After The Thaw: Manitoban Black Bears and Walleye

Greeted with perfect weather and a view that is hard to beat, as well as the more than accommodating chalet—surely the start to a good week.

It did not take long to convince a group of outdoor writers there are world-class walleye in these parts.

The outfitter prefers to hunt the afternoons. That said, the mornings were filled with views comparable to this.

The bait isn’t far, maybe 15 yards, but twilight time is much longer than what is experienced in the southeast. The Bushnell Trophy 3-9x40 mm scope provided the perfect about of clarity and light gathering capability to comfortably hunt those wee-hours of the day.

The Savage Model 16 Weather Warrior chambered for .338 Federal is a great combination for this hunt. The all copper 200-grain bullet from Federal provides 3071 ft. lbs. of muzzle energy which is perfect for large predatory animals, like the black bear.

Bushnell has ramped it up with the Trophy Xtreme line of rangefinders. Through technological tweaks, these new rangefinders are compact, lightweight, lightening fast, provide shot angle adjustments and are more effective when ranging dark, color-absorbing colors like the black bear; a problem of the past. You can see here we had the setting adjusted for an archery shot and can be quickly changed to provide for rifle adjustments.

Refilling the bait barrels was a daily chore for the staff at Narrows Outfitters.

“Dancing Bear,” or the tattletale as I like to call him, gave plenty of clues that a larger boar was hiding in the bush. Frequently he would nose the air and stop eating to analyze the scent trail floating downwind.

This big boar gave me a show two nights prior to finally giving me a chance to harvest him. Having had a close encounter late in the sit, I knew he would be back another day. The little bear came to bait like clockwork. Bears seem to put off a lot of body language and by carefully watching I knew the mature bear was near. Sure enough, the mature one came in at twilight. He seemed to know something was off and didn’t appear comfortable inside of 60 yards. Eventually, though, he did provide me with a shot. Practice prevailed.

Between filleting fish and caping out bears, the hunters in camp kept the outfitters busy.

The paw of a mature black bear is always an impressive sight.

Walleye are a bottom feeding fish that required us to find lake current along with proper depth. But when get on them big ones like this were not uncommon.

This bear I named “Baldy.” He entered the scene huffing and growling while snapping his jaw. He was constantly curious of me and my presence. Bears are incredibly fast so, not taking chances, I kept the rifle at hand whenever he came close.

So long Manitoba—we hope to return to that narrow part of Lake Manitoba to do it all over again.