Dean's Manitoba Monster - Manitoba
Dean and his bear!!
Beautiful country!
Great catch!
Hunter: Dean Ashton
Cameraman: Freddy Lagos
Well now that Freddy had his bear on the ground, I had the luxury of being a little pickier. Heck all I had to do was shoot a bear bigger than Fred’s and I would be happy. Little did I know the size of the Manitoba Monster that waited for me. It was our last night on stand and time was starting to run short. We had sat this stand the past three nights and saw what we thought was a good bear hanging with a sow. I passed him on several occasions because he was so hard to get a good look at. We had trouble getting good footage to judge the bear. It looked to me as if he had wintered hard, Freddy seemed to think he was a fooler, we were about to find out.
Like I said it was our last night on stand and time was starting to get crunched. It was about 9:30 pm when I looked up and saw that darling little sow heading towards the bait. I knew that big old boar wouldn’t be far behind. About the time she got settled at the bait site, Freddy tapped my shoulder and said “here he comes”. This old boy was smarter than heck, stopping several times to scent check the bait and circling the bait before even considering coming in. This bear kept trees between us and him and when he did decide to come in the previous night, he would walk dead away or straight at us in the tree—this old man had been around the block a few times. Well unbeknownst to him, the night before on our way out of the woods, we chopped down a small jack pine that he routinely walked behind; this would end up sealing this big boy’s fate as a television star.
Upon scent checking and circling the bait that night he figured the coast was clear, that was the worst mistake of his life. As he lumbered towards the bait Freddy gave me the go ahead. The bear went about his normal routine, and headed down the same trail with the jack pine we cut. Like he had in the past he got to the jack pine and started to head towards the bait at a hard quartering away angle. The night before the pine kept his vitals safe, tonight that would not be the case. As he turned quartering away I drew my Hoyt, settled my pins on his lungs, and asked Freddy if he was on him. By the time “yes” was complete, my Beman and Spitfire were on the way to their happy place, otherwise known as his lungs. The arrow hit him perfect and the bear literally went only thirty yards and expired. Freddy and I did our happy dances in the tree. We thought he was a good bear but we were about to be floored by this old bruin.
Upon recovering this guy, we discovered his face was scarred up and all of his teeth but one canine was missing. This bear literally had almost all his teeth gone or wore down into his gums. All of his canines were broke out except for one. It’s no wonder he had to eat the popcorn at the bait just to survive. John our guide figured this old boy to be somewhere between 25 and 30 years old, he probably would not have made it through another winter. After getting back to camp and getting a late night skinning job done, we had a chance to take some measurements. He squared 6’2” and his skull was huge at 20-11/16’s, another true Manitoba monster up at Gangler’s.
I would like to extend my thanks to Ralph and Vicki for sending me on my dream bear hunt, Freddy for filling his tag early so I could hunt the last four days, John our guide for all the hilarious stories, and Ken Gangler for having us. This is a trip I won’t soon forget. For info on Canadian Sub Arctic Hunting look at the outfitters page or log on to www.cansubarc.com for more details.