Originally Posted by archeryelk1

Here in Idaho you can't put out any bait until the season has opened, and all bait sites must be registered with Fish and Game. This consists of, for a small fee of course, registering what unit the bait site is located in and then they give you a little plastic tag that must be present at the site (fastens to a tree branch).

I simply use bread with used fryer grease poured over it. For bread we have a local bread store that will sell racks of bread that has exceeded its expiration date for around 30 bucks. One "rack" will fill my shortbox pickup bed to the top of the bed rails from front to back. I then (at home) empty all of the bread out of the individual packages and into 15 gallon garbage bags. I squish the bread down fairly tightly so more will fit, but don't over do it or it will be pretty heavy and tear the bag. I keep them in the deep freezer until I need them.
I've been told that the bread store won't sell a rack to someone that specifically asks to purchase it for bear bait...you are supposed to tell them it is for hog feed. I've never had them ask me what it's for, but its something you might want to keep in mind.

As far as used fryer grease most restaurants/bars have to pay to dispose of it, so most are willing to give it to you if you're prompt at picking it up when they call. They also usually have the 5 gallon bucket and lid it came in to put it back in and let you take.

For a bait station I have a 35 gallon metal barrel that I cut a small rectangular slot in the bottom of. This is really the only tricky part, as you want the slot wide enough that the bear can get part of its paw in to pull bread out, but not too big or they can pull it out too easily and the food runs out too fast. It has a ring around the top of the lid that is tightened by a bolt so the lid can't come off. There is also two holes cut in the top end of the barrel just under the lid that a cable can be passed through so that the barrel can be cabled to a tree.

I put two bags of bread in the barrel and then pour about half of a 5 gallon bucket of grease on it. Two bags of bread stuffed into it will hold bait for four days when bears are hitting it. Go to a bigger barrel if you can't rebait every 4 days or so, if you let it run out for more than about a day it will make a big difference in the consistancy in which they return. Once the barrel lid is back on and tightened, I pour the rest of the grease all over the barrel and on the ground around it. I use only one bucket of grease when rebaiting, but the first time I bait it I use two. The key is to get grease all over the barrel and the ground around it. This way when a bear finds it, it will get all over its paws and when it leaves other bears will encounter the grease trail it left and follow it back into the bait. I also always stack several small wind-fall trees and limbs on the barrel so that I can tell if its been hit easily from a distance.
The longest I've seen it take for a bear to hit it when I first put it in is about 4 days. Last year I had a bear on it 12 hours after I put it in. One other thing, if you put a game camera on the bait site be very careful to not get any grease on it. If you do you can expect them to knock it out of alignment or even destroy it. I always hang the camera initially and also dump the pictures first thing before re-baiting.

In my experience it takes a couple of weeks of faithful baiting before they get comfortable enough to start coming in during shooting light, especially a nice sized boar. Usually an hour before dark or they'll start staying an hour or so after daylight.