I still remember crossing the Canadian border for the first time, not knowing what adventure lay ahead of me. I’ve crossed the border many times since and it still holds a deep sense of expectation. Once the strait-laced booth attendant gives approval for entry, I hit the kilometer highway with haste toward a horizon of promise. 

I’ve wanted to hunt with Richard (Rich) and Marla Geres in Eastern Saskatchewan (SK) for years now, but they’re usually booked up. Somehow there was a tag with my name on it, beckoning me to the western Duck Mountains for what would turn out to be a special bear hunt. The Geres typically only run spring hunts, but after a few last-minute cancellations at the end of their spring hunts they decided to do a one time fall bear hunt. There were only two hunters in camp, me and Mr. Bob Hoaglin, a passionate bear hunter from Minnesota. 

One thing I love about the Geres is that they are hunters through and through. This becomes clear as you walk into the lodge; it’s like being in a wildlife museum as you scan the walls looking at memories sculpted by the talented hands of taxidermists. Upon arrival, I gazed at all the bears they’ve taken and was fully resolved that I had come to a special place that has big, color phase bear potential. 

I was excited to try a fall bear hunt in Southeastern SK. Fall bear hunts can be a good option, but the later the season goes on the less action you tend to see on a bait because bears’ bodies start to slow down to prepare for denning. Rich had noticed that a bait can be slow and then get hit hard for a day or two. He also mentioned that in the spring these boars are in competition with one another, but once the rut is over he sees groups of male bears of similar size running together like buddies. 

I came into this hunt knowing that there were two huge bears that Rich and Marla got on their trail cameras. One of these bears I actually named Captain when they shared it on Instagram and it stuck. They had another big bear named Hugo. Both of these bears are over 500 lbs, and I was determined not to tag out early on a lesser bear. Because of this, I struggled during my entire hunt. I had a difficult time judging bears and I let a good bear walk the first night that I typically would have taken. If I hadn’t known about some of the monsters they have roaming around, I probably would have sent an arrow. I was definitely in my head on this hunt wanting to get a monster. 

Day 1 

Day 2 

Rich’s wife, Marla, loves to bear hunt and on day two we decided to put me on a bait that had a short three-sided blind beside a ladder stand and I invited Marla to come along. We were going after the Captain! Now, the Captain is a big, mature bear and few hunters have seen him: he’s wary, always becomes wise to the schemes, and we were hoping that his winning streak would be up. They hadn’t seen him on camera for a while, but we wanted to shoot our shot at him. 

Rich and Bob freshened up the bait while Marla and I got settled in our stands. Then the hunt was on. It was a slow evening and we didn’t have any bears come in for a few hours. A good-sized boar finally came in that Marla could see, but with the swirl of the wind he never came into the bait and walked off. Two younger bears worked their way in and out for a while, but we didn’t have any other activity until 20 minutes before the end of legal light. 

At that time, I looked to my 4:00 position and saw a massive boat walking toward us. As my heart stuttered, the wind shifted to the back of my neck. The bear sat on its haunches and stuck his nose in the air, checking the wind. He was so big, he looked like a black hole standing in the middle of the woods. With one graceful movement, he turned like his middle was a swivel and waddled off, not to be seen again. There is no doubt in my mind that the Captain had appeared. 

Day 3 

With all of the excitement of the previous evening seeing the Captain, we decided to take a poke at Hugo. Going after Hugo put me in the exact same stand where Bob had killed his bear from the first evening. We snuck into the bait and there was a chocolate bear on it that ran off when it eventually saw us. I got in the stand and Rich went back to freshen up the bait. The bear came back and checked me out while I was climbing the ladder stand and later did a stare down with Rich while he was topping off the bait. 

It was an eventful evening with some beautiful color phased sows and cubs, but no shooters. While I was in the stand, I looked down and noticed that my rear stabilizer bar had come off my bow. Unfortunately, we looked everywhere and the stabilizer was nowhere to be found. 

Day 4 

I’ve developed a healthy habit of shooting my bow with a sacrificial broadhead before every bear hunt. This is because in 2023, I waited until right before my hunt to put broadheads on that, in the past, had shot just like my field points. But on this day, they were hitting way low at 20 yards. If I hadn’t tested it out, I would have only wounded and not killed my biggest bear to date. 

This new habit saved my bacon on this hunt. I shot my test arrow and it was hitting the bottom of the target at 20 yards. The day before, I was center-punching it with everything the same except now the rear bar was gone. I got hit with a flurry of emotions, but the primary one was gratefulness that a big boar did not come in the night before because I would have only wounded him. Then the frustration came trying to get it back on. I messaged my go-to bow tech, Steve from Outdoor America, and he calmly told me what to do. I ended up having to move my stabilizer in and add five yards to the dial on my sight housing, and I was center-punching again!  

I saw a lot of bears during this sit. There were boars, sows, aggressive bears, timid bears, and bears of various sizes. I had been in the stand for several hours when the periphery of my left eye caught movement emerging from the trail we had taken to the bait. 

My heart leaped when I saw the bear—it was the type of boar I was after. If he had stood there another few seconds, I would have sent my arrow without hesitation. Alas, he slipped quietly into the brush that surrounded the bait and I was nervous that I wouldn’t see him again. 

Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait long. The bear came out of the brush and squabbled with another bear that had been eating from one of the barrels, then set up shop and began eating. As I watched him by the barrel, I began second-guessing my original synopsis and questioning if he was the bear I wanted. Since I was so in my head, I sent a picture of the bear to Rich and he called him a dandy. Since I got the seal of approval from Rich, I made up my mind this was the one. 

At that point, he had transitioned to a different bait barrel when a smaller boar left to walk the perimeter and cemented himself into the soil. With my bow in hand, I looked for any possible shot opportunity and he wasn’t cooperating at all. I was now racing daylight with little hope in sight. The small bear who had taken a hike circled back in and was mad about his place being taken, so he put on a show. He huffed and puffed and thrashed brush but my bear didn’t budge. The small brazen bear rushed at my bear and finally, my bear got on his feet and ran from the barrel into the open. 

I knew that this was my opportunity and I had to take any chance I could get before he got on a barrel again. The big bear started making his way back to the barrel and as soon as he stopped, I drew back and sent my broadhead to the middle of his middle and forward just a little.

The bear took off into the brush and I could see the tops of small trees move as he plowed through the dense vegetation. I then heard a loud gurgling sound coming from his direction and so did one of the bears that was still on the bait. The bear went to investigate and then a quick bear altercation broke out followed by silence.   

I’ve learned not to celebrate immediately, but to take notes for the outfitter. I took a quick video on my phone of where I saw the tops of the brush stop moving. I also reviewed the footage from the camera and filmed the recording on my phone so I could show Rich the shot placement and which trail the bear took when he ran off. This is invaluable information for an outfitter coming to track a bear. With all that information collected, I thanked God and sat back down to keep watching bears until Rich got back. 

With all of this information and the great blood evidence on my arrow, we knew the bear didn’t go far. The blood trail was easy to follow and we ended up finding the bear right beside the tree I thought he was beside. He was a whopper and checked every box I had in my head. We took photos, got him loaded up, and headed back to home base. Rich dropped me off at the cabin to grab my truck and I made him promise he wouldn’t let Marla see the bear until I made it up there. 

Marla was pumped when she saw the big bruin in the back of the truck. It weighed a whopping 427 lbs. As we tube-skinned the bear, it looked like we were skinning a whale covered in blubber. I called him a “chonk of a bear” and thus he had a name. We pulled around 60 lbs of fat off of ole Chonk! 

The next morning, I said my goodbyes and headed home. I crossed the border back into the U.S. feeling a deep sense of gratitude for the surreal experience I had. SK is a special place with low populations of people and a heavy density of bears. If you find yourself going to Canada on a bear hunt, bring one more ice chest than you think you’ll need. I had to stop and buy an old school Coleman ice chest on the way home because three ice chests wouldn’t accommodate the Chonk. All of my hard work was well worth it.