Editor’s Note: Ashley Jay will be the co-host of Knight and Hale’s “Ultimate Hunting” TV show, which will air this fall on the Outdoor Channel. Where did Jay come from, and how did a young lady who didn’t grow up in a hunting family find her way into the outdoor television business? Since more and more women are coming into the outdoor industry, we wanted to learn how Ashley Jay made it.
About 2-years ago, I went on a black bear hunt in Alaska. My father, who didn’t know much about bears, wasn’t really excited about his young daughter hunting bears in Alaska. He begged me not to go. To be honest, no one in my family was excited about me going on this bear hunt, especially with my bow. Most people’s concept of a bear is something that eats you, and that poking him with a stick (my arrow) just didn’t seem like a good idea to them. They were scared and nervous for me. But after I went on the hunt, they were excited about seeing my show. Going on a bear hunt definitely wasn’t on anyone in my family’s bucket list.
I was hunting with a friend of mine, Danielle Worthen, who is only 12-years old. Her father has some friends who go to Alaska and bear hunt. So, we went with them. We camped on Prince of Wales Island for about 10 days in tents. We were with my Danielle’s father and two of his friends. For the first 7 days of the hunt, we didn’t have any success. We moved locations and got a cabin. We met three men who bear hunted this area almost every year. They gave us some ideas on where to go and how to hunt and told us where we might have a good chance to take a bear. Then in 3 days, all three of us tagged out.
I used a .30-06 rifle instead of my bow on this bear hunt. We found places where we located bear tracks and bear sign. We did some predator calling. I had a bear come out at about 85 yards. She ran about 20 yards into the brush. On the last day of the hunt, I took a bear late in the afternoon. I knew we’d have to pack-up, fly-out and head for home the next day. On this trip, we had a cameraman, Dettrick Little, who films me for Knight and Hale, with us. Dettrick owns Dal Studios and produces TV shows for PBS, “Knight and Hale Ultimate Hunting,” feature films and movies.
