Anybody in Maine putting up good numbers or size bears

[Treesadie]

Bob, tell more about this CONTRACT deal. How does that work? I know someone from out of state can hold a Maine guides license, but as far as the rules go, that person can only guide Maine residents, not non-residents.

[bob baldwin jr]

Treesadie: To the best of my knowledge there are more than a few outfitters particularly in the Patten area that offer Bait , Hound , Trapping of Bear . The outfitters that offer Hound Bear hunting usually do not OWN their Hounds .But CONTRACT that part of the services out to Non Residents under the Maine Guides Authorization . several of these guys are based out of North Carolina and Tenn. Not sure WHAT the % split is though I have heard that Lodging , Meals are provided with a 60 / 40 % split on the fee's 40% going to the hound owner

[laneysplott]

Bob, there seem's to be more and more of this going on each year. There are many outfitters who do not own a single hound but offer hound hunts. They bring in a bunch of rebels with truck loads of hounds and go at it. That bothers me some as I raise my own dogs. But what can you do. bottom line is we all need to get along or we will lose it all. I had a group off four guys from Ohio who had hunted with another Maine outfitter a few years ago, this guy had a bunch of dogs from down south, None of which where his own, they ran for a week and bayed one moose. In five days with me we killed four bears, I guess it is good for my buisness but it gives many Maine outfitters and houndsmen in general a bad reputation. As for paper companies down sizing the amount of baits that is the best thing they could ever do. They got greedy and sold way to many bait sites and created many problems. The good old state of maine still crams them in every half mile and most of there land in the east is now junk because of the indian land spring hunt. The bears are getting slaughtered in the spring and not there in the fall anymore. I have told the DOC several times that baits should be atlest a mile apart but they don't listen, I have almost all mine atlest 2 miles apart.

[kordog]

if a guide wants to put out alot of baits thats his perogative i have no problem with it . whats ridiculous is when a guide has all those sites ,and expects to have it all to them selves when a hound goes where the bear goes .just as long as they leave me alone while im enjoying the maine woods with my pack of hounds wether rigging walk hunting natural foods . there is room for all of us .some get so bent out of shape over nothing really what is there 300 plus bears shot with hounds every year.for me its about the hounds its not even about the bear.when people think they are more important it is sentences with alot of my this and my that .thats where i draw the line and the conversation ends. when the bear is in the back of their truck with the tag on it then they can call it theirs.people knowingly running off of someones bait is a lowly thing to do ,but if the bear gets rigged ,because you didnt put the site far enough in the woods thats your own fault. im venting a little on guides,because ive had two experiences where guides were in the wrong accusing me of running off their baits they thought they were gonna comb my hair ,and i ended up combing theirs in good shape when im in the right im in the right and thats it.if they began the conversation nicely it would have saved them alot of embarassment in front of their clients.im out to have a good time with my hounds it has nothing to do with money thats the beauty of it.respect our maine guides ,and they in turn should respect us for each has only a vote of one in the booth to keep our heritage no one being more important than the other.

[kordog]

Bob, there seem's to be more and more of this going on each year. There are many outfitters who do not own a single hound but offer hound hunts. They bring in a bunch of rebels with truck loads of hounds and go at it. That bothers me some as I raise my own dogs. But what can you do. bottom line is we all need to get along or we will lose it all. I had a group off four guys from Ohio who had hunted with another Maine outfitter a few years ago, this guy had a bunch of dogs from down south, None of which where his own, they ran for a week and bayed one moose. In five days with me we killed four bears, I guess it is good for my buisness but it gives many Maine outfitters and houndsmen in general a bad reputation. As for paper companies down sizing the amount of baits that is the best thing they could ever do. They got greedy and sold way to many bait sites and created many problems. The good old state of maine still crams them in every half mile and most of there land in the east is now junk because of the indian land spring hunt. The bears are getting slaughtered in the spring and not there in the fall anymore. I have told the DOC several times that baits should be atlest a mile apart but they don't listen, I have almost all mine atlest 2 miles apart.

when you put it that way about the rebels just think i as a mainer could say guides are basically selling our game animals to out of staters which make up a huge portion of clients. i dont feel that way at all. we have to have tolerance for each other or it all falls apart. they may have less bait sites per mile that usually means more money per site as the bottom dollar being less is not the human way of thinking.bear hunters are way overburdened with cost as it is.

[bob baldwin jr]

Kordog : A few points that I totally agree with : Simply amazing where some guys put their baits While I would NEVER run bear off of anothers Bait pile ,I have come across several that made me think " Why the F would you put one there " TOO LAZY to carry pails any distance You would be hard pressed to find ours .Seems like a lot of guys do NOT put much planning into their bait locations .

as far as guides SELLING the game animals to Flat lander Non Residents I have no issue there . I would venture to guess that at least 90% of outfitters customers are non-residents . Looking around the USA and Canada ,Maine still offers a GOOD hunting value "Cheap Hunts " comparatively speaking . Actually always wondered WHY the pricing was NOT higher .Not just the past few years due to the economy ,just seems like it has been that way forever.

[lifreediver]

well lets be honest maine is not in good economic shape and it takes in lots of tourist dollars between ski huntin and fishin some of those resorts the peole go to ski they dont need to leave who makes the money
bait hunters well they get there meals and shoot the first bear that comes in i know a guy who has gottin a few over 300 hundred pounds and went and shot a 70 pounder this year great over a bait he payed 2000 for the hunt so he had to shoot something were did all that money go and the hide he didnot want it the meat hmm
i know hunters who have the same box of bullets for years they dont add much to any economy
a hound guy now feedin dogs payin vets a vet up in maine got 1700 last week alone from one dog this bear was spankin dogs for a few years
hound guys spend a ton of money year round between trainin season gas food hotels bars resturants diners gun shops bow stuff clothes boots gps collars trucks break i like small town shops and return and know the people by name and i go to a few states
before i had dogs i would just go up and help draggin and i spent more in little towns than the bait hunter or im willin to bet a trapper
how do you catch and release trappin or selective hunt
if the state wants more bears killed and the most of the buck it should be more of a trophy tag or big bear tag they and the country make the most off of houndsmen but whats another kick in the balls these days i would be headed up bear huntin spendin money buyin gas food etc with a few other people this week but instead the state is makin money off a trapper and what will he do with a cub he traps im sure he wont need a butcher or a taxidermist or will down at the local bar havin diner with is buddys braggin how he filled his tag how about givin a tag or two to the guides or sell trophy only tags

[J.R.]

Well back to the topic on this post we got another one today 342 with a dandy of a blaze on his chest a walkin bear they walked it for 2 hours we saw it cross the road once but no shot dogs all the way around him but got into the woods and shot him 20 feet away a newbie never seen a a bear till today and ended up makin me jealous with that bear lol

[lifreediver]

well it does not get better than that nice you must have walkers

[J.R.]

we have it all walkers plotts and a couple curs

[J.R.]

last saturday we had a very long hard run and ended up picking them up decent bear never saw it but got its track crossing the roads a few times.
thursday was a very bad day the dogs ended up on a coyote but they did catch it and kill it so that part wasnt the worse ende up losin my GPS unit on my way out of the dead oyote looked for it for 2 hours but no luck.
then yesturday we had a 350 pounder guessing its weight crossed road in front of us at about 40 yards the hunter missed it which in hind sight not a bad thing no wounded bear to hurt dogs then it went on to indian land and it ran out in front of us at 60 feet ended up pickin dogs up only 2 left and we had to get them before they crossed back on indian land i hate that indian land

[Treesadie]

J.R. you may hate that indian land, but remember, all the land use to belong to the native americans until our forefathers came and took it by force. In my opinion they don't have enough.

[kordog]

that statement tree sadie about it being all our fore fathers is a little general in its application and is as racist a statement as ive heard if you want to get right down to it.unless you follow your roots right down to people who fought native americans for their land. segregate dont segregate its very confusing to be an american to say the least,just ask a redsox or a yankees fan . native americans fought each other as well for tribal land should they give it back to each other.it is part of history . heak id give it all back to the native americans if they would lower gas prices and let me hunt where i want.lol.im just a mongrel american who may or may not be blood related to custer or geronimo or both.after so many generations are we not considered natives.all i know is i have alot of blood relatives who have been to war for america ww2 ,korea,vietnam,grenada,before that i couldnt tell ya.this is way off subject ,and for that i apologize. my kids have a great great great grandmother who was full blooded mic mac so you know im not partial .this just frustrates me when i here that we stole land from the indians.

[J.R.]

my buddy as a sticker on his dog box that sums up the hole thing about land in genral
it goes like this "If your land is posted or gated use yours,if it is not gated or posted us mine"
that sums up my feeling on all land period