Cohutta Report :partial

Just got backoff Grassy...WHEW What a day ! HOT HOT HOT ! Well it was awful hot to be banging around those ridges.
Kill Tally from the Cisco check station at 2:00pm today
Bears-13
Deer--2
Hogs-1

I was really surprised to see the hog and deer killso low. Iwas actually kind of surprised to see the bear kill so high.
I figured it would be a little lower and be more balanced with the Holly Ck Check Station....( don't know what is on the Holly Ck kill sheet yet)

I went into the west end of Sumach Creek trail and hiked back towards the creek...that is about a 2.5 mile walk on the trail and add another .5 mile to get to the trail from the road if you are wondering...not much sign on the ridge tops like I figured, but when I got to the creek the creek bottoms were loaded with both hog and bear sign. Looked like a Troy Bilt Tiller went through the creek banks. Bear scat was every where and there were plenty of acorns.
Did not see much deer sign though. Still too early for Grassy though so it really does not surprise me...these deer here tend to rut later...December is a better deer hunt for Grassy.
I should have stayed at the creek until dark thirty, but it wa a good hike tothe truck, so I scooted out at somewhere around 5:30 or 6:00 easing my way back to the truck...I WAS CASHED !! Didn't pay much attention and jumped a hog on the top of my last ridge I had to pull.
But I was so whipped I probably wouldn't have shot him any way.....NOT !

Rainds are movong into the WMA tonight, and some moderate winds as well. Tommorow ( Saturday) if you hunt Grassy...you better have a rain coat...Chattanooga news says 80% chance with a high of about 68...temp is a positive, but rain bites.
I was pretty far into Sumach Creek, and thought it best to head towards the truck

great info mcbuck, we're planning on going out in the morning if its not raining early, but probably gonna be raining. we hunt the holly creek side so i'll try to get an update from the south end. last year was kinda like cisco, lots of bear, very few hogs or deer.

I was there all weekend as well. Saturday at around 1:00 pm I went by the Cisco Check Station and the bear total was 19, largest was 385 and smallest was an illegal 61 lb bear. Deer was 4 and hog was 1. Did they revive some of them and turn them back loose? All we killed was 2 copperheads.

just got back from a ride over at cohutta. had to go check on our cabin so decided to spend some time and ride by the checking stations. at 3:30 p.m. holly creek had 9 bears (largest 240 lb field dressed) 2 hogs, 0 bucks, 420 hunters checked in. At 5:30 p.m. went by Cisco checking station, they had 480 hunters checked in, 31 bear (largest 385 field dressed), 1hog, 5 buck. considering the storms friday and friday night was probably a pretty good success rate on bear. there will still be a few checked in later tonight and tomorrow that are in the process of being dragged and cursed right now

Dang they killed 40 bears on this hunt Is that way above average or what?

last year there was over 50 killed on the first hunt. cohutta is really peaking on bear now. I wish more people hunted the bear, you can see what the deer situation is by the kill tally. I'm hoping less bear, more deer

Cohutta Report

1st time there. I hunted Thurs & Fri. Busted up a few ridges until the GPS said exactlty 1 mile to the truck. Man was it hot. After about 3 hours had a 100lb bear come down my trail and feed up to my stand. Saw me sort of and kind of walked away in a slight hurry. About 45 minutes later he (or another) came from the same direction the 1st scampered off to, and he was about 7 yards behind me b4 he caught my scent. Gave a quick woof and bolted down the hill side. 3 hours later another one shows up looks to be bigger from the same area that the 2nd sighting went. I only saw this one in 2 quick glimpses about 60 yards off but appeared bigger. About 10 minutes later you can hear the acorns pouring out of the trees, and heavy branches shaking from the trees. Heard this 3 times and that was it.
Friday stunk, or should I say I did

Whats the best way to hunt bear? Find a ridge or take a stand?

you really just hunt them like you would a deer. Make sure you wear some cover scent and then just go find some acorns. Me and my dad have both killed bears and they have both been from the ground. Whether or not to bring a stand depends a lot on were you are hunting. Most places in the North GA mountains you are no better off in a stand than you are on the ground. But there are some places were a stand might be better, such as a food plot or logging road.

I had a report tonight that another bear had been killed around Peoples Lake in Murray County.

Was in the 200 pound range.