touchy subject

My son after putting in for 10yrs. drawed a Utah Archery bait tag. He and I(his dad) have spent hundreds of hours getting things ready for the hunt and weeks in the stand. We had 5 nice bears coming in with one being a total monster. The big black would only come in at night. We'll 6 days before the hunt ends, we have bear dogs run thru are bait. That's the last bears we say. After hundreds of hours of work and preparation all to have it end because of houndsmen. I'm not blaming them, I'm blaming the fish & Game for allowing this different hunts to go on at the same time. I know of 2 other baiter's that had the same problem, having dogs run the bears off of there baits. It's bull - it. I'm sure the houndsmen will slam me, but I'm a dad and having watch my son work his butt off, all to have the dogs run any chance he had at getting satisfaction from his hard work. Piss me you.

Happened to me 3 times on my bear hunt. I still ended up getting a bear though. All 3 times the bears came back but seemed to be more nocturnal. I dont know a ton about bear hunting as I have only baited or helped bait on 3 local hunts.

Some things to consider is this, if thy actually found your bait and struck their dogs off then, thats illegal. But, how close to roads were you? Could your bears have walked across a road going to your bait? Most likely the hounds struck off a crossing or a close bait??

Im prerty sure idaho allows hounds and baiting at the same time. Not a big deal imo.

Utah can be a tough place to bait bears. Im sorry your son did not get his bear, but it is hunting and nothing is a guarantee.

They'll be back.

Ive had plenty of dogs come through my baits and it doesnt seem to push the bears away. They might stay away for a day or so but they always come back. If anything they make the bears a little more hungrier from the workout they give em. Keep baiting til the end of your hunt you never know what will happen. GOOD LUCK.

Maybe the fish and game should close down bear baiting in the spring and only have bowhunters in the fall season when bear pursuit is closed and there are a limited number of houndsmen in the field. That would limit the conflict but would also limit the bowhunter opportunity. What I have found after over forty years of hunting is that if the public complains too much DWR will fix it by limiting somebodies hunting experience, which is food for thought for both houndsmen an bait hunters.

Welcome to hunting public lands in Utah.......

Whether it's an another archery hunter sitting in your tree stand over your favorite water hole, an elk herd you've been watching all summer spooked in the pre dawn hours opening morning by encroaching OHV's, or someone stealing or vandalizing your blind material in the duck marsh, some other hunter seems to always be there to ruin your hunting experience. Sorry, but remember it is a shared resource.

I have had dogs on my bait several times each year... The bears never stay away for very long.

Having anyone or anything, "mess up your hunt" is frustrating. No matter what or where you hunt. But that's part of public land hunting and hunting fair chase. If you want a guaranteed kill then baiting bears in Utah is not where you should be looking. I've been on over 140 bear kills over bait, I've had hounds my entire life, and I hunt just about every species offered in Utah. So I know well enough how much time and effort it takes. I can promise you one thing, those houndsmen have ten times the amount of time and money invested as you do baiting. Other hunters mess up the hunt for the houndsmen every bit us much as they ruin it for anyone else. But they don't complain. What has played a major role in causing this problem is big game hunters complaining about houndsmen in the fall/the spring season dates being way off what they should be. There's about two weeks a year that a houndsmen can have much success finding bears to run, so that forces everybody with dogs to be on the mountain at the same time. Sure it would be great if every hunt had its own time on the mountain without anybody else there. Hell I'd love to hunt the Henries for deer every fall without another person on the mountain. But that's not life. As a general rule houndsmen do what they can to avoid conflict with any other hunters because we know we are last priority to the DWR. In fact most houndsmen I know are willing to give great advice to bait hunters, as to where to find bears, and avoid other doggers. Thinking because dogs ran a bear past your site will keep them from returning to the bait is foolish. That's the primary way to start a bear with hounds in Idaho, is off a bait. And those bears come back day after day to run off that same bait again and again. Unless the houndsmen was one of the lucky few with a kill tag and harvested that bear, then they aren't the reason the bear doesn't return.

Sorry for the bad luck, but hey, it's hunting. The challenge is what makes it rewarding.

All our baits are a minimum of 700 to 800 yards from any road. Preferably with some ridge or creek between us and the road and have kept most hounds away. That beeing said we had a hound hunter camp right below a bait sight a couple years ago and we still took a good bear out off it.

No roads it's the best way to keep hounds off your bait, Hounds hunters drive road to get a strike and then release if they find fresh tracks/scent, so if your bait/bears aren't near a road Good chance you will never have a hound chase a bear off your bait pile.

That being said some of the best places for bears are covered by roads and Atv trails, You take your chances, and hope for the best.
No-one feels sorry for the hound guy who releases his dogs on a hot trail only to find out after his dogs off and running that same bear already was taken by a bait hunter 4 miles down the canyon a hour ago. Wasted time and money for him.

"I have found if you go the extra mile it's Never crowded".
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Last year I had a guy release hounds on the main road, I was sitting a water tank on private land! I was furious. I ran as fast as I could in the directions the dogs were I was gonna shoot the bear they the dogs tree, bumped a small bear the dogs couldn't tree the bear it ended up getting dark and I decided to find the hounds man. I found a truck parked a top the highway with three guys. As i approached the truck ( still in my freestanding hardness) I find 3 guys that are drinking , one could hardly walk! Needless to say they apologised and asked if I wanted them to tree a bear for me I. The morning. I called the property owner and reported them to game and fish . Next day we did not hunt the property thinking the bears were run off .when we went back to take the blind down we saw a giant leaving the water hole ...

It is a touchy topic on both sides. You were passionate to get your son a nice bear, the houndsmen were passionate about catching one with their dogs. I used to run hounds...A LOT. followed the dogs once as they went right through another hunters bait where he sat. He was furious, I got furious and when we both settled down and talked it over we both were happy. 1st-if the dogs run through your bait...you already missed it. 2nd-if the good bears come to a bait only at night you can't shoot it anyway (legally). 3rd- the hounds run the night bears it may change their habits so you can have a crack at them.
it may not matter but here is an example of this bad situation gone extremely bad this last weekend and it will cause much more discontent that it resolved.
I had a hound shot and killed this morning by an archery hunter while I was running a bear. It was in the Camas Creek area off of the end of road 481. I am offering a cash reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible. Here are the details:

"Date: 9/22/2013
Time: 9:00AM to 10:00AM
Location: Clark County Idaho, Forest Road 481, West Camas Creek
He was shot by a three blade broadhead.
The dog was a blanket back plott hound.
Reward TBD but it won't be a small amount. He was not just a hound but a pet and part of our family.

Please call (208)313-8699 with any helpful information."

Just some food for your thoughts. We all love to hunt. We each have our passions. Hunting is hunting...No guarantees. We have to share the woods and keep our right to hunt.

Bluetick,
Sorry to hear about your hound. I nearly can't believe a fellow hunter would shoot a hound...what an a$$hole! I hope you catch him.

On a more general note, in Idaho, its easy to avoid the conflict...wait until Oct 1st to hunt your bait.

UGA;
Didn't mean to make it sound like it was my hound. It was another kid's hound. He is pretty upset and rightfully so. I hope that from this account, both sides will greater appreciate the passion that hunters have-on both sides. We need that passion to keep our rights to hunt and if we can't work it out...Heaven help us when the anti's come again.

Yes, on that note, October is better bait hunting too because the berries are all gone by then and the bears still want some groceries before the real cold comes.

Unfortunately this happens. I had the same thing happen to me this spring down in Range Creek. I had 3 great bears coming in and was having some close calls, until I went into check my cameras after being away for a couple days. What I found was about 50 pictures of dogs and a guy with a rifle and not another bear :/ I feel for you man, it sucks.

I hunt over bait in northern Idaho, the few yrs we have been sharing a camp with a couple hound hunter and getting to know them they have helped me out a bunch with what bears are in the area and size of them how many etc.... they haven't pushed bears off my bait as others have said they start coming in later in the day (night) or early mornings. Those guys (hounds-men) work just as hard as you do baiting. use this a a learning curve for your next bear hunt yes it sucks to have something like that happen but it does