Bear season began more than a week ago, and I’m seeing Facebook traffic that indicates many hunters are enjoying success even though biologists say there’s plenty of natural food in the woods.
As always, we’re interested in hearing your tales and looking at your photos. If you’ve got a bear-hunting story, please drop me a line at the email address listed below.
As the season progresses, I hope to share a few of those photos and stories with BDN readers.
So, what makes for a good bear story? It varies, but here are some guidelines: Big bears are great — the bigger the better. If your bear weighs 400 pounds, you’ve got my attention. If it weighs 500 pounds or more, I hope you’ll sit down and start sending us your photos as soon as possible.
Misadventures are cool, as long as nobody gets hurt. Tenacity and determination always make for good stories. And kids bagging their first bears with help from their relatives (or a guide) can often make for interesting column fodder.
If you need a bit of added inspiration as you head out, take a closer look at the photos that accompany this blog. That’s Matt Knox with his state-record 699-pound bear. And that’s Randy Cross posing with “Big John,” the bear that was named after me a few years back. According to Cross, Big John will likely weigh more than 600 pounds over the next few weeks, if he keeps doing what he has done for the past several years — avoiding hunters.
We obviously can’t publish everything we receive, but will do the best that we can.
So good luck! And I hope to hear from you soon.
John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.com or 990-8214. Follow him on Twitter: @JohnHolyoke