MartinArcher

I baited for bears at 3 sites this past spring. I had a few bears coming in sparatically but not consistant enough. I used dog food with syrup and doghnuts most of the time. I also used bearscents bacon and shellfish scents which didnt seem to do alot. anyone got advice for me?

wis_bow_huntr

Anything sweet. Theres a place near Chippewa falls that sells sweets by the 50 gallon barell. Such as gummy bears, donughts, pie mix, you get the pic. This is what he does he tends to the needs of bear hunters. I will see if I can dig up some more information on the company. I know he also houses hundreds of bear dogs as well during the off season. Hes constantly getting shipments of bear treats in.

GR8atta2d

Everything I read says, beavers, use beavers.

YooperMike

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.

MC Bowhunter

We went to Pepperidge Farms and got 55 gallon drums of there old cake and cookies. You might ask some stores if they would give you expired meat. We would also hang some carp in the tree to have a stronger scent to get the bears attention. But they like the sweet stuff that's for sure.Man Just thinking about it makes me want to go on another bear hunt.

Darrall Dougherty

WARedBear

TIME....it also takes time for them to come in to the bait. When we could bait...[:@]...we started around the July 4th holiday. We would go out about once a week to add more. It usually took a month for the bait to get hit hard. Then we would start baiting more often. By mid August we were baiting almost everyday to get ready for a September 1st opening day. It depends on the area as well. We built a stand and baited in an area that was secluded and the bait got hit the first night. We had eight bears coming in on us opening night.

You also have to determine what the bears like. We used molasses on one mountain side with good success...but it didn't do squat on another mountain. Go figure . There are all kinds of bait you can use so put a type of bait on or against a tree and another type on another tree. Check them out to see what the bears like. We dragged a dead goat up to one stand...it freaked the bears out and they never touched it. But sweets are usually a good bet.

Has anyone ever done honey burns to attract bear?

Happy Hunting
Reid

YooperMike

We've done burns, I use honey and bacon and kool-aid mix and a little water. Works awesome, smells great, nearly got into it myself! I don't know if we could actually attribute any of the bears coming in to the credit of the burn, but they came while the stuff was cooking. I think if you maybe have a skittish bear, he may come in with the burn since the smell is so enticing.

Jim_IV

I am going to try and use my little sister as bait. i heard those middle school kids work great

WARedBear

Make sure you coat them in honey and grease before you let them go.

gplant

Skined beaver (stop it) and sweet stuff.Check to see if and when it is legal to use sweets.