fetzeriiif

I am going to be bear hunting for the first time this year. I am picking up four 55 gallon drums of bear bait this weekend, as I plan on starting to bait as soon as the law allows. Here in Wisconsin that is April 14th. The bait consists of granola as a base coated in syrup with candies such as candy hearts and gummies mixed in. I plan on spraying the trees with some type of attractant/cover scent each time that I bait and when I begin hunting in early September. I have found gallon jugs of anise extract, peppermint extract, and vanilla extract. Which of these have you used and how successful have you been. Also I wouldn't mind some tips about how to go about baiting. I plan on baiting about once a week up until a month before season, twice a week for the next two weeks, and every day from two weeks before and through the season. I plan on putting out between two gallons and five gallons each time. I have a spot in mind that has swamp, a creek near by, woods, and corn fields near by. Last year I got pictures of bear in this spot hitting my deer corn during the day.
The questions I have are...
Which scent should I use or have you used?
Does this bait sound OK?
How does my baiting time frame and quantity sound?
Is it necessary to wear rubber gloves and boots when baiting?
Can I drive my 4-wheeler right to the bait sight or should I walk in the last 100 yards or so?
Thanks for any help and advice you can give me.

huntinglife

Keeping a bait site running for almost 6 month before the season seems like a bit of overkill to me! I think if you started baiting one month before you actually started hunting you will be more then fine. Bait 3 times a week for the first 3 weeks and daily up until the opening day and through until you have your bears. Pick 2-3 bait sites and place your stands into them and then set up your baits so on the trails where the bears come into the bait, they will not be looking directly at the stands.

Your bait sounds OK, I would add Krispy Kreme Donuts to the mix, and I would add some rotted meat if you can. If your state allows it, and check first, Road Kill is really excellent bait!

I would use gloves and rubber boots and one of the best cover scents you can use is the small cans of Bear Bomb because they are filled with Beaver Castor Oil and Bears love beavers! If you know someone that traps, get a couple of carcasses and use those in your baits, again if the law allows!

The other cover scent I really like and also works as an attractant is Snow Cone Syrup! The reason for this is you can pour it all around the bait site and bears will walk in it and carry it out when they leave the bait site as a wagon wheel effect. Pretty soon you will have several bears that will be coming and going from the bait site pretty consistently!

BEST OF LUCK!

fetzeriiif

Thanks for the tips. Wisconsin has some pretty strict laws. We can't use fish, meat, honeyor any by products of the three. So no beaver and no road kill. We also can't use drums, buckets, or even processed wood to hold our bait. We have to use a hollow stump, log, or hole in the ground to put our bait in. We also have to cover it with rocks or logs every time we bait, so that the deer can't get at the bait. We can't even dump grease, because it is considered animal fat.

I realize that five months of baiting is probably an overkill, but I am really excited and I love using my cameras to get lots of pictures of what ever I'm hunting before the season starts. I also want to make sure that the spots I pick for baiting have decent amounts of bear, as I will be hunting in the southern zone, which has a much more sparce bear population than the northern zones.

huntinglife

Wow, those are some pretty strict laws. I would then use the snow cone mixture since that is not honey, nor a byproduct of honey. COOLAID also works if you mix it with about 5 to 10 cups of the sugar and make it almost syrupy so that it gets all over the paws of the bear and when he walks away he takes the scent with him. I would absolutely use the Bear Bomb canisters every time you baited and have the cans spray onto an old cotton t-shirt so the scent stays there.

I would only use a hole in the ground and find a ton of heavy rocks and logs to cover the stand site. Make the rocks heavy enough so that small bears will not be able to get much and really big bears will be able to get the lions share! This will allow your bigger bears to set up some dominance of the site and hopefully keep the young ones away from the site!

I appreciate your excitement but I still would not bait too much earlier because you do not want others to find your baits, you do not want to run off any big bear by contamination of a site, and it is not really very healthy for bears to be eating too much junk, like what will be in your bait site! REMEMBER... DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!....

BearGuy.

Hi Fetzeriiif,

Here is my take on your questions:

Which scent should I use or have you used?Your scent sounds good to me, anything will work as long as it has a strong odor and you use the same thing everytime.

Does this bait sound OK? Yep, bait sounds fine to me, again as long as you have enough of it to use the same mixture all season you will be fine.The worst thing you can do is run out of bait and have to switch to something else right before the hunt.

How does my baiting time frame and quantity sound? Your baiting time frame sounds spot on to me. One thing I do differently is I don't use as much bait as you are thinking about.I do start out early in the season by baiting twice a week and putting out a good volume of bait. But I taper it off when I get bears hitting it quite often. Reason, you don't want to feed them, you just want to bait them. Put too much bait out and the bears can come and go as they please, but put out just enough for one bear and now the other bears will realize that they have to get there before the other bears do to get something to snack on. This is how you get your bears to come in during shooting hours instead of after dark.

Is it necessary to wear rubber gloves and boots when baiting? Nope, they will get used to your smell, and will help you in the end when you are hunting.You can not fool a bears nose, it is one of the best out there, so use it to your avantage. Your smell to them = food. Now when you go into hunt, not only will they smell your bait/smelly spray attractant, but they will also smell you....and to the bear that means dinner time.

Can I drive my 4-wheeler right to the bait sight or should I walk in the last 100 yards or so? I allways walk the last 100 yards or so into the bait. Reason is the bears will be used to you driving into the bait everytime you fresh up the site.When you go into hunt you will probally be walking in. Now if you plan on having a buddy drive your quad out everytime you are going to be hunting this wouldn't be a bad plan at all. And you could have your bear in the matter of min. A trail camera/timer is a great asset. They will let you know if a bear is going into the bait right after you are there, or if they are coming in later. Most of the timeif you have been spot on with your baiting, they will come in almost at the same time you are leaving. It is a blast and be warned.....one you get into this bear hunting you are hooked for life and will want to do it every year.


Thanks for any help and advice you can give me. You Bet!!

Have a fun hunt, and be ready to put in some time.

fetzeriiif

Thanks guys. Everybody seems to have a little bit of a different idea of how to do things. I definately have enjoyed reading what others have to say and figuring out what will work for me.

My dad wants to videotape my hunt. I have noticed that on tv the cameraman is often in the same tree. Do you think he should be in the same tree, a different one, or would him being there make it too much more likely for me to get busted by a bear?