02/26/2026
How It All Began…
Back in the 1950s and 60s, times were tough in Northern Ontario.
My grandfather yvon , was working in the mines around Sudbury. He had a wife, four kids, and bills to pay. Money was tight.
Back then, Sudbury had a bounty on bears.
$10 for an adult.
$5 for a cub.
That wasn’t sport — that was survival.
Yvon was an outdoorsman through and through. The bush wasn’t just where he hunted ,it’s how he provided. That’s how he made ends meet.
Even after the bounty ended, his passion for black bears never did.
One rainy, windy night, he and my grandmother were out in the bush with the kids driving around , back then that’s what you did for excitement. They’d go out to see bears, make a night of it.
That’s when they found two non-resident couples in rough shape.
Tent flattened.
Gear soaked.
Cold. Miserable.
They had come to Ontario to hunt bears but didn’t know the country.
Yvon didn’t leave them there.
He brought them home.
Dried their clothes.
Fed them.
Gave them beds in a house that was already small for a family of six.
The next morning, he took them back out properly.
He knew the land.
He knew the bears.
They got their bears.
Those hunters came back the following year.
Then they brought friends.
Then more friends.
And just like that, Yvon and Sons was born.
As the laws changed and non-residents were required to use outfitters, the business grew , not because of advertising… but because of relationships.
I remember being 8 or 10 years old, running baits, skinning bears, learning the bush from my grandfather. It wasn’t a job , it was a way of life.
Fast forward to today we’re third generation.
Hunters from Detroit, all over Michigan, Florida… even a group from Finland that’s been coming for 15–20 years.
Yvon is 93 years old now. Still sharp. Still talking bears.
For us, this isn’t just guiding.
It’s in our blood.
