EP 602: Baiting Giant Bears – Throw Your Assumptions Out the Window (with Kevin Toye and Landen Fidek)

January 30, 2026·1 hr 25 min·2 clips

Kevin Toye says a 500-pound bear in Manitoba is judged by length, not just weight, and that a 400-pound bear can still be over six and a half feet long.

The episode opens with the Wild Sheep Society of BC's Salute to Conservation and Mountain Hunting Expo. It points listeners to Penticton, BC, for February 26 to 28, 2026, and frames the event as a growing gathering that draws people from BC, Alberta, the territories, and the northern states along the border. Registration details follow. The show sends people to wildsheepsociety.com, then into the Events tab and the Salute to Conservation and MHE listing. A Leica pitch comes next. The sponsor talk centers on the Geovid Pro range finding binoculars and the Geovid AB Plus, described as part of an ecosystem that links the binos, a phone, and a Kestrel. That gear segment is direct about its audience. It is aimed at hunters who care about serious glass, mountain performance, and fast, reliable ranging. The conversation then shifts to bears. The speakers keep coming back to the idea that bears are smart animals and that they do not get big by being stupid. Bear eyesight is treated as one of the species' weak points. So is the need to pay attention to the nose, the ears, and the animal's awareness in the field. Respect sits under the whole exchange. The talk treats that respect as something learned from the animal, not something added afterward. Spring bear hunting comes up as a familiar way to shake off the cobwebs for some BC hunters. The conversation also draws a line toward bigger, more mature bears when the hunt gets serious. Near the end, the tone shifts toward support and reciprocity. The speakers talk about helping hunters in other places and trusting that support will come back when it is needed. The episode closes on that idea. Conservation events, mountain hunting, and shared effort are all placed in the same circle.

As heard by us

A mountain hunting conversation that pairs conservation with a careful look at bears, after a slower opening.

Opened around the Wild Sheep Society of BC's Salute to Conservation and Mountain Hunting Expo in Penticton, BC, set for February 26 to 28, 2026, this episode quickly settles into a bear discussion that is strongest when it treats the animal as something to be read with care.

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Why you'd press play

You get a bear talk that treats the animal more seriously than your assumptions, with a side of mountain-hunting expo chatter.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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