How far is your bait drive?

[jerkbait]

Thanks for the advise. Me's got alot of learning to do yet. That definitley does give me some ideas closer to home.

[Boar]

Fox hit right, Zipple bay area is where I'd start looking, Id go as far as talking to the park rangers about siteings an drive cnty road 8 east an d west there are alot of good looking black spruce marsh looking woods get a plate book to find out property owners, if you not looking for bear or bear sign you wont see them, deer arnt a problem, you have to look for bear to find bear. If I lived up there I certainly wouldnt drive south for bear, good luck Later baor

[cherokee]

boar that is so true. Even when looking for bear sign it is always hard to find that track. Seems like claw marks etc. are easier to find than the track. I wonder if they intentionally avoid certain areas.

[jerkbait]

Thanks Boar, more good advice. Me getting many more ideas of areas now. As far as the plat book, it is nicely located online, sure makes it nice.

[Boar]

Hey fox thank for the input, I certainly was'nt trying to insinuate that pulling bear off another site was your strategy, I fiugred that would be what person would have to do on state land when establiishing a site that late, due to elbow room, sorry did'nt mean any harm, still on a learning curve here, I'm sure I'd get a quick education if I hunted state land. Yea cherokee my family has a 80 acre chunk of river bottom where i started hunting bear from an had know Idea it held bear, I had hunted it for deer for years an had not seen any sign of a bear, but I never looked for any either. Boy its getting close. Good luck guys

[cherokee]

It's getting very close. Just scored a giant blue berry muffin to add to my bait pile. Hee Hee.

[Boar]

Ha, I'm laughing at the vision of a huge blueberry muffin just sitting in the woods an multiple bears feeding on it like cattle an you cant choose which one to shoot. So how big is this muffin? Boar

[cherokee]

Oh a woman at work brings in baked goods once or twice a week. It is about the size of a grapefruit. Big for a muffin.

Whenever something gets old around the house or if something doesn't turn out right the family just says bear bait. In the freezer it goes.

[Boar]

That is a big muffing, save that one an use it for a shot placement, I'm getting hungry. Boar

[HunterLee]

My round trip is anywhere from 5-25miles. I don't live in bear county at all but there are a few around. Got one last year, and could of got another if i would of had the rifle and not the bow. I dropped a couple baits in areas that have or had bears in them in the past. One woods was maybe 20acres and the other was 100 or so. Both had plenty of swampy areas though.

[HooknHorns]

Iv'e got plans to go up and place my baits in middle of August. Then pretty much get home and a week later turn back around to bait a few days before opener. Off hand i dont recall the mileage but I live north of Iowa about ten miles and i hunt a few miles from Canada. I do wish it was closer because id like to hold out for a bruiser but for now I'll take what i can get.

[Matt Breuer]

Depends on if I get a tag, where I want to hunt, etc... If I hunt locally i go roughly 30 miles round-trip, maybe 50 at most. If I hunt back home (near Agassiz, where Quack's grand-dad's farm is) it's about 180 round-trip, but it's 10 for my dad, so I sit at home... To our land (close to Beltrami Island) it's 240 round-trip for me, and 100 for my dad. We alternate.

Bears around Agassiz, yes, there are some, and a lot of the bears shot around there are brutes. Most are nuisance bears taken from farms. I grew up a few miles from Agassiz, and my sister still lives right there.

As for Beltrami Island, our land is close enough to it that we can hear rounds being popped in the forest on a calm evening. I won't hunt bears in the forest, and I doubt any of my family ever will again. Too many people, and too many weekenders.

I don't want to upset anyone, but it really sucks for guys who bait daily to have someone drive from 500 miles away and they bait 5 times and nab your bear.

[nik]

I don't want to upset anyone, but it really sucks for guys who bait daily to have someone drive from 500 miles away and they bait 5 times and nab your bear.

[Boar]

Nobody has a designated bear, itd be one thing if a guys hunts off a site thats not his or dose a scent drag from someones site to his, but for those that put in all the hard an tag bear, good for u. Boar

[Matt Breuer]

Like I said, I don't want to point fingers or anything. You sound like you go about it the right way, and you seem respectful. Trust me when I say, there are others who aren't as respectful as you. There are people out there who purposefully cut off bear. To be honest, it's cost effective, and it almost always produces because it's fresh new food. But it can sure ruin the everyday-baiters season!

[bogwalker]

Like I said, I don't want to point fingers or anything. You sound like you go about it the right way, and you seem respectful. Trust me when I say, there are others who aren't as respectful as you. There are people out there who purposefully cut off bear. To be honest, it's cost effective, and it almost always produces because it's fresh new food. But it can sure ruin the everyday-baiters season!

Matt is right. There are bums who look for someones baiting trail to follow to a bait site, poke around, sometimes fouling the bait then setting up close by to lure the bear to their site. Some are bold enough to take down the sign and replace it with their own while they hunt over another hunters bait. Well placed trail cameras are catching some of these guys.

[cherokee]

We've had it done to us by both commercial and non-commercial baiters. Sometimes the mistake is honest other times it's not. I choose to be respectful and if I know there is a bait in the area I will move on. There will always be those that tend to cut corners (some for money others for laziness)whether it be baiting bear, pulling in at the last second and setting up dekes for ducks, hopping in front of someone that is drifting a good spot for muskies, etc., etc., the list goes on. Just enjoy the outdoors. If you're on private land good for you if you're on public land than one must learn to deal with it (good and bad) otherwise it can end up as a huge disappointment.

[HooknHorns]

I feel alot better the more work i put into it. Always looking for my own honey holes well off the beatin path. Unless i was in Canada I couldnt take pride in hunting over someone elses bait pile. It would be like buying someone taxi mount, couldnt do it.

[Quackaddict9]

Hey Quackaddict-Have any problems with those pesky bears on your farm? If so I can get rid of them for you. LOL

No trees on our property, all field but maybe if there were some bait in the field that borders the refuge so they would come across the road/ditch and find the bait. I have thought about it but I have not hunt bear. I did win a lottery this year to bear hunt in a different area though.

[Boar]

The lot of us here I feel are respectfull to others in the outdoors, an I was thinking about this for sometime in Mat's situation or anybody elses that has had that happen. 4 years ago I was working an active bait an it was the two days to go before opener an some family members decided that it was a good time to come up an make trails an put up a big fire tower sized deer stand an run cordless tools an fourwheelrs an chainsaws in the same proximity as my site. And they knew I was bear hunting. So that season was a dry season, I couldnt recover mentely from it, I was just beat up about, they had a right to be there but just couldnt respect the fact that i was doing something that was costing me alot of time an money an they steped all over it. The site went dry of course an I tried to rcover the site but everything just fell apart. So I can understand the frustration that acurres when things like this happen when I view from the otherside. Boar

[cherokee]

Sorry to hear that boar. That there was mighty disrespectful. Sometimes there is a lack of common sense out there or a me me me entitlement.

[charliepete]

300 miles round trip to my area. I run enough baits where I probably put another 100 on just driving around once I get there. Bear hunting is definitely expensive. It's nice to be able to split bait and gas 3 ways with a couple of hunting buddies.