Bear Hunting

[Remington]

The bear hunters are pretty quiet out there as to how things are going. I am going up this weekend to check my baits. I have been burned by visiting the baits too much in the past, so this year I decided to only bait once per week b4 the season starts. Any thoughts on how often to bait??

[Swamp Scooter]

Remi,

I baited last year the first day and checked it the next and freshened it up. I then went home and worked and came up the following weekend and baited on Saturday and then checked and freshened on Sunday. Then I went back home for 3 days or so and then took off work to be up and tending about 3-5 days before the season.

I then changed up the variety of what I was using for baits and got the Hostess stuff going hard with the dog food/oil and burning honey. I did this daily on three baits and was getting one hit hard every day. Opening day of the season I went out about 7:30am and sat for about 2 hours after re-baiting and then shot one of the beasts.

It was so hard to not go back and check the baits but I did not.

I did have a radio I played while I was on the way out and baiting. I have no idea how long after I left they started to come in but I also sprayed the same brand of bug spray I would be using on the pit and my stand every time I baited.

I only left honey and maple bacon in my positioning bait when I was hunting and the bear zoned right for it.

Maybe the bear is watching you? Circle your stand and make a bunch of noise(radio) when you go out to get them out of sight of your area. They will come back in when they "hear" you are gone. If they can watch you they can wait you out and eat at night.

[kevfish]

I believe you want the bears to know you are bringing more food in for them- I think the ideal situation you should bring a little in every day so if there are multiple bears there will be compitition to get there first(Hopefully during daylight).By bringing just a little they will be waiting till the next day for more food- after a couple weeks of this the bears will know what to look foward to. The only thing they will not know is that you will be waiting in a tree. Of course this is if every thing works out- not many people can bait every day exspeciallly if you do not live in the area- Just bait as often as you can