REGIONAL— The fall hunting season officially gets underway on Monday with the opener of the 2025 bear season in Minnesota, and hunters have reason for optimism despite plenty of wild foods after a summer of abundant rainfall.
“There’s a lot of bears out there,” said Jesse Brunner, of Cook, who has been running three baits, and is seeing multiple bears on each, ranging up to the mid-300-pound range. Brunner, who has guided in the fall for more than 20 years, is baiting for family this year after none of his prospective clients drew a bear tag this season.
That’s been an issue for the past several years, ever since the Department of Natural Resources sharply reduced the number of bear tags it issued in the bear quota zone to boost bear numbers after several years of aggressive harvests.
That effort may finally be bearing fruit, said longtime bear hunting guide Dennis Udovich, of Greaney. “We’ve definitely got a good bear population out here,” he said. “They’re hitting the baits real strong.”
While blueberries were hit and miss this year in most locations, many other wild fruits have benefitted from a wet summer. Chokecherry crops are robust, as are highbush cranberries and raspberries in most locations. Udovich noted plenty of dogwood berries as well. Wild plums are plump and plentiful in some places as well, and all of that typically works against bear hunters in the region, who rely on the draw provided by their baits in order to have a chance at a bear. When natural foods are abundant, those baits are typically less effective, but that doesn’t seem to be the case this year.
Brunner, who has seen plenty of activity at his baits, said a friend who has been baiting has been seeing lots of action as well. He said the wild card will be the acorn crop, which looks pretty good in those areas with decent numbers of oaks. “The acorns just started dropping,” noted Brunner, who is worried that that rich natural food source will pull some of the bears away from his baits.
He’s also trying to find a way to coax some of the biggest bears coming in on his baits to show up during legal shooting hours. He said the big ones have been mostly nocturnal, which could pose a challenge. “I told my wife we’re just going after big ones this year,” he said, “so she might have to sit and wait a little longer.”
Udovich said the recent trend toward more fall-like temperatures in recent days should help intensify bear activity. “They’re definitely in hyperphasia now,” he said, referring to the time of year when bears become almost entirely focused on fattening up for winter hibernation.