As autumn falls across the coastal plain and mountains, turning the maple and blackgum leaves red and the hickory leaves brilliant yellow, black bear hunters ascend the mountains and descend the Coastal Plain. These traveling hunters come from all across the state, many other states and even some other countries. Thanks to excellent management programs for the state’s biggest big game animal, most Tar Heels can find topnotch bear hunting by traveling no more than a few hours.

Tracey Conner with her 540-pound Tyrrell County black bear, taken with a rifle from a distance of 125 yards during a spot-and-stalk hunt. Photo by Mike Marsh.

The state’s indigenous black bears are among the biggest specimens of their species anywhere and reach some of the highest population densities. In a reverse twist to the infamous Wall Street metaphor, a “bear market” for hunters is good news for the state’s hunters.

The best place to hunt black bears is the upper and central Coastal Plain, where a mixed habitat of agricultural lands bordered by heavy forests and dense swamps is ideal. Nowhere else in the lower 48 states does this mix occur in a coastal region. This perfect habitat offers hunters a better chance for success than any other location. But biologists offset the high-pressure hunting with coastal seasons in the upper and central areas that are relatively short and segmented. This makes hunters’ efforts intensive, especially during the first weeklong segment.

In the southern Coastal Plain, the habitat is different. Hunters must root out bears from extremely dense cover. With little agriculture available, there’s nothing to entice bears into the open.

Hound hunting rules the upper and lower Coastal Plain, as well as the mountains. But the odds for successfully still-hunting or stalking a bear are best in the upper Coastal Plain because of its vast corn and soybean fields.

In the upper Coastal Plain county of Tyrrell, 110-pound Tracey Conner of Creswell had been trying to take a bear with the help of her boyfriend, Troy Sutton. Sutton is a veteran bear hunter, having taken several bears he estimated to weigh 800 pounds. The duo dedicated three hunting days beginning with the Nov. 10 opening day of the 2008 bear season. On the third morning, Conner had her second chance at a trophy black bear.

“I’ve been bear hunting with Troy for seven years,” Conner said. “I got a shot at one and missed it two years ago. But I kept hunting, hoping to get another chance.”

While most bears are taken by hunters who course them with hounds or hunt from elevated stands overlooking farm fields or trails leading from fields into dense swamps and thickets, Sutton used a spot-and-stalk method.

“I work on several farms where I know there are some big bears,” Sutton said. “We drove the farm roads, hoping to find a big bear to hunt.”

After searching for miles, yet another hunt in a long series of attempts again appeared fruitless. But while retracing their pickup truck tracks, the hunters saw a large black bear roaming about 500 yards away in a field they had just driven past.