Maine Bear Trapping

Black bear are a unique animal that often have just as unique of a following of outdoorsmen who pursue them.  Outside of spring time while they are trying to gorge themselves as much as possible and seem to lose their fear of humans, these black bears are rarely seen for more than a passing shadow here or there.  Their secretive nature and the dense growth of forests they inhabit make them a worthy adversary to pursue.  The classic spot and stalk hunting that is often employed out West is a pure shot in the dark here in Maine with the possible exception of agriculture ground.  Thus tactics have changed and a reliance on bait stations in an attempt to concentrate a bear’s activity into a smaller geographic area has become the norm.  From bait stations, several different approaches can be utilized; such as sitting over the bait with a vigilant eye in hopes that the shadow behind the cedar tree that you have strained to watch as minutes tick by, will materialize into a bruin licking his lips for some food, or hounds may be brought to the site to take off on a fresh track from a bear that most likely is purely nocturnal, or lastly a trap may be fastened at the location in an attempt to snare that bear by his foot.  Few hunting methods evoke more public debate than bear hunting, but I am not looking to get into that in this discussion, rather all three aforementioned methods are acceptable, legal methods of take by the State of Maine’s definition.  Having sat in a tree stand for hours and watched bait stations in years past, I had been fortunate enough to harvest a bear a few years ago.  Its edible qualities are far underemphasized and we enjoyed dining on fresh bear meat that winter.  Looking to harvest another bear, I thought it only fitting to pair my love for trapping with the pursuit of a black bear.  To fit a three month baiting run into a brief synopsis, I am not dining on bear meat this winter, nor will I be able to relax on a luxurious bear skin rug, but I do have some trail camera pictures which are a constant reminder that I need to improve next year.  The first three weeks of the bait season went so smoothly, I became complacent.  A medium size boar would show up and devour the bait like clockwork.  He was a nocturnal bear and off and on a smaller bear would show up for its ration of goodies to fatten up for the winter.  Then, the week before the season they vanished, only showing up for one night a week later before vanishing again.  It became obvious I was competing with natural food sources.  While I enjoyed snacking on the hazelnuts while walking to and from my bait station, I quickly started singing another tune as I realized the bears would rather dine on the natural abundance of nuts than eat the bait I was bringing.  Lots of “secret weapons” later, I would be able to coax them back to the bait site for a night or two, but then they would disappear again.  Oats ripened, hazelnuts loaded the trees and let’s not forget the bushels of apples that weighted down the crooked old trees branches.  Everywhere I turned there was food, and nothing I could do about it, but wait.  Meanwhile, I had the fattest and happiest coon family for miles around!  Finally, the last week of the season, most of the natural food sources started drying up and I knew it was my time.  Sure enough, they showed back up and where up to their clockwork patterns.  I set up my snare in the perfect spot, or so I thought! (Keep in mind, trapping is only allowed with a cable restraint, there is no use of the big old bear traps that everyone pictures)  Night after night though, they evaded the snare until the last night.  As I walked in to pull my snare out, I saw it was fired off.  Thinking it was the raccoons again as they had fired it on more than one occasion; I grumbled under my breath and gathered up the snare and the ever vigilant trail camera.  I was quite surprised when I reviewed the pictures to find that lo and behold, I had caught a bear!  However, he was quite astute for a bear and since the snare had only caught him mid foot rather than pull it any tighter, he decided to just sit down and pull it off with his teeth.  Succeeding in doing so, he leisurely filled his belly and sauntered off to find his denning location, but have no fear, I will try again next year!