I have been hearing a rumor that if the "no hunting bear over bait or with hounds" referendum passes this fall in Maine, that they may allow hunters to take more than one bear this year.(for a fee, or course)

From what I have been reading, the harvest has been below what the biologists wanted for the past several years anyway, so multiple bears a year makes sense.

Anybody hear anything credible about this?

If the no bait no hounds goes through you well be very lucky even to get one bear.

I have hunted bear and been successful one time and it was over a bait. They can place the limit at a half dozen per hunter, but if you can't see them, you can't kill them

The two proven methods are bait or hounds.

Sounds like some liberal jackass is making ME's bear hunting laws now.....if it's true.

Without the conservation efforts of hunters for the last 100 years our wildlife would be far worse off.....something these idiots don't understand or care about.

You guys are preaching to the Choir... I know how thick the Maine woods are... you can go 50 yards and be lost its so dense.. The chances of getting a bear without bait would be slim in most areas..

Unfortunately, it is true about the referendum..

Bear Hunting referendum

Sadly, I contacted the save the Maine bear hunt organization offering to volunteer my time and services if any way they saw fit to use them.

Two days ago I was contacted for the first time in over six weeks to announce a local gun club had contributed 15k to the effort. While nice, it underscores why we are likely to lose this one this time; they're not getting to people plain and simple while the opposition continues to push the emotional hot buttons for the anti crowd.

I feel bad bagging on my own state but sometimes we are such a backwater up here. The folks running the show don't seem to get what they are up against. I will contact them again offering my help if they want it. Sad, really.

Unfortunately, it is not just Maine, it is nation wide, state by state.

Across the country, too many hunters simply do not want to grasp the reality that the attitudes and beliefs toward hunting among the general public has fundamentally changed.

These situations are going to continue popping up across the whole country, especially in those states with any real percentage of public land.

Bluefish - Maine is terminal. Won't be too long before they can drop the "Wildlife" from the Fish & Wildlife Dept.

Have you been in contact with the save the maine bear hunting people groundtender? the guy finally emailed me back and asked if I could give him a call next week.

I just sent $$ to the Maine Professional Guides Assoc. MPGA has a website

My family owns land and a camp in central Maine. We've been deer hunting it for 12 or so years. I've never seen a bear in Maine. Our neighbor up there keeps an eye on our place and has been hunting his whole life in the central Maine woods. He's in his 50s and he's seen 1 bear by chance and it was crossing the road. If youre in aroostook county, you might have a better chance of happening upon a bear, but it's slim. If you've never been to Maine, you can't understand how thick the woods are. Even with an estimated bear pop at 30-35k, the bear hunt will be poor at best without bait and hounds. They only harvest about 3000 a year currently. Not to mention the countless businesses that will be destroyed by this referendum. It's an estimated 10 mil a year industry in an already poor state. In fact forbes has listed Maine the worst state to do business in for the last 5 straight years. I know I'm nuts but I'm hoping to move to Maine next year, bear hunt or not!!!

The facts support bear hunting but we all know the anti-hunting contingent has never been interested in facts. These people are usually lonely, misguided folks who have found a cause to latch onto: the "emotions" of wild animals.

States that have banned bear hunting like FL and NJ have reaped the benefit of constant bear/human interaction and attacks (2 in FL this year and a sow shot in NJ last week for entering a house).

The appeal for common sense management and conservation is and should be directed at those in the middle because the nuts cannot be swayed. How a bill like this even got introduced in ME is beyond me.

Norton - It's not a bill. The southern Maine antis, with a big financial push from The Humane Society of The U.S., got enough signatures to get it on the ballot in November.

Nj bear hunt got reinstated after bears were destroying rich yuppie property and showing up in yards around rich yuppie children... And a republican governor! What pisses me off about the Maine referendum is that they allow an out of state source of money to fund it, yet out of state hunters can't vote to fight it... Total bs...

Gotcha groundtender

rjr....I grew up in northern NJ where the bears are thick, and still have lots of family and friends there. It's not so much about "destroying rich yuppie property" as it is constant presence in yards around children, aggressive encroachment near and actually inside homes, garbage can disruption, etc.

Like I said, the middle can be swayed by the insanity and misinformation proffered by nazis like HSUS if we sensible folks don't stay vigilant. The HSUS is a domestic terrorism group.

Norton I grew up in ri and ct, I also have friends in nj. I work with another taxidermist from northern jersey, I didn't say it as a knock on all of jersey, my rich yuppie comment is directed at the vast amount of tree huggers in southern New England and jersey alike. Many of the north jersey neighborhoods are filled with these people, you know it as well as I do. I grew up a mile from the ocean in ri, I've been looked down on my whole life by rich yuppie tree huggers for being a hunter. When they were bear hunting in jersey, how much opposition was there from the rich swanky antis? I know the answer... It's no different in Maine. They're focusing 90% of their campaign in Portland where the liberals live in huge numbers, who don't hunt or depend on it or even understand it. If my rich yuppie comment offends you, I apologize, but the fact of the matter is they are the driving force behind all liberal agendas. No different with the California bear and lion hunts... They're all the same...

They passed a "no hound" cougar hunting law in Washington a few years ago. They reversed the decision when children started getting hurt by the cats. Maybe the same will happen there.

rjr.....no offense taken whatsoever. I can't pinpoint the demographic of anti-hunters in general but I don't think the majority of them are yuppies. I also think that there aren't as many of them as we are led to believe....they are just zealots that yell louder than sensible people.

I've only encountered a few anti-hunters in person and I consider most of them mentally unstable. I would venture to guess that at least 75% of them have a personality disorder.

Norton I hear ya! I just know where I grew up in ri, the nonhunter, far out weighed the hunters. Getting permission to hunt on private property is near impossible. I'll tell you, I'd really hate to see maines heritage suffer from this, but I have a feeling it will pass...

rjr....If it passes I owe you a duck hunt or a striper fishing trip when you move up here...if it doesn't you owe me a bear hunt. Deal?

Haha. Deal! My brother guides eider and scoters in Rhode Island now, he may relocate to Maine too! If I end up in Maine next year and they don't shut it down, we'll do some bear hunting!

Pa frank, sorry your thread got a little hijacked! I have not heard a two bear rumor before your post. I have some friends up there I should ask them...

Not a problem RJ, it was all good reading!

My buddy and I are booked for a bear hunt in Aroostook county this September. He is a native of South Africa that emigrated here about 12 years ago, and has fallen in love with bear hunting, and now has me involved.

Hopefully this will not be the last year for bear hunting over bait in Maine, cause New Mexico is a really long drive from Delaware!

quote:

Hopefully this will not be the last year for bear hunting over bait in Maine, cause New Mexico is a really long drive from Delaware!

Maybe I am misunderstanding your response, but according to the 2014-2015 regulations, baiting bear is not legal in New Mexico.

Crazyhorse,
You might be right, maybe it is Arizona I'm thinking of, but either way, EVERYPLACE where the hunting is decent is a long drive from Delaware!

Delaware is just one giant city with a few more trees..