Your best bet to bag a bear is in the western U.P, that is where the bear densities are highest. That will be a problem with you living in the Grand Rapids area. If you are going to bait you need to establish your bait piles and refresh them often, which is almost impossible to do from GR as you need to refresh them a couple times a week. You can usually hire someone local to do it for you however.

Your other choice is to use a predator call and try to call one in. It does work but the success rate is somewhat low.