Hello Canadians. I'll be heading up to Donnelly, Alberta, near Peace River, for my spring bear hunt. As I understand it, there is still a couple of feet of snow on the ground.

I looked at weather.com and saw that temps were reasonable for snow to melt....appeared to be a fair amount of rain in the last week or so.

So, how will this affect the spring bear hunting if there's still quite a bit of snow on the ground? We do not head up there until May 26th.

Some of my hunting party are a bit worried that it will slow the hunting down. I see it as a plus for better pelts. May see fewer bears but probably less risk of rubs.

Your thoughts?

(also posted in Canadian Hunting)

Probably good timing. Frans and I hunted at Valleyview last year during the latter part of May and did well. Weather in alberta is always unpredictable. for us it was on the cool side but that could differ.
Grizz

If you look in the Dictionary at "Unpredictable" you will find : Alberta's weather as one of the factors.

But "normally" hunting bears in the "peace country" in mid to late May should be tops.

Good luck on your hunt.

Stick a varmint call or a "fawn distress call" in your pocket. If a bear isn't where it was at the end of a stalk, he may be close and come out in the open after you squeal once or twice. A bear that will not come right in to a bait may come out in the open if you squeal a bit. You don't have to do a lot of active "calling" just use it when it might give you an edge.

Robin in Rocky

P.S. I almost forgot. Be sure to get a wolf licence as well and shoot a wolf if you get a chance. You will get an interesting trophy and make a lot of moose and moose hunters happy.

I was up around High Level the second week of May several years ago, and we had 4 days of snow followed by 3 days of mosquitos.

Just this weekend we had snow in the foothills around Calgary (600 miles or so south), but I think the North had much higher temperatures.

When Grizz and I were up there last year, the cold wind and rain kept the skeeters at bay. The last night the weather was better: first the flies came out, and when they left the mozzies came. Bring a head net!

Frans

I just spoke with one of my friends whose up hunting this week. We leave this Saturday. He said between 4 hunters, they saw 17 bears last night. But today, it has rained, lightening, and now it is snowing pretty good. They may not even go out today.

Hey Doc,

It rained off & on all this past holiday long weekend with some snow in areas of the Peace Country. Long term forcast from thursday till saturday is warm and sunny.

The outfit I use to guide for before I got a promotion at work had clients leave last friday morning. 3 hunters were up, one guy on the first day got a beautiful colored blonde after 15 minutes in the stand - and thats what wanted. Another hunter got 2 bears over the week. And the third hunter got his with a bow late in the week. All seen bears....it was a bit slow at first as we had a late/cool spring. It picked up later after a couple of days and the hunters were seeing between 5-12 bears a day.

As a hunter was dropped off near the stand (same fellow that got te blonde bear), the guide spooted a red colored bear trotting down the cutlline in the opposite direction. He went back get the hunter, and tried to stalk towards the bear. The bear was getting too far ahead, so the guide ran back and got the quad, p/u the hunter, but the bear dissappeared.

The hunters were happy with their hunts. My guess is you should see alot of bears now, lots of green grass on the cutlines/pipeline ROW's and cutblocks, warmer weather.

Good luck on your hunt Doc!