[edmhunter]

I too have had several bear encounters, while baiting and while hunting and fishing.

One time I was fishing for a long weekend with a friend, we set up camp and since we arrived late we were getting everything ready to fish first thing in the morning. We got absolutely SFed and finished a 40 pounder of vodak, so we finally stumbled into the tent and left the cooler and other food stuff right outside the tent entrance. We had enought food for a three day outting, the usual stull, steaks, eggs, bacon, fruits, sunflower seed etc.

I forgot to bring my shotgun with us, so when I went to sleep I took the axe with me, not as much fun as my girlfriend, but it was a good security blanket for the night.

About three hours into my commatose sleep my buddy starts shaking me and says hey man I think there is a bear outside the tent, I said well ----!

I opened the tent zipper and there stood the biggest blackbear I have ever seen, this was a fall fishing trip and I guestimated his weight to be well over 800 lbs. This was in Manitoba and the bears tend to be pretty enormous there.

In any case since the bear was going at the food and since I only had an axe, I closed the zipper and said, well maybe there is enough food there that he wont bother us! Well after about an hour here comes the bear towards our ten and I could see that he was pressing his nose against the tent. Well I took the biggest swing that surpassed Babe Ruth's on his best day.

The bear woffed and left us alone. in the morninng we got out of the tent and every single bit of food was gone, there was not even one sunflower seed left so we packed up and went home. Ever since that trip I never go fishing without my shotgun, because if that bear wanted to get into our tent, it would not have been pretty!

In any case I used to hunt bears for fun. They are absolutely unpredicable and anyone that thinks that they are harmless, is taking a big risk.

I am not paranoid about bears and know that a bear will not be a problem and skedattle 99 % of the time. It's the 1% that concerns me lol

Here is a picture of me with one of the big Manitoba bear I killed.