I got a kill tag for this fall. There are quite a few bears around, in fact I see them almost as often as I see deer when bowhunting over baitpiles. But it takes 4-5 years to get a tag so I don't want to screw this up. I own 50 acres of nice woods right behind my house so I could hunt every night. I plan to bait. What's the best? Keep in mind that baiting deer is now illegal. Also, what about the stand? I have some portables, also a couple permanent that work well for deer. The woods are a mix of ravines, hardwoods, poplar. I had a tag a few years ago that I couldn't fill. I don't know what I did wrong. Is hunting for a large bear different than hunting for smaller ones, like it is for deer, or do you get what you get? Any advice would help a lot. Thanks.
bear bait and stand info needed
- Thread starter jeffo
- Start date
Jeffo,
I baited bears hard for about ten years and killed quite a few before a couple of kids came along. I always baited here in the spring, so some of this may or may not apply to your area.
Since it sounds like you will be baiting on your property (50 acres) one bait is probably all you are going to need to setup. I would find the most secluded part of your property where a bear can come and go without being bothered by any human intrusion. I found bears don't like to cross a lot of open ground to come to a bait. That can cause them to show up after dark. So put your bait where a bear has plenty of cover to feel safe approaching in good shooting light.
Take good note of how the wind and thermals are working before you put up a stand so incoming bears can't wind you in the stand.(I am talking in terms of getting them within bow range) The wind can also be your biggest help by carrying the scent of the bait all thru the woods and attracting bears from miles away. I always liked having a place where bears could drink within a 1/4 to 1/2 mile of the bait. I think alot of the stuff bears eat on a bait makes them more thirsty and they will travel back and forth to a water supply.
I always started a bait with a burlap bag filled with meat that had gone real bad and tied it up into a tree where the winds would carry the putrid scent all over the mountains. When you start the bait, setup your treestand also. If you wait until the bears start hitting the bait you'll make too much noise setting up the stand and that can cause the bears to leave the bait for a few days. Clear any shooting lanes beforehand also. In other words have the stand totally ready to sit in when you set out the bait the first time.
Bring a small backpacking camp stove or start a small fire and burn some used cooking grease,honey,or molasses in a old fry pan or coffee can. Burning this will flood the area with stuff that smells good to bears and they will come check it out. Pour a bunch of used cooking grease around the bait. The bears will lick it up and get it on their paws and make scent trails all thru the woods attracting more bears that cross their path.
I always liked to put meat scraps,bread,used cooking grease,in a metal drum with a hole just big enough to where a bear could get its paw in and dig out goodies. It makes them work harder for the bait and they will stick around longer. If I just put the bait in a hole and covered it with logs the bears would uncover it and the ravens would come in and clean out your bait. Believe me 40 ravens can clean out your bait in no time.
I always used a cheap trail timer,to see when the bait was getting hit. One time in particular the trail timer would always be tripped within a couple of minutes of my leaving. I figured it was birds until the first time I sat and within 5 minutes a nice 6' brownish bear showed up. So don't be surprised if they come in fast after you leave.
I have probably left alot out here but I gotta get, If you have anymore questions that I didn't cover fire away. Good luck on that bear!
I baited bears hard for about ten years and killed quite a few before a couple of kids came along. I always baited here in the spring, so some of this may or may not apply to your area.
Since it sounds like you will be baiting on your property (50 acres) one bait is probably all you are going to need to setup. I would find the most secluded part of your property where a bear can come and go without being bothered by any human intrusion. I found bears don't like to cross a lot of open ground to come to a bait. That can cause them to show up after dark. So put your bait where a bear has plenty of cover to feel safe approaching in good shooting light.
Take good note of how the wind and thermals are working before you put up a stand so incoming bears can't wind you in the stand.(I am talking in terms of getting them within bow range) The wind can also be your biggest help by carrying the scent of the bait all thru the woods and attracting bears from miles away. I always liked having a place where bears could drink within a 1/4 to 1/2 mile of the bait. I think alot of the stuff bears eat on a bait makes them more thirsty and they will travel back and forth to a water supply.
I always started a bait with a burlap bag filled with meat that had gone real bad and tied it up into a tree where the winds would carry the putrid scent all over the mountains. When you start the bait, setup your treestand also. If you wait until the bears start hitting the bait you'll make too much noise setting up the stand and that can cause the bears to leave the bait for a few days. Clear any shooting lanes beforehand also. In other words have the stand totally ready to sit in when you set out the bait the first time.
Bring a small backpacking camp stove or start a small fire and burn some used cooking grease,honey,or molasses in a old fry pan or coffee can. Burning this will flood the area with stuff that smells good to bears and they will come check it out. Pour a bunch of used cooking grease around the bait. The bears will lick it up and get it on their paws and make scent trails all thru the woods attracting more bears that cross their path.
I always liked to put meat scraps,bread,used cooking grease,in a metal drum with a hole just big enough to where a bear could get its paw in and dig out goodies. It makes them work harder for the bait and they will stick around longer. If I just put the bait in a hole and covered it with logs the bears would uncover it and the ravens would come in and clean out your bait. Believe me 40 ravens can clean out your bait in no time.
I always used a cheap trail timer,to see when the bait was getting hit. One time in particular the trail timer would always be tripped within a couple of minutes of my leaving. I figured it was birds until the first time I sat and within 5 minutes a nice 6' brownish bear showed up. So don't be surprised if they come in fast after you leave.
I have probably left alot out here but I gotta get, If you have anymore questions that I didn't cover fire away. Good luck on that bear!
Curt Barrett
New member
Great info Lonny! Thanks for sharing. Wish we could still bait here. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif
R Buker
New member
Lonny,
Great info. I think you covered most of the bases but one thing that stands out in what you said is the use of meat. For some reason, in my experience, bears don't go for old meat in the fall like they do in the spring. In the fall, I'd stick with anything that smelled of berries and tasted like sugar.
Sometimes larger bakery outlets will have outdated product or waste product like raspberry glaze, frosting etc.
I'm baiting this year and my mix of bait is:
Berry patch bear bait made by Land-0-Lakes covered in powdered sugar and raspberry glaze.
Waste cereal from a large producer of cereal (Give me the sugar coated stuff and forget about the the health food! HA HA)
Black oil sunflowers.
That's it. All sweet except for the sunflowers.
Great info. I think you covered most of the bases but one thing that stands out in what you said is the use of meat. For some reason, in my experience, bears don't go for old meat in the fall like they do in the spring. In the fall, I'd stick with anything that smelled of berries and tasted like sugar.
Sometimes larger bakery outlets will have outdated product or waste product like raspberry glaze, frosting etc.
I'm baiting this year and my mix of bait is:
Berry patch bear bait made by Land-0-Lakes covered in powdered sugar and raspberry glaze.
Waste cereal from a large producer of cereal (Give me the sugar coated stuff and forget about the the health food! HA HA)
Black oil sunflowers.
That's it. All sweet except for the sunflowers.
Wisconsinator
New member
Jeffo,
It looks like you got a lot of great ideas there. But, I would check the regulations, I think in the 70's they outlawed the use of meat at baits. Also, living in Wisconsin corn is usually easy to find. Mixed with a little syrup or chocolate pudding it makes a great filler.
Good luck.
It looks like you got a lot of great ideas there. But, I would check the regulations, I think in the 70's they outlawed the use of meat at baits. Also, living in Wisconsin corn is usually easy to find. Mixed with a little syrup or chocolate pudding it makes a great filler.
Good luck.
BroncoGlenn
New member
Here's something I found at: http://www2.huntinfo.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/003058.html
Here are a couple ideas that have worked for me. I ran around 30 baits this spring and they are alot of work to say the least. Main concern when most people start a bait is cost. Go see your local restaurants and see what you can do about getting a pile of their old five gallon pickel/mayo/etc buckets. Most won't save table scraps for you because of health regulations. But they may dump their grease once or twice a week and you can get that if you come pick it up right away.
Take the buckets to the local butcher and ask him if he will start filling them for you if you come pick them up every day or every other day. Kentucky Fried Chicken joints have great grease so if someone is close and can get buckets it works great. If you can't get buckets go buy a few of the rubbermaid trash cans and you can have the butcher put the scraps in them but they can be hard to move. A 5 gallon bucket will weigh about 30 lbs so the 35's are 7 times that and are tough to move. If you are short on 5's it is also handy to dump your grease into a 55 gallon barrel, but you need some place sunny or warm to put it as the stuff will set up quick.
Grain is reasonable, cheaper than dog food and the bears will like it as much if ya dump a little grease or mollases on it, also the calf ration that has cracked corn and mollases already added works great. Cheap maple syrup is a hit too. Take your post hole digger out and dig a post hole about 30-40 inches deep and fill it with a mixture of maple syrup and popped popcorn or rolled oats. What this will do is keep a bear occupied if they come in and your barrel or bait is cleaned out.
Popcorn is a real cheap "filler" for your baits. You can go to Cosco and buy 5 lb bags for about $5.00 and they will pop out to fill about a 35 gallon trask can. While you are popping he popcorn mist it with vanill and sprinkle powdered jello on it while it is damp so it will stick. Bears will kill themselves (literally) to get it. I lay a trail of this popcorn to right in front of the tree stand for my hunters and we had several bears killed at point blank range because they get occupoied with picking up each piece of candy (jello) coated popcorn. Get in contact with your largest bakery and ask if you can come pick up two and three day old stuff. You will have some competition for this if there is bear hunters around or hog farmers.
What we do is this, Put a layer of about 3 inches thick of meat scraps in the bottom of the bucket, then dump a little grease mix about six-eight inches thick over the meat scraps, put a six inch or so layer of donuts/bread and dump some mollases or syrup and grain mix on this. Two of these buckets a day will take care of most baits. The ticket here is the meat on the bottom will be heavier than the crap on top of it and will push the grease mix and mollases out and it will all come out without spending 10 minutes trying to dig it out with a stick. If the bait runs out during the night and a bear comes in he will dig to China trying to get at the last bit of syrup mix in your hole so it will keep him busy and coming back.
When we start baits we will use Kncko-Out Bear Lure from James Valley scents. This stuff is RIPE! It works just like the rotten mink carcasses and rotten beaver carcasses with out all the lovely handling. It is in a paste and you glob it on a rag and hang it in a tree. A jar of it is around 10 bucks and will work to open about 8 baits. They also make some stuff called Sweet Tooth and works good to "burn" to put sweet smell and smoke in the air. What works good is take a coffee can and punch some vent holes along the bottom edge. Put a good layer of brickettes in the bottom and get them burning. Put some of this Sweet Tooth crap in a small tuna can and drop it on top of the hot coals and let it perk. It will smoke to beat heck and carry around real well. Pour a little on the coals too. Last plug for James Valley (no I don't have stock in the company!LOL) is their Sow in heat piss. Good stuff IF you have an active bait already, not real effective just squirting the stuff all over and waiting for a bear to come in.
Last little tid bit and I'll shut the hell up. A spray bottle with a teaspoon of anise oil, one cup of vanilla and about 5 cups of water and mist is around the area will leave a nice sweet smell and really helps, can't hurt to try los of stuff. Also we dump about 5 gallons of grease in front of the bait so the bears walk through it. Gets their feet full of grease and when they walk around other bears will cut their track and hopefully follow it in.
Good luck, baiting is a pain in the A$$ but alot of fun.
Here are a couple ideas that have worked for me. I ran around 30 baits this spring and they are alot of work to say the least. Main concern when most people start a bait is cost. Go see your local restaurants and see what you can do about getting a pile of their old five gallon pickel/mayo/etc buckets. Most won't save table scraps for you because of health regulations. But they may dump their grease once or twice a week and you can get that if you come pick it up right away.
Take the buckets to the local butcher and ask him if he will start filling them for you if you come pick them up every day or every other day. Kentucky Fried Chicken joints have great grease so if someone is close and can get buckets it works great. If you can't get buckets go buy a few of the rubbermaid trash cans and you can have the butcher put the scraps in them but they can be hard to move. A 5 gallon bucket will weigh about 30 lbs so the 35's are 7 times that and are tough to move. If you are short on 5's it is also handy to dump your grease into a 55 gallon barrel, but you need some place sunny or warm to put it as the stuff will set up quick.
Grain is reasonable, cheaper than dog food and the bears will like it as much if ya dump a little grease or mollases on it, also the calf ration that has cracked corn and mollases already added works great. Cheap maple syrup is a hit too. Take your post hole digger out and dig a post hole about 30-40 inches deep and fill it with a mixture of maple syrup and popped popcorn or rolled oats. What this will do is keep a bear occupied if they come in and your barrel or bait is cleaned out.
Popcorn is a real cheap "filler" for your baits. You can go to Cosco and buy 5 lb bags for about $5.00 and they will pop out to fill about a 35 gallon trask can. While you are popping he popcorn mist it with vanill and sprinkle powdered jello on it while it is damp so it will stick. Bears will kill themselves (literally) to get it. I lay a trail of this popcorn to right in front of the tree stand for my hunters and we had several bears killed at point blank range because they get occupoied with picking up each piece of candy (jello) coated popcorn. Get in contact with your largest bakery and ask if you can come pick up two and three day old stuff. You will have some competition for this if there is bear hunters around or hog farmers.
What we do is this, Put a layer of about 3 inches thick of meat scraps in the bottom of the bucket, then dump a little grease mix about six-eight inches thick over the meat scraps, put a six inch or so layer of donuts/bread and dump some mollases or syrup and grain mix on this. Two of these buckets a day will take care of most baits. The ticket here is the meat on the bottom will be heavier than the crap on top of it and will push the grease mix and mollases out and it will all come out without spending 10 minutes trying to dig it out with a stick. If the bait runs out during the night and a bear comes in he will dig to China trying to get at the last bit of syrup mix in your hole so it will keep him busy and coming back.
When we start baits we will use Kncko-Out Bear Lure from James Valley scents. This stuff is RIPE! It works just like the rotten mink carcasses and rotten beaver carcasses with out all the lovely handling. It is in a paste and you glob it on a rag and hang it in a tree. A jar of it is around 10 bucks and will work to open about 8 baits. They also make some stuff called Sweet Tooth and works good to "burn" to put sweet smell and smoke in the air. What works good is take a coffee can and punch some vent holes along the bottom edge. Put a good layer of brickettes in the bottom and get them burning. Put some of this Sweet Tooth crap in a small tuna can and drop it on top of the hot coals and let it perk. It will smoke to beat heck and carry around real well. Pour a little on the coals too. Last plug for James Valley (no I don't have stock in the company!LOL) is their Sow in heat piss. Good stuff IF you have an active bait already, not real effective just squirting the stuff all over and waiting for a bear to come in.
Last little tid bit and I'll shut the hell up. A spray bottle with a teaspoon of anise oil, one cup of vanilla and about 5 cups of water and mist is around the area will leave a nice sweet smell and really helps, can't hurt to try los of stuff. Also we dump about 5 gallons of grease in front of the bait so the bears walk through it. Gets their feet full of grease and when they walk around other bears will cut their track and hopefully follow it in.
Good luck, baiting is a pain in the A$$ but alot of fun.
Randy B, Great point and I'll have to defer to your knowledge of fall baiting in that part of the country. I only baited in the spring season and meat worked great. From others I have talked too around here they also said that bears didn't have quite as much interest in meat baits in the fall. Probably due to other foods being available in the fall. In the spring here in Idaho besides grass,insects,and occasional elk calf there is not much for bears to fill up on and they are hungery. I do think some rancid meat really gets the smell out there to attract bears though. I always thought bears would rather eat fresh meat at the bait though.
Jeffo, Thats why its a great idea to talk to guys who bait in your area and find out what works well for bait, and is cheap and easy to get. You can't go wrong with the sweets thats for sure. My dream when I was baiting heavy was to be driving down the road and come across a wrecked Hostess truck. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Jeffo, one thing I always did religiously was to try and bait at the same time of the day. Usually midday. Getting a bear or bears into a routine of knowing there is fresh food and they can come in and eat is half the battle. I tried to avoid late afternoon baiting. Because I sat in the evenings. Get some cattle grade molasses and pour it on and around the bait. You can also mix it with rolled oats and bears love it. If your having trouble getting hits do the honey,molasses or grease burn every time you freshen the bait.
I know an outfitter here who gets between 30-50 bears each spring using nothing but animal grade molasses. He horsepacks into the backcountry and pours the molasses on rotten stumps and when it gets active he will have a client sit over the bait. Pretty simple but effective.
Curt, It is too bad you guys can't bait over there anymore. We almost lost it here in 96 but, luckily the voters knew the truth and did the right thing.
You know you've become a serious bear baiter when people walk by your truck and gag. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Jeffo, Thats why its a great idea to talk to guys who bait in your area and find out what works well for bait, and is cheap and easy to get. You can't go wrong with the sweets thats for sure. My dream when I was baiting heavy was to be driving down the road and come across a wrecked Hostess truck. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Jeffo, one thing I always did religiously was to try and bait at the same time of the day. Usually midday. Getting a bear or bears into a routine of knowing there is fresh food and they can come in and eat is half the battle. I tried to avoid late afternoon baiting. Because I sat in the evenings. Get some cattle grade molasses and pour it on and around the bait. You can also mix it with rolled oats and bears love it. If your having trouble getting hits do the honey,molasses or grease burn every time you freshen the bait.
I know an outfitter here who gets between 30-50 bears each spring using nothing but animal grade molasses. He horsepacks into the backcountry and pours the molasses on rotten stumps and when it gets active he will have a client sit over the bait. Pretty simple but effective.
Curt, It is too bad you guys can't bait over there anymore. We almost lost it here in 96 but, luckily the voters knew the truth and did the right thing.
You know you've become a serious bear baiter when people walk by your truck and gag. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
pomoxis
New member
Here is a couple of other hints:
You can use day old white bread if you pour a little homemade maple syrup. Bears will not eat bread with mold on it.
You can follow the instructions on the maple flavor extract for the base but add a little anise to kick up the smell a notch or two.
Always use the same trail into and out of the bait station that goes next to your blind. The bear may be listening to you come and go from the bait site. With the help of a time I found out that one bear was hitting the bait 30 minutes after I loaded the barrel in the morning.
Bring a rag to wipe your hand and leave it next to bait barrel. As the bear is hitting the bait on a regular basis add a second rag to wipe the sweat and leave it at the blind site. This way if a fickle wind sends your scent to the bait it will not alarm the bear too much. I had a bear sniff the wipe rag before relaxing and started reaching for the bait. I also had the bear follow my entrance/exit trail.
Rake the area in front of the bait barrel and pour grease around the front. This will get the bear to track the grease and other bears will follow the trail back to the bait.
When the bait is being hit hard I used string and clothespins to determine which direction the bear was coming from. A nail in one tree with the string tied to it and the other end a clothespin is attached to branch and the string lightly clipped will have the bear drag the string in the direction the bear is heading.
I had fun when baiting bears was legal in Oregon
You can use day old white bread if you pour a little homemade maple syrup. Bears will not eat bread with mold on it.
You can follow the instructions on the maple flavor extract for the base but add a little anise to kick up the smell a notch or two.
Always use the same trail into and out of the bait station that goes next to your blind. The bear may be listening to you come and go from the bait site. With the help of a time I found out that one bear was hitting the bait 30 minutes after I loaded the barrel in the morning.
Bring a rag to wipe your hand and leave it next to bait barrel. As the bear is hitting the bait on a regular basis add a second rag to wipe the sweat and leave it at the blind site. This way if a fickle wind sends your scent to the bait it will not alarm the bear too much. I had a bear sniff the wipe rag before relaxing and started reaching for the bait. I also had the bear follow my entrance/exit trail.
Rake the area in front of the bait barrel and pour grease around the front. This will get the bear to track the grease and other bears will follow the trail back to the bait.
When the bait is being hit hard I used string and clothespins to determine which direction the bear was coming from. A nail in one tree with the string tied to it and the other end a clothespin is attached to branch and the string lightly clipped will have the bear drag the string in the direction the bear is heading.
I had fun when baiting bears was legal in Oregon