Interested in planning a spring bear hunt (rifle) in Ontario 2020. I read that there was an explosion of black bear population in recent years.True ? Or propaganda ? Looking for a combination of spot/stalk and bait stands. Any information would be appreciated !

Since none of our Eastern cousins have replied I will mention that British Columbia has an extremely healthy black bear population. No baiting allowed in BC but spring "spot & stalk" works very well. For exceptionally large bears BC is hard to beat.

+1 and the claws aren't worn down, and the fur is thick, no chunks missing from fighting yet.. blah blah ...Best time to harvest.

Northwestern Ontario has always had a plentiful population of black bears. The Spring season was stopped for 17 years for political reasons not biological. The general consensus was that resulted in an increase in population. I didn’t notice it. We have always had lots of bears and if we have a blueberry crop failure—they freeze out every 5 years or so—then we have lots of problems with bears coming into town knocking over garbage cans.

Done properly bear baiting is a lot of work, Lord knows I did it for more than 30 years. I can vouch for the guy in Nipigon—he’s competent. Nipigon River Bear Hunts i think its called.

I ran hounds for a lot of years so when they closed the Spring off here i went to Wisconsin. Good program there for houndsmen that just want to train and don’t care about killing one.

I haven't gone bear hunting in years. I used to hunt around the lakehead. Lake Superior, off of Hwy 17.