|
Post by benmnwi on Feb 2, 2021 16:37:02 GMT -6
Anyone apply for a bear tag for 2021? I applied in WI and today it is showing my preference points at 0 when it was at 8 yesterday. It will be a fun fall if I have a bear tag to use at my cabin.
|
|
|
Post by kooch on Feb 2, 2021 17:28:44 GMT -6
I've got a reminder on my calendar at the beginning of April to check in to applications. I think that's when MN has the lottery application. I'll apply for "area 99" in MN again this year. 99 is a special designation for guys that just want to build some points but not hunt this year.
In a year or two, I'll have plenty to be mostly assured of a draw. Then, I'll plant oats thick again in the spring, which really seemed to bring in the bear, then pay a local outfitter to run a couple baits on my place, just for me. It'll be fun. I wish I lived there so I could do the baits myself.
|
|
|
Post by kooch on Feb 2, 2021 18:03:27 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by terrifictom on Feb 2, 2021 18:50:20 GMT -6
I applied for kill tag,but because they changed zones where I help guide from Zone D to Zone A I didn't get a tag. Sucks because now it will probably take 9 or 10 points to get a tag in Zone A. Before I could get a tag in 5 to 6 years.
|
|
|
Post by benmnwi on Feb 2, 2021 19:28:12 GMT -6
My zone changed from zone A to zone D, so it should take fewer points than the 9 in the past. They want to lower the bear population in my area because of Ag damage, so hopefully they issue lots of tags.
|
|
|
Post by nhmountains on Feb 2, 2021 20:41:17 GMT -6
I have a lifetime hunting license in New Hampshire. That includes a license for deer and bear. Before my wife bought it for me around 25 years ago tge bear tags were $3. There now $18 over the counter so my wife made a good investment. I’ll continue to hunt bear in the fall in my orchards or clover plots. Not having a bait site last fall helped with less bear damage but, the bear did a lot of early august and September damage.
|
|
|
Post by terrifictom on Feb 3, 2021 6:06:40 GMT -6
My zone changed from zone A to zone D, so it should take fewer points than the 9 in the past. They want to lower the bear population in my area because of Ag damage, so hopefully they issue lots of tags. It is going to be a shit show in the new Zone D as they gave out 3600 tags. People got a tag with 1 preference point. They have a problem in Zone D with the amount of bear but flooding the zone with hunters is not the answer. They tried that in Zone C a few years ago and it didn't work. You would think the DNR would learn from their mistakes.
|
|
|
Post by benmnwi on Feb 3, 2021 12:08:26 GMT -6
My zone changed from zone A to zone D, so it should take fewer points than the 9 in the past. They want to lower the bear population in my area because of Ag damage, so hopefully they issue lots of tags. It is going to be a shit show in the new Zone D as they gave out 3600 tags. People got a tag with 1 preference point. They have a problem in Zone D with the amount of bear but flooding the zone with hunters is not the answer. They tried that in Zone C a few years ago and it didn't work. You would think the DNR would learn from their mistakes. What were the issues in zone C when they issued more tags? There are way too many bears in the ag areas of Rusk County, so issuing more tags will certainly help that problem. Where did you see the breakdown of tags per zone and the number of points needed? There are a ton of bears and ag damage in Rusk County, so I'm all for blanketing the area with tons of tags. Right now the DNR is spending tons of money on trapping/transplanting and ag damage when they should just sell more tags to thin out those same bears. Maybe we will have some fawn survival again if the bear numbers are cut in half or more. I will be pretty pumped if we can draw tags every couple years.
|
|
|
Post by terrifictom on Feb 3, 2021 12:57:11 GMT -6
It is going to be a shit show in the new Zone D as they gave out 3600 tags. People got a tag with 1 preference point. They have a problem in Zone D with the amount of bear but flooding the zone with hunters is not the answer. They tried that in Zone C a few years ago and it didn't work. You would think the DNR would learn from their mistakes. What were the issues in zone C when they issued more tags? There are way too many bears in the ag areas of Rusk County, so issuing more tags will certainly help that problem. Where did you see the breakdown of tags per zone and the number of points needed? There are a ton of bears and ag damage in Rusk County, so I'm all for blanketing the area with tons of tags. Right now the DNR is spending tons of money on trapping/transplanting and ag damage when they should just sell more tags to thin out those same bears. Maybe we will have some fawn survival again if the bear numbers are cut in half or more. I will be pretty pumped if we can draw tags every couple years. Issues in Zone C were, at times you have 10 guys baiting on their property in a section. With that much bait on the ground most of the bears go nocturnal. The success rate dropped down to 10 percent. A good and proven practice is to have baits at least a mile away. The DNR got no where close to their quota. Last couple of years the DNR cut the amount of tags given out in Zone C and the success rate and kill went up. As for the ag damage tags, if a ag damage tag is issued for a property they are not allowed to bait or run dogs at all on the whole property even if they have woods adjacent to where the ag damage is occurring,. A lot of damage occurs before the bear season opens. Also where a lot of the ag damage is occurring is on land that is tillable land leased out by owner. The owner deer hunts the land so he will not allow bear hunters on land so guy leasing land for farming gets no ag damge for their crop. So with all those tags given out and all the private land that hunters can not get on, they will all flocked on to public hunting land. The reason that the DNR increased the tags so high, was that a retired farmer from that area of the new Zone D is a Board member on Natural Resource Board and has been hammering them to increase the quota. Saw the quotas on the recorded meeting from the Natural Resource meeting. The number of preference points needed for different zones came from poll on face book group for Wisconsin Bear hunters.
|
|
|
Post by benmnwi on Feb 3, 2021 13:58:56 GMT -6
I don't think you can convince me that to kill more bears in Rusk County we need to issue fewer tags! I agree with you though that blanketing the zone with a ton of tags will make the public properties a zoo and their hunts will not be as much fun. On the other hand extra tags will also remove a bunch of private land bears and that is a good thing in my area.
The bear numbers in the ag areas in Rusk County are crazy - when we are up there in the summer we drive around and look at bears feeding in open fields just like we do deer back home. It makes no sense that it takes 9 years to draw a tag on my land when I have tons of ag damage annually and bears are eating most of the fawns. I would prefer to separate private and public land bear tags to prevent overcrowding on the public land and push the bear harvest to the private properties with damage. That plan seems to work well with private and public land doe tags, so I think it would work for bear. After enough years of high harvest on private land the bear population will decrease.
The situation you describe with ag damage is exactly what I see on my land. I won't allow the farmer renting my tillable land to apply for ag damage programs since they require public access. I would love to get some ag damage bear kill tags, but those are only issued after they come in and trap as many bears as possible and then you have to allow public access the entire season, which would screw up my bow season. We have around 10 people applying for bear tags for my land, so if we could get tags in a reasonable amount of time we could ideally control the bear population ourselves. It will be interesting to see how it turns out, but in my specific area I think the extra tags are a good thing.
|
|
|
Post by badbrad on Feb 3, 2021 14:01:59 GMT -6
My buddy got a tag and I will be baiting for him at the cabin. We will have bear camp again this year but I won't be hunting. Just enjoying cabin time.
|
|
|
Post by benmnwi on Feb 3, 2021 14:40:59 GMT -6
My buddy got a tag and I will be baiting for him at the cabin. We will have bear camp again this year but I won't be hunting. Just enjoying cabin time. I really enjoy baiting, checking cameras, etc. even if I'm not the one hunting. If someone else is hunting I usually drop them off at their stand and then go fishing for a couple hours. If all goes as planned I'll be cleaning fish and drinking a beer in the driveway when the shot is fired and it is time to start tracking. We set up a second bait site on my land in December in case 2 of us get drawn this fall. A lot of us have a bunch of points now, so we should be able to thin the bear herd out with a little luck.
|
|
|
Post by terrifictom on Feb 3, 2021 14:44:29 GMT -6
I don't think you can convince me that to kill more bears in Rusk County we need to issue fewer tags! I agree with you though that blanketing the zone with a ton of tags will make the public properties a zoo and their hunts will not be as much fun. On the other hand extra tags will also remove a bunch of private land bears and that is a good thing in my area. The bear numbers in the ag areas in Rusk County are crazy - when we are up there in the summer we drive around and look at bears feeding in open fields just like we do deer back home. It makes no sense that it takes 9 years to draw a tag on my land when I have tons of ag damage annually and bears are eating most of the fawns. I would prefer to separate private and public land bear tags to prevent overcrowding on the public land and push the bear harvest to the private properties with damage. That plan seems to work well with private and public land doe tags, so I think it would work for bear. After enough years of high harvest on private land the bear population will decrease. The situation you describe with ag damage is exactly what I see on my land. I won't allow the farmer renting my tillable land to apply for ag damage programs since they require public access. I would love to get some ag damage bear kill tags, but those are only issued after they come in and trap as many bears as possible and then you have to allow public access the entire season, which would screw up my bow season. We have around 10 people applying for bear tags for my land, so if we could get tags in a reasonable amount of time we could ideally control the bear population ourselves. It will be interesting to see how it turns out, but in my specific area I think the extra tags are a good thing. Ben I don't remember how many acres you have but unless you have a mile section or none of your neighbors draw tags, you will be competing with them when you bait. Now take the corn fields and neighbor's baits. You can have a bear coming in every day before season, you start hunting and the bear catches your scent which almost every bear will. It will just change directions probably without you even seeing it and check out your neighbors bait, smells the hunter on neighbor's and then moves on to cornfield. Bear never gets shot. Saw this scenario in Zone C many times. As far as having too many bear, the problem will never end if Landowners don't let hunters on their land to hunt the bear. Just guessing but probably 60 to 70 percent of the hunters, maybe more getting all those tags are not from that area. My family and myself tried for 3 years by my land in Zone 3 to get a bear, went 0 for 3. I do my bear hunting up North where I guide now. With all that said I hope you get a bear.
|
|
|
Post by benmnwi on Feb 3, 2021 16:40:30 GMT -6
I hope I get a bear too since I like bear ring bologna!
There is a lot of bear hunting pressure in our neighborhood and it is common to hear bear shots or hear hounds running on neighboring properties. There are usually so many bears it doesn't matter too much if the neighbors hunt or not though. The DNR traps in our neighborhood every year and ag tags are handed out to farmers up there and the bears still are common - I think they migrate in from adjacent big wooded areas to hit the corn/acorns and swamp berries in our area.
I intentionally wipe sweat and and human scent around the bait site so the bears know humans are there. It seems to work since they never really seem to care that we are in a nearby tree - they just look up and keep walking into the bait. There are a lot of bears in the general area though, so I think there is lots of competition for food and that drives the bears to the bait sites in daylight.
We really don't see nearly as many bears in the large blocks of public land in the NW and NE corners of Rusk County, so the bear numbers aren't evenly distributed throughout the area.
|
|
|
Post by benmnwi on Feb 3, 2021 20:44:02 GMT -6
My friend is also at 0 preference points now, so I think he drew a bear tag as well. Hopefully we can bag two on my land next year.
|
|