Foss Bear Camp Scores Big Again…528 Pound Boar Falls to Green Bay Youth
By Dick Ellis “Photos by Dick Ellis”
The weight of the moment and a nasty “bear” fever fell over 12 year old Jarrett Bolssen as the mammoth boar slipped slowly from the shadows and nearer the bait.
Hunter confidence that builds with preparing properly for a hunt can melt away quickly at the moment of truth. A readiness that the young hunter had earned by knowing that he could shoot this rifle well and of knowing that the bears would come to this station that he had helped erect and bait months before was being severely put to the test . Wood Tick, estimated to weigh as much as 600 pounds by Wisconsin bear guide Mike Foss after numerous captures on trail camera, lumbered cautiously from the forest.
Jarrett, of Green Bay had planned carefully for this hunt with his father Brian Bolssen. His mother had placed the adventure on the fast track by beginning to apply for a coveted harvest tag in 2002, and with 9-points secured had passed the tag on to Jarrett for the 2012 season through the Wisconsin Mentoring Program. They would hunt Zone D in Bayfield County with Foss’s Northern Wisconsin Outfitters.
“We passed on Jarrett’s tag for the 2011 season,” Brian said. “I had a tag and was going to hunt last year. If we passed on Jarrett’s tag last year, I could hunt in 2011 and sit with him this year.”
Jarrett would be trying to continue a string of tagging very large bears from a very special stand. Foss’s eternal inspiration to tag monster bears means perspiration becomes the primary tool. The guide and his team not only bait over long, hard hours in the summer, Foss personally scouts in spring hunting sheds with the real focus being to figure out more pieces of the bear travel puzzle and to find new stand placements from which to tag the largest bears. Deciphering the mystery of the legendary Snaggletooth actually began with a chance encounter with the bear estimated to weigh 700 pounds in 2000.
“In broad daylight during the bear mating season I stopped my truck and just looked at this enormous bear in the ditch sitting there looking at me,” Foss said. “He was panting and full of saliva. He walked between my truck and a truck that had stopped behind me and down a barb wire fence until he found a place where he could squeeze through. There were all kinds of stories and rumors about this bear circulating. I had finally seen him.”
“The next year I was shed hunting when I found a bear trail with humongous tracks on it. I followed it to his lair; it was like a nest with everything matted down surrounded by low-lying pines and thick popple. I could see how a giant bear laid down on his side with his leg out. I stuck my nose right in there and smelled him. It was kind of creepy. But those biggest bears go to those same places where they feel safe.”
According to Foss, this lair that would ultimately be revealed as the home of Snaggletooth also had ready access to a giant red pine. Mature red pine or white pine, he said, are commonly found near the “lie-low” areas of the biggest bears. He is uncertain why.
“I don’t know if it provides an escape from danger and easy climbing, but they will lie right against these giant pines,” Foss said. “I could see from the size of the impression in the grass that this was a very big bear. I put a camera on the trail leading into it and for the first time captured Snaggletooth going to his hideout. But I didn’t know yet that it was him.”
Foss checked the camera one week later, and began to “paper check”, or map, all the bear trails he had discovered in the area, backtracking until they intersected.
“Sure enough, I got him on camera again and knew what bear he was immediately. That is where we put up the first stand to target Snaggletooth, five miles from where I had originally seen him.”
 |
 |
 |
| Wisconsin super guide Mike Foss of Northern Wisconsin Outfitters and hunter Jarrett Bolssen, 12, with the 528 pound black bear nicknamed Wood Tick taken opening day.Watch for story by Dick Ellis. | ||
 |
 |
 |
| Hunters from Northern Wisconsin Outfitters leave camp and gather at the point of recovery to begin the long haul out with the 528 point beat taken by Jarrett Bolssen, 12 of Green Bay. | Northern Wisconsin Outfitters guides and hunters haul out the 628 pound bear nicknamed Wood Tick on a game stretcher. | The massive bear taken by Jarrett Bolssen, 12 (kneeling) of Green Bay is tagged. |
 |
 |
 |
| Hunting the biggest bears in Bayfield County near Lake Superior often means negotiating very thick brush country. That becomes a big problem when a very big bear like the 528 pound boar taken by 12 year old Jarrett Bolssen of Green Bay requires hauling out on a game stretcher by a dozen or so hunters of Northern Wisconsin Outfitters. |
||
Craig Cichanofsky had tagged a 639 pound bear while hunting Snaggletooth from the stand in 2009. Snaggletooth, after evading a final end to Mike Foss clients for years had finally died to hound hunters last year, too still walking his kingdom. And Brian Bolssen had taken a three-legged, 472 pound bear from the stand in 2011.
Bolssen had been with his good friend Cichanofsky of Green Bay deer hunting in 2007 in Lake Superior Country where they had introduced themselves to Foss near Washburn. Cichanofsky would draw a bear harvest tag in 2009 and soon assisted Foss as he baited in preparation of his upcoming hunt. An employee of a Green Bay ice cream cone company, Brian Bolssen had also provided Foss and Northern Wisconsin Outfitters with the cone product for baiting. Foss will go through 20,000 pounds of bait each season readying stations over 30 square miles for 20 to 25 hunters annually who know the reputation of the guide for delivering near 100 percent shot opportunity and uncanny number of big bears.
“I love it up here in Mike’s camp,” Bolssen said. “I never hear any negatives. I can’t remember anyone going home without a shot. In 2011 hunters were 17 for 18 with one wounded bear. Some years hunters will pass on a bear.”
Jarrett’s turn to take “the stand” had arrived. According to Brian, his son had already passed on a smaller bear opening day, September 5, before the big bear came in. They knew monster bears were coming to the bait in August and September during legal shooting hours from regular appearances on game cameras. Wood Tick had in fact come to the station like clockwork, and just days before the opener, the bear had actually been chased from the food…by an even larger bear.
With the shadows growing longer as the 2012 opening day slid toward its end, the big bear appeared at 7:35. Legal shooting hours would close at 7:52. Wood Tick took several steps toward the bait, and then, perhaps with the memory of a recent butt kicking on the bait by the bigger bear slowing his haste to feed, sat down to take in the situation. His caution was expected. Like most bears that reach trophy size, Wood Tick was not a survivor of so many seasons by lacking caution. It was his habit to sit down off the bait. This time, he offered no shot to the young hunter.
 |
 |
| The massive528 pound bear finally is placed in the Mike Foss truck for transport to camp. | Green Bay bear hunter Jarrett Bolssen with the 528 pound boar ready for transport to Northern Wisconsin Outfitters in Washburn. |
“Brush was in the way,” Brian said. “Jarrett said he couldn’t see the bear. I told him just to wait. Finally the bear stood up after what seemed like forever. It was probably only a minute. He got up and took two steps. Jarrett was looking through the scope, but he was shaking and hyperventilating. We had practiced taking deep breaths in case he had to deal with adrenalin.”
Despite the fever, Jarrett was ready for the hunt. He had practiced on the shooting range four or five times to raise the expectation of making a killing shot with both a .270 and 30-06. The 30-06 kicked like a mule but the 82- pound youth rose to the occasion and continued on the firing line until the larger rifle was chosen as the firearm of choice.
“I think the gun weighs more than Jarrett does,” Brian said. “We also looked at trail cam video. I’d ask him, ‘Would you shoot here? Would you shoot now? ‘It really helped.”
With guidance from his father, Jarrett would need to reach deep in his battle to control the fever. As the bear stood in front of the stand that Jarrett had help to place and bait during an early July journey to the Foss camp meant to experience the entire hunt, the hunter could not find the animal in the scope. He told his dad he did not know what eye to close. Brian whispered to his son to sit back, take a deep breath, and collect his thoughts.
“He had seen two smaller bears at 2:10,” Brian said. “From five yards, the smaller one looked right up at us. Brian said, ‘Dad, I’m shaking.’ It was the first bear he had ever seen in the wild.”
The monster bear brought with it an ultimate test. Jarrett calmed down enough to tuck in again behind the scope but still couldn’t locate the boar. This time, though, the problem was mechanical and not emotional. Jarrett had cranked the scope power to 10. Brian was able to quietly dial the setting back down to 4 or 5.
“I got it now,” Jarrett whispered.
“Are you positive… confident that you can make a good shot?” Brian asked.
“Yes”
“Take a deep breath…collect your thoughts…and squeeze the trigger when you’re ready.”
 |
 |
| Wisconsin super guide Mike Foss of Northern Wisconsin Outfitters and hunter Jarrett Bolssen, 12, with the 528 pound black bear nicknamed Wood Tick taken opening day.Watch for story by Dick Ellis. | Northern Wisconsin Outfitters guides and hunters haul out the 628 pound bear nicknamed Wood Tick on a game stretcher. |
 |
 |
| The Mike Foss guides and helpers of Northern Wisconsin Outfitters with the 528 pound bear taken by 12 year old Jarrett Bolssen of Green Bay opening day. Jarrett’s dad Brian is in the camo shirt, back row. | Hunting the biggest bears in Bayfield County near Lake Superior often means negotiating very thick brush country. That becomes a big problem when a very big bear like the 528 pound boar taken by 12 year old Jarrett Bolssen of Green Bay requires hauling out on a game stretcher by a dozen or so hunters of Northern Wisconsin Outfitters. |
 |
|
| The 528 pound bear Wood Tick tagged by Jarrett Bolssen, 12 of Green Bay is brought back to Mike Foss camp and Northern Wisconsin Outfitters for weighing and hanging. | |
With the rifle report, Wood Tick crashed from the scene through the heavy brush. The hunters heard the big boar turn toward the stand again just prior to what they hoped to be a final crash. After a five minute wait, Brian dropped from the treestand first, followed by his son, and following a brief check for blood the hunters returned to Northern Wisconsin Outfitters to report in. After hearing the story, Mike Foss gathered his guides and camp helpers and several hunters and returned to the stand to evaluate the hit, track and hopefully recover the boar. With about a dozen of the crew left with the trucks, Foss, guide Rob Hass, and the hunters returned to the scene.
Wood Tick had made it only a short distance from the bait station. Despite the fever, Jarrett had made a double lung hit that ended the hunt quickly. The enormous job of transporting a very large bear through the very thick cover of Bayfield County was virtually the last field task. There would be years to remember a special hunt by a father and son brought to fruition by a special guide who can literally “smell it” and “feel it” when a big bear is near.
“Jarrett is pumped,” Brian said. I’m kind of relieved to have it all over. I had my doubts after the shot, but Wood Tick didn’t go 20 yards.”
After months of baiting and preparing for another season, Foss felt a bit of relief too, and a dose of pure satisfaction.
“To give a young hunter like Jarrett a chance at a trophy bear, I just feel like we’re accomplishing what we’re setting out to do,” he said. “It’s hard work and bear hunting is not easy. Right now (Wednesday one week into the hunt) of 20 hunters in camp seven have still not filled their tags. Five of those had opportunities and four had monster bears come in that never gave them a shot. Two hunters have not seen a bear.”
“Think a bear hunt is easy? People leave this camp knowing it’s not. A cold front came thorough and the DNR said it really shut down the bear hunt everywhere, including in our camp. Now it’s warmed up again and in the last two days we shot four bears including a nice 240 pound sow with white blazing on her chest. When everything falls together….and a bear like Wood Tick at 528 pounds is tagged…well…that’s just magic man.”
Watch for more stories and photos from Northern Wisconsin Outfitters coming this week. Send your stories and photos to ellis@onwisconsinoutdoors.com.