Bruins Above the Bridge
The Odds
Each May for the last 30 years, like clockwork, I put in for my Michigan black bear and elk tags. Like so many other Michiganders, I cross my fingers every late June hoping I get that card in the mail that says “You have been successfully drawn for a bull only elk”…but I never hold my breath. A Michigan elk tag is a once-in-a-lifetime tag. Once you get one, that’s the only elk tag you will ever get.
But with drawing a successful black bear tag, depending on what bear management unit (BMU) you chose, the wait is much more manageable. A survey done by the DNR in 2022 put the black bear population in Michigan at around 12,000. 10,000 bears coming from the U.P. and 2,000 in the Lower Peninsula with a steady increase in numbers each year. The state of Michigan has a license quota of 6,586 bear tags that is divided between 10 BMU’s throughout the Lower and Upper Peninsula with around 60,000 applicants. Statewide, 36% of licensed bear hunters are successful, 87% using firearms.
The six U.P. units each have three different hunt periods, with the hardest to draw tag requiring the most preference points, which is the opening week of the season for each unit. What makes this opening week so coveted is the fact that dog hunters aren’t allowed to run their hounds until the second week of the season. This simple fact gives hunters one week to hunt un-pressured bears, which can definitely help the odds while keeping the bear patterns normal.
Some of the best units to draw each year require between 7-9 points. For each year you apply, you are given a point, so it takes almost a decade for the most coveted tags. The lower peninsula is divided into three BMU’s and only one hunt period, with each unit requiring at least 8 points for success. Drummond Island is the most elite bear tag in the state of Michigan to draw. A Michigan bear hunter must wait almost two decades for a chance at success for that unit! Around 200 hunters apply every year for only six bear tags. So if a newborn baby applied every year, that baby could potentially celebrate a successful hunt on Drummond Island with their first legal beer! That’s some commitment.
The History
The first official bear season in Michigan began in 1928, when a resident deer tag included taking one bear per season. Using bait to hunt bears has always been legal but it wasn’t until 1939 that hunting with dogs was legalized.
In my 30 years of applying for a bear tag in Michigan, I’ve successfully drawn three. Now granted I have always put in for the early season of a BMU that required at least eight points. Two were in the first hunt period in the U.P. and one was for a hard to draw BMU in the Lower Peninsula. To think I’ve graduated college, got married, raised two sons, have lived through the terms of five U.S. Presidents, multiple wars, a pandemic and three decades of Super Bowls and only drawn three home state bear tags is wild to think about. So when a successful bear tag is drawn in Michigan, it is definitely a reason to celebrate and go all in on trying to make the hunt as successful as possible.
In our bear camp, there’s a rotation that we try and stick to. Our goal is to have at least one hunter successfully draw a tag each year but not more than two. We run three baits per hunter that allow us to hunt different winds in roughly a 10 mile by 10 mile area. We have about a half dozen proven stand locations that we’ve successfully taken bears from over the last 25 years. It definitely helps having historical success and knowledge of an area going into the season so you’re not starting from square one. It absolutely bolsters the odds.
In 2000 I drew my first bear tag for our U.P. camp. It was the first time anyone had ever bear hunted it. In the 90’s we hunted it many times for deer, but it wasn’t until 2000 that we had a bear tag in our pocket. I was lucky enough that year to connect on a solid 225 pounder. Since that day, our U.P. deer camp became our U.P. bear camp. The deer numbers were in such massive decline, but the bear population continued to grow. Since that season, we’ve taken well over a dozen bears, with some in the 350-450 pound range, all over bait and all but a handful with archery equipment. It’s been a great run.
The Process
For us, the baiting process is just as exciting as the actual hunt itself, if not more. From our home, the drive to our camp is about six hours, so starting 31 days before the opening day of our BMU we can start baiting. On the way up to camp we have a few traditions. First us “trolls” from the Lower Peninsula drive the five miles over “Mighty Mac”, the Mackinac Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the Western Hemisphere that connects the two peninsulas. At its peak, the bridge rises 200 feet above the Straights of Mackinac, the body of water connecting Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. The Mackinaw Bridge has been a gateway for outdoorsman since it opened in 1957, providing much more timely access to the great north than the ferries had provided before that day.
Next on the list is stopping by the world famous Clyde’s in St. Ignace. THE best hamburgers in the midwest…and probably the biggest. Ordering the “Big C” is a must each trip, and it’s a rite of passage, especially for any new crew member tagging along for the hunt or the baiting runs. With full bellies, the drive along Lake Michigan west over to Escanaba is next, and one of my favorite parts of the trip. It almost provides as a reset from the hustle and bustle of the daily grind and reminds you of the slower-paced life just north of the bridge.
After a 7-8 hour drive we finally get to the trailhead of our camp, an unassuming, metal built cabin a mile off the gravel road. If you didn’t know the trail was there you’d pass it. Overgrown with summer ferns and saplings each year, a chain saw is usually required to make it all the way back to camp, clearing and bucking up any recent fall-downs along the way. After a few rights and a few lefts, we’re home. Up on a maple ridge overlooking the cedar swamp sits the home of the Backwoods Bandits, named by the four original members who built the cabin in 1989 to chase “the thirty-point buck”. This is our home for the next few months through baiting and hunting season. Solitude, finally.
The Hunt
Going into this hunt I had some pretty high expectations. Our standard for a good bear is anything over the 300 pound mark, but our cameras were telling us it might be a little tougher this year. On this trip was my right hand man and childhood best friend Shad Woodruff. He was with me on the very first hunt in 2000 and has been a part of the camp since 1989, when his Dad and his three friends bought the property and built it. Shad has been a part of most of the successful hunts since then, so knowing that alone gave me confidence we could make something happen. We were also able to bring our high school sons Gibson and Layk up to help bait in mid-August. They got to read the journals and experience the camp like we did when we were their age. Nothing has really changed back there in 30 years. It was honestly the highlight of the entire season for us.
Day One
The first night of the hunt we chose a stand we call the River Bait. It’s near a river and has yielded a few in the 300 pound range over the last five years. Our stand sits high on a hardwood ridge that falls down into a thick cedar swamp. We had four different bears hitting this bait regularly with one potential shooter, but in this part of the U.P., the bear density is so thick you never know what could sneak out. The wind was ideal, the temps dropping but the night proved to be pretty slow, with only a small bear coming to the bait well past shooting light.
Day Two
Our plan for day two was to check baits at the other two stand locations in the morning and hunt the River Bait for a second night in a row. The wind was again going to be ideal. From our camp, we can access our baits with a UTV. We use Tracker Off-Road vehicles that are well equipped for the job. Our range from bait to bait can be over 10 road miles, so having a vehicle that can handle the rough two-tracks in the remote Upper Peninsula wilderness is key.
Once we got to the baits we noticed they were both hit hard. The logs covering one of the the baits weigh up to 100 pounds to prevent any smaller animals from accessing it. Some of them were thrown up to five yards from the bait, which usually indicates a bigger bear. The camera revealed a solid bear pushing the 300 pound mark. If we weren’t successful at the River Bait, we would make a play for this location on day three. We quietly hung a Millennium set and got out of there by noon.
As it would turn out, we didn’t see a bear at the River Bait that evening so the move was on.
Day Three
We snuck in around 2PM and quietly got on stand. This set was extremely tight to the bait and I would get almost zero warning before a bear was on it. We were basically in their bedroom. From the bait site you could see numerous bear trails and tunnels coming through the thicket to the bait. The bear activity on our other baits was extremely low and this bait had not seen a bear since we rebaited it the previous day. We were pretty optimistic the hungry belly of a soon-to-be hibernating bruin would feel the urge to pay us a visit. For almost five hours we didn’t see a hair outside of the skunk who regularly visited the bait site looking for a scrap.
About an hour before dark a solid bear snuck in from the left side of the bait, moved to the back and went back into the heavy cover. 30 seconds later he was back out and I was ready for the shot. I drew and released the arrow as soon as he opened up his left side. The arrow passed through his lungs and within seconds the bruin was expired, letting the forest know with a final death moan no more than 50 yards behind the bait in the heavy cover. 23 years after my first successful Michigan bear hunt, I was able to punch my second U.P. bear tag.
Being born and raised in the state of Michigan I might be a little bias, but this state has more to offer than almost any other. Black bear, elk, turkey, waterfowl, world-class trout, salmon, smallmouth and walleye fisheries…an incredible whitetail deer population (I won’t get into the management aspect) and more than 3,200 miles of freshwater coastline. Michigan is truly an incredible state for anyone who loves the outdoors. And to know that I was able to wrap my 2023 bear tag around a great Michigan bear with the same friend who I started it all with 23 years ago was just the cherry on top and great way to kick off the fall hunting season.
AUTHOR: JASON BROWN "STOVEPIPE"
