Fall of 2007 marked my first season with a Fox 20 gauge from Connecticut Shotgun Manufacturing Company. In anticipation, I had signed on to an unusual duck and black bear combination hunt offered by Riverside Lodge on Lake Winnipegosis in Manitoba. The ducks that predominate in the lake’s back waters were to inaugurate the Fox; the bear was to be hunted with a Marlin lever action in .45-70. The duck hunts were over decoys in open water from a boat hidden in nearby reeds. The bear hunts were over bait in clearings in the dense forest surrounding the lake.
I was off in my guide’s boat well before dawn the first morning. The Fox shot well and collected my eight-duck limit of mostly redhead drakes. I traded the Fox for the Marlin and, after a boat ride and a short hike, I reached the bear stand. There I found a young bear treed by a big sow that weighed more than 300 pounds. She monopolized the bait until dark.
The next morning I shared the boat with another hunter occupying the bow, which was where most of the early shots presented. I had shot only one redhead drake when we re-positioned the boat to afford the Fox more chances. However, the birds shut down early, and I was headed to a new bear stand by 2:30 p.m.
Just as I signed off the mandatory 6 p.m. check-up call, a large bear ambled out of the thicket and immediately hit the oats. I figured he was a male, as his shoulders extended well above the bait drum, and he carried his weight in his chest. I glassed the bruin and confirmed his gender. His pelt was jet-black and faultless. I had a steadfast rest for the Marlin, and when he turned quartering in to me at 44 yards, I fired. The impact rocked him back, but he recovered and bolted into the woods, crashing through the under story.
I called for the requisite back-up and heard the boat approaching 15 minutes later. My guide and a packer arrived shortly, but not before another bear appeared. This one wasn’t quite as big as the first, and he scrambled away as the men approached. My support team followed my directions to where the first bruin had disappeared and quickly located him 40 yards farther on in some thick willows. We approached cautiously, but the shot had been fatal. The field dressing went briskly, but the drag to the boat was arduous with the guide and the packer wrestling the bear along in a tarp. It took all of us to heave him into the boat and it was dark when we finally pulled in to the dock.
The Fox accounted for my duck limit early the next morning, so we had plenty of time to skin my bear and deliver him to a local taxidermist. I wielded the Fox better on the fourth duck hunt, but was one bird short of my limit at morning’s end. I cased the Fox for the afternoon, as few northern ducks were migrating in and the local ducks grew warier with each hunt. Indeed, the last day offered only two chances, but the Fox splashed down two gadwalls.
Although I still had hunts planned in 4 states, I knew that black bear, which weighed more than 400 pounds and stretched almost 80 inches, would be the highlight of my season. He probably wasn’t the biggest bear in the woods that fall, but none was more handsome.
Contact Information:
Riverside Lodge
Box 28
Duck Bay, Manitoba
866-214-8402
riversidelodge@xplornet.com
www.huntriverside.com
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