Scent dispersal at the bait site.

[bogwalker]

How do you spread scent around your bait site?

[Boar]

Ive used garden srayers before with a liquid smoke mix or hickory, just gotta watch cause you can burn thru it really quick. But i primarily just lob grease into the foiliage an trails leading to the site an around the site trying to stay away from soaking the logs, just gets messy to handle. Squrt guns work good but can clog with debri on crust up from sugar. Boar

[hookset]

Best thing you can do is spread used fryer grease around your bait site. I also like to buy a new spray bottle and fill it full of liquid smoke and spray it around on the leaves/trees to get a good smell in the breeze.

[jay83196]

Is it bad to use several different scents around site? I poured grease around it and spray liquid smoke then vanilla jello anise mix around also...maybe even bacon and honey burns each time...thoughts?

[cherokee]

I'd say more the merrier, marry her, merry er sp? with the scents.

[jay83196]

Also should I always use same scent each time, meaning if I use smoke,vanilla, and anise etc every time? Or mix it up And give them different smells each time to get curious about, or will that spook them.

[Boar]

I would tend to shy away from introducing a new sent in teh middle of the game, if your gonnause them dont change. The scents I would go with are the bacon hickory types, an in the sweet area a caramel, honey or an intense berry type. The brand I use is bearscents, green an white bottle awsome stuff. They recommend that if you use more than one at a site dont mix them, spray one over in this area an another over here ect.. Later baor

[Boar]

On the other hand I dont spend alot of money on scents but some, if you think about it, once a bear finds your site, he knows where it is, he's walked in the grease an stuff an now he'll leave bait trails all over the woods for other bear, thats why i like the grease. Scents are great but to me serve a certain purpose only. Say you have a bear hitting, ok now it's hunting time an you sit, nothing. Then you sit again, nothing. Then you sit again, an still nothing. Now pull out a scent or a burn. then it's game on. That new sweet or mouth water bacon smell is just to much. an in walks John Wayne like he owns the bar. If you use scents all the time you have nothing to throw a curve ball with later on a uncoopertive bear. Boar

[cherokee]

You know I came across some company in Minnesota that sells a scent. I sent them an email asking for a free sample. Got a little piece in the mail the other day and wow that stuff is strong. A little spendy for the actual stuff $30 +. People swear by it though. Can't remember the name of where it came from as I lost all the papers. I have that little piece sealed in with my scent ball I made. It overtook the anise smell of my ball. Can't wait to try it.

[bogwalker]

You know I came across some company in Minnesota that sells a scent. I sent them an email asking for a free sample. Got a little piece in the mail the other day and wow that stuff is strong. A little spendy for the actual stuff $30 +. People swear by it though. Can't remember the name of where it came from as I lost all the papers. I have that little piece sealed in with my scent ball I made. It overtook the anise smell of my ball. Can't wait to try it.

Cherokee, I have used this scent. The bottled product is not nearly as strong or oily as the sample. I called and complained and they sent me another watered down bottle at no charge. They will not sell the product as it is in the sample. I think the sample has lasted several years without getting weaker.

[cherokee]

It is strong as it permeates my entire fridge I store the scent ball in. That's too bad about the actual scent.

[bogwalker]

I think I still have some in one of my scent lockers. It is pretty good stuff. If you use too much it is sickeningly sweet. The company warns about this. Too much of a good thing. Sanborn, Mn. is where they are located.

[Boar]

Hey cherokee, I have made scent balls by making hard rock candy by boiling sugar water to a certain degree an adding scent as it cools it hardens. That the way you make em? Boar

[cherokee]

I made one not too long ago. Sugar, karo syrup & water boiled to 300 degrees. I add the scent right before taking it off. It worked out great. The first time I tried it I added jello. Mistake. It bubbled up too much and ended up burning. Never got that mix to 300 degrees. It hardened. I haven't peeled off the plastic yet as I used a windshield washer fluid jug. To mention, I put in black licorice for filler and poured the mixture around it. Bears should love this anise/licorice ball. Forgot to mention food color to make it look pretty.

I will be making one more and this time with a hanger that is biodegradeable. I'm thinking two wood chunks strung together with twine for inside the ball with a heavy duty twine/gunny sack lead going out of it.

The first attempt with the jello was kinda funny. I kept stirring and watching the thermometer totally focused on this. The mixture kept getting darker and darker and before long I realized I was in a cloud of smoke. Had to shut her down quick and open all the windows. LOL. Wife and girls were wondering what in the heck was going on? LOL

[Boar]

Yup that beats paying 70 bucks, my wife dosent like the kitchen being turned into a mad science lab tho, How big do you make yours? an wahts your ratio, I never made them to big< I was jsut experimenting an didnt want have to replace the paula dean kitchen collection. Boar

[cherokee]

Size is 3/4 of a windshield washer jug.

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup karo

The largest batch I can do at a time is 6 cups sugar, 3 cups water and 2 cups karo. The food coloring and scent is added towards the end. Boil to 300 degrees. This is very hot and kinda dangerous to work with. The trick is to let it cool down enough to get into your container without melting the plastic and not too cool so it doesn't start to set up thereby not flowing into your container. I do this about 4 times to get the size ball I want. Remember you can add filler whether it be candy, dog food, corn etc. If you do this you can get by with making less batches.

[Boar]

How much scent do ya add to those ratios, dose'nt it water it down a bit if ya use to much scent liquid? You boil to 300 right? or do you boil at a constant 300 for a few minuets. Sorry for all the questions, I got obssed with the ball making after a bear got one just after I hung it an quickly bought another from brad, not thinking that the bear already found the site so I did,nt really need another, that was kinda spendy. Boar

[jay83196]

Is is hard ? I never heard of this , you boil it and pour it into jug to shape it them it dries and you hang it and it smells? Does it dissolve? Bear eat it?

[Boar]

Jay you can look up a recipe fo hard rock candy also, but when you boil water an sugar to 300 degreeas when it cools it hardens hard, Its one big giant sucker. I havent use the karol syrup yet, if I remember right as soon as it reaches 300 like cheroee says, take it off, if you keep boiling it you risk burning the sugar. its not hard just takes a little kitchen expermenting, get a candy thermometer, those are more acurate than teh spring meat themometer. Boar

[matchset]

mmmmmmm burning honey! bears love that smell!

[nik]

Boar-Is the liquid smoke good stuff? We usually use bacon oil that stinks really good. This year I was able to score a large amount of liquid smoke. My hunting partner is not too sure of it. He is more of the if it aint broke, don't fix it type. The bacon oil is our bread and butter, but I think we can use more on the ground now if he put the liquid smoke in the air. Any thoughts?

[lakeshoremunster]

liquid smoke works pretty well for our group, we couldnt get our hands on a big bucket of it last year so we had to go to the store and buy those small bottles at cubs and target, the lady at target must have thought I was making drugs or something because I cleaned them out last year.

But just spray it on the trees and brushes and let the wind work for you.

After we used the smoke last year it made me crave BBQ for weeks.

[kelly-p]

From the American Bear Association HSOforum.

"Is it true that a bear's sense of smell is 7 times greater than that of a bloodhound?

Indeed it is. There is perhaps no other animal with a keener sense of smell. Bears rely on their sense of smell to locate mates, detect and avoid danger in the form of other bears and humans, identify cubs, and FIND FOOD. Although the region of the brain devoted to the sense of smell is average in size, the area of nasal mucous membrane in a bear's head is one hundred times larger than in a human's. This gives a bear a sense of smell that is 7 times greater than a bloodhound's. In addition, they have an organ called a Jacobson's organ, in the roof of the mouth, that further enhances their sense of smell.

Here are some accounts of how truly well a bear can smell:

"A black bear in California was once seen to travel upwind three miles in a straight line to

reach the carcass of a dead deer."

". . . male polar bears march in a straight line, over the tops of pressure ridges of uplifted ice . . .

up to 40 miles to reach a prey animal they have detected."

"A bear has been known to detect a human scent more than fourteen hours after the person passed along the trail."

"A male can detect which way a breeding female is traveling just by sniffing her tracks.""

When we used to be able to trap out in the bog it was fairly commen to backtrack them and see where we had pulled a fisher or fox or wolf up to 3 or 4 miles to the set with a teaspoon full of lure. I feel that a bear can smell better then any of them. I don't feel that we need to overpower a bear with alot of smell. They already know where our bait is AND most times,,,,where we are.

[bogwalker]

It is not whether a bear can smell your bait, but whether he can smell your bait over that of other hunters.

[remington 300]

10-4 on that bog, best smelling, along with the best groceries!