True, bears to eat beavers because on land they are pretty slow, and there is a good amount of meat and fat on them, but for bait, not practical in many areas. The best baits we have used are Corn, grease (from restaurants), and apples. The grease works great because it gets on their feet and when they walk away they are leaving a trail for other bears to follow. The corn is just something they like to eat, and it keeps them busy eating while trying to get a shot, and apples have the scent to get them coming around. In the U.P. where I bear hunt, there are tons of bears, so most baits work well. I know by us, if you don't have many bears coming in, there is a better bait pile somewhere within a couple miles. They will almost always go to where the best stuff is. The problem with putting out a bunch of sweet stuff is that you have every vermin in the county coming to it, coons, skunks, all that crap, which just makes it a hazard for you to go in and re-bait if you are getting sprayed by a damn skunk every time. Thos evermin also clean up a lot of bait so you will be going through a ton of it. Whenever we have used sweet stuff, we dig a hole, put the stuff in, and then cover it with logs to try and deter the pests.
Here is a pic of one we had coming in to corn last year:
http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l306/YooperMike_2006/?action=view&current=Bear4.jpg
That is a 55 gallon drum feeder, and I put the hook in the tree, and I am 6'10" tall. The bears noseis at the hook, and I screwed the hook into the tree with my arm above my head by about 8-12". This was a real bruiser, and we got a lot of pics of him, but never laid eyes on him, nor were any pics from daytime.