Scouting for bear at Cohutta

[WoodlandScout82]

I'm gearing up to go on a few scouting trips to Cohutta WMA. My last time up there, I was time limited to the Mill creek area. I have read that I need to look towards the higher elevations. I have very good topo maps of the area but theres so much ground up there that I really don't know where to start...any info or advise would be Greatly appreciated.

BTW guys, I'm a career welder, fabricator, machinist, and toolmaker with my own machine shop and a penchent for gunsmithing. Maybe my services would be useful to someone with the right information?

 

[Timberman]

I can't point you in any direction but I'll tell you how I found bears on Cooper Creek, Blue Ridge and Chestatee WMAs. I went high started walking leads and ridges and it didn't take very long I was in bear sign. YMMV

 

[Unicoidawg]

Find the white oaks with acorns during bow season, get the wind in your face and nock an arrow. Please kill your limit, then take someone else to kill theirs too.

 

[jbogg]

I too have recently been bit by the bear bug, and last fall was my first full season trying for a bear. There are plenty of folks on here with far more experience and more sound advice than I can provide, but I was recently in your shoes. I had never hunted the mountains, so I can appreciate how daunting it can seem when getting started. For what it’s worth get a Topo app for your phone and spend early summer looking for saddles and leads with White Oak trees and that will give you a starting point. Return in July with binos and start looking to see which oaks are producing acorns, and at what elevations. Finally, if you can scout for a day or two before the bow opener focus on the saddles that you have already determined have acorns and look for fresh scat and climbing sign. Trees being climbed will be littered with torn limbs and oak leaves on the ground below. If the leaves are all wilted and turning brown keep walking until you find fresh green leaf litter and slate gray scat, not black. Find the fresh sign and you will see bears. Good luck this fall.

 

[Dana Young]

jbogg that is very sound advise. you have said all that needs to be said to find bears

 

[WoodlandScout82]

Thank you! I have very good maps. I did just that last year and another guy got a bear not 100 yards from me. I went to another spot I picked out the next day and got the hog in my picture. I'm just gonna gun hunt up there. I grew up in Chatsworth and have been up grassy many times, just not hunting..I got my maps and found all the saddles in the area I saw bears crossing the road. Found the oaks (mostly red) but the whites were there too, and the squirrels were going to town on them. I saw a big group of deer when I scouted in August also. Lots of hog tracks on the ridges I'm 99% sure I got the boar, but he took off down a deep draw. I hit the sow twice and got a piglet in the neck. Had to drag that hog well over a mile to my truck..Thanks for the replies. I'm much better prepared for this year!

 

[jbogg]

jbogg that is very sound advise. you have said all that needs to be said to find bears

Thanks Dana. Still learning every day, but pretty sure I learned most of my bear knowledge from old threads of yours and a few others on this forum. Lots of mountain hunting experience on here, and I have benefited tremendously from the info shared on the bear hunting forum.

 

[Hookedonhunting]

When referencing topography, what do you mean by a lead? I understand what a ridge and saddle is, but what is a lead?

 

[tree cutter 08]

I always refer to a lead as a ridge coming off a top or coming off a main ridge. A lead is a ridge that will usually run from high to low or low to high

 

[whitetailfreak]

I always refer to a lead as a ridge coming off a top or coming off a main ridge. A lead is a ridge that will usually run from high to low or low to high

We call em back bones. "I'll be huntin' half way down at' long back bone tween Grassy Tower and Rock Flat Branch"

 

[WoodlandScout82]

Thanks for the replies everyone! I am about to start scouting in August. I finished my rifle and I'm much better prepared for the task ahead if I do bag a bear. That hog in my avatar came from up there last year and I managed to get it out myself with a tarp, and a travois I made on site.

 

[chrislibby88]

Thanks for the replies everyone! I am about to start scouting in August. I finished my rifle and I'm much better prepared for the task ahead if I do bag a bear. That hog in my avatar came from up there last year and I managed to get it out myself with a tarp, and a travois I made on site.

Why don’t you field quarter the animals and pack the meat out?

 

[WoodlandScout82]

Why don’t you field quarter the animals and pack the meat out?

It was really warm and the flies were Really bad. I didn't want to expose the meat any more than I had to. I bought a drag sled for this year. I pack really light because I'm about 2 miles up in there from the road and my truck.

 

[chrislibby88]

It was really warm and the flies were Really bad. I didn't want to expose the meat any more than I had to. I bought a drag sled for this year. I pack really light because I'm about 2 miles up in there from the road and my truck.

They make breathable meat bags for packing meat. So you can put a barrier on it as soon as you cut it off the carcass. Keeps dirt and flies off.

I had to pull a big deer a little over a mile, all uphill, on Chestatee WMA last year, and I can’t imagine dragging anything bigger any further. I’ve got a big semi-framed Milsurp pack I’m gonna use this year and try packing anything I get out.

 

[WoodlandScout82]

They make breathable meat bags for packing meat. So you can put a barrier on it as soon as you cut it off the carcass. Keeps dirt and flies off.

I had to pull a big deer a little over a mile, all uphill, on Chestatee WMA last year, and I can’t imagine dragging anything bigger any further. I’ve got a big semi-framed Milsurp pack I’m gonna use this year and try packing anything I get out.

It took 5 hours to drag that hog out. All uphill until the last 1/4 mile. Heres my pack and gear setup for this year. Hammock seat, drag sled, and my Maxpedition Malaga slingpack.

 

[livinoutdoors]

Hammock seat is possibly mans greatest invention! Love those things for long hikes and ease of set up