Bear Baits

[Boar]

Lichen fox, thats great. Just let me know what you'll end up doing an we'll go from there. If it works out great if not no biggie, the reason I dont need alot is of course i run a very small opperration an I like to mix things up alot keeping a wider variety of goodies an mixes. Thanks again. I personally would like to think a experimental spring season should happen, the last two to three years have been great natrual forage years an tough hunting, dont know if the harvest numbers are down, but just listening to everybody on the forum talk these last few years, sounds like we could see a rise in bear numbers if we arnt already. I should pay closer attention to that info. I would be infavor for a spring hunt even if it lasted one season, then they could adjust the fall tages based on havest in the spring. It's hard hunting in the fall, with everything going on, grouse, bow, early season doe, my family thinks the only time to do stand and trail maintenace is during my bear hunting, yippie. A spring hunt would really give bear hunters some elbow room that for sure, an bear would probabley be a little more coapperative on the bait site with no natural forage. i'm sure there would be a down side to it too, but if numbers are on the rise it would bring them back down. Who knows, what do you guys think would be the pros an cons of this? Later boar

[nik]

This is straight from the DNR webpage:

Good food conditions were responsible for the very low response to tetracycline baits seen in

2002. We believe that the same may have been at least partly the cause of the low visitation in

2008 as well. Therefore we expect that sampling in 2009 may result in a relatively large

increase in the population estimate. Even if this is the case, however, the resulting estimate will

likely still be below 20,000, indicating a significant downturn since the high population levels of

the late 1990’s.

Can 20,000 bears handle a spring hunt?

[Musky Buck]

got ya nik, I was just curious, I was thinking certainly about a cap on licenses if a spring hunt were offered, I hear ya, 20,000 isn't a huge pop.

[nik]

A spring bear hunt sure would be fun though. Cool weather, no bugs, active baits. That would be sweet!! I am not too sure if we will ever see that happen in Minnesota. There is just not enough hunting in the spring. I got my turkey a few weeks ago and now I am itching for more hunting!!

[Musky Buck]

right on nik, my thoughts exactly about the bugs/mosquito's and maybe better bait hits although I'm not sure what % success hunters have on bears here in MN. I did see a sow and 2 cubs on Wednesday, they are a pretty cool animal.

[nik]

Last year I had a sow and two cubs come into my bait. I wasn't about to shoot the mom and leave the two tiny cubs to fend for them selves, so I just watched them. They hung around until it was dark. They are very interesting animals. I sure was nervous about getting out of my stand though. I think I was down and to the truck which was over a mile away in about 5 minutes!