My son, Jeremy and I just returned from a week long hunt in the Rangeley lakes area of Maine located in Franklin county. Rangeley is named after an Englishman by the name of Squire James Rangeley Jr. James inherited a 31,000 acre tract bought from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1796 by his father. He arrived in 1825 to establish an estate based on the English system of landlord and tenants, also giving extensive land to settlers. The town has a total area of 55.7 square miles of which 41.6 of it is land and 14.1 square miles of water, A sign in town indicates that Rangeley is midway between the north pole and the equator. Patrick Dempsey, and Kurt Russell, both actors are from Rangeley.
Thought you might enjoy a little history concerning the Rangeley Lakes area of Maine. I thought some statistics concerning bear hunting in Maine might also be in order. The season dates are pretty close from year to year, and in 2009, the bear season ran from August 31st to November 8th. The baiting season was from August 31st to September 26th. The hound season overlapped the baiting season from September 14th to October 30th. The dates for our 2010 fall hunt were very close to the 2009 dates. Total bear population in Maine is estimated at somewhere around 27,000 bears. 3,486 bears were taken in Maine during the 2009 season, and of that total, 93% or 3,242 were taken before the end of September. Of the total bear harvest 84% or 2,935 bears were taken over bait. On average, I have read that somewhere in the neighborhood of 60% of the bears taken are usually taken the first week of baited bear season. It is generally believed this is because there are more hunters that first week. Aroostook county's harvest in 2009 was 1,048 bears leading the state in the number of animals taken. Lastly on statistics, the majority of bears are taken by rifles, although handguns and archery plays an important role.With that background, why did I pick Carey Outfitters of our father/son bear hunt? Fair question. I did a fair amount of research before we booked a hunt and I had also hunted black bear over bait previously in Maine.
Dave Carey has over 25 years of experience in bear hunting and he is an ACTIVE Master Maine Guide. Maine is full of "registered guides", however many of them are NOT actively pursuing the guide business. Dave has guided bear hunts in Idaho, and he also takes out whitetail and moose hunters, and the Rangeley area is an excellent location for moose. His success ratio on guiding baited bear hunts has run around 75%. Dave does bait hunting and also hound hunting. You can choose to hunt from a ground blind, a tree stand, or even bring your own climber if you have one. Dave's son, Mark is also a registered guide and works with Dave during the hunting season. Some of the tree stands are metal ladder stands and most of them are wood frame stands that Dave built. He also has some two man heavy duty stands for father/son, or a father/daughter or even a husband/wife hunt. Personally I am afraid of heights, so I choose to go the ground blind route. I did NOT feel disadvantaged in doing so. IF you are unhappy with your bait site location, or tree stand, ground blind etc., then Dave will discuss it with you and will move you to a different location if desired.
His lodge was clean and comfortable and the culinary talents of Donna who runs the kitchen has to be experienced to be appreciated. Personally, I think Donna should have her own TV show similar to Rachel Ray. She is that good. I have been in a lot of hunting camps and lodges featuring package deals, and this is without a doubt one of the best.
The lodge itself has satellite TV, some Internet access, 2 1/2 baths and comfortable rooms. Meals are served family style with breakfast normally starting around 7AM, and the big meal of the day around 1:30PM and leaving the lodge for your bear stand around 2:15 to 2:30PM. We were taken to, and picked up from our individual stands each day, and then normally back to the lodge by 9PM to 9:30PM, when sandwiches, salad, and leftovers from the 1:30 meal were available. Did I leave out deserts? I should have I guess, as I think I gained a couple of pounds during my week long stay. Donna's deserts are also fabulous. Our arrival time at the lodge was anytime after noon on Sunday and our hunt lasted from Monday to Friday, with departure time on Saturday before noon.
I am a gun nut, so I asked several of the hunters present what firearms and loads they brought to the hunt. Another father/son team both brought 7MM mags, with 175 grain Hornady loads. Two of the fellas brought .44 mag revolvers. Also present were .44 mag carbines, and Marlin 45-70 and .450 Marlin lever actions. We brought a 30:06 with 180 grain Remington corelokt round nose soft points and a Mdl 1895 Marlin 45-70 loaded with 325 grain FTX Leverevolution bullets.
All of this brings us to the 64,000 question? How many bear were harvested during the first week of the baited bear season by hunters booked with Dave?
Disappointing and at the same time predictable, the total take was ZERO. The biggest factor was a week of extremely hot weather over 90 degrees each day and only going down to the mid 70's at night. This was the first time in over 25 years of guiding bear hunters that Dave's operation had not produced any bears. This part of Maine had not had a streak of hot weather like that in over 20 years. Bears do NOT move well or come to the baits when it is hot. I believe Dave tries to put his baits where it is Damp, Deep, and Dense and perhaps a little dangerous. Several of the bait sites bordered swamps. By the way, my first experience with the mosquito repelling "Thermocell Unit", gets a 4 1/2 star rating. It works as advertised and kept the bugs at bay. My only complaint with the system is the ON/OFF switch is a little noisy in a bear blind. If they could incorporate a silent on/off switch, it would be a better product than it is.
Even with the weather bad as it was, one of the hunters, had an opportunity on a nice bear, however his shot only grazed the bear, just barely cutting hair and a little fat. The bear escaped, for the most part unharmed and will live another day. Two other hunters who had previously taken several bears each, with the bow and the rifle, had average size bears ( average size bear in Maine statewide is in the 140-150 pound range) on their bait sites, and let them pass as they were looking for a bigger bear. Had my son and I been on one of those sites and seen the same bears, we likely would have taken them home with us.Dan
Ezekiel 36:24 "For I shall take you from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land"..............speaking of Israel in the last daysIf you are interested in booking a bear hunt with Dave, here is the link to his website:
http://www.careyoutfitters.com/
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