Hannibal
New member
With the 2018 Idaho spring black bear season opening in ten days, I thought I might offer advice, with the aid of a psychological phenomenon known as 'reactance' to help new and unsuccessful spring bear hunters succeed in their quest to bag a black bear. With that preface, I'd like to offer the following recommendations: 1) Recognize that success is totally dependent upon the unit you've chosen to hunt and not where you've chosen to focus your search efforts within that unit. 2) Ignore the 'importance of water' in your search to locate bears. Water sources such as rivers, streams, creeks and swamps provide water and food sources as well as natural travel corridors which bears regularly use. 3) Restrict the hours of your hunt to morning and early afternoon. Avoid the more 'optimal' time periods in late afternoon and evenings. 4) Plan to hunt during the latter part of the season when bears have dispersed from lower elevations due to greater availability of food sources in an expanding habitat. 5) And finally, but most importantly, ignore the advice of more experienced bear hunters. After all, you have a license, bear tag, Swarovski STS 80 HD 20 - 60x spotting scope and other 'requisite gear' which virtually guarantees success. You're an experienced hunter who has harvested more than his or her share of deer and possibly elk also. Good luck on your 2018 Idaho spring black bear hunt and remember that adherence to these recommendations will most likely transform what might have been a successful hunt into an abysmal, unsuccessful spring black bear hunt.
