Hunting with Mike

We did manage to get a little fishing in once my brother came up to help bait. Michigan regulations call for a minimum of 7″ on stream brook trout, and 10 inches on rainbow. We found us a new beaver pond and took our limit in about two hours of fishing. The three of us had a blast, and Tony got bragging rights for the biggest brookie caught that day. In all the years we’ve been doing this I have the all time record of a 13 inch beaver pond brookie! Now that sure doesn’t sound like much, but these little stream fish don’t get much of an opportunity to reach “big lake” proportions. These colorful cold stream fish are some of the tastiest I have ever eaten. In fact my wife “ordered” me to bring her home a “brookie” dinner, and I obliged her!

This particular pond we were fishing in, had a beaver dam of over 150 yards long. Those little engineers never cease to amaze me in their ability to construct new habitat for themselves, and their woodland friends! Why they even dropped a tree right across our camp road, which I had to haul off to one side. Mr. beaver then came back and chewed off all the branches, before he cut the main branch into manageable pieces.

We also fished some of the pools in the creek, but Derek was the only one who seemed to really get the hang of it. I told you in an earlier blog that he caught a huge brookie, but it was actually a nice brown trout. Hey it looked like a brookie to me, but Greg Baldwin (Federal Fish and Wildlife employee) said it was a brown, and that’s what I’m going to believe. I’ll post a picture of that fish in upcoming blogs.

I’m going to fix my wife a brook trout dinner this coming Saturday with all the trimmings. We’re both looking forward to it!

Mike

There is a whole lot of work to be done on a self-guided bear hunt. The above picture is of a portion of the bear bait Tony and I took up to initiate our first 6 baits. We had several hundred pounds of donuts, candy, meat, and breads, not to mention my own concoction of oats and corn! Once we established our baits we went into Marquette and bought several 5-gallon buckets full of fish guts/heads! It was $4.00 a bucket if they filled them or $2.00 if we filled them. Of course we opted for the less expensive way, but man did those “innards” stink!

We placed two baits around camp and drove 16 miles to another spot we have on state land. There we placed 4 baits, with two being in familiar spots and two being new areas. We would leave camp on our two 4-wheelers around 8:30 a.m. to check the camp baits, and then drive to the state land to see if we had any action there. The first time we did state land we took the 4-wheeler, but the country is so rough on your vehicle and trailer that we decided we would walk in the buckets, bags and boxes of bait after that initial “set!” It was a hard work, especially Monday and Tuesday as the temp. reached into the low 90’s!.

It took three days before a bait was “hit” with the one furthest behind camp, and one of the state land spots looking good. Two days later 2 of the other baits got hit, so we had to keep them chucked up from then on. One bait never did get hit, and the one we call “outhouse” was visited opening day (the 10th.)

Because Tony and I had done the hard labor of pre-baiting; Tony got first pick of the spots. He chose the place behind camp, and my brother Randy picked the spot that was first hit on state land. Dan, brother Darryl, nephew Derek, and his son Tristan all arrived Tuesday morning. Dan picked a spot about 1/2 mile from Randy.

As you saw from my last blog Randy got his bear opening evening at 5:25 p.m. Dan and Tony never saw anything. Dan hunted his stand three nights in a row without seeing a bear, even though we got a couple good trail-cam pictures of a big bear! Tony saw one the second night out, but for only about 15 seconds as it circled behind us and disappeared. We saw nothing our third, and last, night on stand, as Tony had to be home for his son Jay’s birthday. As of this writing Dan is still in Marquette with Darryl, Derek, and Tristan trying to arrow the 4-500 pound bruin they got on cam the other night. Darryl said they got 15 clear pictures of this “monster” and they were going to try and seal the deal this evening. Man I hope Dan can connect! I watched him shoot his bow, and at 40 yards he keeps a very tight group. If he gets a chance Mr. Blackie is history.

I have many more stories to tell about my 13 days in the “true north woods,” so will be sharing them soon. I did loose about 8 pounds and Tony lost around 6! Maybe we should write a diet book and call it “The Baldwin Camp Bear Baiting Diet!”

Alright lets cut right to the quick here. I just arrived home after a 9 hour all-night drive, and I am beat! I’ve been too busy trying to outwit old blackie (which I didn’t,) but my brother Randy did!

Randy hunted one of the six baits Tony and I had been “running” and took this fine bear opening evening. It weighed just a tad under 200 pounds, but sported a beautiful white “V” on it’s chest. Of the 40 bear we have harvested only four have had a white “V!” Randy’s son Justin filmed the whole exciting hunt, as Randy put a perfect heart shot on the bear as it circled his tree stand. Both Randy and Justin had sprayed themselves down with the scent eliminator “white lightning,” and evidently it worked! The wind was blowing and swirling so hard I didn’t think anyone would see a bear, much less shoot one.

Now here’s the real “kicker” of this whole success story. They got out in their tree stands at 5:00 p.m. and shot the bear at 5:25 p.m. As Randy will tell ya, he’s a “blessed man!” Hey sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you!

Tony saw one for about 10 seconds, but no shot opportunity, and Dan is still up there trying with my brother Darryl filming for him. I have quite a few stories to tell, so stay tuned. Took a picture of a good sized track near one of the baits, but we never saw the “track maker.” It’s good to be home after two weeks in the “bush!”

Mike

As you may know we don’t hunt in the morning, but this evening we expect some action.  My son-in-law Tony’s bait has been hit five nights in a row, and brother Randy’s is being hit by multiple bear.  Dan’s bait wasn’t hit yesterday, but one of the other spots had some activity, and several of the guys are checking the  inactive baits.  We will be getting into our ground blind around 4:00 this afternoon.  Tony will have about a 60 yard shot, across the ridge we set up on, over to the next ridge.  Hope to report back with at least two bear for the game pole.

The weather is sunny, calm, and will be abut 70 degrees today.  Hotter than we like it, but everything else will work!  It’s going down in the 40’s this evening which is more like it.

We had a chance to do a little fishing yesterday and caught a few “brookies” and several rainbows, that we released.  The beaver ponds don’t seem to be holding many fish, and the creek is very hard to get at.  We have seen evidence that the beavers are alive and thriving back here in the “big hole,” as it’s called by the locals.

Camp is a complete mess, with 5 adults and one 9 year old that couldn’t find there butts if they were sitting on them!  I’ll be surprised if I go home with what I came up with.  We’re going to have a work detail after we have a couple bear hanging.  At least “that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!”

Gary and Matt Baldwin left for a Canadian fishing trip with Matt’s father-in-law Tom, and will be gone till Sunday.  You can’t believe the walleye, pike, and speckled trout they catch.  I’ll post some pictures of their success later.  Till tomorrow.

Mike

No I haven’t been eaten by a bear, but my butt is draging the ground so bad I feel like one got ahold of me.  My son-in-law Tony and myself have been baiting bear for us, and the rest of the guy’s for the last six days straight.  Hauling bags, boxes, and buckets 100’s of yards into the woods is not the way to “finally” get in shape.  I keep teasing the Baldwins about making them rich by writing a diet book called ” The bear baiting Baldwin diet plan!”  In one week I’ve taken up two notches on my belt, and so has Tony!

Now for the good news.  Out of six baits, three of them are being visited every evening.  We can tell that these bear are good sized due to the “scat” left behind.  The other baits will pay off as well, as they are all in great bear country.  I’ve seen some big bear tracks, wolf tracks, coyote and deer tracks all in the same dried out creek bed.  We put out a seventh bait there today.

Nancy Baldwin is letting me use her computer, but I don’t have the means to put pictures on as yet!  I will try to keep you posted on our progress, and hope it doesent take a week for me to get back to blogging.  It has been awsome so far.  Marquette is a beautiful town, and the scenery around her is georgeous.  We have even caught enough “brookies for a good meal, but nothing like the “brookie” Gary Baldwin caught recently in Canada.  That’s another story! 

Mike