Preserving Bait

[fowldreams]

Wondering what others are doing to keep their bait fresh. I came across some bakery goods.There will be around 100lbs/week if I want. I don't obviously have freezer space for this volume. So how do I go about storage?

[certified jumbo]

with any kind of bread of pastrie items you pretty much have to freeze them this early. we bought a big chest freezer and we have been collecting bread now for two weeks, i smash the bread as small as i can get it and then freeze it in boxes. we can get a ton of it in the freezer by doing it this way.

otherwise you will just have to but it in big black bags and store it in the coolest place you can. however, you will have lots of mold by the time baiting starts.

[Boar]

Hey FD, Ive been storing hundreds of pound each season for years, the best ways is to fill buckets about 2/3rds full the fill with fryer grease till the pasateries are covered an close lid, they even keep till the next year or even longer with very limited mold depending on the lid seal. Ive had bucket 3 yrs old with no mold due to a good seal. But for temporary storage without freezing. get a couple of tuff garbage can by rubbermaid an load up with pasteries then pour on the grease. There will be some mold on top because of no seal but it just the top layer which is an acceptable loss due to large volume. The grease will preserve the doughnuts an carmalize with the sugars an bear just love this stuff. Been very successful with this method for storage an baiting. I can give you more details if you use this option. Boar

[certified jumbo]

very interesting boar. i like to try that out.

just so i make sure i understand, the first method you speak of...are you freezing those pails or do you just put a lid on and the lid keeps it from molding??

the second way you just smash a bunch of bread/pastries in a big barrel, cover it with oil,grease. then over time it will mold on top but you scrape that off and the bottom layers are good??

is this right??

thanks.

[fowldreams]

Sounds good boar.Like I said I don't have freezer space and I hate to turn down free bait. I will definetly be trying the grease in the pail. When do I add the powder

[Boar]

Prety much, the first way, with buckets I press pasteries in but not to smash flat an tight, cause you want the stuff to come out wen you dumpt it an you want the grease to get to all the pasteries to be aborbed. to tight an the grease just sits on top. you want the doughnuts to soack up the grease. Now becareful cause to much grease an it will pop open the lid an ozze out. Ive spent an eniter wekkend cleaning up my garage cause i have literaly over a hundred buckets of this an barels an garbage cans, an quite a few have burst from over absorbsion. Seriously. I just press doughnuts firm just so i can fit more an grease can flow downward youll know if you are to tight casue again the grease will sit on top for along time or not go down at all. Oh, I do not freeze them but the winter dose. The lids will keep it from molding, most of the lids I have come with a rubber seal so they are pretty air tight. But ones that dont get a little mold on top an thats ok an ya dont have to remove it from the bucket cause its not much an bear dont seem to mind it, if they dont want it they wont eat it an theres enough good stuff there any way. But if ya want go ahead cause of course bear love fresher the better. FD, you can sprinkle on the powder as you fill with doughnuts. I just pour grease over the doughtnuts till it starts to rise up from the bottom along the side i usually stop. I would guesse to say i have about a galoon an a half maybe 2 at the most in each bucket. Make sure as you pour that you hit all exposed doughnuts with grease. This is a case of to little is better than to much. But at least a gallon.

The garbage can is pretty much the same way, to much an you have a huge problem now. No smashing just firm pressing an layering, this is where your gonna get more mold an I will scrape that off an underneath is the good stuff. Theres more grease in this one. maybe 4-5 gals. I use to have aholding tote where i would fill with pasteries an then pour full with grease an in a few days wen the pasteries cant aborbe any more I scoop it into buckets, this is a much safer way to eliminate the oozers but alot more work in handling. An you better have your own cruddy shop designated soley for this cause if its a space to share with the wife in the garage, well you can see how far that will fly. As far as i'm concerned it's the best way without freezers to store bait. cause it literaly preserves the breads an pasteries an joins with the surgars an carmalize's after a period of time an its looks almost good enough to eat myself an smells yummy. Let me know nay more Q's later boar

[jerkbait]

Boar, on the garbage can method have you ever thought of or tried shrink wrapping the lid to the can to seal out the air? Maybe that would give you an air tight seal then.

Another way a friend told me to preserve breads is to lay them out on a tarp on a nice sunny warm day and let it dry out. Then you can just store in garbage bags. Not sure if he meant that would work for pastries also. Need to ask again. I have a small freezer that is stuffed full right now. I have also been told even stuffing a pail full so there is no air in it and sealing it tight works well also. I was experimenting with this. I had stuffed a 5 gal pail full of pastries last Sept. and put a lid on it. Then I put in 1 of my barrels to see how it would look this summer. Well low and behold that is the barrel that the bear got into this spring and I just noticed last weekend that the bucket was gone. Hope he enjoyed.

[CANOPY SAM]

I've done the drying of the bread out in the sun. Pastries will work too, with the exception of jelly filled stuff.

Just separate all the pieces of bread and scatter them all over the ground, on boards, your driveway, or I've even done this up on the garage roof! On a hot sunny day, once the bread is "done" on one side, just go along and flip em' all over. Another couple hours and you've got yourself more toast than you can shake a stick at!

When it's all completely dried out you can bag it all up in large garbage bags and store in a dry place. I hung mine above the ground to keep out the insects.

Kept hundreds of pounds of bread this way for several months with very little, or no mold what-so-ever. Just gotta make sure that everything is completely dry, and stays dry.

Then I just use the dry bread as a "filler" sprinkled with sugar, grease, or any other tasty additions you want. Bears love this stuff!

Nice thing about storing bread this way...no freezers, no buckets, no smell, no mess. Easy and clean transport (cause it's all dry and light to carry to the bait pile).

Just make sure there's no dogs around when drying your bread!

[Boar]

Hey cris longtime no hear.. hows the preseaon adrenaline going? That shrink wrap idea might work, I'll get a rol from work an see how that gose. Cris, ive never done the drying thing I wanna keep bear at my site Lol!, more work than needed. Plus quite frankly eat a slice of pizza thats been in the sun for several hours an try an doctor it up to eat it, dry crusty cardboar that will get soggy with an sauce or grease, it wont absorb to origional state, just get soggy. No thanks, the fresher the bestter an my way dose this, i'll stick with wat my actual feild experience has been an success rate shows. The mold that accures in the garbage cans is so minamal an when ur talking volume like myself an FD gets, havining stored an worked with bait for ten years, I feel my method is one of the best for storing. But each to their own. I went an took a look at some buckets i plan on using first cause they are 3 years old, one was better as the day i stored it cause like I said the grease an sugars melded an carmalized into carmel surgary yummness an another actually fermented into an alchohal state( not sure what caused that or wat went into it) but feremntation is a great holding power for bear. Dougnuts, grease, lid. Simple pimple. Have you looked into that powder stuff i told ya about, gota barrel of that that smells DYNOMITE (Jimmy Walker) cant waite to bait. Later bud, boar

[jerkbait]

Boar, so do you use a whole 5 gal pail each time you bait then or just take some out of the pail each time you need it?

[CANOPY SAM]

Never said it was the "best" method. Just a good, easy option.

Lots and lots of successful bear hunters dry their bread for easy storage, and transport.

If it rains on your site you do have to remove the soggy stuff, and replace with fresh, but that's pretty much the same deal regardless of what you're using.

Makes a great "filler" along with molasses soaked corn, barley, oats, and various sweeties, and/or fatty meat scraps, bacon grease, etc...

Many ways to skin a cat. Probably lots of other creative ways to do this floating around out there as well!

Drying your bread out in the open sun is pretty easy, and dry storage completely eliminates electric bills, and any mess and smell. Plus, you make the neighborhood birds VERY happy!

Best of luck to ya' FowlDreams!

[Boar]

JB, before barrels i dumped a whole bucket to may be two, i like a bear to get filled up an just sleep it off nearby usually tryed to keep an equivelant to a five gal. bucket on my sites on an average.

[jay83196]

Boar, you only put out a bucket worth? How often you bait (daily)? I put out 3-4 but I bait every other or every 2 days... I usually put out one sweets, one meat, a misc scraps and a oats/dogfood one. Can a fella put too much out, its almost always all gone....

[Boar]

When I wasnt using barrels yea, cause western edge of no quta being less dense with bear numbers, most time I was only getting one bear in, so I was only feeding one bear. Now the numbers have almosr exploded hear in the last three years or so an having the barrel is hugh for me, I fill it for 3-4 days. If its almost gone I think your doing things right cause bear are getting full, sleeping it off close by an coming back. Not full enough an they will clean it out an move on to find more, other sites. Then come back around in 4-5 days. If you hca a little left thats a good thing. thier getting full. Just my opinion, some like to keep them hungerey, I go eat at texas road house an not get full, I'm getting dessert down the road.

[Boar]

Yea with one bucket it was everyday. cause if it wasnt cleaned out the coons took the rest. Gota have bait there wen he comes back.