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Bear hunting is in this Wythe county family’s blood. If you recall Trish Walke now 17 years old harvested the #1 overall scoring Virginia Black Bear on Youth weekend during the 2015 season. Trish’s bear weighed 561 lbs, was officially aged to be 21 years old and scored 30 0/16 to take top honors for the state of Virginia.
Well hold on folks, there is another Walke sister that has been added to the record books. During this past 2016 Youth weekend Trish’s younger sister Tessa Walke age 13 harvested a bear weighing 675 lbs and it also took Top Honors in the 2017 VA STATE show in Southampton with an official score of 28 9/16 . This serves as Tessa’s 4th Virginia Black Bear of her young hunting career.
Tessa’s hunt began early Saturday morning on October 8, 2016 with an eleven person hunting party, made up of family and friends and 6 of their most trusted Walker hounds.
The morning hunt went well, the dogs treed a decent 227 lb bear that was harvested by family member Ethan Roberts age 12. While the majority of the party members helped to get Ethan’s bear out of the woods, Tessa and 2 other members decided to grab her favorite dog “Trace” and a couple other hounds and head up the road a piece to try another spot.
Once they let the dogs out in the new area it wasn’t long before they picked up a scent trail and the tones of the dogs voices hightened. The hunter’s took off after the hounds and soon came upon an enormous bear the dogs had bayed. Like most big bears it wasn’t about to climb a tree, it stayed on the ground willing to take on the dogs. As the small hunting party came closer the bear spotted them and bolted, again the dogs gave chase and so did the hunter’s.
This dog and bear show went on for about a mile through the Southwest Virginia mountains. The dogs had bayed the big bear 5 different times, but with the dogs continuously jostling for postion and the big bear spinning around Tessa never had an ethical shot.
The dogs ran the big bear up a ridge and again bayed him. By this time the 675 lb bruin was about out of gas and Tessa was able to cautiously approach to within 30 yards and take the shot. Once she fired her Winchester 30/30 the bear acknowledged the hit, but kept standing. Tessa was ready with another and the bear tumbled down the ridge and into a small creek below.
It took every member of the hunting party, a 4 wheeler and a bunch of rope to extract this Virginia giant from the Wythe County mountains. Tessa mentioned that fortunately they had plenty of rope because more than a few times the ropes snapped.
This is yet another great story of a youngster getting outdoors and experiencing life in the woods and not at the computer. The cornerstone of this family’s success starts with the sisters grandparents, Rodney and Carrol Roberts who have made it their duty to get their grandchildren outside whether it’s hunting or working the family farm.
My whole interview was done with Tessa, who at the age of 13 is a very well spoken young lady and a real pleasure to talk too, and although she is just 13 years of age it was like talking to an old hunting soul.
Tell me this isn’t an unprecedented historic event, that two Virginia sisters take the top 2 black bear at the State competition in back to back years. I certainly don’t beleive that anything similar will happen again in our lifetime!
Congratulations to the entire family, you folks are a shining example of goodness, and I certainly look forward to joining yall for a 2017 Youth Weekend hunt in hopes of capturing a three-peat on video!
**FYI- for a VA Black Bear to make the “all-time” record book it must score 21″ or better. Both sisters surpassed that mark with ease **
Jeff Phillips 1/29/17
