Needing a little bear/hog info

[eyeseeker]

Best friend and i are planning a december 2014 trip to South Cherokee to try our hand at bear and boar hunting. We don't have dogs or access to them so we will be strictly spot and stalk....what types of areas/terrain should we look for? We will be camping up there for a week, but have no idea where to begin looking !

 

[WMAn]

Poser and I attempted to do the same. You can read his account here:

http://gocarnivore.com/2013/11/26/tennessee-bear-hunt/

You'll need one of these:

http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/ ... -trail-map

If I was you, I would plan on one of the November dog hunts. I would try for the first November hunt with dogs in the county I planned to hunt. Tndeer member TimberJack86 is also a good source of info.

On a side note, if you just want to kill a hog, there are better options. Hunting Cherokee NF without dogs chances are you will go and see nothing, no hogs and no bears.

 

[eyeseeker]

Thanks for the info! Crazy coincidence....my wife and I honeymooned for a week at a sight looking just like that in sept 2012 on calderwood lake. We spent the week fishing, but saw hogs swimming the lake on several evenings.
My buddy and I Are looking at the Lost Creek area around Reliance for our hunting trip.....we went there 8 years ago and had a great time,but neither one of us filled a tag. We realize that the spot and stalk attempt is going to be a primarily futile attempt, but we are going anyway.
On our trip 10 years ago we found a dog back in the middle of nowhere and returned it to his owner......was like the guys kid just got brought home! He offered to take us at the time..but have long lost his number. We are mainly going to be able to spend some time in the mountains away from it all.

 

[timberjack86]

I would rather hunt early in the season than late. The dog hunts keep the bears up and moving during the day and there are more bears still alive. WMAN gave you a link to a good map. You will need a good map that shows the forest service roads. Bears love to travel closed forest service roads, so that's a good place to start.

 

[LanceS4803]

WMAn, that was a great story.
Any word in your ideas are getting traction with TWR?

 

[blountcountyboy]

WMAN, I hunt that area every year. I would consider 4 hours to get a bear out an easy day with 12 hours not unreasonable. Think about that.... 12 hours of dragging. I don't know many that would be up for that.


I'm in "bear" country about as much as anyone I know hunting, scouting, or just hiking and I do see them without dogs but, it's because of YEARS of learning areas where bears frequent but, it's usually only a few times a year. I found 4 bears all in white oak trees "lapping" 3 days before bear season. I left them without them knowing I was there and came back 3 days later with my hounds and the bears had already moved on. It took 4 hours of walking just to reach where the bears HAD been.

 

[WMAn]

WMAn, that was a great story.
Any word in your ideas are getting traction with TWR?

It's not important enough to me to try, but I think if someone took it up as an issue they might be able to get somewhere with it.

 

[WMAn]

WMAN, I hunt that area every year. I would consider 4 hours to get a bear out an easy day with 12 hours not unreasonable. Think about that.... 12 hours of dragging. I don't know many that would be up for that.


I'm in "bear" country about as much as anyone I know hunting, scouting, or just hiking and I do see them without dogs but, it's because of YEARS of learning areas where bears frequent but, it's usually only a few times a year. I found 4 bears all in white oak trees "lapping" 3 days before bear season. I left them without them knowing I was there and came back 3 days later with my hounds and the bears had already moved on. It took 4 hours of walking just to reach where the bears HAD been.

From talking to others, I think four days of hard hunting, without dogs, should get you at least one bear sighting. Now, killing one is a different story.

I have family that live in PA. They have a much higher density of bears there. I'm probably done bear hunting until I can travel up there.

Blountcountyboy, how common is it for someone to do like you did, walk hours with their hounds to a spot where a bear may be? I was under the impression that hound hunters mainly ride roads trying to strike a bear from the truck.

 

[blountcountyboy]

Since I hunt this way 99% of the time I don't see many people but, there are more than you would think. When I hear dogs or see tracks I go the other way to cover new ground. This way of hunting weeds out those that are insane and those that aren't. LOL!!!

This is the way that I was taught to hound hunt and, that area is also where I "cut my teeth" on bear hunting.

I lead my dogs the first day or 2 since they are fresh and just wanting to run but, the days after they are worn down I "free hunt" them meaning no leads. My Plotts hunt like bird dogs after they are worn down. They range out and check back in with me. They strike a track and I go to where they struck it and make sure they are on a bear. If not they get a "recall tone" on the tri tronics if so I try to keep as close to them as I can. This isn't always easy and it some times takes 4-6 hours to get to them. 17 hours was the longest that they were treed this year before I got to them.


In 2012 I would guess that I walked over 200 miles without putting a bear in a tree. I came out one day towards the end of the season to go home and was setting in the truck eating lunch when my dogs blew up in the box so I turned them loose and they treed one that walked just down the hill from the truck. They "rigged" it and had they not smelled it I would have never knew it was there. Absolute stroke of luck.








BTW... those dates on the camera are wrong... obviously. Those were all taken this year and all while walking.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

That has got to be alot of fun.

 

[fredfred]

[color:#FF0000]I was under the impression that hound hunters mainly ride roads trying to strike a bear from the truck.[/color]

LOL sometimes it's that easy sometimes its not. But that's only were the fun begins :grin:

 

[blountcountyboy]

It's a load of fun and a real adrenaline rush but, it's a bunch of work as well.

I've had to grab big, strong, tough, grown men by the belt and drag them to the tree because they locked up. All those "big bad bear" thoughts come rushing into their head and they just couldn't make their legs work.

 

[CATCHDAWG]

Lost creek is a good area but I would go further south if I were going to hunt that side of Greasy creek (hwy 30). Dry pond lead and Rock creek trail are in the area and connect each other, it's a great area to still hunt. Benton mountain always has a lot bear and hogs and is usually my first choice.