bait?

[jay83196]

So I have donuts, candy, dog food, oats what's a couple good ingredients to try to add, what do larger bears prefer typically? I have heard younger bears typically get the sweet tooth. Is it better to use everything you have each time you bait to provide variety or just couple things at a time?

Thanks for feedback...

[Boar]

everybody has a different idea, mature bear of course know whats needed for survival, but wont turn their nose up at the sweets either. If i had your stash which i pretty much do, id use the doughnuts an mix the oats with grease or molassas. i put doughts half full in a 5 gal. bucket the top it off with oat mixture an about a coffe can of dog food. Thats got a good variety of staple food and sweets. an just dump it in the crib. id take the candy about a coffee can full an spread it around the imedeate area of the crib so a bear tramps down the foileage himself. Some believe that adding anything new after getting a bear to feed can spook a bear especially if its mature. lesser bear not so much. I used beef trimmings one year an the bear loved it, just hard to store cause it has to stay frozen. So i dont use it often but should.Its just getting out ther an paying attention on whats happining. More, less, wat they like wat they dont like. i personnaly wish the baiting season wasnt so long. good luck Jay wont be long now

[jay83196]

Thanks Boar, I use beef also I have a butcher I can get scraps daily already frozen. I was using a lot more bait a 5 gal bucket of candy, donuts dog food or oats and then half bucket of meat. I can only bait every 2- 3 days its usually almost all gone ( sure coons get some too). Can you bait too much at time.

[Boar]

boy a barrel would be great if you can only bait 2-3 days, one of the greats things of barrel use that I forgot to mention, is it keeps it dry. If its almost gone then thats about perfect. My opinion would be that if a guys really loads up the bait crib with a heavy amount, bear can get accustom to knowing its there an come in at anytime cause they know its gonna be there. But loading it up with heavy amount cause you cant be there for 2-3 days gives the site less human intrusion an can make the bear feel alot more comfertable to feed during daylight. So its one of those, it can go this way or it can go that way. Each bear has a different temperment, so it'll be different each time. Cameras are such a Godsend, going back to adding a different bait in the middle of the game like I mentioned, lesser bears wont mind a mature boar might, so with the aid of a camera you know whats on the site of course, an once you get a mature boar to hit then everything stays the same. Later boar

[jay83196]

I agree the camera is great to have I enjoy the pictures, I think I like baiting more than the hunting almost.

[KGPZ]

I agree the camera is great to have I enjoy the pictures, I think I like baiting more than the hunting almost.

It truly is a rush to walk in and see 7 foot 10" diameter logs tossed away like toothpicks-this is the only reason barrels wont be used by me.

[hollerman]

So when you use barrels do you use 50gal drums or are these too big? Should a guy use smaller ones like 30gal drums. How full should I fill them to start with? I talked to our local Hy-vee store and they will give me all their sweet stuff like cakes, cookies and such. Basiclly anyting but donouts because another guy is taking them. Will most sweet be ok when combine with other grains and grease. Boar I read your other post on how to use barrels and I think that is a great idea and will probablly go that route.

[jay83196]

I agree with log tossing, or claw marks, I love the feel or rush of wondering if the big one is watching me off in the brush while I set up bait etc....chill down my spine who out there brings a gun and what when baiting?

[Boar]

I totally agree with the logs lying around like you set of a claymore, first time that happened to me made me feel like OMG wat am I dealing with! Ill have cribs on my other two sites tho, but if I walk up my 30 gal drum an its sqaushed flat or banged up with claw marks that spread 5 inches i'll get the same rush. I used to carry a 44 but got tired of straping on the holster, used to bring a shotgun but kept getting half way back an realizing i forgot it at the crib. I get really absentminded wen i start getting hits. i just luv the rush of knowing theres a animal that can take my head off if it wanted to, so i get really jittery wen rebaiting, not scared just jittery. Love the rush. i dont carry anything now days just make my pressence know that Im comeing. A thirty gal drum is wat im using an wouldnt put any more bait in than wat u normally would in a crib.

[friz]

Last year I got dry distillers grain from a corn ethanol plant and mixed it with cookie dough. Its got kindof a sweet smell to it. Always used cookie dough & other goodies in the past but this stuff sure seemed to work real good for me. Used some trail mix too but would lap up this and leave trail mix behind. Thats all I used along with a dose of fryer grease around the crib. I do like topping it off by using my old super soaker squirt gun and using molassas with a little grease to thin it out and squirting it up in the trees to get that smell drifting thru the woods. Anybody know a good therapist cause I missed the 2nd chance draw by about 3 minutes......

[HooknHorns]

Friz im in Owatonna quite a bit because my wife and her family are from there. Im just curious if you grab that distillers grain from claremont. Im just asking cause i ended up with a surplus tag and wasnt really thinking of hunting this year so my bait stash is really low.

[friz]

HooknHorns,

I got mine from the plant in Winthrop. I'm in the route delivery business and I deliver there so it was easy for me to grab some when I was there. Not sure if you could get some in Claremont but could call them I guess. Not sure where you're located but I can get you a name of a person in Winthrop if you need one.

[nubbin]

Going bear hunting for the first time in 10 years. Doing it with my dad and we are doing the baiting ourselves. So for we have candy hearts, frosting, cherry pie filling,fryer oil, sweat feed(horse feed) and beef fat. Are we missing anything? How much should we use at each bait site to start with? Dad has never been bear hunting and is getting almost as excited as my 13 year old daughter was when she started deer hunting.

[certified jumbo]

nubbin,

you may want to get some bread. dump that oil, cherry filling and candy on top of the bread. just a thought.

[Boar]

+1 with the bread, let the grease soak it up an the cherry pie fill. starting with bait, I start with a five gal, bucket but i can check every day. If it get cleaned out every day add some more.

[hollerman]

So what have any of you found that you would not use agein?

[nubbin]

I got 2 garbage bags full and will be getting all of the day old bread from Subway. We have a small cement mixer that we will be using to mix exerything together. Here is another differant question. Do you mix the oils and fats with the sweats or do you make 2 different mixes and keep them seperate?

[jay83196]

I kept my stuff separated and only thing they never ate was an onion it lasted a month before I pitched it in the woods...

[charliepete]

I worked out a deal for an endless supply of bagels one time. The bears hated them. I had big piles of fuzzy bagels in about a month. The same bait stations would get hammered with other baits. Go figure.

[jay83196]

I had same thing with bagels blueberry even and they left them and ate bread....both had molasses on em too..

[certified jumbo]

anyone have any luck baiting with apples? i've picked up a ton from the neighbors yard. thinking about adding them my bait selection.

[nubbin]

Freeze them first. Freezing them brings the sugers out, they will get eaten right away. 2 years ago I gave a 55 gallon drum full to a friend in Duluth. He didn't freeze them and the bear didn't touch them right away so he stopped using them and dumped the rest by his garden for fertilizer. 3 days later while he was out bear hunting his wife watched 4 different bears fighting over the pile.

[Muthagoose]

We like to feed our bears a higher quality bait..LOLOL..

Last night night my nephew and I split up just over 3,000lbs of strawberries.Just about $7500 in a partial lost shipment all because abotu %10 got a little fuzz on them from the outer cases warming..

Now today I get to bust my half into 2.5 gallon bags and freeze them..

The sad/good part is MOST of the berries were good. Daquiris,smoothies and jam anyone. Proabably putting up 100lbs.

Hummm anyone got a barrel of extra ceral or cocoa they want to trade???

As for apples we've never had to freeze them and they make up the bulk of our bait.We use granny smiths so they are tart to start.Again we have never had them pass em up first thing to get eaten even before the bavarian cream/brown sugar covered bakery/bread.

[nubbin]

All the fuzzy strawberries are a great start to some really good wine.

[Outdoor Authority]

I think the amount that you have will be fine you can add and subtract as you go. As for adding to what you have I cant think of much but something that you can spray to get the scent into the air and get the bear to come in. Also laying grease on the ground. A good tip is let your breads get soaked with a sweat smelling pie filling or glaze, honey or syrup. Good luck to you and may all your baits be hit.