, first bow kill. There’s just a lot of opportunities." – Yanni [77:45]

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Key Timestamps

| Timestamp | Topic/Discussion | |-----------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:04 | Introduction to the Manitoba bear hunt and podcast format | | 05:07 | Ethics of baiting bears: listener questions and host reflections | | 12:34 | Comparing baiting for bears vs. deer; movement, challenge, and ethics | | 16:57 | Manitoba habitat, bear numbers, and timing of the hunt | | 25:44 | What goes into bear baits; ingredients and their effect on meat/fat | | 35:07 | Archery setup: gear details and shot description | | 41:49 | Bear proximity at bait: boldness, habituation, and behavioral observations | | 47:44 | Cubs, sows, bear hierarchy and defensive behavior | | 52:34 | Why bears tolerate human movement and scent around the bait | | 56:22 | Observing bear intelligence: trouble-shooting bait setups | | 63:27 | Harvesting: description of Yanni’s bear, skinning, processing, and value of hides, meat, and fat | | 73:48 | Will Yanni hunt this way again? Reflections on the experience and plans for the future | | 77:45 | Baited hunts as ideal for new hunters/bowhunters |

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Conclusion

This episode gives a thorough, honest, and nuanced look at both the practical and ethical aspects of baited black bear hunting in Manitoba. Through thoughtful Q&A, field anecdotes, and listener engagement, Yanni and the crew shed light on a polarizing style of hunting with humor, self-deprecation, and genuine passion for understanding wildlife and the hunting experience. The show is as much about learning and reflection as about reliving a successful hunt for a Manitoba giant.

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Transcript

[Yanni]

This is an Iheart podcast.

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[Yanni]

This is Matt Rogers from Los Culturistas

[Corey]

with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. This is Bowen Yang from Los Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.

[Yanni]

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[Corey]

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[Yanni]

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[Corey]

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[Yanni]

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[Corey]

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[Yanni]

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[Corey]

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[Phil]

The bait thing is very contentious, even for me personally. Like, when you watch this on television, it looks almost too easy. And I've watched YouTube videos of this and been like, is that really hunting? Is it easier than, say, a spot stock hunt? 100%. But one of the cool things that you get from baited hunt like this is you get to be very particular about the animal you hunt. You don't have to make a judgment call on the size and the sex at 300 yards or 500 yards or even 100 yards. Here you get to do it at 10 yards, 12 yards. And so it's much easier to pick out the Mature male, not shoot a s with cubs. I don't know. It'll be interesting. I need to put some time in and just get a feel for all of it until I can really even have an opinion about it. At this point, it's all new to me.

[Yanni]

What you just heard there were my ruminations from the first afternoon evening of my Manitoba Bear hunt, where I'm sort of trying to figure out what in the world is going on. Welcome to 12 and 26 podcast. I should say, welcome to the 12 and 26 podcast. This is the companion show to our 12 and 26 hunt and fish films rolling out this year. What are the fish films, Corey? I only know of 12 hunting films. Is there some fishing?

[Corey]

Well, we know there was some fishing in the behind the scenes on your Manitoba bear hunt.

[Yanni]

There is.

[Corey]

I don't know if there's any front and center fish.

[Yanni]

Who wrote this script? Not me, Corinne. Anyways, we're gonna do this for all of the 12 and 26 episodes, films, things that are coming out this year, which, if you haven't heard, we're doing hour long, just hour long versions of what we always do. But we're going to drop one a month. And alongside that, we're just going to have other things like articles and podcasts, like this one where the host of the show will answer your questions from the Internet, whether it's YouTube or Instagram, and then just sort of give you a little bit more background, a little more context to the the things that we do. So if you're turning into the show right now and haven't seen my Manitoba Bear Hunt, go and watch that. And then this podcast will make more sense to you. And do you know what the next one is, Corey? Coming up in March, I guess the next 12 and 26.

[Corey]

Well, it all has to do with our post production team getting it out on time, depending on which one, but I believe it stars Clay Newcombe. I think we're trying to balance out which location and which pursuit.

[Yanni]

He's got a couple of them this year.

[Corey]

He does? Yep.

[Yanni]

Maybe some more bear hunting.

[Corey]

Maybe Mr. Bear Grease. That makes sense.

[Yanni]

We'll see. We'll see. All right, today I'm here with Corey, who you've already heard from, and Phil the engineer to address your questions about my Manitoba Black Bear hunt and want to thank you for writing in and giving us some questions so we can make this bonus content here. Corey and Corinne took a bunch of time to curate these questions. If there was, you know, 10 of the same question or 10 versions of the same question. We definitely chose those. So we're trying to answer the, the most, the most requested questions. Let's see up top. We like to address the controversy, drama and disagreement inspired by a baited bear hunt. And again you guys, all major voices clear on both sides of this issue. Let's see, should I tell, should I say the names of who wrote it? Yeah.

[Corey]

All right, give him a little shout out.

[Yanni]

Mark Mc Murphy9507 writes, I'm sorry guys, but this is not hunting. I should probably be careful about editorializing with my voice, huh, Phil? Yeah, maybe I could be. It could be very easy to do that. Yeah, maybe. I don't know if you want to say like quote unquote, anything like that. Yeah, but because these are the anti baiting. You mean editorializing with like the tone of your voice? Yeah, you don't want to sound like like Steve's did it because these are, these are the folks that are not down with the baiting. I'm sorry guys, but this is not hunting. This is just killing. Even if there is a expletive ton of bears in Manitoba in parentheses heart my Canada. And if you're only taking mature boars, there is no stalking and no actual hunting. Is this right up there with animals caged and released for killing? I don't think so. But come on guys, you're better than this. And I still Love Meat Eater at Christopher O Dash K2 I says if you can't hunt it fairly, don't hunt at all. Actually this is not hunting, it's just killing the easy way. Disgusting. Here's at Moosey 1961. I will never understand why any good hunter has to bait an animal in to kill. They are not real hunters. Get expletive out there and track and hunt. Now on the flip side at Struggle Bus operator. Kind of like that handle rights. It's population control. Anybody who wants a challenge in quotes can find one elsewhere. But baiting can be a part of wildlife management. At my French bulldog and me says incredible watch and representation of how ethical hunting doesn't end with legal bait and plenty of bears. Just a different look at hunting at Powdernit states, I dislike the uppity mentality that hunting is only big time spot and stock hunting at some random gamer. Some random gamer. 1260. Thank you. I was going somewhere else with that. But they write there's literally evidence in the animal world of other species using bait to hunt. Birds using bait to attract fish into striking distance. For example, turtles with tongues literally shaped like a worm to lure fish into their mouths. And yet there's still some grown men who think hunting has to be difficult. At the little spoon1982 says as a fisherman, I see nothing wrong with baiting your catch. Seems like gatekeeping to me to on people who bait for hunt, who bait animals for hunting. So if somebody asks you now what do you think about baiting bears, what would your take be? Yanni, that's Corinne asking this question. Oh no. Corey, maybe you were supposed. And I see your name highlighted.

[Corey]

Yeah, I didn't want to interrupt you. You were rolling.

[Yanni]

That's all right. We'll get. We'll get this dialed by the end of it. That's perfect. So not before. I've been thinking a lot about the whole bait and thing, especially since the episode came out and the comments came out. It just, you know, I've had almost a year to be thinking about this and there's a lot to say about it. Number one, I'll say this. I am still a very inexperienced like bait hunter. I only have those three days. Well, that's not true. Like I said, I've done. I think I've done two days over feeders in Texas for bears or for pigs and deer. So it's still very, very small amount of experience.

[Corey]

You're a big spot and stock guy.

[Yanni]

Well.

[Corey]

Or sitting in a tree stand.

[Yanni]

I mean I do all kinds of hunting a lot but I just don't have a lot of experience doing baited hunts. And I say that not as a way to get out of answering the question but because I've often found myself because I what I get to do and going to try different kinds of hunting all the time. A lot of times the first, even second time of when you're on a hunt, it doesn't matter if it's guided or not. You. I'm a stranger to the landscape. I'm a stranger to the animal that if it's a new animal that I'm hunting. Right. So I'm just, I'm still like in the introductory stage. I'm still learning. I'm still building a relationship both with the landscape and the animal. And so it happened to me in Latvia, right where we went there to hunt and I had this great stag kind of presented to me. But it was literally two hours into the first morning of the hunt. I'm kind of like just there being kind of casual like ah, I don't know. This looks like it's pretty easy. I mean we had already seen like two other stags that morning. And I didn't feel the pressure of like, oh, you need to get this thing killed now because this is your opportunity. Right. And so same thing with these bears with a, with a, with a baited hunt. I think going back and doing it a second and third time, I might actually be more excited, have more buck fever in the moment on the second or third time I kill a bear over bait than I did the first time. Because again, you're just, it's so new. You don't, I don't even know to be excited yet. Right. Because you're just kind of like, oh, this is easy. But as I saw in my hunt, it's like the mature boar, he only showed up on day three and maybe he wasn't going to show up. Right. So it's not. Again, that's my experience. But I don't know. We're going to continue coming back to like probably what I think about baiting bears. There's a bunch of questions related to that. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. The thing that has caused me the most sort of thought and, and sort of friction in my head has been, well, if that's okay, how come I'm not really okay with baiting deer?

[Corey]

Hence a question we received via Instagram.

[Yanni]

Was that a question?

[Corey]

Yeah. Would you have the same outlook on baiting bears as you would baiting whitetail?

[Yanni]

Yeah. And that one has, I think the word is consternation. It, it's just giving me a lot of time to think, to think about it. Because where we are in Wisconsin, you're not supposed to bait, but there's some baiting that goes on. Sure. And it definitely. Steve has always said, talking about bait, that anytime the bait sort of changes the animals natural movement patterns, he doesn't really like it. Well, obviously with these bears, it's changing where they are. It's concentrating them big time. Right. And we talked about the reasons why to do it. Right. It's like it's all kind of there in that intro of that episode. It's like you get to see a lot of bears, you get to observe bears, and then you get to pick which bear you're gonna kill. With spot and Stock hunting, as you know, a lot of times it's like you're like, oh, I think it's a big bear. There's something black like, I'm gonna shoot it, I'm gonna kill it. Right?

[Corey]

Oh yeah. Spot and stock bear hunting. I mean, unless it's South Cubs or if it's like, obviously a small bear you're seeing, it's like pretty hard to pass up an opportunity of just seeing

[Yanni]

one of those needles because you've been grinding. It's hard, right?

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

So I think that, and as you can see in the comments, a lot of people don't like it because it's too easy. And to that, I feel like I have a great answer. It's like if you're sitting in a blind on a food plot, not even a food plot, let's just say it's a corn field or any field where deer are going to come out like an hour before dark and then you're going to shoot one. That's by no means any harder than what I did. Right, right.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

Like, you know, they're coming to that food source. You've set up on that food source in an ambush location. So, sure, maybe you didn't dump the corn out in the field, a farmer grew it or whatever, but it's kind of basically the same thing. Yeah, right.

[Corey]

But you did a fantastic job in this episode, Manitoba Black Bear, at setting the scene as to what goes into the bait and how much work that entails. You know, time and money, a lot of energy.

[Yanni]

For sure. For sure. But I'm just saying, like, it's. I, I think that people see it and they're just like, oh, it's too easy. You're just there and you shoot it. And as the hunter on a guided hunt, yeah, we went and I helped Craig do a little bit, but yeah, I'm not putting in the effort that, that he is right to get the bears to be coming to that bait. So that feeling that you get from a hard earned opportunity, whether it's hiking the mountains for elk for a week or for multiple years to get a shot at one and then you get one sort of that elation. I'm probably not going to get that from shooting a bear over bait. Right. But what I do want to say is that just because it's easier, I don't think that should necessarily take away from the experience. Just like set your expectations, right. Like, you're not going to have that big moment and just like tears are going to come bursting out because you just put in five crazy days of work. Right. This is way more casual or whatever, but it is what it is and it shouldn't take away from it. There's a lot, like I said in the watch the episode, there's a lot of things that you get to experience doing that that you don't get to experience grinding the mountains for five days, you know. So again, I just don't think that we, we should look at it as it's. That it's exclusive of one another. That just because one. One version of hunting is easier, that it's not proper hunting or not ethical hunting or not the right kind of hunting. It's just different. So cool. Let's watch this next clip, which I think you kind of set up the kind of environment that you're in. Bill's ready for us to move on, folks. Two hours northwest of Winnipeg and we're still very much in southern Manitoba. This central Canadian province runs 760 miles north to south. The outfit sits just north of Riding Mountain National national park and just west of Lake Manitoba to the south are the Great Plains and to the north the beginnings of the boreal forest. This part of Manitoba is an even mix of forest and agriculture. Aspen and bur oak dominate the woods and the fields are mostly canola wheat and soybeans. This makes for unbelievable bear habitat. Manitoba is estimated to hold 3:30 to 40,000 black bears.

[Corey]

Man. Something about black bear hunting. Yanni and forest fires and smoke. When we went hunting in our.

[Yanni]

Oh, that's right.

[Corey]

In Montana, we had somehow had to deal with forest fires in May. Didn't expect that. And it affected our hunt.

[Yanni]

But yeah, you could see it's a little smoky in that clip there and pretty thick hay. We actually ran into hunters traveling on that hunt that had gone farther north and had to be evacuated and didn't even get to go black bear hunt.

[Corey]

Oh, interesting.

[Yanni]

Yeah. So it's a thing.

[Corey]

So after we watched and heard that, were you hunting McCarthy's property in Manitoba and can you describe the layout of that habitat?

[Yanni]

So we were not hunting the McCarthy's place. We were hunting either public land that he has the right to bait on or private land where he has an agreement with the landowner to have a bait site. As far as what it looks like, I mean, you saw it there in the clip. If you're only listening, it is a very even mix of woods and ag. I mean, it's kind of what you'd. What you expect in a lot of parts of the Midwest where the ag hasn't gone completely nuts on and where they're not aging, you know, know, farming from ditch to ditch. But here there's still a lot of woods left between the fields. And yeah, it was, I was surprised to see. I was. Because like I said in the description there in the video, it's Aspen and oak trees, which I've never seen that mix anywhere else. I mean we have big tooth aspen down in Wisconsin, but not these populous tremulo like the ones that we have out west here. The ones that are white, real white barked and you know, you get the great colors in in the fall and they shimmer in the wind. That's the same aspen that's there. So it's a really cool mix. And I bet you in the fall it's just absolutely gorgeous. I mean oak trees and aspens, it's got to be killer.

[Corey]

Yeah. Colors. The foliage would be popping.

[Yanni]

Yeah.

[Corey]

That's a lot of bears obviously that you got to witness daily out there. And then obviously Manitoba, massive province. But the just the section you were in, you had a lot of bear encounters. So there must be plenty of places for him to, to rest and recover and hide out, assuming during the day. So just looking at that photo we're looking at from that clip, it's a good mix. Lot of, lot of habitat for them to hide in and then plenty of farm field.

[Yanni]

Farm fields to feed in. Yeah, the best of both worlds. Everything a bear wants.

[Corey]

And then you were there in June. Right. So it's probably early farming season. Assuming nothing's like standing too tall yet in those fields.

[Yanni]

No, we saw farmers actually planting, planting fields, prepping for the season. Yeah.

[Corey]

So did you pick those dates that you hunted in Manitoba that week?

[Yanni]

No, I think the season ends second week of June or after the second week of June. So it pretty much runs all of May and then two weeks into June. He usually a lot of times doesn't hunt into June. But because this is kind of last minute, he, he got a spot for me kind of on the back end of everybody else hunting. He felt like it's good and bad. The basically the farther you get into June, the hides are going to be more rubbed. Except for the big bores. He said that for whatever reason, the big bores seem to keep, do less rubbing and keep their nice hides longer. It might be because they're more focused on rutting. So that's kind of peak rutting activity is that June time period. And so because they're, you know, looking for sows, they're not sitting around rubbing their hides off.

[Corey]

I was going to ask that, did you witness any rut in action?

[Yanni]

I mean the big board that came in, I mean probably any board that was sort of, you know, middle size, middle age to bigger or older is coming there because they know there's going to be sows at that bait. There's going to be more than one sow and there's going to be more than one board, you know, coming around.

[Corey]

Right.

[Yanni]

So. But I wouldn't say that we didn't actually see any sort of board chasing a sow activity.

[Corey]

No, not specifically coming in. It's kind of a win win for them. They might find some food. Well, they will find some food. Maybe they'll find a lady too. Yeah, that probably. They probably do that in undercover in the thick oaks and aspens.

[Yanni]

Maybe. I don't know. I don't know.

[Corey]

I would.

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[Corey]

Lets see change in topics. We had a few questions come in about bear bait ingredients. Someone on Instagram asked what kind of bait is used and how does it affect the flavor of the meat and fat of the bears. We've got a clip here from the film which could help answer that.

[Craig McCarthy]

I just put a bit of oats and then I'll top it off with some corn. At the start of the season. I usually just use oats.

[Yanni]

Just oats?

[Craig McCarthy]

Just oats. And the grease. Used grease.

[Yanni]

How do you get your hands on enough grease to.

[Corey]

For this?

[Craig McCarthy]

I got some ins with a few restaurants and they just hold it all.

[Yanni]

Use fryer oil.

[Craig McCarthy]

Use fryer oil. Yeah. And then I put an ounce or two of Northwoods bear products in it. Some expired stuff. They eat anything that's soaked in fryer oil.

[Yanni]

You think they would eat it less if it was just plain bread?

[Craig McCarthy]

Well, if it's got green, they're fussy.

[Yanni]

Really.

[Craig McCarthy]

If it's like rotten like that, they won't eat it.

[Corey]

No kidding.

[Craig McCarthy]

Unless you soak it. They don't eat fish because they're not raised on it like they are in B.C. and stuff. Right. At the salmon runs. And they just. Any meat, if the meat goes rotten,

[Yanni]

they don't like it.

[Craig McCarthy]

But something about beaver.

[Yanni]

Something about beaver is right. If you're only listening. Again, we were at the Bait barrel and after putting in the corn and Oats that were soaked in the fryer oil. We added some outdated bread that was moldy, so that's why we were talking about the mold. But he said if you, you know, soak it in some grease, then they're more apt to get after it. So, yeah. Our ingredients included oats, corn grease, bear lure, birthday cake and beaver meat. The most interesting part about it was that there is some tactics involved with baiting. Like early on when he's doing the sort of pre baiting to set the stations up before he's got hunters coming in, it's only the oats and they're soaked. And the reason he does that is because the oats don't fill the bears up. They just go right through the bears. They kind of just poop them right out. And it's very evident when you're at the bait site because it was like a 20 yard radius where it's almost like a. Just a smear of bear poop of oats that are just, they're still whole. Like they're just not breaking them down, they're not getting nutrients out of them. So they fill up, they leave, they come right back. So he feels like that helps them come back. And then as it gets time to haunt him, he starts adding the corn and adding other things to sort of sweeten the pot a little bit and hopefully make that one, you know, big bear come in during daylight hours. The other more interesting thing was how into the beaver meat they are. Yeah, the first night it was just hung basically where they could get to it very easily. And the first bear that came in got the beaver out of the tree, went off 50 yards and you could hear munching on it. Other bears were coming in. They could smell that he was over there or she was over there chewing on that beaver meat. They would go over there, they'd tussle, you know, get a chunk or whatever and you. And once it was all gone, the bears started hitting the bait barrel. But that beaver meat is number one for whatever reason. And I even asked Craig about, like, how come you just wouldn't use roadkill? Yeah, like there's moose around, there's elk around, there's deer around, and he's like, man, they're not into it. Wow. Not into it. But that sweet beaver meat, they love it. His theory is that it's one of the first of easy available foods for them. And this in the spring and the sow can teach those cubs to basically sit on a beaver run and hunt them easily. So they sort of grow up, you know, with a taste for it.

[Corey]

Yeah. Like you were saying, they don't like fish, which is surprising to me because it's just the stinky old fish you think would just.

[Yanni]

Yeah, you would think anything. Right.

[Corey]

But if they're not used to it, if they're not growing up on it as.

[Yanni]

Yeah.

[Corey]

For a beaver.

[Yanni]

And I would imagine that like anything, if you just kept giving it to him, kept giving it to him, that some would start to eat it slowly and then, you know, maybe they develop a taste for it. But anyways, so people want to know if like, that changed the flavor of the meat or the fat. Again, he only baits them for about eight weeks total. Maybe that's enough time to change the. The flavor of bear meat. But again, it's mostly corn and oats. There's like some oil on there. There's a little bit of the pastries in the sweet stuff.

[Corey]

Birthday cake.

[Yanni]

Yeah. I just don't think it's quite enough. The only time that we've experienced that is with the Prince of Wales island bears that literally are eating fish or seafood year round. Like, they're always scavenging on the beaches, Whether it's they're eating mussels or they got salmon coming up the creeks and they're eating those. Whatever it might be, that bear meat. Steve one time gave me a chunk and said, close your eyes and eat this. And when I ate it, it was a smoked chunk of bear. But when you ate it, you thought you were eating salmon jerky because it just tasted like a salmon.

[Corey]

That sounds pretty good.

[Yanni]

Yeah, it actually wasn't bad at all. It wasn't like it was rotten salmon. It was just, you know, smoke. It was a more of a smoked salmon flavor than a smoked red meat flavor. So, Yeah, I don't think it. It changes. Changed it at all.

[Corey]

So did you notice any different taste? You did that. What was the recipe that you cooked up up there at their.

[Yanni]

No.

[Corey]

Their camp? Did you notice any off putting taste in the flavor or the fat that you've been eating on?

[Yanni]

No, the fat is completely. What makes bear grease so great is that it's odorless and flavorless. I mean, I just, I think that if you did a blind taste test and you had, I don't know, olive oil and avocado oil and whatever grapeseed oil bear would land. Bear grease would land in the oils that are just the. The most flavorless and odorless. Like, I feel like olive oil I could probably pick out. I'm trying to think of one other one that's like, it's like just very, very bland. But yeah, there's just no flavor to it. It's great.

[Corey]

That is from YouTube at UA2894 asks, isn't it bad to feed the bears on that stuff? Wondering the overall health.

[Yanni]

Yeah, the health of the bears. Again, if it was a year round program, it probably, it would not be good for the bears. Everything in moderation. You know, we did hit this in a meat eater podcast where there was some sort of study being done. I think maybe even North Carolina. They, excuse me, outlawed some types of bait because literally the bears there were getting tooth decay, tooth rot.

[Corey]

Interesting.

[Yanni]

But again, I'm assuming it was like a year round program or just a lot of it. You know, bears aren't brushing their teeth and it was, you know, it was affecting the, affecting the bear. So. Yeah, again, too much of it. Probably not good. Follow up question someone asked when this encourage bears to rage garbage cans. I Talked to Craig McCarthy this morning about that. They do not have like a higher prevalence of bears in garbage cans or at people's houses than anywhere else where there's bare human interface. You know, I think that once these bears are off the bait, once the season ends again, there's just so much food in that habitat between acorns from those oak trees and then all of the stuff that they're growing, canola, corn, soybeans, sorghum, you name it, it's all there. Like those bears are just have a lot of food at their disposal.

[Corey]

Fawns, calves, moose, deer.

[Yanni]

Yeah, I'm sure at some point, you know, when there's, when there's the, when it's fawning season, I'm sure they snack

[Corey]

on a few beavers.

[Yanni]

Yeah, beavers.

[Corey]

Well, okay, moving on from baiting a few, folks asked if you could detail your archery setup, your bow and arrow setup. What were you shooting?

[Yanni]

That was a Matthews lift x set at 70 pounds. You know, my draw length is just shy of 30 inches. I shoot a. About a 30 inch arrow. Or maybe my arrow is 29 and a half. I'm shooting the rip tkos with the 200 grain head on them. There's a weighted insert as well. I think my total arrow weight is right around 500 grains for that setup. Yeah. Anything else you want to know about my bow and arrow setup?

[Corey]

No, that was pretty good.

[Yanni]

I don't think we're gonna single bevel broadhead from iron will. That's what I shot through it. And yeah, got a nice Pass through. And the bear died 50 yards later. You know, less than 30 seconds, we heard the death moan.

[Corey]

Yeah. I don't remember if you covered it in the film or not, but where did you hit him? Did you hit the middle? Just forward of middle of middle like you.

[Yanni]

And, you know, you just can't. We, We've replayed it, which is often fun to do when you video haunts. You can replay and see exactly where you hit. But the light's fading just enough. That arrow's moving just fast enough that you. It's. It's hard to tell exactly where it is because the bear, you know, shrugs just a little bit as the arrows going in there. It was hard to find the middle of the middle. Sure. Because your sight picture is just full of black hair and it's low light and there's no shoulder crease, there's no ribs that you can, you can, you know, see. There's no other coloration that you can kind of work off of. You know, like a pronghorn antelope. I mean, it literally gives you a spot to aim on its side where there's like a right hand, you know, right corner of white coming up into its vitals. And literally, if you pull a. Put a bullet on that corner, it's money. Yeah. An all black bear does not have that. And so you can actually see me in the video sort of like moving my pins around, going up and down. I kind of come out of my peep a couple times just because I really wanted to be sure, you know, and try to get it into that middle of the middle spot. But yeah, we, we did a little necropsy and it had gone right through the lungs.

[Corey]

Beautiful. Yeah. How far did he go?

[Yanni]

Maybe 50 yards.

[Corey]

Okay. Through some thick stuff, but easy blood trail. Even with all that fur. That could be. That could be tough to. Blood trail bear.

[Yanni]

Yeah. You know, like any animal, people are always like, oh, how come there's no blood right off the bat? I don't think that there is blood right off the bat. Not the kind of blood that you really want to see. I mean, sometimes you see it when you get a muscle wound and you get some muscle blood, like spurting right off the bat. But really, when you go through. Through the vitals, that stuff just doesn't start bleeding. You know, you basically have to fill up that cavity for it to start coming out the edges. Right. Or. Or the motion to start sloshing it out of there.

[Corey]

Yeah. And with a bear, it has to.

[Yanni]

It.

[Corey]

It mops it up like A sponge before it actually hits the ground.

[Yanni]

Sure.

[Corey]

Bears can be very.

[Yanni]

Or, you know, if you've gotten the lungs good or, you know, one of those big arteries where it's going to cause the blood to be coming out of the face. Right. That still takes time. And animals go so far so fast that people are like, oh, I didn't have blood the first 50 yards. Well, you know what? That's not a issue for me. If I don't have blood the first 50 yards, it's just like, it's just not a thing that I think about. And usually if you've made the right hit and there's a bunch of blood, it's like the animals, they're dead at 50 yards. So.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

Yeah. Not. Not a thing I'm too worried about.

[Corey]

I was curious. You weren't using illuminated knocks.

[Yanni]

I was.

[Corey]

You were?

[Yanni]

Oh, yeah.

[Corey]

Excuse me. Obviously I didn't watch it enough, but that's good. Obviously that a lot of shots on those big boards are going to be at last light. That helps so much. Be able to see, especially if you're filming. Look back at it and sure. See where you hit it. Let's see. Jjj98 asks, doesn't safety say to use a gear harness and pulley to get your bow, rifle, crossbow into the stand with you yet? Giannis climbed up with it in his hand. What do you have to say about that?

[Yanni]

So, yes, I knew this would be a thing. The first night I wore a saddle and I was tethered. In the second two nights I did not. So these stands were what I would consider a low stand. 10ft, maybe your butt's 12ft off the ground. Like you're just not that high. You don't have to be that high. Right. Just like a little bit. It's probably more for to be able just to see and get the right angle over foliage and stuff, more than trying to hide. You know, like with deer hunting, we're trying to get 20ft up all the time because it's like part of the hide. So. Yeah, it was a huge stand. It was a two person stand. It had a. The bar around it. Yes. Could it be bad if you still fall 8ft or 10ft off of a ladder? 100%. Just in that moment, I felt very safe that I can make it that short distance. I wasn't that high off the ground that that it. I could deal with this safely, you know. And then the second and the third night, once I was in the stand, I wasn't. I wasn't Strapped in again, big, wide platform. I was only, you know, my feet were like 8 or 10ft off the ground.

[Corey]

Low enough for that 7 foot bear to grab your foot if you wanted to.

[Yanni]

Oh, yeah, for sure, for sure. But yeah, so 100%, kids, when you're climbing up into those stands, you should always use a, a rope to pull up your rifle or your bow. Like when I'm in Wisconsin, I always do that. It's probably impossible with the way I climb up into a tree. Probably be impossible to go up with the bow in my hand, but yeah, that's the way you want to do it. Again, it was literally like three steps for me and it just seems so short that I wasn't worried about it.

[Corey]

Well, thanks for explaining. We have another clip of the film to show and we'll explain what we're seeing here. Phil, take it away.

[Craig McCarthy]

All right, I'm out.

[Corey]

So for those who couldn't see what was going on on the first day of your hunt, we see Craig, your outfitter, standing feet away from the bait drum and, and feet away from two bears. Before he leaves it to you, a bunch of folks wrote in asking, what the heck? What's going on? Why are those bears so close to the guy and not getting spooked? They almost look tame. Can you explain this scene, Yanni?

[Yanni]

Mm. And you can see on my Instagram too, there was other videos and you can check out Craig's. Excuse me. This Lacroix is really giving me some, some gas in my chest. There's other videos out there where that same day, we're messing around, we're setting up camera gear and whatever, and behind our backs, there's bears already coming to the bait because we've already prepped the bait and, and at one point I try to just sneak alongside the Can Am and I get within, yeah, two or three feet to where I could reach out and smack him in the face if I wanted to. Right. It's a young bear. So I was talking to Craig about that this morning and he's like, he's like, look, you got to look at it. That here's this food source. They're interested in it. There's a bunch of bears in the area. Those young bear. It's a competition. Those young bears are pretty much like, if I want to get some of this, I got to be here first.

[Corey]

Sure.

[Yanni]

And so I like. They're certainly accustomed to the sound of the bear buggy coming in.

[Corey]

It's like a dinner Bell Probably.

[Yanni]

Oh, 100%. And so they're there and they want to get first crack at it. Right. And they're ballsy enough to where they're like, yeah, other things, whatever can am humans. I'll take my chances because I want to get some of these calories. So, yes, it's like it's a it again. It does make it. It gives it this, like. Oh, this. They're like, they're tame. Well, they're tame when they're young and they're hungry. And as they get older and they start to dominate, they start to not be quite so bold in during daylight hours. Like, they've had weeks where the big bores only show up in the dark and the clients don't get to kill a big boar because those big bores have it figured out. Yeah.

[Corey]

Outsmarted them somehow. Well, there's other scenes of bears getting really close to you. I was curious once that can am leaves, did those bears acknowledge you three? There are two cameramen and yourself in the tree.

[Yanni]

Yeah. And that's a weird thing when you've never been there to get used to that, because they sort of, like, come in and then they glance up, but then they just go back to what they're doing. So they're very aware of your presence. Again, I just think that it's like, this bait is here. They want those calories. They're will. They're that risk reward. They're willing to do the risk for the reward. Again, for whatever reason, the big boar is not doing that that much. So they. They know that the threat is there. And, like, we're still. When we're setting up on those baits, we're still thinking about where are the. Where's the boar gonna come from? What's the wind doing? Because the wind was set up just right for when that boar came in, that he did not smell us. Like, it was a kind of a crosswind. And so had he, like, looped the crosswind, he would have smelled us. But he came in on the trail, and he just. He just never cut my wind. It could have been a totally different thing had he, you know, looped around and gotten our wind. I don't know what the result would have been, but that bear never knew we were there, the boar, so.

[Corey]

Well, we have some clips showing just how close some of these bears got to you. Oh, such good climbers. Looks like he's kind of taking his time, too. Is that right underneath you?

[Yanni]

Yeah, he's kind of coming up the side where there's no ladder. Those are Max's Feet you could see. And I'm on the other side of the tree.

[Phil]

Oh, another bear coming from the field.

[Yanni]

Yeah, this one you can see it's, that's a cub. That's. That was. Had come in with that, with the sow, which you can see underneath Eli there, a big cinnamon bear is a sow and she had a black cub and a blonde cub. And I'm not worried at all about that little cub like that dude. You know, you can pop him in the nose and you're, and you're probably going to turn him the other direction. But if that sow thinks that there's danger in that tree because you just popped her, you know, cub, that's the problem is that like you piss off that sow because that sow is not that much smaller than, than the boar that I ended up killing.

[Corey]

She's a tank.

[Yanni]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Beautiful color.

[Yanni]

Yeah. So yeah, we didn't have anything like that happen in archery. It just happened to be that when that sow sent those cubs up the tree that that one chose, that one that Eli was in.

[Corey]

Okay. That's what was happening. They were retreating from that boar coming.

[Yanni]

Yes, exactly. And that happened a lot. Like every single night there'd be a sow in there with cubs are doing their thing. And then a lot of times, even before saw the other bear, the sow would make some grunt, some noise, some movement and those cubs would just be, you know, 30ft up a tree in a heartbeat because the boar's coming in. So.

[Corey]

And what would mom do?

[Yanni]

She'd hang out kind of at the base of the tree if she had to, she, she'd sort of charge at those other bears and run them off. But yeah, I think she was out of all the bears we saw in three days, she would have done that to every single bear except the one that I killed.

[Corey]

Oh, really?

[Yanni]

Yeah. Though if she would have charged him, it would. There would have been a little battle royale on our hands.

[Corey]

Yeah, those look like yearling cubs.

[Yanni]

No, those were definitely not yearling. Those were probably second year cups. Those were pretty. There's the second night that you'll see it. There's a lot of clips on it on the episode. But the second night, those are probably more like yearling cubs, like one year old, not like born that year in the, in the den, but one year old. I think those were probably two years old and getting ready because those were like decent size. I mean when that one's next to Eli, it doesn't look that much smaller than Eli.

[Corey]

No, oh, interesting.

[Yanni]

You know, so coming on 200 pound bear, you know, I doubt that's a yearling.

[Corey]

They're eating good.

[Yanni]

They are eating good.

[Corey]

Hard to say, obviously.

[Yanni]

Yeah, for sure.

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[Corey]

Let's see another question from Relaxing Drives. 6075. I've never hunted bears before, but I'm confused about how you all get away with moving and talking so much and not spooking the bears. Can you please comment on this? I understand the bears see very well, but they get face to face with the cubs in the tree and seem to be unbothered. Are they aware you are there and

[Yanni]

just don't fear you 100%? 100%. They just haven't. I think they do fear you, but again, it's that risk reward for that bait. And again, we're not there doing jumping jacks and hooting and hollering like we're doing some talking. It's very quiet. I think that if you climb down out of the tree, you're gonna run the bears out of there. Right. If you start yelling and talking in a normal voice, you're gonna probably run the bears out of there. I don't know. We didn't, we didn't test that because I think that the whole goal is that you're trying to like minimize your presence so that the boar who is sketched out about the situation so that you can fool him into coming in.

[Corey]

Well, seeing you move is one thing, but do you think you must have had pretty decent wind when they were all hanging around there or did they not really mind that as much?

[Yanni]

It just, it depended. But yeah, we like those. Your stands never set up upwind of that bait. Sure. It's never gonna be perfect all the time. Yeah. But. Well that would be the wrong version. So it's set up in a way so that most of the predominant winds of the area are going to not be blowing right at the bait, you know. So yeah, I think if they were again, because they don't see that. Great. This fell seems to think that they do or this person. But bears, right? In your opinion?

[Corey]

I've never.

[Yanni]

Yeah, not the best vision.

[Corey]

You can't fool their nose. But yeah, they're. They're a little. They'll question what they see till they smell it or even hear it. Yeah, they'll look at you for a while, but if they smell you, you may not ever get a chance to see them.

[Yanni]

Yeah, it's over normally.

[Corey]

Let's see. Here's another question. What signs do you look for to tell a boar from a sow on camera?

[Yanni]

Definitely just a stockier front end. Especially those with those younger bears. I don't know if it's impossible, but I don't think I could tell. But as those bears get older, the bores have just a more shoulders on them and then they almost start to walk. And you can definitely see it. With the bear that I shoot, when he comes in, there's like a little bit of a swagger. His front toes are pointed inward almost a little bit. And just the body shape, the sow seems to be rounder, I guess, if that makes sense.

[Corey]

More pear shaped.

[Yanni]

Yeah, definitely.

[Corey]

Rounder in the butt.

[Yanni]

Yeah. Rounder in the butt. Yeah. Other than that, it's basically the cub thing.

[Corey]

It's not easy.

[Yanni]

No.

[Corey]

Nice when you get some time to look at them.

[Yanni]

Oh, yeah.

[Corey]

But in spot and stock, especially around here out west, it's hard to. To get enough time first of all to be able to tell the difference. But yeah, make sure cubs is the biggest giveaway like you said. But that bore was obvious, like you said. Coming in hot, swaggering, owning the joint. Let's see. Moving on, we want to flash another clip from the film which shows just how smart black bears are.

[Yanni]

Oh, yeah. So this one we hung that basically like you'd hang some food in the back country in bear country. Looped it over a limb, had it hanging down and then had tied it off there on that tree that where we had that moultrie camera. Never even looks at the barrel. He goes straight to the not so easy to get beaver carcass and never gives up. He climbs every tree in the vicinity multiple times. He eventually realizes that the yellow rope is attached to the beaver. And after enough manipulation, he gets what he wants. Oh, there's something about that beaver meat that a barrel full of used. Sorry.

[Corey]

Smart.

[Yanni]

All right. Our video playing service is having some issues, but that was basically the end of the clip. Yeah, yeah, we got it.

[Corey]

Just trial.

[Yanni]

That's a very Abridged version. That bear.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

I think that bear knew that we had put that. I don't. I don't want to say that he knew that we put that beaver carcass there, but I think that he knew that somehow we were associated with it the same way that he kind of knew that yellow rope was associated with it because he came over. Because you got. The whole thing happens there in a span of a minute or two, but that actually lasted closer to an hour. Wow. And that bear came and climbed our tree multiple times. And he definitely had a little bit of a huff and a puff and an attitude to him about it when he was coming up that tree, as in kind of, you know. And again, it's a little bit of anthropomorphization here, but you're thinking that the bear is like, hey, you guys have something to do with that thing? Like, I need to come up here, and maybe if I do something with you guys, that'll make the, you know, the beaver carcass fall out of the tree. I don't know. But like I said, he went up every single tree and just messed around, messed around, messed around until finally, you know, he gets a hold of that rope, and then he sees that when he's holding onto the rope, the carcass is moving, and he just kept messing with that rope until the carcass fell down. Clay, in his new book, he dives into. I haven't read this part, but Clay told me all about it, about how black bears are, like, it's. It's proven, it's study, that they are the most curious animals and like. Like, they're able to do more problem solving than any other wild animal on our continent. Right. So this is a. Like, a prime example of that bear being like, oh, I want that. I'm gonna figure out how to get it, as opposed to just being like, oh, it's out of reach. I'll go and eat the stuff out of the barrel. There's a trip. And again, that was worth the price of admission was go there and watch that bear problem. Solve that.

[Corey]

And was that bear able to devour that whole beaver, or did somebody else

[Yanni]

come and he ran off with it eventually? And then other bears would, you know, go into the woods where he was, and you'd hear some growling and some. You know, I couldn't see what was going on, but again, like, they love that meat. And I'm sure someone else got a little. Little bits and pieces of it.

[Corey]

Smart little bugger.

[Yanni]

Mm.

[Corey]

He's Got an interesting coat too. He's kind of trying to become either cinnamon or blonde.

[Yanni]

Well, yeah, that or he's rubbed out. Hard to say.

[Corey]

Yeah. Could have rubbed that. That outer coat off. See where we at here? We talked about how they love the beaver meat over the. The sugar and the baits.

[Yanni]

Yeah.

[Corey]

You did eventually get a chance at the target bore and made a pass through shot. Your reflections on sight picture and taking the shot were interesting since you've never been that up close and personal with a bear.

[Yanni]

Sure. And we kind of covered that. It's just like it's a big black target. And your sight picture, had he been at 30 yards, it'd be easier to pick the middle of the middle because you can just. Your sight picture, you can see the entire bear. But when he's at 12 yards is, I think, how far the shot was. Like you can't see the top. When you're looking through your peep. You can't see the top of the bear or the bottom of the bear. You can just see black. And so it was just a little bit of a challenge to find the middle of the middle. And we got a clip here if you watch it.

[Phil]

What do you think about that?

[Craig McCarthy]

Looks good, man.

[Phil]

Looks like good blood.

[Craig McCarthy]

I'd say

[Corey]

there's some bubbles in there.

[Yanni]

Oh, yeah.

[Craig McCarthy]

All in here.

[Phil]

It was tough because, you know, it's getting a little bit dark and you're so close to them.

[Craig McCarthy]

Yeah.

[Phil]

That like your whole sight picture is just black, bare.

[Yanni]

Right.

[Phil]

And so I had.

[Yanni]

I came off him like three different times going, okay, there's his leg. Okay, there's his, you know, bottom of the.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

The bear.

[Yanni]

There's top of the bear.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

Okay.

[Phil]

There's the middle.

[Yanni]

Yeah. And there's the middle of the middle. Let's move on to the next one. Corey.

[Corey]

Yeah. YouTube question from at regular guy dash J4L asks honest question. If the bear was wounded, did you have a backup weapon? And can you even have one in Manitoba? A pistol is what he's referring to.

[Yanni]

Yeah. I don't know the answer as far as can you have one in Manitoba? I don't think I could have traveled up there with a pistol. I'm not sure. I didn't look into it. I did ask that of Craig when we were tracking the bear. Mike, when this be something that you normally do and he normally does have, I believe, a shotgun. It's either. I can't remember if it was that or. Or lever action. Some. Some kind of a small handy maneuverable weapon that you can pump off some rounds if needed, you know, and he usually does pack that. But he had forgotten it. He did feel confident with my report on, you know, that we had thought we made a good shot. We heard the death moan. We heard him crash not far away. Like he felt like we were going to walk in there and find it. But normally he said when he is tracking, he. He does have a. A weapon, but I was. I was not carrying one.

[Corey]

How long did you guys wait after your shot?

[Yanni]

I mean, we really only waited because, well, one, you're making a television piece of television. So, you know, the camera guys got to wrap their stuff up and, you know, we're trying to shoot stuff and make sure we got it all covered. And then I forget how far away Craig was, but it took him, I don't know, 20 or 30 minutes to get there maybe. And so. Yeah, not that long. Yeah, 30 minutes.

[Corey]

Well, that helps to be patient. Let him expire. Just make sure.

[Yanni]

Yeah, for sure. For sure.

[Corey]

Okay, we want to show the boar. You got Phil.

[Yanni]

Wow.

[Craig McCarthy]

Yeah, he's a tank.

[Phil]

Look at that.

[Craig McCarthy]

He's a beast.

[Yanni]

Look at that animal, huh?

[Craig McCarthy]

That's a mature boy right there. It's the one we're looking for. You got him.

[Phil]

Wow, look at him paws.

[Yanni]

What?

[Craig McCarthy]

That's a big bear. Oh, yeah. Look at the head on him. That sucker's thick.

[Yanni]

He's awesome. Thanks, buddy. Thanks, Craig.

[Craig McCarthy]

Yes, sir.

[Corey]

Love that bloody handshake. What a giant. Giant beast.

[Yanni]

Yeah. People ask if that was my biggest one. Well, that's my only bear. It's not true. I killed one that Mingus treed in our backyard once. That was, I don't know, 75 pound bear. He was eating our chickens. And when I called the warden, he's like, look, you can kill him or I'm gonna have to come in and kill him. If you kill him, you can put the meat in your freezer. So I chose that route. So this is the first one that I. I went on a hunt and got. Yeah, I'm stoked. It's a big bear. Good luck topping that one. Yeah, I mean, he's got a. We. We think we. I texted Craig if you remembered what we. We. Green scored him 19 and change is what he thought on this. On the skull, which I think 20 inches is like Boone and Crockett. Minimum, 21 is all time. And we. He thinks he's squared around seven and a half feet. So, yeah, big old. Big old giant bear. I mean, I'm. I'm stoked on it. It's bears are kind of nice. It's kind of like a turkey in a way where any mature bear, just like any mature Tom, you know, Tom's become a little more mature sooner than a bear. But they're all nice because they're all like big and fat and got a big skull on them. And like, I don't care if it's an 18 inch skull or 21 inch skull, is it? I don't think that's ever going to be a thing for me. Or if the height is six feet versus seven and a half feet, like, I was just happy with the experience. Now that I have a skull and a hide at home, I'm like, I'm probably not going to go try to kill another bear to have another skull and more hides. We just don't have things to do with them these days. Like my hide is basically laying on the in the middle of our living room, which is fun. Mingus has been taking a lot of naps on it.

[Corey]

Oh, good.

[Yanni]

I've laid down on it a little bit. I have a dream of revision where once I move my, my wood stove to a place where you can actually right now it's like in the entry area, which I understand why the guy did it, but I would prefer if it was like in a corner of the house where you can sit in a comfortable chair in front of it, watch the fire. I'd like to have that hide laid out in front of it there where I could have my hound dog sleeping on it. I could kick my feet up on the hound dog that's on my, the bear hide. You know, I'm not going to try to preserve this hide by any means. Like I'm going to use it. I'd like to use it as little, literally as a rug of some sort on the ground. I'm not going to just hang it up on the wall just to be, just to be able to look at it. That being said, I don't need more hides. I don't need more skulls. What I do need more of is bear meat.

[Corey]

Oh, amen.

[Yanni]

The more I eat it, the more I like it. And it's just such a nice change of pace from all of the super lean venison. You know, whether it's elk, deer, pronghorn, moose, whatever, all that stuff just gets to just kind of be the same after a while. And it's nice to have some meat that's got some fat in it. So I'm 100 going to keep hunting bears, but primarily for the meat yeah,

[Corey]

it's a good change up. And here in Montana and a lot of places seasonally you can add to your the freezer in the spring.

[Yanni]

People feel obligated, I think to do stuff with hides and skulls, especially with bears. I mean in some places you have to pack it out. But honestly it's for me it's not. That's not what I'm into bear hunting for. I want the meat and, and the fat. Like we're almost out of all of the. I know. Someone asked. Well, we can just go to the next question.

[Corey]

Well, yeah, let's bring this one up at max straight 6235 asks, what are your thoughts on scoring bears? I think we've established that. Is there a better way to identify trophy status or does it even matter? Skull size is very difficult to assess. Even some pumpkin heads don't score as well as you'd expect. As much of the appearances can be soft tissue. I'm guessing yours went around 20 inches. A great example of what our province has to offer. Must be a local Manitoban. But yeah, good point. I mean if you mentioned that skull was under 20. I harvested a bear last spring. That sounds like we need to clarify this. Might have a little bit bigger of a skull, but he did not go as long or as squared as your bear. So he'd had a big wide skull, which probably helped that score. Growing up, we just worried about length. Like you were always looking for a seven foot bear, which is pretty rare to find in Montana. I know of a few, but they're hard to find. That's an old bear. It doesn't always mean it's an old bear either. Just a big long bear. So, you know, good genes on the hoof or on the paws. They say scoring a bear in the field as far as Boone and Crockett and Pope and Young is very difficult. Difficult. You'll know if he's got a big old noggin on him. But most people that I know look for the length, nose to tail, as far as what establishes a big bear and the size of a bear that you could brag about to your friends or whatever.

[Yanni]

Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna continue to try to kill bears and just kill ones that aren't the size of a black lab. Someone asked, or maybe this is just Corey asking how much the bear weighed and how much rendered fat did I get off him. The bear was 388 pounds because I had to travel with all of it back from Manitoba to Montana and you know, airplanes and all that, I. I got surprisingly more meat and fat back than I thought I would. I filled up, I don't know, three yeti soft sides, and I still had, I felt like the majority of a bear left because I had, you know, hide and skull. And so we had enough time because we killed on day three and didn't leave until day six or seven that we processed well, rough process basically just got the meat into Ziplocs and we were able to freeze most of it. And so I actually then just put it into big, heavy duty garbage bags and just literally filled a duffel bag, I think, up to £100. And we just paid the extra fee on shipping that back. So I had an amazing amount of meat and fat coming home with me, plus hide and skull. But in the end, when I rendered that fat down, I ended up with about 2 gallons. I think I probably could have gotten at least another gallon, maybe two. I mean, we weren't being, like, super picky about it when we were breaking it down again because I knew I just had limited space to get it home. But, yeah, it was two gallons. Super stoked on it. I've been given away too much of it, and I'm only. I'm down to like two pints now and some sort of starting to savor it a little bit. But I like sharing it because people are like, no way.

[Corey]

Really?

[Yanni]

Bear oil? I'm like, yeah, check it out. And they're like, man, it's just so pure. You would never know, you know, that you're eating bear oil.

[Corey]

Two gallons is an insane amount compared to some of the bears that I've. I've taken the fat off here in Montana. Have you talked to clay about the 2 gallon mark? Is that. Is that a lot for down south too?

[Yanni]

Man, I just think a lot of it. Like that bear, he ended up winning 388. Craig the outfitter felt like had we killed that bear in the fall, he could have easily been 488, if not 550. Right. Because they're just. And that's pretty much all fat. You know, I'm sure he's gaining some muscle, too, but they're just putting on fat. So I think a lot of it just depends on what status state you catch them. I know a guy that killed a giant bear, like a solid six and a half footer here in Montana, and he killed it on the last day of rifle season, which is late November. And, man, he said that they actually spent more time packing fat than meat. Wow. Like, there was like in just like weight, weight wise, there was more weight in the fat than there was in the meat. And I forget that was like 6 gallons. I think that he got like, I almost didn't believe him, but when he started describing sort of how the he said that the fat just sort of, there was a layer that just went all the way right down to his paws, and then it sort of stopped right where his paw was. But from here, just jutted out and you could just like jiggle the fat all the way up his arms and, and just all just covering his entire body. So I think it just depends on, you know, what he's been eating and what time of year it is, because that, that's, you know, right before he goes to hibernate, that's when that bear is going to have the most fat on him.

[Corey]

Well, let's see. We know what you're doing with the hide. Mingus is sleeping on it right now. So, last question, which a ton of folks asked. Do you plan on doing this hunt again?

[Yanni]

100%, no doubt. Like I said, with any hunt, I say it's a lot of times to Steve, going to Mexico for coos deer. I like going the first year to a new ranch because you get to experience a completely new ranch. You have. You don't know anything about it. It's just 100% mystery adventure. It's great. You spend a week there. The next year I'm excited to go back because I have some relationship with that landscape. I'm like, okay, don't need to go to that high point. That one wasn't good. We need to spend time here, here and here, because those were the best glassing knobs. Right. That's where the action was. And sort of that gets me excited. And then the third year, you kind of have it. I don't want to say dialed, but you got a pretty good idea of what the program is. And by the fourth year, I'm like, man, let's go to start this process over again, because I just don't want to keep doing the same thing over. I think when you look at it with a baited black bear hunt, it's the same thing. Sure, I went there and experienced it, but it was only three days. Yeah, I was successful, but like, I want to still. There's more there that I did not get to experience yet. Right. And again, I think the next time a giant boar comes in, I will recognize that giant board probably sooner. And my heart rate might actually be spiking more than it did on on this trip, the one thing I would like to do that I think would be fun is that instead of being up in the tree, is doing it down on the ground and just being even that much more intimate with the bears and just being at eye level with them and just seeing how that plays out. Just again, for something different, you know,

[Corey]

maybe tie a beaver carcass around your neck.

[Yanni]

That I'm not gonna do. No, no, not going to do that. And I'm not going to. I'm not going to put any caster scent on my boots. Nothing like that. But yeah, I think building like a little ground blind and just set. Setting up downwind, I think that that'd be a way to do it because as close as you are 10ft up in a tree 10 yards away, if you were on the ground at 7 yards, be that much closer, it'd be cool.

[Corey]

So see.

[Yanni]

Yeah, we've actually booked some spots with Craig for 20. Cameron was 27 or 28. So yeah, not a hunt I need to do every single year. But if you're like, hey, let's go up there and hunt a baited bear, kill a baited bear, come home with some meat, I'm 100% in for every other year. What about you? You've never done a baited black bear hunt, I imagine.

[Corey]

No, I haven't. Never had the opportunity. We neighbor a state that allows baited bear hunting in Idaho, not every unit, but some units. I would totally try it. I'd love to get that close and see that many bears.

[Yanni]

Yeah. What's interesting about the baiting is a lot of states regulate it much differently because of course, as soon as I came back from Manitoba, my call, my friends in Wisconsin saying, hey, have you tried beaver meat? Because that's the thing in Wisconsin. You can't use any kind of meat product.

[Corey]

Oh really?

[Yanni]

Not.

[Corey]

Yeah. Restrictions.

[Yanni]

Yeah. You can't use any kind of a metal like fabricated can either. Debate has to basically be in a. Most people will use a hollow stump or a log and put it in there. So yeah, it's. They, they restrict it a little bit. So if you're gonna go do it, you know, make sure you know your state's regulations for sure. But yeah, I 100 want to go back, man. It was a great time. McCarthy's were great people. So awesome camaraderie, awesome time in camp and yeah, just a fun hunt. Well, good. Yeah.

[Corey]

Baiting bears, don't knock it till you try it.

[Yanni]

No, I'd like to share it with more people. I think that's. Craig mentioned this, too. It's like a great animal for people to get their, like, first bow kill. Right. There's just a lot of opportunities. You know, maybe your goal isn't a giant one. Maybe your goal, you go up there and you're just like, oh, I just want to kill an animal with my bow. Well, the shots are nice and close. Lots of opportunities. There you go.

[Corey]

Great meat.

[Yanni]

Another. Another good reason to, you know, to do a baited black bear hunt.

[Corey]

Well, any other topics you want to discuss?

[Yanni]

No. Wish I would have brought my skull ins. We could have met. We. You could have measured it for me and told me if I had a Boone or not. But.

[Corey]

Well, maybe we'll have to make a little video.

[Yanni]

We can do that next time. But yeah, thank you guys all for tuning in. And remember, in about a month or so, we'll have, I think one of Clay's episodes will come out or it will be one of Clay's films. Excuse me, Clay. One of Clay's film films will come out and you'll be able to punch in your comments on YouTube and Instagram and he will do roughly the same thing, but maybe he'll have Bear or Brent ask the questions instead of Corey because they'll probably do it down in Arkansas. So thanks again for watching and yeah, tune in next month for another edition of meat eaters 12 and 26.

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[Yanni]

I'm U.S. transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. We all get distracted when we drive,

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[Yanni]

But how we handle these distractions can

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[Yanni]

Before you get on the road for your next road trip, please put your phones on silent and take a mental note to focus on driving. Paid for by NHTSA this is an iHeart podcast.

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