Oats trick for bear baiting?

[jerkbait]

I remember reading on here a couple of people talking about fermenting oats in 5 gal pails. Those of you who have done it in the past can you please explain it again. I would like to give that a try this year. How long does it take to ferment? Do you just use them to open a bait or do you use them the whole time you bait?

Thanks!

[lichen fox]

you can use oats, sunflowers, corn...which ever of these you have access to...We got our hands on a ton and a half of sunflower-corn-oats screenings a couple of years ago that had alot of really nice sunflower meats...some hulls, light oats and a bit of cracked corn...you don't really have to "ferment" it...what we do is dump about 3 gallons of the dry screenings in a five gallon pail...add about a gallon of fry grease and another gallon of sweet liquid molasass...I usally mix up about 5 or 6 pails the night before we check baits and by the time we get out to the baits it's soaked up good, making a "pasty" type mixture...We also use the same mix for hanging bags when we first start baiting...when we do that we carry in the mix in the pail along with a separate 2 gallon pail filled with doughnuts...and of course a burlap sack....pop a nail in a tree... dump in the grain-grease-molasass mix...dump the doughnuts on top...tie it shut and hang it on the nail! When replenishing baits I usaully like to put the grain mix on top of a good pile of dougnuts-bread to keep the squirels and other small animals out of it...or if that isn't a problem...put the mix on one side and the doughnuts on the other...

[Boar]

hey lichen fox, wen u say sweet liquid molassass what exactly is that, I know what molasas is but the only stuff i know about is that local elevator coop stuff an its anything but sweet, to me anyway. Sounda like a good mix will have to give it a try.

[CANOPY SAM]

Sounds to me like "elevator screenings". I have friends that get that to feed their chickens, and when we get ours we plan to do the same.

I'm told that if you time it right, or if you let the elevator know you want them, you can get a pickup load of mixed grains like this for very little cost, but you gotta get there at the right time or they just dump it all. Some elevators will even bag it all up for you in nice 50 lb. bags.

Good to know this makes good bear bait as well!

[lichen fox]

We purchased our screenings from a livestock feed manufacturer for about $250 per ton...it's really good stuff and worth the money...we've bought or picked up sub-quality screenings before and the bears didn't eat them as readily as they do if you have good quality seeds...before you purchase any screenings...be sure you look at them...make sure they are mostly "pure" small grain-sunflower-corn, etc....seeds....to high a percentage of weed seed and you're just wasting your time and money! Also, there are new regulations out as to what type of screenings can be sold to just anyone off the street...if there is alot of weed seeds most places will not sell it or even let you have it just because of the "potential" possiblility of introducing certain noxious weeds to areas where they do not exist...most of those type of screenings have to be sold to feed manufacturers that have a process to kill the germ in the weed seeds during the feed making process.

Boar, as for the molasses...all the liquid stuff we've bought at the feed stores has a quite high sugar content...ask to see the lable of the product before you purchase to make sure it has a realatively good sugar content...I believe most, if not all, molasses products for livestock feed have a good sugar content...but one brand may vary dramaticly from another...

[Boar]

Cool thanks for the info fox preciate it.

[lichen fox]

When we first started bear hunting we always used bagged oats and calf starter...which also has some oats in it...then we started experimenting with different mixes and have gone away from oats totaly as that is still what alot of other hunters use that use grain mixes as a base...the first year we switched, we used pure oil sunflower seeds...just because no one else was using them....when we found scat here and there with sunflowers in it, we felt pretty confident that is was a bear that was on one of our baits...also, when we found scat with oats in it on one of our sites...we knew that bear was also visiting someone eles's bait! Where we hunt there aren't any ag crops within at least 10 miles from any of our baits...So, we try to find something "good" that most of our competeing hunters "probably" wouldn't be using!

[friz]

My local elevator sells 2 kinds of molasses. A farm grade & Pure sweet kind. I've always used the pure stuff cause they used to tell me the farm grade(which most places sell) contain urea and ain't near as sweet & if it gets wet it stinks funny.

The oats trick sounds good but, I get distillers grain(gluten) from a corn ethanol plant for next to nothing. It has a sweet-fermented smell to it and it always gets ate up so they must like it.

Gonna try some of the 'green death' this year but how much should I get, how far does it go and what's the best way to use it?

[Boar]

Friz i use green death an swear by it, buts its an attractant not a bait suppliment. I usually get a pint an it last all season, I mix it with fryergrease, about a shot glass an half per 4-5 gallons. i soak my bread an pasteries in it over night an hang a scent bag, then wats not soaked up I use one of those water canons an shoot the grease up into the trees an all over, My sites smell like willy wonkas butterscotch factory. I get hits much faster now with green death or carmel extreame, green death is much cheaper.

[jerkbait]

What Boar said about the greendeath. Just put in the frier grease to scent up the area. Smells really good. Bought me a water cannon to try this year too. Boar, do you ever use liquid smoke much around your bait sight? I know some people swear by it.

[Boar]

I have but Ive never really seemed to need to, Wen I use meat scraps I douse it with a little smoke flavor Wen i do a burn i like to use the bacon hichory flavors, but i guesse i never had to use the liquid smoke, but will if i feel a change is needed. Yea alot of vetern bear guys pretty much pledge allegience to it an i know it works. but if it aint broke yet I'm not gona fix it. That site where you got green death has large quantities of it an u could hang a sak of hichory bread, im sure it would bring them in no prob. or just get a squirt gun an spray bait an foileage.

[friz]

boar & jb,

Thanks for the tips!! Wished I'd knew about this stuff years ago, they sell it a couple miles down the road from me. Will definately be substituting the molasses with the GD & grease for the old super soaker gun. Come on August........

[Boar]

good luck friz.

[Boar]

Oh yea friz one thing i do is to resoak the bag each time I go in to bait an pull out the canon to, probabley not needed after a few weeks of doing so,the area get so loaded, but I'm a slave to the routine, same routine everytime, all the time. An it certainly dosent hurt anything.

[Boar]

Oh yea an wen your at cumberlands take alook at the salmon oil too, another great attractant, without putting oput fish carcasses like some do. no rotting.

[jerkbait]

Yea, thinking I may just skip the smoke this year and just the GD. Last year I was doing both. Th GD puts out enough scent, I can hardly smell the smoke anyways over the GD.

[BLACKJACK]

Friz i use green death an swear by it, buts its an attractant not a bait suppliment. I usually get a pint an it last all season, I mix it with fryergrease, about a shot glass an half per 4-5 gallons. i soak my bread an pasteries in it over night an hang a scent bag, then wats not soaked up I use one of those water canons an shoot the grease up into the trees an all over, My sites smell like willy wonkas butterscotch factory. I get hits much faster now with green death or carmel extreame, green death is much cheaper.

So the curious would like to know, what is 'green death'. Typed it into google and just found some links on getting buried without embalming... Not ready for that yet!!!

[CANOPY SAM]

No kidding! Thanks for sharing such great information all you guys! Think this is one of the best "baiting" threads yet!

Thanks for the intel on "screening" material too, LF! I'm gonna keep that one handy for when we get our chickens.

[Boar]

Jack, green death is just that, its green an death comes quickly to the prey one pursues. Its found in trappers supply catalog, namely cumberlands. Its a butterscotch concentreatd scent to attract coon an bear. No Ya dont want coon at the bait site but its part of the job wen it comes to baiting. Its very potent stuff.

[friz]

Might have to get some because 2 years ago my old neighbor gave me about 10 lbs of old frozen lutefisk he had and i'd make a small scent ball with cheesecloth and hang it then put out a new one every 4-5 days. Not sure if that did it but they sure were hitting the pile. Had a nice old boar (plus others) in there all the time. Too bad for him, he went 350 Lbs and was mighty tasty. Wouldn't mind trying that stuff again.

[CANOPY SAM]

OH! What a terrible waste of Lutefisk! That's sacrilegious in this part of the country!

Pretty good trade though!

[friz]

Picked me up some Green Death yesterday, smells pretty awesome. Also got a pint of Alaskan Salmon Oil ($7). Wow that stuff's strong too. Smells like my livewell after a week of steady fishing or your hands after cleaning a few northerns. I'm thinking I'll skip the store bought scent sprays cause this seems like it should be plenty good.

[Boar]

Cool beans, 7 bucks a pint thats cheap. Certanly as potent as they both are i would use one on one site an one on another. Or if you have a stubborn bear that wont come in during day light, I'd save either one for that. So if he just aint showing, go in an bait an squirt the area with it, dont even mix it with grease, squirt a little up on a tree an such an climb into stand. my 2 cents. Good luck friz let us know how things work. Any Q's on the green death let me know. Boar

[friz]

Boar,

Good idea, maybe save the salmon oil for an ace-in-the-hole if need be. Mixed up a little GD w/oil in squirt bottle, she smells good. I bought a quart of GD probably way overkill but all this thinking about bear hunting makes guy do goofy stuff don't you know. Thanks again for the tips cause it makes interesting trying something new & different. Now its just a hurry up and wait game...........