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2001 Fall Black Bear Bowhunt With Fred Lutger
by Robert Hoague

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| 5th Day's Hunt | 6th Day's Hunt | 7th Day's Hunt | 8th Day's Hunt |

7th Day Of The Hunt

Mike Ditschler went to his stand in the afternoon. Fred Lutger and Don Beckwith (Donald Duck) went to one of their video stands. Fred was bowhunting and the Duck went to video. The young guys who came to fish, Mike Ditschler Jr. and Ken Stachniak asked if they could sit in a stand so they could see a bear. They took a camera to take it's picture. Fred and Don dropped them off at a bait with two stands.

I drove into Atikokan and uploaded changes to the web site. When I returned to camp everyone was arriving back in from the day's hunt. 

The teenagers had heard a bear but it didn't come close enough for a picture. Fred and Don saw a young bear and Fred passed on it. Mike Ditschler was excited.

Around 7:00 Mike Ditschler  saw a medium sized bear walking in a trail towards his area. Mike stood up in the treestand and hooked up his release. The bear was noisy as he turned off the trail and circled around. Eventually it passed close to Mike's tree and went to the bait. Mike shot ... but he missed. The bear ran behind him and stopped 30 yards away.

The bear observed the area for several minutes and started to return. Suddenly Mike heard a very loud breathy noise. The bear immediately raced into the brush. Fifteen yards to Mike's left, in some thin, sapling trees Mike saw a huge bear, it was standing upright -- looking right at him and sniffing the air. Mike froze. 

The big bear turned and walked up the ridge in the same trail Mike has seen other bears use. But, those other bears had disappeared in the brush -- this larger bear was in plain sight all the way until he topped the ridge.

I listened to Mike's recount of his episode with the standing bear. Mike is a new bowhunter and has not yet taken an animal with his bow. I remembered that he had seen other bears during this hunt and I asked him how many bears he had seen this week. He told me that he had seen 6 bears and had missed 3 shots.

I suggested that we look at his bow tomorrow and then asked if I could go with him when he hunted in the afternoon so I could take pictures if a bear showed up. He said yes. Actually, my purpose was not to take pictures, I had a hidden agenda, I thought I might be able to help him get his first animal with his bow, a bear.