2011 California total

[outlaw13]

Does anyone know what the final number of bears taken in Ca was? I can't find it on the web sight, its probably me there web sight is not put together very well but i was just wondering. Last i checked about a month ago it was pretty low still.

[Huntintony]

It states 1264 as of last week.
Here's the link if you don't have it

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/hunting/ ... rvest.html

[outlaw13]

thanks!!!!!!!

now would anyone like to voice there opinion about why the quota is not even close to being met when california has the highest bear population in the U.S.

[Huntintony]

I think guys are running for numbers (bragging rights) and only killing if they have a client or a friend wanting to kill one. I dont know about you but to me it seemed like there were a ton of bears around this year.

Good question!!!

[meagain]

That is a great Question. tony is probably right on with his answer.

[outlaw13]

Well i found that there was a good amount of food and i could usually find bears to run but i would not take someone with me unless i knew them pretty good. With all the shady crap that F&G does i wouldn't want one of there undercover officers or snitches to know about one of the areas that i hunt. It is not that i do anything wrong but I hate being harrassed by F&G and just want to hunt.

[Huntintony]

Exactly!!

[Liz ODell]

This year seemed to be the same as the last only in opposite areas, you could catch bears in one spot and guys 40 miles away were finding nothing. Also there was alot of feed in some spots so you needed to walk or send your dogs to find a track cause they weren't crossing.
I don't know any local hunters that kill many bear, not in it for bragging rights either, we are just smart enough to know 2+2= 4 and if we whack the shit out of them every year we will be driving around finding nothing (being as we hunt the same areas year after year).
We would all rather catch bears than waste gas and dead bears don't leave tracks or cubs, they don't come in litters...
I did the math and figured I let people kill 16% of what I caught this year.
I will still hold by my (and many other locals) opinion that there are some good spots that have been hit way too hard in the last few years and that also has led to less kill these latest years.
We certainly can't blame it on the snow like last year as there is none this year.

[wingmaster]

I don't know about how successful everyone this year but it wasn't a successful year for me. Don't know where all the bears went. They hardly cross the roads and when they do cross a road it is like 1 or 2 days old. Bad timing or the bears got smarter.

[Stony]

I am not a hard core bear hunter boys but i get after a few and it was hard for us this year too. There is alot of feed in the deep canyons and it seems the bears are gettin smarter and harder to catch. A guy has to just walk a little more on years like this!