RUMFORD — Maine’s bear hunting season over bait ends Saturday, Sept. 20. Depending on how people vote in November on the Maine bear hunting referendum, it could be the last season.
The citizen-initiated referendum, known as Question 1, will appear on the ballot Nov. 4. The referendum asks: “Do you want to make it a crime to hunt bears with bait, traps or dogs, except to protect property, public safety or for research?”
From Aug. 25, when the season began, to Wednesday, Western Maine tagging stations had recorded a couple of big bears that were killed using bait.
A 12-year-old bagged a 418-pound bear over bait recently and had it weighed at the Rumford Fire Department game station, firefighter Ed Carey said Wednesday. He didn’t know the child’s identity or where the bear was killed.
Bow hunter Justin Cook of South China shot a 540-pound bear on opening day in New Sharon, said Lisa Brackley, a cashier at Beal’s General Store and tagging station in Strong.
“It was a beautiful bear,” she said. (Cook) said he believed it would be a record because the biggest bear taken in Maine with a bow weighed 501 pounds.”
Brackley said she had tagged three bears, including Cook’s, all of which were taken over bait.
Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife officials didn’t return calls Wednesday or Thursday seeking to learn whether Cook’s bear broke the state record for bow and arrow and how the bear season is going.
“In the past several years, hunters were coming in with very small bears before the shooting season ended, so (Cook’s) bear is pretty incredible,” Brackley said. “It’s so significantly bigger than any bear I’ve seen.”
Carey said the Rumford station had tagged eight bears by Wednesday, six of which were taken over bait. Of the other two, one was taken with dogs and the other with a trap.
“We usually only get one or two taken with traps and usually it’s the same person,” he said. “Most of everything harvested and brought here is over bait.”
Hunting bears with dogs and traps ends on Oct. 31, but stalking or still-hunting them ends on Nov. 29, the same day the regular firearms season for deer ends.
“We’re lucky if we do one bear taken during deer season,” Carey said.
He hunts bears and has a bait station. Last year, he said he had nine bears coming to his bait pile, but this year he’s only had a sow with cubs and another bear. The sow and cubs stopped coming a few days ago. Carey said he isn’t sure if they were eating natural foods such as acorns instead or simply went somewhere else.
Calls on Friday to bear-tagging stations in Androscoggin County revealed that only one bear was registered and that was at the Minot Country Store.
A clerk at Ellis’ Variety in Dixfield said they tagged seven bears as of Wednesday, six of which were taken over bait.
The tagging station at Pines Market in Eustis is having a banner year for bear harvests, a clerk said.
“We’re going great this year,” she said. “We’ve had 63. We ended last year with 44. Most of them were taken over bait. Our biggest this year is 350½ pounds.”
A clerk at Jack’s Trading Post in Farmington said they’d tagged four bears by Wednesday that were taken over bait while The Falls General Store in Farmington had yet to tag a bear.
Nine bears, mostly taken over bait, were tagged at the Phillips Hardware store game station. Sandy River Farm Supply in New Sharon had tagged six bears, the largest of which weighed 320 pounds.
Loony Bin Variety in Rangeley didn’t tag a bear last year, and had only tagged a 200-pounder taken over bait by Wednesday, while a clerk at Rangeley’s other game station, River’s Edge Sports, said they’d tagged 13, 12 of which were taken over bait and the other with dogs. Their largest weighed 388 pounds.
Dennis Daniel, owner of Roxbury Pond Variety in Roxbury, said they had tagged 12 bears, the largest of which weighed 310 pounds. Ten bears were taken over bait and two with dogs.
Jeremy Fredette and his fiancee, Sarah Lane, of Bethel Bait Tackle & More, said Thursday they had tagged 26 bears, with 24 taken over bait and two with dogs.
Both said they believe hunters with dogs will start bringing in bigger bears toward the end of the season, because that’s when the dogs get deeper into the woods where the big bears live.
“Last year, our biggest bear weighed 500 pounds, but this year so far, it’s 220 pounds,” Lane said.
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- Justin Cook, left, of South China stands with the 540-pound bear he killed in New Sharon on opening night of Maine’s bear hunting season with a bow and arrow over bait. The photograph is being shared on social media site Facebook by accounts across Maine and New Hampshire.
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