Active zone C bear bait?
Wisconsin
Anyone have an active zone C bear bait going?
My brother has a tag to fill and as of this past weekend still no luck. We had bears coming in of all sizes up until 3 days before the season opened and since then they have gone completely cold. Really depressing but from what neighbors with lots of oak trees have told us it sounds like we lost the battle to the oak trees.
Please let me know if anyone can help, wont be getting up there until next Friday for the very end of season but he would really like to get something going.
Thanks,
ACU
Your in the same boat as a lot of other baiters in zone C. I had a number of people calling me and even a local tv outdoor show looking to see if I had active baits or knew of anyone. Yup lots of acorns and mushrooms. Good luck and hope you find an active bait. I know a lot of zone C hunters wish the DNR would open the season a week or two earlier.
Had same scenario by us. 2 of my buddies have tags. Was getting hit until a week before the opener. Acorns began raining. Funny thing is,last week it started getting hit again. Bad thing is the only sighting was when a guy was walking in last Friday. They have been hunting during the week & weekends. Can't win i guess. Good luck.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Zone C! There is a reason the tag is easy to get compared to the other zones. I was in the exact same situation as you 3 years ago.
Yea its crazy, we had an impression he'd have his pick. Boy were we wrong. Couldn't even cut fresh track the first 3 weeks of the season. If you didn't have a lot of Oak trees you were SOL.
I have been hearing the same thing here in Portage County. All my baits are still active, but a lot slower. I have a young gal that is still trying to fill her tag. We saw a sow with triplets this afternoon. She has seen 2 other legal bears, just hasn't had an opportunity to take the shot.
I change up the scents alot, but still use the same basic bait. As soon as the acorns start to drop I always add nuts to the baits.
I have had hunters kill bears during the first week as well as the last week. I killed my last bear here in Wisconsin in the last Monday of the season 3 years ago.
Remember that drawing a kill tag isn't a guarantee to fill it and the success rate in zone C is right around 20 %. You are not alone......
Been really slow. My hot bait died last week I started a new bait yesterday deep in the bottoms by a river. Added some new items to the bait and my son is going to give it hell for the last week.
Actually the bait for my son has went crazy this last week. All bears started showing back up again at all times of the day. It was nice to see the change, and he filled his tag with a beautiful 168# boar over the week-end!
