Pennsylvania Game News - December 2015 - 11

Six tags, six harvests, one county, and
one more mount for the trophy room.
John Trout gave up bear hunting.
With five Pennsylvania bruins to his
credit, and his wife Charlotte declaring the
trophy room of their Felton, Pa. home full,
he changed his late-November routine.
He still bought a bear license. He still
went to his camp, Colley Hill Lodge,
between Austin and Emporium in Portage
Township, Potter County, remaining there
from bear season through the firearms
deer season. And he still spent the daylight
hours during bear season in the woods; he
just carried a camera instead of his rifle.
One season, he even saw a bear and
got pictures of it.
It all seemed satisfying enough. And
when the 2014-15 license year began,
John figured he'd stick to this new way of
doing things. The man referred to by his
friends as a "bear magnet" was done with
bear hunting, he had made up his mind.
Then, something happened. The
opportunity at a once-in-a-lifetime hunting season that was too good not to chase.
He'd need a bear to pull it off.
And, one way or another, he'd be
adding to his trophy room.
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John's change of heart traces back to
that Saturday in August when his phone
rang with news he'd been selected for a
bull-elk license.
"I thought he was kidding, at first,
because I never dreamed of drawing
one," he said.
The next day, John left for Benezette to
get a closer look at Elk Hunt Zone 10, and
to scout out some of the outfitters who'd
been calling him.
On that day and many that followed -
DECEMBER 2015	

about 30 days total - John scouted hard,
mostly alongside his brother Ray, friends
Mike Cooney and retired Game Commission land manager Bill May and Hicks
Run Outfitters owner Jeff Colwell. Ultimately, John would sign on with Hicks
Run Outfitters, with John Buckwalter
guiding him.
"I didn't want to have this once-ina-lifetime thing ruined by not doing it
right," he said.
John and his guide hunted hard the
first day of the season, Nov. 3, trudging through a swamp and through thick
patches of huckleberry. They saw a lot of
sign along the way, and plenty of hunters.
"It seemed like every hunter with an
elk license was back there that day," he
said.
But they didn't see any elk.
Tuesday dawned a perfect day. The
temperature was 28 degrees at first light.
And while John said he couldn't have
asked for more pleasant conditions, as the
morning wore on, the elk in Gibson Township, Cameron County still were keeping
a low profile. Buckwalter suggested the
two of them check out a food plot a short
walk from where they set up.
Along the way, they began to encounter sign. Acorns were everywhere. And
soon, a bull was in front of them.
John dropped to a knee, leaned into the
tree he'd taken cover behind, and peered
through his scope and into the sapling
thicket from which the bull soon would
move off. He sneaked ahead to keep the
bull in sight, again dropped to a knee and
- with the bull now in the clear - squeezed
off a shot from his Remington 760 Game11
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - December 2015
