Chris Schiessl

Marsh River Outfitters 

Brody Gibbs

Dave Hobbs 

Darrin Moody

Well Monday, Sept 4th,  2023 was really hot and the bears had not been moving much at all.   Reluctantly, Brody and I headed down east to meet up with Andrew for an afternoon sit.  Both of us were pretty sure we would see nothing but that’s not what it’s all about.   Brody has little time to hunt and we were determined to make a memory even if was just a relaxing sit. At about 3:50pm  I dropped Brody off at one my two bait sites and wished him luck.  That bait had been cleaned but the camera had been eaten the week before so no pictures to check this time.  I wished him luck and headed a little further down the road to another bait of Andrew’s     We were hunting in Twp 7 about 3/4 mile apart.  It was dead calm, dead silent  and there was no service.   I was sure we could hear one another shoot should that happen.    There was no tree stand on my site but I made my self comfortable on the ground in the bushes and settled in.  I am not a fan of sitting on the ground at bait sites because you never know when a sow with cubs may stumble on you. Confident I would not see anything because my barrel had not been hit recently I did briefly fall asleep.  However, a red squirrel scared the shit of me by running about a foot over my head and I was wide awake from that point forward.    I entertained myself looking at pictures in my phone, as there was no service, and I came across a photo where Brody and I doubled on bears up in Ashland a number of years back.   I felt that was something that would never happen again and cherished the memory.    At about 7:10 pm with my gun leaning against the blow down the squirrel ran across earlier and I flicking an occasional ant away with with a stick I looked up and there was a bear.   It was not the biggest but it was an ok bear.  I slowly reached behind me and pulled up my faithful Marlin model 336. .35 cal. I took careful aim and let a round fly.   I felt it was a solid hit.  I waited two minutes and then I heard the death moan a ways back in the woods.   I gathered my stuff then took up a track.   I quickly found a blood trail and began marking the drops with ribbon as well as tracking with my On X app.    I slowly went about 60 yards and found my query.    I dragged the bear back to the bait site and by then it was getting pretty dark.  I decided it would be more fun to watch Brody drag this thing the next 100 yards so I headed back to pick him up.   As I pulled up Brody was out to road and it was now pitch dark.  I rolled down the passenger window and asked him if he had seen anything and it was then he told me he had shot a bear.  I said, “Are you shittin’ me?  I got one too”!  We high fived as this was our second double.   He said it ran off but he was able to get a text out to Andrew and he was on his way.     As we waited for Andrew we started talking about the fact that neither of us heard the other shoot.   Comparing times we realized it was very possible that we both shot at the same exact time.  What are the odds?     About 15 minutes later Andrew showed up.  I informed Andrew I had one down as well.   We told Andrew our stories and then headed back in to look for Brody’s bear.    Brody didn’t look for his because there was sow with two cubs in earlier that got into a fight with another bear just inside the woods.  He said he decided best to wait for us. Haha.  We found Brody’s bear pretty quickly and got it back out to the truck.    We all headed back over to my bait and got that one out pretty quickly as well.  Neither of the bears were huge but it was such a good memory doing all this with them as a family.  I will always cherish these memories and I give thanks to the bears and Mother Nature for provided the opportunity and table fare.  The bears are now all processed and in the freezer.     There was third bear taken that night by one of Andrew’s, Marsh River Outfitters, clients whom was also a retired police officer.    It was late night,  great memory and some new friends made.   

John Gibbs 

450 pts · Bear — John Gibbs

200 pts · Miscellaneous — John Gibbs

600 pts · Deer — John Gibbs

187 pts · Saltwater fish — John Gibbs

90 pts · Waterfowl — John Gibbs

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60 pts · Saltwater fish — John Gibbs

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