Bear Bait

[DanN]

I've been interested in bear hunting, and I've got place to go, but it's too far from my house to bait more than on the weekends. Any chance of success if you can only bait once a week?

[JeffB]

Just baiting weekends worked well for our group. We would leave larger amounts of bait if we weren't going to be back for a week, but closer to hunting time we would scale back to they would be hungry. For when we hunted we would use the best quality baits and scents and worried more about quality than quanity. Breads and pastries, jelly, saved up bacon grease and meat scraps. Bears definately like the sweets I had kind of smorgasbord set up the nights I hunted the bear went right for the ice cream bucket with jelly mixed with berries.

[bushdoe]

I have been using Kentucky Fried or any chicken oil that has been discarded.

Works great with some old bread, abit of trim beef or pork fat( in a barrel). A burlap bag hung in a tree containing bread saturated with suryp on a drip just prior to and during the hunt.

[BeezeHound]

We only bait weekends and then get up there two days before hunting starts to bait everyday. Its a 4 hour drive for us so there's not much of an option to bait unless we are staying up there. We tried going up a week before hunting one time to bait for 7 days in a row, but it seemed like by the 4th or 5th day they must've gotten sick of what ever we were feeding them that much cause most of the baits just shut down.

They do eat the meat right away, if the meat gets too nasty we dig it out of a bait to put fresh stuff in there. They love our special fish stink, but don't seem to care too much for rancid meat in a bait.

[knowsnothing]

I am reading all these post about baiting and have a bitter sweet feeling about the anti hunters getting drawn for my tag this year. I read on another post about over 500 pancakes used on a site. Does anyone else gain weight during bear season sitting smelling those wonderful pastries all day? My stomache would be growling all day sitting by a stack of pancakes. I am getting hungry just typing about it. Still wish I had a chance. Good luck this year guys.

[bogwalker]

Remember that if you feed the bear on your bait garbage it will probably taste like garbage. Spend some time researching what bear like to eat and what you can afford. Our group spends about $600 on bait each year. Some of my better sites will go through over 100 pounds of bait in 2 to 3 days.

[jay83196]

I have a bunch of candy, honey roasted peanuts, donuts and dog food grease, and some beef scraps. Do I need to have more selection of stuff to mix it up and keep them interested? If so what else should I try to get and where?

Thanks

[Boar]

Thats a good mix, I like to some times invest in about a hundred lbs of dog food like ol'roy cheap end. if you can find marshmellows on sale I'll buy them out. Boar

[jay83196]

So nothing else I should try to get ?

[Boar]

With gathering bait, more is always better, you can always sell it or give it away or freeze it if you tag out early. Local bars that have the free popcorn bin during bingo or happy hour, is great bait to try an ask for them to save at the end of the night. If you have a local butcher shop I' try an get more beef scraps if you can freez it of course, bear gobble that stuff up. If you think you have enough then you need more. Boar

[jay83196]

Thanks yeah I can get a ton of meat scraps the popcorn is a good idea ill try that its something different. I just want to widen my variety so they don't get bored with my selection. What are the best couple of things to use if you had to choose?

[Boar]

Doughnut soaked in grease, dogfood, an meat scrapes. What I like to do with the candy an popcorn or mrshmellows is to spread them around the site in the tall grass an foiliage, just around the imedeate food site, they will mat down the grass an ferns an stuff which will give you a great site advantage, if you mat it down its unatural if they do it then there comfertable with it. But like I say just around the perimeter of the bait crib. Boar

[CANOPY SAM]

A bear will rarely taste like garbage, unless it lives on garbage. The few weeks that you feed it won't mean that much to the taste of the meat, but it can truly make field dressing the animal a moderate chore vs. a major headache.

While stalking bear in corn fields I've followed their trails all the way back to their dens. I've crawled into fresh bear dens that smelled exactly like Fruit Loops! Sweet, clean, corn fed. Fresh, clean bait will make a better smelling, better eating bear. But if you want to feed them rotten fish, deep fryer grease, and soggy cheap dog food, have fun field dressing them. The insects will have a great time with you as well. Just as if you were eating it, you'll definately add fat to their hide, you just won't add much meat.

According to the law, you can't use whole fish anyway. It's silly, but they contain bones, and the law says no meat containing bones. A great way around this is to use the juice from Kipper Snacks. Take a can of this and simply dump it into a zip lock bag - or two - it's extremely smelly stuff so wrap it up really, really well. You can't take the tin can in with you.

Squeeze a bag of Kipper Snack juice around your bait site, on the trees four or five feet off the ground, and sprinkle the remaining chunks on your bait crib, and you'll have every critter in the forest for miles around there in minutes - the big bears will chase everything else away. Kipper Snacks are really cheap, and extremely smelly. I'd challenge anyone out there to find a more potent fishy smell - with the exception of a few of my high-school girlfriends.

I've used this trick on "green" sites, travel corridors, with no bait, using the wind, and had bear in before I could chamber a shell or knock an arrow. Be forewarned though, don't walk around with a smelly, Kipper Snack, zip-lock in your pocket. They'll follow you, and want what you have.

If you really want to keep a good bear on a bait site use cracked corn soaked with molasses. Lots of it. Throw in a gallon of oats periodically, and meat scraps now and then to keep the big boys coming back. Another inexpensive add is burnt or fresh honey - if you can lay hands on it. Ask around with any local beekeepers, but you may have to wait in line.

Keep the bait fresh and you'll have bear that don't stink, and taste good on the table. Really smelly, rotten bait piles bring in mangy, little desperate bears. The true trophy bears know enough to avoid rotten bait piles - at least in reasonably heavily hunted areas.

Bears will compete for meat scraps. You can often tell if a bigger bear is in the area, if a little bear comes screaming into the bait pile, grabs a meat scrap and runs for the hills. Wait, don't shoot yet. Use meat scraps sparingly and you'll have a better chance of drawing, and holding a good sized bear.

Cracked corn, or even whole corn kernels, are significantly less expensive then dog food. They keep much, much longer in the rain, and bears will keep coming back to corn and molasses long after they'll leave a pile of stinky wet dog food.

Bears are just like catfish. Once and a while they'll snarf up a piece of [PoorWordUsage], but more often than not they'll stick around a fresh, sweet smelling, sweet eating meal.

What would you rather roll in? Rotten fish, or sweet corn kernels, oats and molasses?

Popcorn is a decent bait for a while, but you tend to just feed all the forest critters. Birds, squirrels, mice, chipmunks, and everything else that can give away your stand location will happily feed on popcorn. Popcorn also quickly loses it's "drawing" power in wet or damp weather. You don't want a hoard of chipmunks and magpies buzzing around your stand right at "magic time". Bear want that bait site deathly quiet before they approach, so you want it the same way.

Feed em' like you'd feed your prize Angus calf and you'll do just fine.

Pile up the corn, oats, and molasses. Use your kids Super Soaker to shoot some Black Cherry Cool Aid up into the forest canopy every couple days (keep it sweet), sprinkle a little Kipper Snack juice (keep it fishy), kick back and wait, and they'll come. I love that word. Canopy!

[jay83196]

I agree fish are stInky and not the most fun to work with but bear are scavengers and every bear is different in what they like. You are correct you can't use whole fish but you can use guts and the bone rule doesn't apply to fish bones (according to dnr, I checked last year) a lot of good info.

[bogwalker]

You can use whole fish ( Read the law, only mammal bones are prohibited ). Nothing in Minnesota law prohibits it but why would you want to. I have used fish but my first time was my last time. My farmer friends feed their cattle corn for several weeks before they butcher them because it improves the taste of the meat. Rotten fish do not improve the flavor of bear meat and fish rot quickly. When you hear someone say they have eaten bear meat and it tasted terrible, it probably was due in large part to what the bear was feeding on.

[bogwalker]

Something I have learned as a bear researcher and as a bear hunter is that we really know very little about Black Bear. My research has been focused primarily on mature boars in northern Minnesota. Very little research has been done on large boars because they are so intelligent and difficult to locate at any given time/season. Mature boars travel huge areas unlike sows who establish primarily high ground habitat home areas. They inhabit different areas than sows and they avoid man at almost all cost. Not all bears are attracted to the same kind of bait. Location may be more important than the contents of the crib. The largest bears will seldom return to a bait location after a negative encounter with man there, but it appears as though they may even avoid other bait sites that smell the same as where they have had negative contact with man.

[Boar]

Nicely put bog. Everyvbear that I have taken has been delicious an that I believe is in part by a quick an clean kill an butcherd, skun an immedeatly cooled down. Those that like to parade their bear an show it off are likely the ones that have had bad taste experiences with the meat. No amount of dog food or grease is gonna determine the taste or smell of a bear that has only limited exposure to grease. Im gonna be trying a little long distance baiting this year. My third site will be up north on some newly aquired family land, one that will only be baited once a week, due to distance, an then limiting the human disturbace at the site. Say what area of northern MN. have you done your research if ya dont mind me asking. Later baor

[bogwalker]

Boar, Mostly North Central Minnesota.

[jay83196]

This whole fish thing I think has gotten blown out of proportion, I don't think we were or least I wasn't suggesting just baiting with it. I simply think its a good at attracting them initially along with the other little critters you want initially to help spread around scents. as far as using whole fish I was told last year by the dnr that you 're not allowed to use the whole fish just The guts ( reason for this i was told was they don't want us catching fish from lake just to waste for baiting).

[Random guy]

The largest bears will seldom return to a bait location after a negative encounter with man there, but it appears as though they may even avoid other bait sites that smell the same as where they have had negative contact with man.

Very true...thats how they got to be mature boars.

Great post all together bogwalker.

[bogwalker]

Something that seems to baffle everyone except the bears, is why they inhabit certain areas in such large numbers. Any bait in that area is quickly devoured. Bear trails around the site look like hiking trails, the bears know what and where you are ( I personally believe this is true at any bait at any time)and will look at you often while they continue to feed on the bait as they do at advertised bear centers. While in other areas bear are seldom seen and are very particular what bait they will eat. One reason some areas have so many bears is that they are close to bear travel routes. Not just daily travel but long distance "Migration routes" for lack of a better word. Such as acorn season. Some baiting spots are so hot that bear will damage items you leave behind like tree stands, DNR hunter signs etc. if you fail to refill your crib soon enough.

[Boar]

bog walker, have you done any reserch around strandquist area, pembina trail area? Boar

[bogwalker]

Boar, That is West of where I have done most of my research. Mainly between Cook and Red Lake.

[Boar]

Once a bear becomes accustom to the smells around the a site, I know a new unfamiliar smell like someone helping you bait or a different bug spray will cause them to go nocturnal at times, if not totally abandon the site. I agree with your info on associated smell response, thats interesting. Later boar

[jay83196]

So Is it worth trying to be scent free like deer hunting, or don't bother?