Bear hunt goes on in southeastern Oklahoma

Black bear season remains open in southeastern Oklahoma, but hunters are almost halfway to the limit of 20.

By late Saturday afternoon, nine bears had been killed by bow hunters. Four of the bears were taken in Le Flore County, three from Pushmataha County and one each from McCurtain and Latimer counties.

The biggest bear checked in has been a male bear from Latimer County that field dressed at 228 pounds.

The bear would have weighed more than 250 pounds before field dressed, said Joe Hemphill, southeast regional supervisor for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.

The bear was killed by Larry Baker of Broken Arrow, who was baiting an area on his hunting lease with apples bought in New York, Hemphill said.

Baker shot the bear late Friday afternoon but couldn’t find it until Saturday morning, a half-mile away.

The Latimer County bear is the only one that was taken a great distance from the Ouachita National Forest, he said.

All but one or two of the bears were killed on private land, where baiting is allowed, Hemphill said.

The chance of getting a bear without baiting is very, very low.

"If we hadn’t allowed baiting, we would probably have only one bear at this point,” he said.

Oklahoma was the 29{+t}{+h} state to legalize black bear hunting. Some states allow baiting on private property. Others do not.

A small number of states even allow hunters to run dogs for bears, but not Oklahoma, Hemphill said.

Many Oklahoma deer hunters use corn to lure deer to their property.

"It’s not any different,” Hemphill said.

Joe Russell of Nashoba was the first hunter to get a black bear on Thursday. For the past month, Russell had been baiting a 55-gallon drum every week with corn and cooked grease. He also would open cans of sardines and hang them above the barrel.

"They could smell (the sardines) for miles, I guess, because they would hit them every time I hung them up,” Russell said.

Russell, who doesn’t hunt anything he doesn’t eat, said he was looking forward to trying the bear meat.

"That’s why I don’t shoot ducks,” he said. "I don’t like them.”

A lifelong deer hunter, Russell didn’t waste any time after shooting his bear.

"As a matter of fact, I went and I rattled after I killed (the bear),” he said.

Bear hunting is not the only new hunting season in Oklahoma this year.

Oklahoma’s first archery season for antelope closed on Sept. 27. For the first time, any Oklahoma hunter could buy an archery license and pursue antelope in the Panhandle if they could find a place to hunt.

Bow hunters found more success than most people expected. A total of 34 antelope were taken: 29 from Cimarron County and five from Texas County.

One of the lucky hunters was El Reno’s Gary Beardslee who got his "prairie goat” at 6:30 p.m. on the last day of the season.

"It just took me nine days to plug one down,” he said.

Beardslee camped at Black Mesa State Park and spent five unproductive days hunting around watering holes in pop-up blinds.

He then moved to a valley where he tried to use a decoy to lure a buck away from the does. When some bucks would almost get close enough for a shot, the does would bring them back.

Finally, a buck chased another buck away from the does. Beardslee snuck behind a couple of yucca plants in the middle of nowhere to hide and the buck came within range at 40 yards.

"I was ecstatic,” he said. "It was a hard (hunt) with a bow, but it was fantastic.”

While in McCurtain County to report on the opening day of bear season last week, I paid a visit to the Lower Mountain Fork River where I met a local angler who wondered how I could accurately tell the story of the first bear being killed in southeastern Oklahoma.

I pointed out that I would be sure to report that it would be the first bear "legally” killed in Oklahoma.

"Oh,” he replied, "OK then.”

I met an interesting gentleman on the Lower Mountain Fork River last week: 76-year-old Wilford Walker from Lewisville, Texas, who learned to fly fish at age 72.

Walker said he had fished every other way, so why not try fly fishing? Now a fly rod is all he uses.

"You get a bigger tug on a fly rod than you do on anything else,” Walker said. "My son-in-law and I, we both tie flies. It is real exciting the first time you take a fly out that you made and catch a fish on it.”

He called his first fly the "W.W. Special.”

Walker has inspired me to learn to fly fish. Compared to the gracious Texan, I’ve got a 23-year head start.

---

Leave a Comment

Sports Photo Galleriesview all