Robert Norville is the commission's District 2 wildlife biologist. Norville said the biggest bears in the state occur along the Pamlico County-Beaufort County line.

"I remember last year one party brought in a pair of bears that were almost identical and the bears weighed around 450 pounds each," Norville said. "One we checked at the Pamlico-Beaufort line weighed over 600 pounds. For the largest bears in the state, Hyde and Beaufort counties have been swapping bragging rights during recent seasons."

During 2003, Beaufort County had one of the highest bear harvests in the state at 154. During the preceding seasons, the Beaufort County bear harvests were 130, 155, 90, 81, 82 and 94.

"Beaufort County is still rural and agricultural and therefore it still has great bear habitat," Norville said. "There is a lot of pocosin, but there is also good upland habitat. From Chocowinity to Blount's Creek, there is a mix of habitat types along the creek drains. The creek drains provide escape cover and mast crops.

"Logging roads and field edges provide a lot of soft mast - wild cherry, blackberry, pokeberry, blueberry and Hercules' club. Bears relish purple berries.

"There are agricultural crops on the uplands. The farmers in the area still rely on the corn, soybeans, wheat rotation, and bears thrive on those crops. Bears are big grazers and feed in wheat fields in winter and also in the harvested corn fields."

Goose Creek Game Land in Beaufort and Pamlico counties is only 7,902 acres in area. But it yields a couple of bears to hunters each season. Van Swamp produced lots of bears, but the harvest has dropped dramatically. Hunters harvested 24 bears the first season it was open to the public. Then the harvest fell to eight, then to four bears last season.

"There are some nice bears at Croatan National Forest," Norville said. "It is a huge place to hunt with lots of management in place. A bear sanctuary in Jones, Carteret and Craven counties increases the bear sizes and numbers in the surrounding hunting areas. Our sanctuaries are definitely improving the harvest in both numbers and sizes of bears. Harvest rates drop as you move farther away from the sanctuaries."

While Croatan does not produce a large harvest, the game land's long season and huge size, along with good access roads, attract many bear hunters. A bear of 400 to 500 pounds from Croatan is a distinct possibility for visiting hunters. Most hunters use hounds to pursue bears at Croatan.

"Top District 2 bear-hunting counties like Jones and Craven have lots of timberlands and farms," Norville said. "Jones County has tons of agricultural lands and looks a lot like Beaufort County. It also has lots of habitat along the Trent and White Oak rivers. Hoffman State Forest has really produced some nice bears. It's not a public hunting area, but they cooperate with the commission and share data and management information. There are lots of flat woods on the uplands in that area of Jones County that provide good bear habitat."

Norville also said Pamlico County has a lot of low-key hunting on private lands. Bears grow big through shrewd management on the part of farmers and other landowners.

"They don't advertise what they're doing," Norville said. "It's a mix of farmers and guides who control their bear hunting to produce big bears. Some offer no-kill, no-pay hunts, some offer day hunts for a fee and some have the same group pay them to hunt every year. The hunting is not publicized and it's tightly controlled and that is helping the area to grow some big bears."

Farther south in District 2, Pender County continues to produce lots of bears. There is not as much agriculture in the southeastern part of the state, so the bears are typically not as large. But bears exceeding the 400- to 500-pound weight range are not at all rare.

"Pender County produced 43 bears in 2003 and that's a good harvest," Norville said. "A lot of deer hunters ask for relief from bears eating deer feed and destroying deer feeders. Most clubs have one or two bear hunters who are glad to help out. They have to time their deer feeding so it doesn't interfere with bear season, because baiting bears is not legal."

Pender County has lots of native habitat consisting of pocosins and swamps along with river drainages. Holly Shelter Game Land produces a handful of bears each season.

New additions to Angola Bay Game Land and Holly Shelter Game Land should produce more bears from public lands for bear hunters in Pender County and Duplin County. A recent purchase of around 15,000 acres has increased the public hunting land, tying the two game lands together and creating a contiguous tract of about 87,000 acres in area. A harvest of 10 bears came from Pender County game lands last season, creating a tie with Jones County, which also had a public lands harvest of 10 bears. The two counties had the highest public lands harvest in the coastal region.

"Angola is some tough territory," Norville said. "It's so thick, it's hard to hunt. But it is excellent bear habitat. The new additions have roads that will allow public access to the tract. Holly Shelter has food plots that help attract bears for hunters' hounds and it also has good roads for access."

In District 3, some large bears are killed each season. Bladen County is one of the best counties in District 3.

The Cape Fear River and its tributaries offer excellent habitat. The uplands also have lots of mast-bearing trees and there are farms scattered around the county. Timberlands leased to hunters provide some of the best opportunities for bear hunters and there are also some excellent game land opportunities.

Of the 53 bears taken by hunters in the county, three came from game lands. Bladen Lakes State Forest Game Land has lots of access roads and excellent bear habitat on its 32,363 acres, making it the top choice for hunters in District 3.