This long-time Hunts.Net outfitter offers a 150% hunter success rate in two different areas, allowing his customers to hunt during prime spring periods.

Click on photos to see big images

"I hunt Slave Lake first," he said. "This is a hell of an area in the Peace River country with some big color phase bears -- about 40 percent color phase. Some Boone and Crockett bears are taken in this ara every year. In terms of climate there is a difference of about three weeks between my Slake Lake area and my area farther north, which is in the Margaret Lake area. What that means is that I leave the Slave Lake area before a lot of the bears start having rubbed coats and before the bugs start to become a problem, And that gives us two weeks of ideal hunting time in our northern area, which is almost unhunted except for my customers, and so the bears tend to grow old and get big. We get some really big adult male boars. If you hold out you should definitely get a bear that is at least 6 1/2 feet nose to tail, and that is a big bear. The biggest we have produced have been over eight feet, and the best-scoring went 21 11/16 Boone and Crockett points. About 10 percent of the bears up north are color phase, so this is a great place to go if you want a really big black pelt."

Camp consists of woodstove-heated wall tents with wood floors in the dining and cook tents and usually in sleeping tents. There are two hunters to a sleeping tent. Hunter success is typically 100 percent on the first bear, and many hunters choose to take a second bear, for which hunters pay a trophy fee. About 20 percent of hunters see a wolf, but many of his customers are bowhunters, and getting a good shot at a wolf within bow range is rare even though he has had archers take a wolf. One man shooting a longbow even got a wolf.

Dates vary from year to year, but usually fall roughly May 9-14, May 16-21, May 23-28, May 30-June 4.

You can drive to either camp, but most hunters fly to Edmonton, then onto High Level, where they'll be met by the outfitter or one of his guides. The outfitter personally operates both of his camps and has been doing so for 30 years now. We have worked with him for 24 years -- long before we changed the name of our hunting consultant service to Hunts.Net.

A former wildlife biologist, the outfitter had his pick of areas when he began, and that is one reason he continues to produce consistently high success and lots of color phase bruins. One key to his success is that he spaces his baited sites widely, and many are reached by ATV and boat. A necessary ingredient of a successful trophy hunt is to go after bears in wildernesslike conditions where the animals are seldom hunted and, hence, grow old enough to reach maximum size. He also wisely limits his camps to four hunters a week although he is willing to accommodate a larger camp if the hunters know each other and want to hunt together.