Florida is re-opening its bear season this fall.

You will definitely have ur work cut out for you , With no bait or dogs. Especially in south florida in oct.

I'm surprised the state is finally doing this,it's about time. My last hunt in Florida was eight years back,and I saw more bears than deer on that hunt. I just hope the hunt goes through as planned and is not stalled at the last minute by the bunny huggers and a sympathetic judge. Back in the seventies Tosohatchee WMA was set to open for it's first hunt as a new WMA.The land had been bought by the state and hadn't been hunted for several years. The area was overpopulated and the hunt needed to be held soon. The anti's jumped in and got a judge to issue an injunction,stopping the hunts for at least two years. A large die off was the result and many of the deer taken when the hunt finally was held were in poor condition.

Success rate will be near zero with no bait or dogs. It will be shear luck to see one just sitting and waiting on one. If you read the entire part of the link it is not approved of yet

just sit by a dumpster in Orlando, you'll see a bear or three.

A friend of mine was in his tree stand in some timber company land about ten miles east of Tallahassee. All was well until a bear started up the ladder, seeking companionship.

At the very least SOMETHING is being done. I dog hunt deer in the Ocala and to state that we have too many bears is one gross understatement. I personally counted TEN in one day last December.

The solution, in the FWC's view, had continually been one of relocating any problem animal to the nearest WMA and the situation in the Ocala is a direct result of that flawed approach. Recently tho the overpopulation issue evolved into a lot of bad PR for FWC involving a couple of minor attacks that resulted in the agency shooting nearly a dozen so they FINALLY manned up and decided to do the right thing.

Far as method goes, with the current high population I'd bet that (at least in the OCF) maxing out on the kill quoto will nearly be a sure thing, at least for the beginning seasons. You've gotta remember that those animals have utterly no more fear of humans than does a barnyard chicken! Until controlled hunting is re introduced the problem will remain as it now is........personally my biggest issues have been been in having to rake up all my own garbage and stop my wife from delivering a charge of birdshot into the backside of the ones that frequent my property........too, it has become a real problem in getting my walkers to NOT run them.

Give it a couple of years and I'd bet that the dog issue will be revisited........baiting, not so much.

Just have doughnuts for breakfast and a trail snack.

Good ol' Florida lege, back in the 1990s, stopped the hunting. At the time, the Ocala area bear numbers were in decline, mostly due to bears losing to cars/trucks. The numbers in the Appalachicola NF were stable.

Living in the Ocala NF area, no way I would be out there - WAY too many Yahoos for my safety; besides bear sucks to eat.

AE: You are dead on re: the vehicle mortality issue.......I see approximately a dozen dead ones each hunting season.

Truth be told tho, Fl's G&F agency needs to take a serious look at itself and it's so called management practices. One prime example is the deer population/harvest issue. That agency has utterly no concept of the yearly take as they keep no records!........there is no tagging mandate, no check station mandate and even tho it's supposedly a requirement on WM's it is commonly ignored on those that have uncontrolled access points.

Sorta like trying to balance a bank account when you don't know what you've spent or how much has been deposited!

Incidentally, if you were in Fla. at the time of the total bear closure you should recall that the FWC at that time tried to preserve the 'chase' aspect in Baker and Columbia counties......both of which were said to have a stable population......only to fold under pressure from so called 'humane' and animal welfare organizations............sad circumstance with sadder consequences.

What ammo will be allowed what caliber rifle

Living in the Ocala NF area, no way I would be out there - WAY too many Yahoos for my safety; besides bear sucks to eat

Click to expand...

Bear is excellent to eat however it is absolutely a must to gut and cool as fast as possible after the kill. Makes great chops and steaks as well as sausage.

Same ammo as legal for deer. I doubt that hunting w/o dogs or baiting will have any meaningful effect on the population, but I'm sure FWC will figure it out in short order.