Bear hunters, help!
Bears
A friend and I are working 4 baits. We are 9 days in on our 2 week baiting window before the season starts in MN on 9/1. We've had 2 bears come in 1 time but don't return.
I'm using granola, trail mix and corn mixed with millasses as my base. Also adding gummy bears and chocolate. I'm gunna try putting out beaver castor jelly next but any other ideas to help my bears find the bait and return?
I know there are bears around I'm seeing them on my deer trail cams.
Anise and strawberry jello powder, but not mixed together. Oats and fryer oil is a "go to" Other than that, there's nothing wrong with your bait, they just have the feed bag on for something else.
I have thrown out some jello powder a couple times but not consistently. I've also mixed vanilla extract and vanilla coke and sprayed up into the trees and around bait. I've also watered down molasses and put a gallon into a weed sprayr and sprayed that up to 20 feet high into the trees.
I've been putting out about 5 gallons of bait each visit every other day if the coons and other critters got to the bait.
I'm just wondering why wouldn't the two bears that have found the bait not return? It's been a week with the first bear not returning and a few days for the second. There's been no shortage of scent that's for sure. The frustrating part is the one bear came in the first night and destroyed the bait! But then hasn't returned.
Big bears have a wide territory they cover and may not always hit regular, but just when they are passing through. Best you can do is keep things fresh and sit as many nights in a row as possible in hopes he'll return. My uncle had a bait last year that got hit within two hours, cleaned out, and never got hit again until almost den-up! It happens.
Best attractor bait I've found is a 50/50 mix of dead rotten fish juice that I ferment year round in a covered buckets and fryer grease. It really pulls the bears in!! I use an old mop to drag the scent trails and it kills every last living thing it comes in contact with...better than Round-up! LOL! DON'T get it on ya!!! My old dearly departed Beagle wouldn't even go near it, she'd turn tail and run, and if a Beagle won't go near it you know it's powerful:)
Consider a mature boar has a territory circle with a diameter of 60 miles. Right now he has the feed bag on and is narrowing his choice of denning site at the same time. Your baits may be far from his favorite berry stand that is closer to his possible bed from November to April. It's bears being bears.
It would help to know what area/zone in MN you are hunting in. I am pretty far North and my baits are being absolutely crushed! I suspect you must be in the No Quota or in an mast/farm crop area?
squash, pumpkins, apples, corn, sweet potatoes, kitchen scraps , a 20Lb bag of sugar mixed cherry jello honey, popcorn buttered, peanut butter
I'm in area 51. I think that's the zone. Whatever surrounds duluth area. I have lots of cams out around for deer and am.seeing bears here and there without bait. All my baits r close to a good water source.
Just checked them again tonight and nothing. I out out beaver castor see if that pulls anything in. I'm beginning to think there's just not many or any bears in the areas I'm baiting.
I'm in unit 44, SW of you, and ours are getting smashed too. We use donuts and candy, covered in restaurant grease.
I wonder how many other hunters are around with Baits out, it almost sounds like you have some competition.
This is a great Bait starter scent Northwood's Gold Rush. mix it with oil and dump it all over so they track it around for miles.
I really have no way of knowing how many other hunters are around. 2 of our baits are on public land but I've never seen anyone or fresh truck tracks.
I put out beaver castor on a bait behind my house yesterday and I ran back to check it after work and it was blown up! Finally. Havnt had a bear on the bait in 9 days and one came in hours after i put the castor out. Maybe a coincidence but I'll take it!
Donuts, peanut butter, and maple syrup. A good friend of mine is an outfitter in maine and I've never seen him have any issues getting the Bears attention. He gets expired pastries and donuts and then throws in some pb and syrup. He also takes fryer grease and in a one gallon jug dumps about half all around the site and then cuts a hole and hangs it from a branch to get the scent out even more . Not saying it's the only way but it ALWAYS works for him
If they ain't liking your carbs and sugar, try protein. Get your hands on fresh meat and bone scraps, freeze 2 or 3 pounds in bags, wire a bucket with holes in the bottom to a tree (if that's allowed in MN) drop a meatsicle in the bucket, put the lid on it and a rock on the lid. The sweets will draw them in but fresh meat,yum.
Your bait is fine, actually IMO nothing you could add would change a thing, like bear track said they are probably on a different food source, any agriculture in the area? I've done a bit of bear hunting and I've never seen bears eat like I did this spring, it was the evening after I shot my bear and I was filming for rattlingjunkie, he was using trail mix, I've never seen bears eat like that, they just inhale the stuff, they don't lift their head or look around they just eat like there's no tomorrow! Good luck
If you have baits on public you can all but guarantee you have other baiters working the bears too. Bears are a pain in the butt, they can blow you up everyday for weeks then quit. This little cool snap we are having should help they are going to eat more.
I can't prove it but I feel that bears like anything else will get board with the same foods so I offer a big variety I give them 4-6 items in one bait. this is what I have this year. All baits get(Granola, Sugar cones, Cookies,Key lime pie filling. Then I add two more items like popcorn, Moose tracks filling, donuts, Syrup and just a taste of chocolate. I just keep mixing it up so it is not always the same combination of foods.
Season opens in a week in MN so now is a good time for them to be blowing you up. Keep working it, keep the site clean and don't be afraid to add a treat to the site. Get a jar of peanut butter and smear it all over a tree and use it in the bait. I have had bears eat the bark off the tree to get the peanut butter.
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when there after there natural food does not matter what you have for bait they are not interested, honey is one of the only things that will work but you need to give it to them every day. Good luck
Thanks guys. Will keep at it. Yes there is a fair amount of agricultural land in the area. But from what I can tell they are mostly hay fields? No standing corn or beans that I can see.
Hopefully this one bear that came in comes back. Heading out shortly. Going to add some of the same and prolly throw in some popcorn to keep things fresh.
Well, made my bait round today and 3 baits out of 4 were demolished! After a week and a half of basically nothing I had 3 bears come in. 2 were day bears. The only thing I did different was hang a rag in a tree with beaver castor on it. The rag was gone at all 3 spots so I'd say that was the magic ticket!
Super excited now! One bear has a white V on his chest very pretty. Both are 150 to 200 pound range. Bring on opener I'm in business.
Good to hear!!!
We've had very good luck with Bear Scents LLC.its oil based so rain doesn't wash it away. Anise, hickory smoke and blueberry have worked well!
Here's the one I'm after West of Bemidji
