Ep. 80: Baiting Spring Black Bears with Cody Wilson and Corey Paulsen
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I recorded this podcast last year in the spring of 2022 in the great state of Wyoming with my good buddies, Cody Wilson and Phelps Game Call's business manager, Corey Paulson. Now, we recorded this episode without any fancy podcasting gear. I'm going to admit it was with my iPhone, so it may sound a little different than normal. So let's dive right into the conversation. All right, we're back with another episode of Cutting the Distance Podcast, where

This week, I'm the host, Dirk Durham, and I've got a couple cool cats here. We're in the crazy Wyoming backcountry. We're in a little camper out here, nice and cozy, sitting around a camper table. And on the left, I got Corey Paulson, who is the business manager at Phelps Game Calls. And on my right, we got...

Whiskey Wilson. We've got our good buddy Cody Wilson. Cody invited us to come over and do a bear hunt this spring, and Corey kind of planted the seed or something with him at Western Hunting Expo last spring.

last winter and here we are. So how'd you do that? Did you like arm wrestle him or something or make a bet or what? How did he lose and make him bring us to Wyoming? I, I, I'm a firm believer in, uh, I'm more lucky than good in most cases. So I just kind of lucked out that, uh, Cody lives in this fantastic place with bears that you can bait and, uh,

With the fact that Washington State, my home state, has eliminated the spring bear hunt, I saw the opportunity with Cody and I just, you know, was one of those folks that realizes that there's only so many places you can hunt spring bears. And knowing that Cody lives here in Wyoming, I just started asking questions and lo and behold, he's an expert at this spring bear hunting game.

Right on. Well, let me give you a little background on Cody. He's kind of an all-around hunter. You know, he's an excellent elk caller, elk hunter. He's a guide. He guides hunters in the fall sometimes. He goes out with a lot of friends hunting. He works in the natural gas fields.

And just a hell of a good guy. Helps out with Phelps in the booth a lot of times at the trade shows. He's a good hand. Just a really good friend. He's been with Jason a few times elk hunting. And anyway, it's a pleasure to come over here and be hosted by you, man. Yeah. No, it's been super awesome. I'm glad you guys came. I'm no expert, but it's just fun to get out in the spring and go chase bears. Yeah.

Yeah, so Cody, he's been baiting bears for a lot of years. And this spring, he's been working hard baiting bears. You know, it's funny. We've been having kind of a talk back and forth that, you know, you talk about all sorts of stuff. And I think there's kind of a sentiment amongst some hunters that, oh, you guys shot a bear over bait? Oh, that's way too easy. Why don't you do something that's harder? Why don't you... That's kind of like the lazy man's way. And, you know...

I feel like that perspective is a little bit narrow-minded, you know, maybe they see on, on hunting videos, maybe they just see a bear coming into bait and somebody, you know, shooting it or whatever. And they just don't see all the work that goes on behind the scenes. But Cody was telling us about, we kind of prided out of him. I don't think you really want to tell us how much work you put into this, where I actually feel pretty bad. Um, he's worked his ass off putting baits out, starting, um, super early, you know, just as soon as he could. And, um,

Man, you got to tell us about that. You tell everybody about that. I mean, it's a pretty interesting perspective, which I wouldn't call the least bit lazy. Yeah, so it all starts in the spring, usually March. You know, I'm gearing up, checking snowmobiles, making sure they're running, stuff like that. So, like, this winter's been really tough. Everybody knows that. We've had a lot of snowfall, very high snowpack.

So getting into some of these baits and some of the places that I go is hadn't been very accessible this year. So snowmobiles kind of the route that I took to get these baits in to get bait in them. But it all starts in March. And lo and behold, some of these areas don't let you use anything processed.

So your only real route of baiting bears is either dead calves from ranchers or cows or horses, stuff like that. You can't use wild game. So all that stuff's out. So really, you just got to have beef is mostly what it is or horses or stuff like that. You can use beavers, you know, stuff like that. But you can't I can't go pick up dead antelope or deer or any of that. But yeah.

Now, a lot of people back home where I'm from, they'll raid the bread store. They'll get a lot of out-of-date bread, candy, et cetera, and lots of dog food or whatever. But your buddy Dan was saying that his bears are picky on his bait. They don't like dog food. They don't eat it. Yeah. So his bait's over on the other side of the mountains where you can use processed food. And yeah, his bear's...

in the past at least five years, you know, we've tried some dog food, stuff like that, but they just, they just don't like it. Like they'll leave it alone for weeks if we don't change it. So we ran into that.

So yeah, even dog food is considered a processed food. Wow. That's, that's crazy. You know, it's every state. So weird, you know, they have their, their own little set of rules and all these little nuance things that, uh, that you, that you can and can't do. Um,

Like in Idaho, you can pile bait right on the ground or in a barrel. And if you use a barrel, it has to be a steel barrel. But here you can use a plastic barrel. Yeah, you can use any kind of barrel. It just can't be over 55 gallons. And anything that you throw in, well, any bait that you're going to use has to be in the barrel. It can't be on the ground. Yeah. Yeah.

So back to riding your snowmobile in, he was telling us he's going out there after work, in the dark, whatever, you know, whenever he's got the time to get, you know, to rebate. And he's got these...

these he's got these frozen freaking calves he's got them stockpiled at his house and like so ranchers they have these calves that don't make it they die so he goes over and grabs them and he's been stacking them up at his place there and you know in wyoming it's cold and frozen and whatever but uh

As time goes by and things thaw out, he's running these calves in, you know, whenever he can to get them into the bait barrel. And, I mean, it's not easy. Like, he kind of described, like, what you have to go through to get those calves in the barrel. Yeah, so I would, all these calves that I had stockpiled, I would pull two or three out, throw them in the back of my truck, jump snowmobile on, go up there, and I would use just like a,

These ice fishermen use these big, deep sleds. So I would take one of them and I would just tie it onto the back of my sled on the bumper and I'd throw two or three calves in. And I'd take off up the mountain. Well, you say sled, you mean snowmobile. You're riding a snowmobile, but you're pulling the sled. I'm pulling the sled. Got it. Gotcha. And the problem with the snow this time of year, you know, it just goes to shit. Yeah.

and the bottom falls out of it. It's hard on top, but once the sun hits it, like, as soon as you break through, it's just like sugar, and it's just a wreck. Just real rotten. Yeah, it's just terrible. Yeah. So running calves in there, you know, you get in a hairy spot and give her a little too much throttle, and lo and behold, the sled's sideways, and the sled you're pulling is tipped over upside down, and now you've got to go back and reload three calves that are

Not very pleasant to handle. So I don't know how many times I dump calves out of the sled I'm pulling and then have to go back and pull them back up to the sled and throw them back in. Yeah, it's just a chore.

Yeah, that doesn't sound easy at all. So that's early in the season. Now, as time goes by, you know, things are warming up. Springtime has sprung. And your calves, you said you'd grab a hold of a leg. And sometimes things are starting to get tenderized. They don't stay together real good. Yeah, no, you grab a hold of a calf leg to pull it.

back up to the slat or whatever and it just stripped all the hide right off of it so it's nothing but bear skin they get kind of nasty it doesn't sound like the that kind of bait baitings for the faint of heart so yeah it's funny you know people they i think a lot of times just on social and on videos they they see all the the the reward they see the the bears come in see somebody take one but man it's a lot of work um just getting the bait up there and then

Now, like keeping bears on it. So, you know, bears have other things on their mind. They have other food to eat, you know, whether it's green grass, whatever. They've got mating on their mind. Maybe they find a girlfriend. They can't.

they smell a hot sow and they take off and never to be seen again. So, you know, the bears just don't live right there on the bait, you know, live in hand and mouth, like, like they're on some kind of welfare check or something. They're, they kind of come and go. And sometimes you get one, there'll be consistent or, or especially big bears. It seems like big bears are not consistently just living on a bait. Um, it's kind of hard to catch those in the daylight hours. Is that kind of what you found? Yeah, for sure. Um,

You know, breeding season is going on in the spring. So, you know, bears are not just eating all the time or hanging out or debate. They'll go off, find a sow, try and breed her. But like big bears, you know, if they do hang out on a bait, usually they're they're pretty seasoned and smart. I mean, they got big for a reason. And a lot of them bears will be nocturnal feeders. Like you won't you'll see them once or twice on camera during the day, but.

You go to hunt them bears and they don't show up till after dark. Yeah. Yeah. I've heard, I hear that sentiment from a lot of, a lot of guys that are putting bait out and, um, and a lot of younger bears, you know, you might catch them in the daytime, but, but, you know, we've been here for, what is this day? Five?

Yeah. We've been doing this for five days and we've only caught one bear on the bait. You know, Corey, he was, you know, blessed to shoot a really nice bear. But it's not easy. I mean, you don't just sit there and watch the bears eat like it's just...

national park, bears eating garbage or something. I mean, these bears are, are smart, you know, and they have other things to eat besides this. And, you know, also you got a lot of, right now we've got calves dropping, calf elk dropping, uh,

Mule deer fawns will be dropping anytime, too. So, you know, they have some other things that are probably a lot more appetizing than an old nasty calf that died a couple months ago. They're probably looking at that fresh food and thinking, yeah, that's probably a better option. So it's not a slam dunk by any means, do you think? No, it's not. You know, there's a lot of videos out.

People watch stuff on YouTube where it's all kill shots or it can be a little deceiving, you know, if you're trying to do this stuff on your own, because what they're showing you on YouTube is usually a highly populated bear area like Alaska or Canada, hunts like that. But in the States, I mean, there's a lot of country out there, a lot of real estate and

The bears are spread out. You know, we don't have the bear population that they do in Canada or Alaska. But, yeah. Now, let's switch gears here a little bit about back to what we're putting on the bait. So, one of the baits we rebaited, old Dan's bait over there. We've been checking it out, too. And there's been some bears on it off and on. But we thought we would probably maybe kind of get the bears coming on it again by springtime.

doing a bear, doing some bear crack. You were basically a backcountry meth cook. You were cooking, you were cooking some, some stuff and I might've even sampled it a little bit. I mean, it tasted good. I mean, I can, I can see why a bear would like it. Yeah. I probably not going to taste the calves, but this was, the bear crack was delicious. So yeah, yeah.

Tell our listeners about your process there was to cook up this bear crack and what do you think bears like it? Yeah, it's just a mixture of sweets really is all it is. And the reason I like cooking it at the bait is to get that scent out there. I want it to walk, you know, wave out through the trees and get that scent out there so then bears smell it. But it's really all it is, is I just take some syrup and

a gallon of that, marshmallows, jello mix, and just mix it all together and get it boiling hot to where the marshmallows just melt into that syrup and the jello mix. And just, it kind of makes like a malt. And then I just dump it all over the bait, but I like to get it boiling to where that scent is just wafing out through the trees.

- And it kind of boils over the sides too, and it gets on the coals and hot coals. And that really makes a lot of smell too. - Yeah, absolutely. I mean, dumping a little on the ground or if it spills out of the pot or out of the tin or whatever, not a big deal. It's just adding scent. - Yeah.

It smelled really good. And now I know some people kind of get, they get extravagant with that stuff, whether they're, I mean, they might even fry bacon right there. They fry up a bunch of bacon, got their bacon grease, or maybe they get some old secondhand fry grease from the local, local, uh,

convenience store or whatever, get that stuff cooking and pour some of that oil on the coals when they're done just to stink it up. But we were more trying to appeal to the sweet side. And also, what was our secret? We had some Lucky Charms. Some Lucky Charms? Well, I think it was the bag version. Yeah, it was the generic version, Lucky Charms. But same concept, just throwing some sweet stuff in there, some donuts.

Got to have some donuts. Jelly filled. Jelly filled. They like them. Oh, yeah. I liked them, too. We didn't buy the day olds. They didn't have any of those. They didn't have any old nasty ones that had been sitting around that they were going to throw out. We had to buy the fresh ones. And I'm like, hey, Cody, get me that one. I want the raspberry jelly one right there. So Corey and I both. Which one did you get? I was jelly. You'll get a jelly one. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

I didn't know. And then we got some fancy ones with sprinkles and stuff. I didn't know. He's bears. I mean, they're living right. I mean, they get the good stuff. Yeah. O'Reilly auto parts are in the business of keeping your car on the road. I love O'Reilly. In fact, the other day, I'm not kidding you. The other day I went into an O'Reilly auto parts looking for a part. I needed a different thing that wasn't really in there. You know, only like tangentially related to what they carry.

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So fast forward, like we did that, made all this effort in the later afternoon, you know. So then we went down to the truck, took one. So we would always enter the bait area a certain way. And then the area you want to set up to stand and kind of watch from, we enter from a different way. Tell us about that. Why do you do that? Yeah, so the big thing is there, wherever I'm going to sit and hunt the bait from,

I don't want my scent going from where I'm hunting from to the bait. Now I bait it a certain way and I bait it that way the same time every time. So every time I'm going to the barrel, I go in that way just so they know that, all right, I'm coming from here every time. And now when I hunt it, I hunt it from the opposite direction where the wind's good. And I never walk from where I hunt it to the barrel.

- Yeah, that way they don't connect the dots. - Exactly. - And bears are smart. They're very intelligent. They can live 20 plus years. And they catch on to man and their little tricks and little things they do. So that's a good tip.

So, okay, we set up the bear crack and we burn it. I had a little bit of it. It was delicious. I wanted more, but you guys were looking at me kind of funny. I'm like, okay, I'm only going to eat one marshmallow, but damn it. I want to do over two or three of them. They were good.

It was super good. So anyway, we let the fire burn out. We poured out all the crack, walked back down to the truck, hung out the truck, shot the breeze for a while for a couple hours. And it's like, OK, now the winds have stabilized. So we'll sneak in that back door that way there and go set up and kind of watch the bait. And what happened? I mean, rain. I mean, we have we've had so much rain this week.

Wyoming is rainy and wet. I mean, there's water running everywhere. There's the creeks are like bulging at their seams. Pretty uncommon for what you guys normally see. Yeah. Typically, I mean, this time of year, you know, we don't have water running down the trails you're hiking in, um,

It's been just a hell of a winter. And this spring, I mean, hell, you guys have seen it. Oh, yeah. The rain has been every day. Yeah. We haven't had a day that there's not been rain. Yeah. And a lot of it. So, yeah. And like you said, you're walking up a trail and it looks literally like a creek. Yeah, it is a creek. It's a creek. Just running down the trail. It's crazy. So...

That should be for some good horn growth this year. - Yeah, it'll definitely help this summer. - Help all those animals that had a tough winter this last winter to maybe get back on their feet. But anyway, so we set up there in the rain, watched till dark, didn't see Jack squat. So, you know,

you would think like oh yeah you know this should be a slam dunk bears from miles away will be coming over here to eat these donuts but it's not really the case you know they didn't they didn't find it right away or maybe maybe it's just too close to the time that you know too close to dark that we we did that little burn because um maybe there was a bear close by and he just watched you know i think bears kind of watch sit back and kind of watch what we do sometimes tell

Corey, tell us about your hunt and the bear you shot and how it all kind of played out as far as, like, Cody checking the bait and then how soon the bear came in. Yeah. Well, as far as the bait goes, it was pretty impressive. We came in and Cody hiked in a fresh quarter from a beef cow. A front shoulder. Correct. Which weighed how much? I mean...

I mean, it was probably over 100 pounds. Cody, 150 pounds? I mean, it was a lot. Yeah, it's off a bull that was seven or eight years old, so it was not light. That seems pretty easy. Yeah. Yeah. Not light.

we're going to check the slam dunk box again. It's the lazy man's way to hunt bears. All right. Exactly. Get that straight. Donuts and front quarters of moocows. Yeah. Right. So he had that freshened up. One of the things that would, Cody kind of pointed out to us was these holes that the bears, you know, can access that bait, you know, over time, you know, they can kind of get hollowed out a little

bit. So having a bigger quarter like that, you know, it makes it a little harder, you know, they're going to stick around a little longer. So it's kind of wedged in there. Yeah. And you, and you can see that. And it's, I mean, conventional thought you would think, you know, a bear, you know, there are these massive animals, they can do all sorts of damage and, and get whatever they want. And, and, but it does cause that problem. And ideally we're trying to

that bear to stay around so cody had that set up um we were able to uh also you know stuff some sticks in that hole so you can you know if something came around you can you can get you know from a distance route we can get what about 150 yards from that bait ish yeah we just sit back at 150 just throw the binos up look at the bait and if them sticks are all pulled out of where he's eating from i mean you know it's been hit so

And that was exactly the case. So we, um, the, the morning, um, that we went in kind of mid morning, um, we haven't been hunting these bears bright and early. That's just not their, um, their operating. Cody's been able to observe and use some trail cameras to, to get a lot of information. So we're using that information, uh, for this hunt. And, and, and based off that, you know, if you can, you see that bait has been freshly hit knowing that we had put that in there, then that bear more than likely is hanging around.

And so, um, so Cody and I took a quick run in, uh, no packs or anything, just, just our rifles, just my rifle. Um, and I got all set up in a nice, comfortable shot. And he's like, Hey, we're, we'll, we'll, uh, I'm going to go grab, you know, go back to the truck. We'll get Dirk. Um,

And, you know, you'll be ready in case a bear comes in. I would say, you know, five minutes or less, you know, than I after Cody had left me. I saw the bear, you know, coming in from the right side in this opening towards the bait and running.

and just observed him, you know, like I knew I had plenty of time, you know, you, you get excited cause that's just normal. We're, we're human. That's what we love about hunting is getting excited. So that bear went right to the bait. And then there's a nice down log and I was able to, you know, just watch him through my scope and he was walking on the log kind of towards me. Didn't go right to the bait. Didn't go to the, to the,

that quarter that had already been hanging out that he'd been chewing on. And, um, and I realized, you know, he was probably going to stuff up that log. So I was, I was ready for the shot and, and mentally, you know, you, you always think, you know, where, where am I going to aim? Right. And that was my thought process. And we, we talk about it quite a bit because, um, you know, it's, uh,

Bears are a little different. You want to have a different thought process. Their lungs are in a different spot than an elk because we're all hardcore elk hunters. So we always compare things to where you'd aim for an elk. So their lungs are a little further back.

So we've talked, you know, kind of like middle, middle. And then we've also talked, you know, maybe about, you know, a hand, you know, the size of your hand behind the shoulder, you know, a couple of different thought processes there. But that was my thought process was middle, middle. And as he came off that log, you know, I, you know, squeezed off the shot and it felt like a really good shot. I had a really good rest, you know, I'm shooting a 300 mag. So obviously plenty rifle for a bear. They don't need a whole lot.

And obviously I could tell that he'd been hit, you know, didn't know exactly where, but everything felt good at that time. Yeah. Now,

When you guys first got there, did you go over the bait at all? No, no. I just, we walked to my blind and then I just threw my binos up and I was like, yeah, it's been hit, you know? Okay. That bear came from the right. So probably from uphill above the bait. Yeah. And I had, that bear's been on the camera and I had him on the camera at noon. So I, you know, I knew that

The time of day it was when we got there and it was freshly hit, like...

I highly suspected that that bear was still there somewhere. Like he's close. Right. I think they kind of fill their belly and then go and bed down close. Maybe even bed to where they can watch that bait in case another bear comes in and they want to chase them off. Like if a little bear comes in, they could chase them off or whatever to kind of defend. Yep. Or maybe watch for their buddy Cody that brings goodies and drops them off to them. Yeah.

Yeah. That's awesome. Well, we're still trying to find a bear for me, you know, since it's so easy and, you know, everybody can do it. You know, we've been packing more bait in and we just haven't had any luck for me yet, which is okay. But the weather's been kind of weird and I'll say...

wet rainy weather has not been a big producer for for bears for me i feel like you know nicer clearer days bears seem to be moving around a little better they don't like yeah they're kind of like me i don't like hunting in the rain and they don't like hanging out in the rain either so yeah i mean on top of that it pushes all the scent down that your barrel's putting off stuff like that but the rain definitely doesn't help right yeah exactly

So tomorrow we're going to get up. We're going to go check Cody's bait. The one that's got the, the beef in it. Um, we're going to go check and see if the bears have been back. They hadn't, we checked it this morning. We hadn't seen any more sign there from after Corey got his bear. We, we put our scent all over there. And when we were getting Corey's bear out of there, um, so, um,

we'll go check it and see if any more bears have gotten in there. We rebated it. And then, um, we're going to go back over to the other side of the mountain where Dan's bait is. And we're going to check it again. We're going to do another, another, some more meth cooking, crack cooking, whatever you want to call it, back country crack. We're going to cook into some more of that. Um, maybe pick up some more donuts and lucky charms and then bait that sucker again, see if we can get some, another bear to come in, come back in when we're there. Um,

It was hit, so we walked in tonight and sat it, and there had been a bear there. Same type of deal. I shoved a bunch of sticks in the barrel, so they got to pull all them sticks out to get to the feed, a six-inch hole in the barrel, whatever. I just fill it full of sticks, and then when we walk up to hunt it, I can just glass and look at the barrel and be like, oh, yeah, it's been hit.

So there's been a bear there. I just, we didn't go to the barrel tonight because we knew it was, had the bear crack on it, full of feed. Like, let's just go on it. Yep. Yeah. So sometime between when we watched that bait the last time and then tonight that bear hit it. So we'll try to begin tomorrow and kind of see how it goes and see what happens. So as far as a recap, I think, yeah,

And, you know, I get this sentiment from a lot of, you know, successful bear baiter type hunter guys that it's not super easy. It's definitely not the lazy man's way. You got to put a lot of time and effort into baiting your bear, baiting your bears, because, you know, um,

if you run out of bait, the bears eat it all, they're going to lose interest and leave. So you got to keep that thing full. You have to make the time to get up there. And a lot of times it's pretty physical. You know, we're not like hunting, you know, a hundred yards off the road or, you know, the minimum legal distance. I mean, we're hiking a bit, you know, enough to where if you're hauling any amount of bait in there, you know, it does take a lot of effort. So

I think it's super fun to bait bears. It's just going to take you some effort. Also, best practices, figure out what your bears like to eat. If they don't like

If they don't like dog food or they're not liking something, don't keep trying to feed them that. Just experiment until you find something they like. Be consistent. Make sure you keep the bait full. And then, like, be secretive, too. Like, don't go direct from the bait over to where you're going to sit and watch. Okay?

back out the same way you came in to the bait and then use a different a different approach to where you're going to watch from because bears are smart they'll pattern you just like white tails or elk or anything i mean they're animals they're smart they figure they figure us out pretty easy so um any other closing thoughts that you could put in to capstone this off bud yeah um

Go do it if you've got the opportunity and you can bait bears wherever you're at. Springtime, super fun. Super fun to get out, especially after a long winter. Everybody wants to get out, calving fevers. Like, I want to go do something. But, yeah, it's super fun. Like Dirk said, them bears are super smart. So, you know, use some of them tips and tactics. And I've had bears, like,

Big part of the reason I don't bait it the same way and hunt it the same way is because, you know, I've baited baits and walked out and I've had bears literally follow my tracks all the way back to the road. So they're looking, you know, they smell you, they know you're there and they're tracking you back to see where you go. Yeah. Yeah. They're trying to figure you out. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

How about you, Corey? What's your thoughts on how things went this week and baiting bears in general? I think it's just, it's a really useful tool. I think all of us, you know, we just love to hunt, but also we want to get a nice quality animal. I think hunting over bait gives you that opportunity. You know, you can see and observe those animals.

uh, the interesting thing, you know, when I was, uh, this hunt specifically, you know, I was able to kind of watch this bear through my scope and I get a little white patch on him, which, you know, Cody hadn't even seen yet on his, uh, observing, you know, so at least with that bait there, you know, I was able to see some, some little tidbits of things that weren't, you know, uh, already known. Um, so the bait was, you know, allowing that animal to stay around, but, you know, overall, um, you know, that's, um, you know, just kind of my thought process, but, uh,

I say also, yeah,

you know, having good friends along, um, you know, the days kind of get long here. You're sitting for a long time, having people that have really like-minded attitude, they're hardworking, you know, um, able to kind of pick up your spirits, um, and, and just kind of pull you through, you know, when it, some of these sits are, aren't fruitful because you just never know when it can switch, you know, and, and, and it happened real quick for us. And, and so having, having good folks along is, is a big part of that too. So, um, we really appreciate everything Cody has done for us and, and,

And it's been pretty awesome. And learning all his tactics, too. It's just really eye-opening in learning that process as well. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. You know, we've had just the best time at Bear Camp. You know, we've...

I mean, it's not one of those where you have to get up at like three o'clock in the morning and, you know, hike all day. And I can see why some people like maybe poo poo on, on baiting bears. You know, they're like, well guys, you guys aren't like, you're not roughing it. You're, you guys are staying in a camper. You're not backpacked in. You're not hiking miles and miles and miles every day. I mean, and that's another way to do it. And that's a fricking fun way to do it too. This is just a little different way.

But, man, we've had the best time. We've laughed. We had so many laughs and good conversations. We've had good food. Cody's cooked for us. And, yeah, it's just been a blast. And as far as just baits in general, too, another thing I'd like to touch on is –

With a bait, you know, let's say a sow comes in and you get to observe for a while and pretty soon, okay, now she's got cubs and it becomes evident, you know, it's going to hold that bear's attention a little longer to where maybe you see that she has cubs. And that way you don't want to take a sow with cubs. In Wyoming, it's illegal. It is. To take a sow with cubs. Yeah.

Sometimes, you know, when you're out, you know, glassing or, you know, spotting stock or just incidental bear hunting, maybe you don't always see those little guys. You know, they can be pretty small and there could be some brush there. You don't see them. They're really hard. I've had that happen before where I just didn't see the cub until later on. It's just, you know, so you have to really be careful when you're not.

When you're not at a bait, I mean, you have to be careful either way, but I feel like at a bait, and it's kind of like dogs, hunting with dogs, too. You can really be sure of your target to make sure you make the right decision. Well, and sometimes them sows, they'll run cubs up trees until they know it's safe or whatever. So you may not even see the cubs until five or ten minutes after, you know. So you really, you know, if you suspect it's a sow, I usually...

encourage people to wait you know we'd rather take bores and not shoot sows yeah but i encourage people to wait because you never know maybe she ran them up a tree and they're just hanging out up a tree and then she's not going to let them come down until it's safe right right

Well, man, I can't thank you enough for having us over, you know, bear hunting. I know you've busted your tail a lot to make sure there's some baits here. But it sounds like that's something you do every year anyway, and you love it. And we thank you for the opportunity to come and do it. And thanks, everybody, for listening. We're going to try to get some more bear baiting information.

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