Warning: The following contains comments offensive to poor hunters…reader discretion is advised. Do not think I am bitter or angry, I have limited black bear hunting and I want good hunters just like you want a good outfitter. Hunter and outfitter need to have fun. Taking nice black bears is fun and you can see some of these trophies by viewing our Black Bear Photo Album. Read on, and let's get together for a memorable black bear hunting trip. If you are a smoker or if you find it necessary to consume alcohol before and while black bear hunting, no need to read further – find another outfitter. Scent control is the most important aspect of your Ontario black bear hunt. Your skill at hunting whitetail, elk, antelope, turkey, hogs, etc. do not pre-qualify you as a black bear hunter. Most game animals use their eyes, ears and nose to find food and to keep themselves safe from predators. A black bear uses his nose, making scent control more important than any other hunt you have made. I have seen many self-proclaimed "great hunters" struggle at Ontario black bear hunting and, in their eyes their failures are certainly due to a poor outfitter. There are more poor outfitters than good, but failure at Pine Cliff Lodge is almost always an odor problem the "great hunter" proclaims does not exist.

How do I as an outfitter know there is a scent control or odor problem in black bear hunting? A hunter hunts a bait that black bears have hit consistently for a month to two months before he hunts the bait site. When the bait goes inactive the first day after a hunter sits on the bait site, this is a sure sign of an odor problem. When a hunter spooks a black bear from a bait site by moving or making noise, a bear will generally return to the bait within an hour. I say "generally" because black bears are individuals and should not be expected to be 100% predictable. If the hunter puts scent into the woods, the scent stays even though the hunter has departed and the black bear will not return to the bait, because the scent keeps the bear or bears away. What are the odds a bear or bears are going to stop hitting a bait they have felt comfortable feeding at for more than a month at the same time as you start your hunt? It is just not normal for the bears to change from a month or two month routine of feeding at a bait site.

How do you control scent for your black bear hunt? The simple answer is wash your clothes with scent killer soap and take a shower with scent killer soap before the hunt each day. Use no-scent (we recommend Wildlife Research) and not a cover up scent to eliminate any odor unfamiliar at the bait site. Do you think using a red cedar cover up scent, when we don’t have red cedar trees, is effective? We want no strange odors to alarm the black bears. The use of scent killer soaps will not eliminate all odors, because it only works on human odor. When I have a hunter’s bait go inactive, I tell him there is an odor problem. He tells me he is a great hunter and he has washed his clothes and himself in scent killer soap. Clothes can pickup odors from previous hunts or from being worn during non-hunting activities and scent killer soaps will not remove those odors; they are not human odors. We have washed some of these hunters clothes numerous times and have been unable to remove insect repellent, smoke and other odors. These clothes may not have a strong enough scent to affect a deer hunt, but you are not hunting deer. If you or someone else can smell an odor on your clothes, then they stink too much to wear while Ontario black bear hunting. A way to check for these odors is to smell the dryer as soon as you open the door to remove your clothes after drying. You may need to buy new clothes and keep them in scent free bags. I just can't stress enough the importance of scent control in black bear hunting. I have had hunters wash their hunting clothes, then wear them during the two day drive up to the Lodge, wear them out on the lake while fishing, wear them in the cabin while cooking, wear them in a smelly truck out to their bait and think their clothes are still scent free. If you think it okay to wear your hunting clothes while doing these activities, you are going to have a very disappointing black bear hunt.

At Pine Cliff Lodge, your outfitter has spent a lot of money and time at helping you achieve a successful black bear hunt well before your hunt. I scout our 35 square miles of exclusive black bear territory for new bait sites each year. We have old sites that have produced numerous black bears and big bears for 17 years. I start baiting around 15 to 20 baits in mid July. I buy candy (chocolate covered cherries, gummies, etc.) to use as bait. I drive over 100 miles every other day and spend six hours each time I bait. After putting in all this effort to give my hunters active baits, I do not want a hunter ruining a site with odor. I will take you out to each site and you choose the site you want to hunt. You will be limited to two bait sites. This protects my baits from a hunter that has odor problems, but does not believe he does, from ruining numerous sites. The $1,200 for bait, $2,000 for gasoline, 400 hours of work, and 6,000 miles of wear and tear on my truck going down logging roads are worth it, if you take a black bear. I work hard to give you an opportunity to take a black bear. The season for Ontario black bear hunting starts August 15. Although the season lasts until October 31, I take hunters through mid September. Only one black bear hunting party will be in camp each week. Is the early or later part of the season better? The amount of black bear activity on bait sites is directly related to the amount of blueberries available in the logged–out areas. Activity may be slower at the beginning of the season if there is a huge berry crop. The berries generally play out around the first week of September. I will have bait sites available at the end of my season that hunters have not hunted. I do not think there is a better part of the season. Once my hunters are on a stand, my #1 advice is "Only take a broadside shot behind the shoulder". My #2 advice is to remember to follow #1 advice. If you think you are a skilled shooter and you can make a shot other than "broadside" on a black bear, find another outfitter. A twenty-yard shot is typical at our bait sites. I take around 12 hunters and I have had as many as six bad shots in a season. Black bears are like poodles. When a black bear comes into the bait, his hair is standing on end and it makes it look like you have a larger target than you really have. The kill zone is small when the hair is removed. Do not shoot below the middle of he body mass. From your elevated position in a tree stand (hunters supply their own stand), poor shots hit the black bear in the leg or cleanly miss underneath.

We do not black bear hunt mornings, so most hunters will fish in the morning. The hunter will head to the stand at 1:00 p.m. and sit until 30 minutes after sunset. If you cannot sit that long, go out later. Remember, the more hours on the stand, the better your odds. If it was easy, I would be selling one day hunts instead of one-week hunts. The black bears are primarily nocturnal, but most eat most of the day to prepare for hibernation. If they sleep, it is normally in the mornings. Your odds of seeing a black bear are better later in the day. There have been a number of hunters shoot black bears while walking into their stands or within minutes of climbing into their stand. At thirty minutes after sunset, your firearm must be unloaded or your arrow un-nocked and inside of a case. The hunter will take bait to the bait site each day. It is important to limit the activity at the bait to only one visit to hunt the bait. If you take bait in a bucket, leave the bucket at the bait site. When you leave, you bring the bucket back to the Lodge. Remember, the bucket smells like the bait; therefore, no sitting on bucket, taking the bucket to the base of your tree, or leaving it along the trail into the bait. When you arrive, I will have an active bait with bears feeding on the baits. You should not use anything to attract bears to your bait site unless you talk to me beforehand. A new scent at your bait site will alert an older large bear to investigate why the change in smells from the bait site. This may cause the bear to circle a bait site for a couple of hours. This might result in the bear discovering your presence or coming into the bait site after black bear hunting hours. You may find me baiting with several types or flavors of candy. When you look at a candy bowl full of candy, you probably will pick the flavor you enjoy the most from the bowl. A black bear will do the same at our bait site. Yes, they can be so picky that they will separate the different candy and may only eat one flavor. If you pour something strange on the candy, they may stop eating all of the candy. If I poured something like fish cooking oil into your candy bowl, would you still eat the candy? The bears are no different than you or I. I would only eat it if I were starving. Next, the black bear hunter should take some time to watch the black bear before taking a shot. A black bear is generally on a bait from twenty minutes to two hours. If you get "buck fever" while black bear hunting, you have time to settle your nerves. You need to spend time determining the size of the black bear. I use old Weber grills to cover the bait and this gives you something to compare the black bear against for size. A 5 or 6 foot log laying on the ground at the bait site can help you determine the bear's size. A 5 foot bear is a nice first bear, a 6 foot bear is a great trophy, and a 7 foot bear is the big daddy we all hope to take (measurements from nose to tail). All the television shows and magazine articles state that black bears have the greatest ground shrinkage of all game animals. On deer, elk, moose, antelope and sheep hunts, the hunter determines size by the horns or antlers. On a turkey hunt, you look at the length of the beard. On hogs, cat, and bears, you have to judge the weight or body size of the animal. How many times have you heard someone say, "That’s a small mountain lion, bobcat or pig"? The average black bear killed in North America weighs 150 pounds. People see a 150 pound dead black bear and ask if it is a cub. Unless you have seen numerous black bears, you are going to have a very difficult time determining size. On a first hunt, I advise hunters to be happy to take a black bear and that they have the rest of their lives to take a big bear. The hunter is going to gain so much experience from the first black bear hunt. If a black bear comes to the bait, grabs bait, and returns to the bush to eat, this is an indicator the bear is not the dominant bear hitting the bait. The black bear does not feel comfortable at the bait because it is afraid of being swatted on the rump by the dominant bear. This does not mean the less-dominant black bear is too small to shoot. I have had 300-pound black bears being chased off baits by bigger bears and a 300-pound black bear is a great bear (about 6 foot nose to tail). When you see a less-dominant black bear, spend a little more time judging its size.

In black bear hunting, you also want to wait on a shot to determine if you have a sow with cubs. You cannot distinguish between a boar and a sow 100% of the time. The whole front end of a boar looks bigger than his rear half and I have noticed his head has less rounded features – flatter across the top of his head or between the ears. A sow has a smaller boned frame and a head with rounded features. In humans, you have males that look like females and vice-versa. You will find the same is true for black bears and a look underneath is required to determine the sex of the bear. Only if a black bear stands up on their hind legs and facing you, do you get a look at the equipment underneath. A sow will have a territory of five to seven square miles. She will chase off other sows, unless it is one of her female offspring. A boar will roam six to twelve sows' territories. The odds of seeing a sow is supposed to be 12%, but other outfitters and I think the biologists are wrong and it is much higher. A sow with cubs does not always appear as a "package". A sow may hit the bait first and the cubs are being kids by exploring the woods, climbing trees, wrestling along the trail and other delaying antics. It might take the cubs five minutes to catch up with the sow. The sows are not protective. A black bear is the only mammal that will not protects its young. A cub that is familiar with the bait site might rush down the trail and be the first on the bait. In this case, the sow will be slow to show herself. Why is it important to know this? I cannot tell you how many times I have had hunters say with full confidence that they saw 600 pound sows and 250 pound cubs. The hunter shooting a 250 pound cub got a surprise when the cub was 40 pounds. The hunter shooting the 600 pound sow got a surprise when the sow was 90 pounds. The hunter did not care that his killing of a sow killed three black bears because the cubs will not make it through the winter without their mom. The hunter's only concern was taking what he thought was a huge black bear. Most often the problem is a hunter seeing a black bear and immediately taking a shot, only to find out later it is a lactating sow. Once you take a shot, remember where the black bear was standing at the time of the shot and which trail the bear took after the shot. Listen as the bear crashes through the bush and listen for the death moan which is heard by 50% of hunters. A black bear shot in the vitals will not go more than 50 yards before dying. You will have an easy track to find the downed bear, or you can come back to the Lodge to get me to help. If the blood trail extends much beyond 50 yards, you did not hit vitals and will probably not find your bear. I will not track a bear after sunset. At dark, it is too easy to walk up on a wounded black bear. Upon finding your black bear, you will need to properly tag your bear and gut the bear. If you need help dragging your black bear out of the bush, I will help. The next morning, I will take pictures, skin and quarter your black bear and put it into a chest freezer. Hunters normally get 50 to 70 pounds of meat from a black bear. You must take the meat, because in Ontario it is illegal to allow meat from a game animal to spoil. Black bears killed in the fall have been eating berries since mid–July and their meat is superior tasting over spring bears. The meat tastes like rare beef to me. We do not have wood ticks in our area, consequently the hides are thick with few to no rub spots. The diet of berries produces a high-quality silky hide. Most hunters will have bearskin rugs made from the hide. If you take a real trophy size black bear and your budget can afford it, think about a three quarter or full size mount. I can ship your hide to a taxidermist in Winnipeg if you desire. The cost of a rug is approximately $1,200, depending on the size of the black bear and the US dollar exchange rate. A full size mount is approximately $2,600. It will normally take ten months to get your rug or mount completed. Check with your local taxidermist on prices and turn-around time before your black bear hunt. I hope this helps you in understanding my Ontario black bear hunts and the role you need to take in order to have an enjoyable and successful hunt.

BLACK BEAR BIOLOGY Ontario's black bear population is estimated to be between 75,000 and 100,000 bears. The population densities vary depending on habitat and landscape characteristics. Pine Cliff Lodge is located in Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) 5. The WMU contains 8199 square kilometers of habitable area. WMU 5 is located in the boreal forest of Eco region 4S and in Black Bear Ecological Zone E1. Pine Cliff Lodge has an exclusive Bear Management Area (BMA) black bear hunting area of 52 square kilometers. Black bears in our WMU will enter their dens between 10Oct and 31Oct. Cubs are born in the den between 01Jan and 10Feb. Black bears will emerge from the den between 01Apr and 15May. Yearling black bears will leave their mothers between 15May and 20June. Mating will take place between 10Jun and 20July. Our black bear hunting season is 15Aug to 31Oct, but we will hunt 15Aug to around 20Sep. Black bears start constructing their dens between 15Sep and 31Oct. Black bears emerge from their dens in the spring and feed on flowers, grasses, sedges, spawning suckers, and insects. In the summer, bears eat blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, pin and choke cherries. In the fall, black bears eat mountain ash berries, leaves, and insects. The reproductive rate of black bear is among the slowest of mammals. Females typically produce their first litter of cubs when they are between five and seven years old. The average litter size is two to three cubs. At best, black bear females produce cubs every two years. Your outfitter, Richard, will remove premolar teeth from your harvested black bear and submit them to the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR). The teeth assist the MNR in determining the age structure of our local bear population. In return, the MNR will send you an Ontario Bear Hunter Crest or patch and information about the age of your bear. Click Here for Black Bear Hunting Photos!

Things to Bring: A current or previous hunting license or hunter safety card is mandatory before we can issue an Ontario hunting license Ontario Outdoors Card (if you were fishing or hunting in Ontario in 2009 or 2010) Hunting clothes washed in scent free soap and enclosed in a scent free bag Scent free soap for shower Hunter orange vest and cap (worn in and out of stand, but not while on stand) Bug netting for head and gloves Tree stand and safety harness Firearm and ammo and/or bow and arrows (info to register firearms) Rifle any center fire (no rim fire) Shotguns 12 or 20 gauge with no. 1 buck or slug and hold three shells max Bows with draw weight of 40 pounds and .87 or larger broad head with at least two cutting edges that are sharp, unserrated, barbless, straight and made of steel Crossbows with draw weight of 100 pounds and broad head as described above Cooler big enough for meat and hide Food and beverage as meal plan is not an option Fishing equipment if you choose to fish