This is more  of a hunting report than a fishing report. This year I applied for and received a permit to harvest a bear in the Baldwin bear management area. The Baldwin area consists of 10 and a half counties and Mason County is one of them. It is hard to draw a permit for this area. Only 155 permits were issued. I had 13 preference points and was lucky to get one. Kevin Pomorski, pictured above in the 1st pic, was my first mate for a lot of years and along with his friend Roger Paul, 2nd pic, agreed to help in my pursuit of a bear. I shot a bear with my bow in Canada several years ago with a guide. It was a fun trip but the guide did all the work finding the spots and doing the baiting. I didn’t know anything about what it took to get a bear to come in and neither did Kevin or Roger. This is where another friend, George Collons helped out. He has extensive bear hunting knowledge and showed me how to set up baits and scents to lure them in.  Roger had bears on his trail camera from deer hunting last season so we went to two of his spots on state land and placed baits there. We had shelled corn statured with maple syrup inside cut out logs. The rock and log on top are there to keep racoons and deer out. The third picture down shows the first time one of our baits got hit. It was exciting to see that we had actually drawn a bear in and really exciting when we checked the camera, next 2 pictures, and saw it was a shooter. I didn’t hunt opening morning because the wind was coming from the east and would be blowing my scent right at the bait. I went out the second morning armed with Kevin’s 444 Marlin rifle. I used a bow in Canada, but drawing a tag in the Baldwin unit is  probably a once in a lifetime deal for me so I opted for a rifle instead of my bow. I got into my tree stand at 7:30 a.m. The mosquitos were thick. I used a Thermacell and that helped. I looked over my shoulder about 8:20 and saw the bear approaching from behind my stand. I was excited and my heart was beating pretty hard. The bear didn’t make any noise as it circled around my stand. I knew it was going to go to the bait and as soon as it got in the clearing I shot. It went right down and never got up. I was pumped! I shot the bear in Mason County less than 15 miles from my house. We had a plan and it all came together. I had watched a video on YouTube on how to gut a bear. That helped a lot. Another friend Seth Earl, helped me gut it and drag it out. Don’t think I could have done it alone. The bear was sow. It weighed 200 lbs. dressed out and was a little over 5 feet in length. I’m having a rug made out of the hide and have so far enjoyed 3 meals of bear meat. I had heard mixed reviews on how bear meat tastes. I’m happy to report this bear tastes good. I haven’t ran any trips since my bear hunt. There is a good chance I’m done fishing for the season. My last 3 scheduled trips have been cancelled due to rough sea’s. I have 1 more trip on the books. Hopefully we can get that trip in.