Baiting bears at Big Grass

IMG_5729IMG_5731Beavers is the main food of a Bear in the Spring prior to grass turning green, the beaver may be out cutting trees or the bear will dig into a beaver hut to access the beaver kits for food.. We are lucky to know Elzivar who traps fur in the winter and spring. Just the other day he called to say he had a bunch and would like to bring them over as he doesnot have a deep freezer and temps outside are rising.  here are 20 carcasses he bought over, and he will continue to trap till we arrive in the area for our spring bear hunt. We chop the beaver in pieces and wire the pieces to the so bear will have to work away at trying to release it to eat it..This gives the hunter time to determine how big the bear is and to get a good killing shot. We also use oats and grease for bait along with meat scraps, sweets and a scent control to spray hopfully covering the scent of the hunter in the tree, plus this scent is an attractant.

Snow Geese hunting in Spring Migration

IMG_5690IMG_5691IMG_5692[1]Tom is travelling across South Dakota and North Dakota the snow geese are layered field to field. Then as he is going along he sees a quad and a fellow pulling a sneek on the big flock of snow geese…  I guess it is everywhere, a quick sneek is always fun if you have some blasting.. the last pic is of a good friend Tim Brown of Waterton had a good shoot last week.

Local whitetail deer

IMG_7269IMG_7270IMG_7271I was out for a drive this evening and just down the road from the Big Grass lodge we have a Manitoba wintering grounds for a number of whitetail deer.  As I get close I can see the does sunning themselves on the slope out of the wind, then as I stop to click, the turn and run, and I get mostly flags..   then a little farther a doe stands for one click and then she turns, the calf a little braver, or maybe not so Wise stands a little longer.   I didnt see any horns but my motion camera are still picking up horns on the bucks last week.

Manitoba Ice fishing season

IMG_5667Time is running out , temperatures are rising and March is slipping away. Forecast states temps to the low 40F by mid week, so we chose to take our shack off before we turned it into a pontoon boat.. lol.. Tom has it set up just to just hook it up, turn jacks, drop wheels  and away we go. over all the water levels of the Lake have dropped over 12 feet by looks of the shore.  We had no problems getting up the ridge and onto road off the lake which was GREAT>  Judy is a little stressed when it is her job to remove the shack..  Sammy and Jazzy got to go for a ride and all were happy…

Manitoba Ice Fishing Derby in the Russell area.

IMG_7147IMG_7261IMG_7264Our 7th annual Ice fishing Derby on Lake of the  Prairies held Feb 27, Judy did the photos at the derby..    You know the Papparazzii thing she is always got the camera.. Well 556 people attended 1200 holes were drilled, we caught 39 fish, Northern Pike, Walleye, and Perch.. largest fish 68cm Northern Pike took home $12500. second fish 64cm northern $5000,  Winners choice raffle tickets and she took home a Polaris Side by side.. not bad for a little ice fishing  derby here in Manitoba.  If it wasnt for our volunteers and our local sponsors we would not survive.. but it brings some Tourism $$ in and some good fishing stories of the one HE didnt catch.. but all have FUN IN MANITOBA!

Big Grass Chessy Girls

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Sammy Joe and Jazzy both just waiting for a crumb or a cookies!

Greetings from Big Grass

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Happy Holidays to All; We again come to this time of year busily trying to get all the parcels, and baking done for the ONE day.. Tom has been trucking this year except during hunting time, Judy has been home rehab after hip surgery. A new member to our life is Sammy Jo a now 4 month old Chessy, as Bailey and Fudge both went to Doggy Heaven over summer.. Our new Yamaha Toy behind is making trails for Judys snow snowshoeing and pushing snow in the yard.. Tom has been having fun to see how high he can go on snow pile.. We are wishing all our past and present hunting friends a prosperous and healthy New Year..

Santa Claus Parade at Russell

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local businesses put together a great Parade with lots of floats and Santa bringing up the end… Many local residents braved the cold to watch and cheer on the Christmas fun.

Local MWF competition

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Every year ear after the hunting seasons are complete we meet and show off our trophies, tell great white hunting stories of the ones that got away. Youth and adult largest deer, 40 in Northerns and 29 in walleye. Our whitetail herd slowly rebounds after the cold tough winters which some animals did not survive.  But 15/16 winter has been a very easy winter on the deer , even some hilltops are showing grass for them to pick at.

Manitoba whitetail Buck Night

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Russell Big Buck Nite over 20 heads were brought in to be scored and for show..  Some great animals masses of 3.5-4 inches is always great to see on our trophies. Our past winters and the pressure of predators has had a negative effect on our whitetail herd of late..  the Conservation has limited our season to 2 weeks with only Bucks to be harvested, hopefully giving our herd a chance to rebound.. Now just finished the second year we are already seeing the results of this..  Bigger bodied animals, larger horns, but our numbers still have not rebounded to the numbers we would want in our area. We have a good number of Youths showing up with nice horns so our hunting enthusiasts are still in the field, young and old…