Group 2 - Day 2

We ate my favorite breakfast, waffles made by Chef Klaus in his cast iron waffle machine -- with his super secret waffle mix. We're talking waffles a' la awesome. The perfect color, just the right amount of crispness on the outside, delicious inside, and an aroma that has everybody eagerly waiting for their plate. 

After breakfast Bryant Askew and I went to his stand site 8-K. This is my all time favorite bear place. I've seen a lot of bears here and both Mike Ditchler and I have got lucky and taken bears here in prior years. 

I looked at his setup and suggested he move the stand to the tree that Mike and I always hunted in. We took down the tree stand and climbing sticks (Rising Star by North Starr Treestands) and Bryant set up a new residence.

The bait had not been hit. This was a surprise because it was getting slaughtered last week. We added some tasty, hard candy anyway.

Last week we had a TrailTimer camera at the next stand site 10-K and the pictures showed two different bears were visiting the bait during the day. Plus we had 15 pictures of night time visits to the bait. John Askew was hunting this bait. (Here are the 10-K daytime bear pics.)

I was confident Bryant and John would get bears in on these locations.

Meanwhile Doc was having quite a time. Mike Ditchler dropped him off to do something on his stand. When Mike returned a short while later Doc was wide eyed and excited.

"Do you have any water?" Doc asked anxiously.

They didn't. Doc quickly explained his dilemma. He had brought along some pepper spray because he heard that bears were afraid of it. While he was waiting for Mike to come back he took the spray out of his pack and looked it over. He decided to give it a try and see what it did and how far it would spray.

A big mistake!!!

When Mike arrived minutes later Doc was on fire and desperate for some relief, he needed water to wash the pepper spray off. It had been raining regularly and Mike raced to a mud puddle in the road and Doc washed the spray's residue off himself.

Back at camp Roy Keefer checked his new Venom Peep Sight I had brought for him. He put it on yesterday had it shooting good in minutes. The Venom peep is designed with modern bows in mind. The aperture is the correct angle for a short, fast bow like Roy's new BowTech Liberty. And the Venom's hole is big enough for bowhunting in low light conditions. 

Everyone went hunting after our main 3:00 meal. When hunting hours were over we all met at the cabin. John and Bryant had zipped. As had Fred and I. Doc's bait had been hit but he didn't see a bear. The Duck moved his Double Bull Matrix to Caution stand had passed on a smaller bear and saw a large bear that hung up in the woods. 

And first time bear hunter big Jim Misiukiewicz had seen a bear at the Picnic stand and got with the program. Here is Jim's hunt...