10 gallons 2 times a week. When August comes I bait more often. A minimum of 3 baits per hunter.
As the season progresses I like to add trail mix with nuts to the bait.
I keep away from a lot of chocolates and molasses as they can give the bears the squirts....
Good Luck
Always mixing things up as much as I can. With whatever I can get my hands on cheap. Mostly the last couple years it's been cookies. A variety in every barrel. Got some taco chips on the way. Wont use much more than that. Granola for me is insane. Great bait just cannot afford it. I look at big picture on everything. Fuel to get, or shipping. My time if I got to go get it. All this factors into barrel price. There are cheaper baits, but fuel makes them more costly.
Have played with popcorn some. But that really is a pain in the butt! Bear will eat it, but just dont seem to like as much.
Really close to using dog food. Got decent source for that. Barrel price might be a tad higher. Might order some just to figure it out. Not same size kibble as what I feed my dogs. So that wont work well.
Overall there is nothing cheap about bear hunting!
Yes, they eat it and like it to some degree. But cookies, granola,etc are much more preferred. Can see this even when putting them together in the bait, by what they dont eat. Of course you need to be baiting on a daily basis or more to see this.
On the dog food. The ingredients would not make a difference. Since it has gone through a manufacturing process it is not a meat, or fish thing by the rules. Same thing as many of the stuff used currently. Like yogurt for example. Definitely an animal by product. But the manufacturing process is the key. I will contact the DNR and get a exact clarification on this. But betting I am right!
Mix it with some Jello powder or kool-aid and away you go!
I heard dog food was illegal too, I'm pretty sure it was our local warden that told me. Let us know what you hear back on the legality of dog food, I'm interested on that myself.
As I type we have an anti group up here in Bayfield County following the bear hound hunters around.
happygolucky's Link
My vehicle is rigged up with a dashboard camera and with a motion detection hidden camera when parked. Its to bad these are the extremes I have to take.
Fryer grease is tricky too, cannot contain and animal product so needs to be vegie oil.
I used to use a flavoring called "Pig-1 Plus Berry". Get it at a feed mill. It works to turn filler material into something bears will like to eat. Have not used it in many years as all the bait I have used lately does not need any flavoring added. I have added this stuff to ice cream and ate it just to see what it was like. Pretty good.
Stay away from chocolate, too much will kill a bear. How much is too much, I have no clue.
Will surely check on the dog food. Running on empty so might take me a day or two to get the ball rolling. Should be interesting to see what they say on this. As I said it was manufacturing process which made some things legal like yogurt. If they do say no on it. I will surely be bringing this up again. How can a manufacturing process make one animal by product legal, but not another. Guess that is how some things work.
WDNR website bear bait regulations on baiting.
• Contains any animal part or animal by-product.
Animal part or animal by-product means: honey, bones, fish, meat, solid animal fat, animal carcass, or parts of animal carcasses, but does not include liquid scents.
Long time ago I heard there was some kind of dog food that did meet the DNR requirement but the cost of it versus other baits back then made it too expensive. Maybe with bear bait being way more expensive and harder to find has changed the price difference.
On the issue of grease. I use a lot of grease, especially in MN. I put it in plastic 55 gallon drums and let it settle out for months. The fatty stuff (that WI does not allow and looks like mashed potatoes) settles to the bottom. Then pump off the top half of the thin oil and put that in separate barrels for use in WI. Leave half of the thin stuff in the MN drums just to be sure I don't get 'bad' stuff in WI and need some thin in the MN grease anyway. Grease keeps well as in many years. Just don't store it in the sun or where bears can get to it and don't store it in those flimsy 5 gallon grease jugs as other critters like coon chew into them. (come to think of it, I shot a woodchuck that was inside my pole shed a month ago. I better go check if it chewed into any of my grease barrels)
Note, a full 55 gallon barrel is HEAVY. I now use 30 gallon barrels and pumped all my 55s into 30s. To pour it out of a barrel glue a 90 degree pvc electrical elbow to a threaded end that fits into the threaded barrel plug. I think 3/4". You cam pour the thin oil from the barrel into a pail pretty easy that way.
Grease is still fairly easy to get for free. It comes to me without looking or asking now. I used to get three 55 gallon jugs about every 3 months from a grocery store that had a deli. It was free, I supplied the barrels so I could just roll the new ones onto the trailer and replace with 3 empty ones. Many orgs like 4H, churches, etc hold money raising meal events on their own or at places like county fairs. If you know someone in one of those orgs they can probably hook you up with getting jugs of it right from their event.
Updated after reading the next post. I think cheese curds would be off limits in WI, unless someone figured out how to make it without milk. (Updated again, the regs specifically say cheese is OK to use, go figure)
I don't use used oil. I use a lot of peanut oil from peanut butter and corn oil, that's it.
No sense in getting a ticket over something you have no control over.
Couple years ago I posted the message from the DNR about the yogurt. Now based on the regs your quoting to a guy that knows that like the back of his hand. Yougurt and many other thing would be illegal. Including many granola products. However, Like I am know stating for the 3rd time. I went to the top on this. Due to the manufacturing process it is legal. I did argue back. It contains an animal by product. Like I have done, the chief warden repeated himself. Of course I had to take another angle on it. Cheese is the result of a manufacturing process. That didnt fly though.
When I get time here in a few days. Will contact the chief warden again. Will also find and post those old messages on bait.
As for the oil in fish thing. WRONG!!! Any cooking oil used for anything can be used so long as it does not contain solid matter of the product it was used to fry. Solid greases can also be used. But only if they are place inside of the bait. So if you used shortening to fry something up. You can use it to bait. As long as it is inside the bait,and again not containing in solids of the material fried.
Also still have the email regarding this as well. Thought about asking my local warden today when we talked. But dont want his opinion. I want his bosses statement of fact! As that is what my local guy will have to go by!
Know a guy that wishes I did this leg work years ago. As he got ticketed for using fish oil. Fully legal, but local warden had his opinion. Which means nothing to his boss.
Remember not only is my fine possibly much bigger than yours. It could cost me my lively-hood. Dont think for one second not going to dot every I and cross every T. Opinions mean nothing. I need cold hard facts!! I will get proper clarification in writing.
First Question: Fryer Oil used to cook/fry fish, chicken or other meat products
It is legal to use vegetable oil as bait for bear, even if it has been used to fry fish, chicken or other meat products. As you pointed out, it would be necessary to strain the oil to make sure there is no solid animal parts remaining in the oil. The smell is not the determining factor. It simply may not contain any bones, fish, meat, solid animal fat, or parts of animal carcasses. Liquid material that remain liquid at room temperature are not prohibited, except that honey is not allowed.
If you choose to use this liquid material as a scent to attract bears solely by the odor, it does not need to be confined within the capped hollow log or hole in the ground, but is considered part of your 10 gallon limit of bait. Realizing that all scent materials are also still considered bait.
Second Question: Grease, Shortening or similar materials used to cook/fry potatoes, or fish, chicken or other meat products
It depends what the grease or shortening is made from.
1. Cooking materials like shortening made from 100 % vegetable products, and not any animal fat, would be legal to use as bait the same as the above liquid vegetable oil, even if used to cook fish, chicken or other meat products.
a. Because this would not be considered a liquid it could not be used as a scent material outside of the capped hollow log or hole in the ground.
2. Cooking materials that are made up of, or include animal fat which will solidify when cooled to room temperature would not be legal to use for bear bait, as this would be considered solid animal fat, which is prohibited.
I hope the above information answers your questions fully.
Thomas Van Haren
Conservation Warden & NR Policy Officer
Bureau of Law Enforcement
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
(() phone: (608) 266-3244
Website: dnr.wi.gov
Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/WIDNR
Thank you for passing on!
