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I personally would only leave the scents out while I am there, no sense in having one come in during the middle of the night and find out your scent leads to nothing and then not return. The rub trees say a bear is in the area, which is a good start, but the majority of rubbing is during the breeding season (late may, june). If it were me I would scout the food sources, looking for feeding areas; acorns, and nuts probably the most prevalent this time of year, once i found feeding areas, circle around and look for bear piles, scat, on trails, if there is fresh poop then they area moving thru that area. I would look for a tree where I could watch as many trails as possible, between the thick areas, where they bed and the food source.

With scents I would put some on or near the trails as well as hang some up high, where you can take advantage of the wind to carry the scent over some distance.

I have a thought but I am sure it has not been studied, but look at the crap pile and see which end is the pinched off end, this end would point in the direction the bear is heading, might " point" you in the right direction to continued scouting.

The fall bears are out to feed and put on weight, so they will be where the food is and resting in the thick nearby.

Hope it helps. It' s the theory I use when scouting for my bear stand.

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The rub tree is kinda like a deer rub, leaving scent and showing dominance for the area, but with bears it' s kinda like " I can mark the tree higher than you can so I' m bigger" mentality. The mud is probably from him rolling around in a spring or stream to stay cool on a hot day. We have watched a bear do this mid summer in a spring seep behind our cabin, kinda cool to watch, laid and rolled in it for more than an hour.

How active they are during the day would depend on the time of the fall and weather and food availablility. I am not sure when the bear season is in VA, in PA it is the week of thanksgiving. By then if it is cold and or snow around, pregnant sows would probably be dened up and sows with cubs and boars are probably feeding as much as possible. Mornings and evening have better odds but any time of day they may be moving, especially if there is any amount of hunting pressure. In PA alot of camps like to drive for bear and that gets them moving around. Our season is only 3 days so I hunt the full day every day. Ideally I guess you would want a typical fall weather and then a cold spell to kick in, that should push them to feed heavily in anticipation of denning up. If weather is mild and food sources are good, they might not even den up at all and just go on with normal daily activities.

Best bet find an area with alot of bear sign and near food source and hang out all day.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions. Help if i can.

Another side note: The bigger in diameter, size of the crap pile, the bigger the bear. If what your seeing is a few larger piles with alot of smaller ones close by, probably a sow with cubs. Look for beds too, good sign of where they are spending their days.