Thick Bush and Big Game: An Unforgettable Northeastern Ontario Hunt

His nose was angled high in the air, mouth gaped open. The bear was tasting the air, trying to detect us. Kevin stayed as still as a statue, while perched in a tree only twenty-five yards away.

The seconds ticked by, which felt like minutes slowly dragging on. But the bear finally took a step forward, and then another, and another…

Spring black bear hunting is one of Kevin’s favourite hunts of the year, so as he packed the trailer and hit the road on the last day of May, he was full of excitement and anticipation. 

AG Guiding Services: Three Decades of Black Bear Hunting in Northeastern Ontario

This time, Kevin headed to Northeastern Ontario, to the town of Matachewan, to hunt with AG Guiding Services. Run by Andrew George Sr. and his son Drew, this outfit has a great history in bear hunting. Their clients have harvested a lot of truly big black bears over the last thirty years. And this year, Andrew had already been getting some very mature bears on the trail camera, leading up to our hunt.

Argyle Lake Lodge: Home Base for a Matachewan Bear Hunt

After a seven-hour drive, Kevin arrived at Argyle Lake Lodge, where he would be staying for this week’s hunt. ‘AG Guiding Services’ rents cabins at Argyle Lake Lodge for their bear hunting clients. It’s a beautiful location, with multiple charming log cabins, fully equipped to make your stay very comfortable and relaxing.

Kevin was greeted by Andrew Sr. and Drew when he arrived in camp, and just as he was finishing unloading all the gear, his guest rolled into camp. Patrick Bowman of ‘Garmin’ and Kevin have some history, as last year they hunted woodcock and fall bears together, but they both had some tough luck with the bears and went home empty-handed. So, this hunt is a redemption hunt for both of them.

With just enough time to get in an evening hunt, they both shot their bows to be sure they made the travels safely and then headed out to the bear woods.

Kevin’s first sit was in a moss-covered spruce forest. Andrew Sr. had captured a big bear coming into this location, a couple of nights earlier, on a trail camera.

First Sits in the Spruce: Bears on the Bait Near Matachewan

As Kevin sat high in the tree, the winds were swirling all evening, not ideal, but nothing he could do about it. As the sun dipped behind the trees, Kevin spotted some movement to his right. Out strolled two cubs, followed by the sow and a third cub. These bears have been regulars at this location over the last several days. As the bears worked closer to the bait, the sow got a whiff of something she didn’t like and decided to turn back, while the cubs continued marching in.

But then, the cubs seemed to get scared of something and started to work back from the direction they came. That’s when Kevin spotted a fourth bear, a bigger bear. The bear was about fifteen yards behind the bait. Kevin could only see his head, as the bear smelled and tasted the air. It had a mature-looking head that was squared off and wide. Just as fast as Kevin spotted him, he disappeared back into the forest without ever giving Kevin a good look at him.

As for Patrick, he had a slow night, not seeing any bears at his location.

The next morning, the two boys drove into town to have some breakfast at ZZZ ’n’ Eats. This very charming restaurant and bunkhouse is like walking into a museum. The walls are covered in historic articles and photos, telling the story of the town of Matachewan and its rich history. This area is one of the last ‘Goldrush’ towns in Ontario, once a booming town, full of miners. Today, though, the town is not as lively as it once was, but gold mines are reopening once again, bringing new life and visitors to Matachewan.

Breakfast was great, thanks to Lindsay Cousineau and Ken McCollam, and after getting our fill, Patrick and Kevin headed to Andrew Sr’s house to pick up some fresh bait. AG Guiding Services uses fresh popcorn for the majority of the baits. As we pulled up, the smell of movie theatre popcorn filled the air. Andrew's daughter, April, was busy at work, popping the corn and filling bags.

After we got our bait, we headed back to camp to run out with Andrew and Drew, so they could show us several baits. The way ‘AG Guiding Services’ runs their outfit is they show their clients a few different hunting locations and then allow them to hunt those spots.

After visiting several great-looking baits and checking trail cameras and wind direction, Patrick and Kevin got all their hunting gear ready for the evening hunt.

The wind direction had changed; it didn’t make going back to the first stands possible. So, Patrick headed to a new bait. He was set up at the end of a very old, decommissioned logging road and would be hunting from a ground blind. This location recently had a very big bear on a trail camera. But he was showing up about ten minutes after legal shooting light. This was an extremely large bear, somewhere in the four hundred-plus range, so Patrick’s excitement was at an all-time high, as he hoped this giant would show before the sunset. 

Kevin, on the other hand, had a fun ride in the Yamaha Wolverine, as he made his way to his hunting spot.

Kevin was hunting from a ladder stand which looked down to an open clearing on the edge of a rocky, steep hill, flanked by forest on either side. This spot also had a very good bear on a trail camera, coming in right at last light. After only ten minutes in the stand, Kevin heard a very loud crunching on his right. So loud he thought it must be a moose walking. But surprisingly, a bear appeared from the forest. Bears are notoriously quiet walkers, nicknamed the ‘ghost of the forest’ by many, but this medium-sized boar was strangely making as much noise as possible.

The boar worked in and didn’t waste any time filling his belly with the fresh popcorn. He also seemed to be having a hard time with all the mosquitoes and blackflies. Rubbing his chin on the barrel and his belly on the ground in an amusing way.

Though the boar had a beautiful hide and was a decent-sized bear, Kevin decided to let this bear go, hoping for an encounter with one of the other very mature bears that AG Guiding Services has captured on camera. Unfortunately for Kevin, he never did see the target bear that night. And Patrick’s run of bad luck continued, as his target bear never showed either.

Rutting Boars and Rod Time: Fishing Argyle Lake Between Sits

Over the next couple of days, Patrick and Kevin got into a routine. After breakfast, Patrick would head out fishing with Drew, while Kevin ran around checking all the hunting locations, topping off baits and checking trail cameras. It seemed the rut was in full swing, as the big mature boars were not staying more than a day at any of the baits. They seemed to be cruising through, checking for a hot sow, before moving on. This made hunting these big boars very hard.

Patrick had a great time fishing, though, catching a lot of walleye, pike, lake trout and smallmouth bass with Drew. Even catching his personal best smallmouth bass.

On day five, the boys had a great dinner back in town with ZZZ ‘n’ Eats, before they headed back out hunting.

Patrick headed to the same ladder stand he had hunted on day two. Since Patrick has never harvested a bear before, they thought it would be a great location for him to get his first bear, since this spot had two shooters hitting the bait. The plan partly worked, with one of the target bears coming in, but this time he came in right at last light, accompanied by another bear. Patrick just didn’t feel comfortable shooting the bear in such low light, so he gave them the pass.

Kevin went to a spot where he had found two new bears hitting a bait. Since the wind wasn’t great for the tree stand, in the morning, Kevin set up a ground blind and brushed it in well. With about forty-five minutes of light left, one of his target bears slowly appeared from the front left, walking down the trail he had come in on. The boar cautiously walked closer but passed the bait as he kept a close eye on Kevin’s blind, not allowing him to draw back his bow. The bear started to work away, so Kevin quickly drew back his bow. The bear quickly spun around and walked a few steps closer. But his body was positioned in a hard quartering to angle, not giving Kevin a good angle. After a short stare down, he once again turned quickly and trotted off. Kevin tried to stop him, but the smart big boar just kept going and disappeared into the timber.

Patience Pays Off: Kevin's Black Bear Harvest with AG Guiding Services

Unfortunately, Patrick could not stay for all 6 days of the hunt. On Kevin’s final day, after reviewing all the trail cameras, he decided to hunt another stand, which once again had some good bears hitting it just the day before. He got set up nice and early because the previous day, there were bears on the bait from 5:30 pm till dark.

The night sped by, and now there was only an hour left in the night when Kevin spotted some movement straight in front of him, deep in the woods. Kevin could see a good-looking bear smelling and tasting the air. The situation wasn’t looking good. Kevin knew the winds had once again been swirling all night, and that was probably why he had not seen a bear up until this point. The bear slowly and very cautiously worked around the bait. You could tell he was getting the odd whiff of Kevin’s wind, but it was not enough to spook him. After a few minutes, he worked in close enough for a shot. Kevin drew as he slowly approached, but Kevin ended up having tree branches in his way and had to lower his bow as the bear worked off into the woods.

Kevin thought that was it; he was going home empty-handed, but then the bear started to come back. As he approached, he was still smelling and tasting the air. Kevin drew as the bear walked behind a tree. When the bear came out from behind the tree, he turned and was now face-on to Kevin. The bear stood there staring at Kevin for what felt like five minutes, but in all actuality, it was probably just 45 seconds. The bear then turned to once again leave; this time, Kevin let the arrow fly. It hit the mark, and the bear only went about thirty yards before going down.

Though the bear was not one of the several giant bears AG Guiding Services has captured on trail camera, this bear sure did get Kevin’s heart pumping. At the end of the day, that’s what hunting is really all about. An encounter that gets you excited and some excellent meat for the dinner table.

If you’re ever looking for a bear hunting adventure in Northeastern Ontario that can offer you chances at some big bears and some great fishing, you have got to check out AG Guiding Services. You can tell Andrew and Drew George have been doing this for a long time. We would also like to thank John and Connie Priddle, owners of Argyle Lake Lodge, for putting us up at their beautiful camp.

Showing 'Edited Body' is no longer supported.