Timing is critical on the big ones
Perhaps the biggest thing I learned from this spring was the note that the timing to shoot big bears is so critical, often times the window is very small to make that happen. Take for example, "Pooh Bear," a bear we've been after for 5 years now, and he's showing up at daylight hours, yet first group in after him, and first two nights we have 20-30mph winds and we totally screw ourselves in getting the bear shot, further educating him. And steadily through the weeks, new crews show up, quick success comes, and the opportunity has to wait for several days until the next new crew comes in, and he leaves the bait or sow he's with. But on this monster, I didn't miss the opportunity. This bear had been gone for a week, then showed back up on a bait. We had that bait covered for the night, but when my guide returned with the SD cards from several other baits, the huge bear had moved over to another bait that same day at 3 in the afternoon. It's now 5:30, and no time to mess around, and I run and grab our nearest hunter, Tim Zello off another bait and get him in place by 6:30. By 9pm, this huge bear shows and Tim wasted no time dunking him. Again timing is critical, and the cameras are such key to following a particular bear.
