LANDER - When you share a bait site with a buddy and it’s your turn to hunt, you better find a way to make it, or somebody else might get your bear. Wayne Johnson learned that the hard way when he couldn’t make his hunt May 11, and let his buddy go in his stead.

That evening, Clifford "Herky" Clark took the black bear of a lifetime in hunt area 13 in the Wind River Mountains, ending a maddening four-year pursuit and likely breaking the state record.

Clark, a Lander native and avid bear hunter, had longed for a chance to tangle with this particular black bear since it was first photographed by his wildlife motion detection camera he had mounted on a tree four years ago.

He first received that chance the spring of 2005 when the boar wandered onto his bait site. Clark was in an ethical dilemma that day, as he was armed only with a bow an arrow and couldn’t get a clean shot.

"It was the first time I had physically seen the bear," said Clark. "I am almost positive I could have put him down then, but almost positive wasn’t good enough for me to take the chance. It was a tempting shot, but I didn’t take it."

Because he didn’t take that shot, his son-in-law, Jake Green, came home with the unofficial state record that year, bear taken off the same bait site. "When we took Jake’s bear in to the taxidermist, he told us it was the biggest bear he had ever seen. It scored 20 13/16 for Pope and Young."

That bear is going on display at the Sinks Canyon Visitor Center.

The spring of 2006 proved discouraging to Clark and his hunting partners. Although they photographed bears on the bait site, they never physically saw any. It looked as if their 2007 hunt would end up the same. "The week I got the bear I had packed in bait on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and there was never any bait missing. I thought for sure I was wasting my time."

Clark decided Friday to stay and hunt anyway. "I sat in my tree stand and read for hours. Then I put down my book and was starting to nod off when I heard some noise in the hills above me. It didn’t sound like the normal noises you hear; it sounded like gurgling and grunting."

Clark turned to the direction of the noise and was greeted by an enormous black bear barreling down the hill directly at him. "He was coming at me like a freight train!" said Clark, "My heart was going 80 miles an hour, and I had to remind myself to breathe!"

The bruin slowed and continued walking toward Clark, stopping to mark a tree on its way, then turned toward the bait. "When he turned toward the bait I had a clean shot. I drew back and released and the bear did nothing. He looked about as startled as if a mosquito had bit him, and he turned and started to walk away. I saw my arrow sticking into a tree and had to run back through the whole thing in my head. I thought for sure I had hit him!"

Clark watched with disbelief and a sinking heart as the boar walked away. "He walked about 30 yards and stepped up on a log," he said. "When he stepped down, he just fell over."

Clark anxiously watched the bear from his tree-stand perch for what he thought was 30 minutes. After waiting a safe amount of time, Clark made his way down the tree, and, after reloading his bow made his way to the bear.

"I knew he was big, but I didn’t realize how big until I walked up close," he said.

Clark, with the help of his wife and Johnson, cleaned and packed the bear out the next morning. "I took it to the same taxidermist that mounted my son-in-law’s bear," he said. "When he saw it, he just stared in disbelief."

Although the scores will remain unofficial until July 10, when the Pope and Young required 60-day drying period is up, it looks like Clark beat the state record by quite a bit. The unofficial score is 21 4/16, almost an entire half inch bigger than his son-in-law’s bear. The score is determined by measuring the longest and widest parts of the skull without the lower jaw. The minimum score to qualify for Pope and Young is 18. In addition to its Pope and Young score, Clark’s black bear measured 4 inches longer, 13-inch larger girth than his son-in-law’s record animal.

If the unofficial scores prove to be accurate, Clark will place 23rd in the Pope and Young World Record Book.
(contact: Erin Smith (307) 332-2688, photo available on request)