Excellent John!!  I think anything under 75 yards is a chip shot for you  

GOOD STUFF!!  Congrats and thanks for sharing a great hunt...

Neat story & pics. FYI, the flowers are trilliums.

TTT for Brian and Matt.

Congratulations John! Thanks for the story and pic's. I've set on that bait before. Glad you had more action than I did. Brenda sure sets a mean table.

Great story, John! And a fantastic bear! Thanks for sharing with us!    

Nigel

Beautiful bear!

Great shot!  

Nice.  Pretty bear.

Thanks for sharing and congrats.   I have been bear hunting twice and wish I could do it more.

Beautiful Bear!

Like the color of that bear  

I'm curious.  How much did that bear weigh?

Magoo,

I did not weigh this bear.  I was able to carry him out whole though I did have to stop several times to catch my wind.  I would say 140 pounds give or take 10 pounds.   Young sow, very skinny, not any fat when skinned and gutted.  Bears allegedly enter hibernation in October and don't start to feed again until May.  I think it would be hard to get enough to eat in 5-6 months to grow very fast or big in those mountains.

Bear hunting is a fun relaxing springtime hunt (once the baiting is done).  I have noticed that there are always "cancellation" hunts available every spring.  If you don't mind waiting until April to book your bear hunt you can pick up these hunts as much as half off the usual rate. It could be a crapshoot and you could end up with a shady outfitter on such short notice but I got lucky with this hunt.  I got my passport ready to go to Canada but was fortunate to find a hunt here in the States with less travel expenses.  I took a week of vacation planning to do this hunt but if I didn't find one at a good price I was prepared to stay home and catch up on my chores or go fishing or something.