Bear baits/ scents ??

T

Tim Neitzke

New member
I have drawn my first Michigan black bear tag!

In 3 weeks I'm heading out too set some bear baits. Does anyone have any favorite bear bait or scents they would share?

So far I have....... dog food , fish, fryer grease, caramel and shelled corn.

Thanks,
Tim
 
I have baited bear here in this state and can tell you this. Go to Dunkin doughnuts and get as many day old doughnuts as you can. Next go to a butcher and ask them for the remains of fish such as heads and guts. Fill a 5 gallon bucket about half full of fish parts and put just enough water to cover the fish and then put the lid on it. Let it set say for about 4-5 days in the sun. Now, you are at your bait site say a couple of weeks before the hunt. You will need to replenish the doughnuts everyday if you can, if not every couple of days (that's what I did). When you setup the bait stand, pick the area clear the ground and pour old used fry max on the ground spreading it all over. Then build the rest of the stand. Now that that part is done take a chicken wrapped in cheese cloth and hang it from the tallest tree (you may need help here) that you can bend over. Tie the chicken to the top of that tree and cover it in liquid smoke and then let go. That will get them headed in your direction and help them find the bait. Once you have put your logs and limbs over the doughnuts (because bears don't like to just go eat they like to have to work for there food just a little) take a leaf rake and rake the ground making it look manicured. This is so that you can size up various bears with out actually being their. Now that you have done this for at least a week (7 days), remember the fish parts that have been sitting in the back forty fermenting? the day of the hunt you will put out a fresh batch of doughnuts in addition to the fish bucket. Hang the fish bucket mid way up a tree on a overhanging limb and shoot an arrow thru it so it can breath!! Sit tight cuz you are in for a whole lot of action!! Good luck and I hope this helps ya out!
 
Our friends found a company that let them go to there warehouse and take whatever pastries they wanted. They loved all the donuts, muffins, and whatever else was sweet tasting.
 
Thanks guys !
My bait site will be 5 hours away,so I'll be baiting once a week . I hope it's enough.

kapac,
WoW ! lot's of info!
I have made that nasty smelling fish stuff before. Only it was a quart jar for coon bait. STINKY !!!!! but work well for trapping bait.

Tim
 
You betcha sir, that smell will be like ringing a dinner bell at an all you can eat for under a buck!! Try the smokin chicken it works well also. Don't for get to rake the ground after you replenish the bait pile so you can keep sizing up the bears by there paw tracks!! Good luck and I hope this info. was helpful!
 
I have baited baears up in Alaska. I ran a station this year up in Kenai. I used donuts (hung them in burlap sacks and tied them about 10 feet in the air). I also used dried dog food and put donuts on the ground near the dog food.

Finish off the station with two suirt bottles of vanilla. Spray the trees down and the limbs.

Good luck!

Loren
 
Try also, getting all the Fryer grease you can. I get mine from all the local stores w/deli counters. Pour that all over and around your bait site. What this will do is get on the paws of the bears and go back into the thicks with them. Other bear will come along and and pick the scent up, and go right to the bait.

Get rid of the fish! Get some Anis oil, not the alcohol based stuff, but the actual Anis Oil. Mix 1 part AO with 3 part pure Bacon Grease. Soak rags that do not smell of laundry soap and hang(tie) in branches all around the site to give you 360 wind driven scent attractant.

Get the Dunkin Doughnuts too! Throw out any Onion or garlic bagles. They don't like them at all. If you cant get doughnuts, get your self some Charger Horse feed in 80lb bags and mix it up with 1/2 Store molasses and 1/2 feed grade molasses. The plain feed grade is to bitter and they will not touch it. Mix up about a 5 gallon bucket of food per night. Add just enough Molasses to make it stick together like thick oatmeal.

Treat the bear right too! If there are other baiters in the area, they will go to the best spot first, I promise you that. Have watched it happen many a times. Give em treats like a butter dish full of honey or cheap maple syrup. I would mix up both and add bacon grease and smear on the barrel and tree. They'll rip that tree a new ARSSSS!!!! not to mention lick the paint off the barrel.
Back to the grease a minute... Once they start hitting the bait site. take 10-15 gallons of the grease and pour it in one spot by the bait. Look, they'll dig a hole half way to China trying to get it all. They also wallow like a pig in it. It's really funny to watch.

Bears are creatures of opportunity! Treat them well, and your opportunity will be much greater for a nice Boar!

Good luck and post some Pics!

Pete
 
More good info!!
Thanks guys!
BTW... I have shot bears in Canada and I know a bit about baiting them. However there are so many bears there I think they eat anything. So I thought I'd ask, too add some more tricks to my hat!
Thanks too all.

Anyone else?

Tim
 
On the first morning of the hunt I like to take either an old soup can or a tuna can (cleaned) and put honey and some bacon in the bottom. Then put it on a backpacking type cook stove and turn it on and let it burn. The burning honey and bacon smell goes a long way. Works good to get the stand started too, as the smell will stick in the brush and trees and lead them straight to you.

Also I have heard, but never tried a plain old can of propane cracked barely open so that some of the "rotten egg" smell seaps out, leaving it open until gone. Im sure there would be a certain amount of hazard to this since it is a flamable gas (I know someone would have said something about that).

I have been trying the "bear bomb" aresol cans, and cant say they have done me any good so far, but I am hopefull.

Good luck, and like others have said take some pics and share them with us!
 
Once a week baiter to start, you need to get a scent ball & maybe some bacon spray from bearscents.com . Check them out but try to keep your bait pile at least 5 miles away from us. I'll be in the U.P. for the Sep 10th opener. Good luck.
 
Thanks again guys! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif

I'll have 11 days to bait before my tag starts. I'm going too refresh it 3 times in the 11 days .I hope it's enough. I'm hunting the Newberry area, if it don't all burn down!!!!!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif

Tim
 
Liquid smoke in a pop bottle with a little hole in the side and a piece of toilet paper/paper towel inside hung in a tree will attract the bears also put some on stumps and the trees.We buy liquid smoke by the gallon.The grease you have is also a good thing to put on trees and stumps also put it on the ground so bears track it all over the woods.I would poor grease on your dogfood and your popcorn too they'll love it.I would also get lots of bread and put some grease on some of that.Donuts, cakes, and other sweets are good too. We also put out gummies, fruit snacks, and other kinds of candy bears love them too.Pretty much anything you would eat and you can get in large quantities makes good bait.
 
Well donuts are tuff to get in my area . But I can get old bread for $.10 a loaf. I got 2 pails of sweets too pour on the bread; 5 gal of vanilla syrup and 5 gal of black berry jam. Should make some tasty treats!

It's going too be a ruff September : /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gifBear baiting, Goose hunting, then bear baiting and some goose hunting. Then bear hunting and some salmon fishing . maybe a little work along the way!!!!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif LOL

Tim /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
Hi see if your local grociery store will give you scrap meat trimmings or butcher shop, i also made up a bunch of bags of popcorn and poured molasses on it an froze the bags till i needed them bears love the sweet smell of molasses , i just shot my first black bear Sat. morning 18 yrd shot arrow went right through the bear from my tree stand with my Excalibur crossbow , bear went about 35 yrds and was dead.
Bearpics354.jpg
 
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where are you hunting xbowking?

I'm going bear hunting in 2 weeks and i'm bringing the .308 and crossbow. use the gun one day and bow the next.


Just bought an excalibur crossbow 2 weeks ago, hope to try it out on a bear before deer season /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
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