RugSteaks Forever!

September 9, 2020 | « back

By: Ted Nugent

I am a gungho deerhunter, but much more than that, I am a gungho hunter of allthings fun, sport, meat, trophy conservation!

Every deerhunter that I know also hunts all sorts of smallgame and big game here, there and everywhere.

“I hunt too much!” nobody ever said!

As much as I absolutely love deerhunting, I do indeed crave my sacred time in the duckblind with Happy, Sadie and Coco when the fowl are flying.

And with all my habitat renovation and varmint control over the years, we have some incredible pheasant and rabbit hunting on the old Nugent swamp these days.

It’s been a while since I arrowed a pronghorn, elk, caribou or moose, but that’s because I so crave my time at home with my family during the fall/winter seasons and the plethora of game that abounds on our homegrounds.

With the borders still shutdown due to the Communist Chinese virus scam, my Canadian bearhunting fun, like my beloved rock-n-roll fun, has been painfully curtailed this year.

But alas!! After 17 years of applying, I finally drew a much-coveted black bear tag for our Northern Michigan property, and with a ridiculous overpopulation of bears thanks to the denial, ineptitude and dishonesty of our game department, I’m expecting a rugsteak boogie like never before!

Smack dab in the vast Manistee National Forest, our little family log cabin is in the lap of God as far as Northwoods game habitat goes, and we have scouted out a killer ambush spot for old blackie.

I have bowkilled many magnificent bears in my lifetime, stalking, running with hounds and ambushing over bait, and with my feeble new titanium knees, rambling over hill and dale chasing those magnificent howling canines is pretty much out of the question for this old gimping backstrapper, so baiting here I come!

I love all the various bearhunting methodologies, but the excitement and anticipation of hunting over a food destination is the most enjoyable of all. Just like my preferred favorite deerhunting.

Bordering a fantastic, thick marshland and adjoining cedarswamp, son Toby and I setup a pair of ladderstands on a tall knob overlooking a deep cut gulch where a bear can feel relatively confident moving about.

Deep down at the lowest point in this pocket we created a V-shaped backdrop to encourage a bruin to give a killer broadside pose for my arrow, into which we will place the SuperNuge UltraGONZO RugSteakGoo SpiritBait.

Placing a pile of dry dogfood in the V, we cook up a slab of bacon right there at the bait site, adding a load of sweet maple syrup as it sizzles. Once boiling, I vigorously stir in a package of strawberry Jell-O, a bag of marshmallows, then a pound or so of white cane sugar, creating a huge, white, wafting plume of bacony, sweet aromatic goo smoke that sails all over the damn place and permeates the forestlands with bear dope.

We pour this slop over the dry dogfood, add some sugary pastries, cover with logs, then spoon gobs of white vanilla frosting on the logs.

We are not done just yet!

We then spray a shower of anise oil and liquid smoke all around saturating the surrounding grounds so every critter that approaches this sweet, aromatic stinkzone walks away with saturated paws leaving a network of stinky spokes leading in every direction back to the bait.

With a bunch of killer commercial bear bait outfits out there, we also add some Northwoods scented sprays, some Signal11 bear scents and a cloud of Bill Weisner family bear product to turn our little knob into the ultimate black bear candystore.

Considering how the irresponsible overpopulation of black bears in the region has destroyed every birdfeeder and trashcan and created dangerous conditions in the entire five country area, I can only imagine how an army of bears will discover this smorgasbord of super bear slop and descend upon my little rugsteak ambush zone.

I think and dream BIG!

As usual, I have been practicing diligently and daily with my Mathews bow from a makeshift archery tower replicating the exact angle and distance to my bait up North. On a 3D bear target, I am shooting 100% pumpstation disconnect and anticipate some of the most fun and exciting bowhunting of my life.

All critters are special, but bears are special special. Something mystic and mythical about the spirit of the bear that kicks up the adrenalin factor a notch or two just in anticipation of seeing one.

When the skulking beast does finally appear, it is noticeably different than an encounter with a deer, or elk or other creatures.

Spirit and nerve management comes into clear and present play in the presence of a bear, and your shot sequence had better be on a muscle/spirit memory life of its own, seared permanently onto your psyche and soul when that nerve-racking moment of truth arrives.

The bear rug is a special trophy that will inspire an immediate return to that moment of truth, and bear meat can be some of the best venison that a hunter can prepare.

All in all, my dreams have been filled with graphic images if sneaky, beautiful, dangerous bears more than usual, and I am expecting great things, great memories, great arrows and great BBQ in the not too distant future.

Join me at HuntTheVote.org so we can be a WE THE PEOPLE positive force to reckon with taking back America. Pledge to register to vote God, family, country, freedom and our hunting lifestyle or the enemies of America will laugh at our failure to do so.