Bowsite.com

BEAR HUNTING

I drew a tag for zone c. I have never bear hunted before. When do you guys start baiting? How often do you bait? Is the 5 week season bow or gun? I plan on hunting after work, does anyone know of an area with bears around the Lacrosse area?

The season isn't weapon specific.

Baiting....you ask 10 bear hunters on how often and how much to bait and you'll get 10 different answers.

Unless they open the season up a week early, its a tough go to tag one. It is fun baiting and getting photos, but they seem to vanish that week before opening. If you can figure that one out, let me know the secret.

Very few bears anywhere around Lacrosse. Start baiting the first day it is legal, especially in an area with few bears.

Some years we will start baiting as soon as it is legal. However more often than not this is a waste of bait here that will mold and be useless. First the weather has to warm enough for the bears to even come out of hibernation. Then once they do. They do not start eating anything and everything right away. They have to first get the digestive system going, and plug out. By eating grasses to do so. It may be a week or two before they are willing to hit your bait. Depending on each bear. If the weather is right by April 15th. I will start only a couple of test baits. To see where they are at in the feeding. They start firing up more baits as the days pass. Normally all our baits are fired up by May 15th. All going strong by memorial day.

Because of what we do. We start baiting every couple of days until the last week of June. Mostly because there is a lot of work to do at each bait site. New stumps, logs, digging holes, etc. Come the last week of June most everything has been taken care of. Then we start baiting every single day until the last day of hunting in October, or until I decide to shut a bait down.

There is a reason why baits in C shut down a week before give or take to the start of harvest season. This has been discussed many times. I can never stress it enough it seems. It is simply a change in food sources. Your baits need to be placed accordingly to these fall foods. In C there may be nothing you can do about it regardless. Large cornfields would be a HUGE example. I dont care if you have the entire Dunkin doughnuts factory dumped at your site. You will be hard pressed to get a bear out of the corn. They can stay right in that spot and feed at will. The will travel many miles to get to these prime food sources. Collared bears several years ago. Were found to move 30 miles to get to fall mushroom crops. So your sweet little 40 that has many bears hitting the bait in July-Aug. May not have a bear within miles come Sept. Lots of scouting is needed to put you closer to the spots they may go come fall.

This same thing happens in July in the northwoods. Berry crops come in and the bears move to them. Some of our best baits may shut down for a couple of weeks as a result.

I also really do not like to have cameras out early on, or show pictures of big bears coming in early in the season. It will give false hopes. As this is breeding season, and big bears roam far in search of love. So a big boy hanging out around your bait late June early July. May only be there for love, and lives many many miles away. Then when gone. All sorts of crazy ideas start flowing as to why it has left rather than the obvious.

My guess is you will need to travel a bit from Lacrosse to get into any consistent bear action.

In an area that has very few bears, like Lacrosse I figured early bait might get the attention of a boar roaming around looking for sows. Then if one gets hit maybe bait it at most once a week or maybe even two weeks just to keep him interested in the spot till closer to season. He probably does not need to worry about competition from other baits (just crops) so frequent baiting is probably not so important.

It is going to be hard for him to get one hit no matter when he starts it.

By the way, this is very important to protect bear bait sources.

Unless the place is specifically in the business of publicly selling bait please don't point out a specific bait friendly store on any public forum. Individual stores do get harassed for this practice and often quit giving away scraps as soon as that happens.

I was once getting a full truck load of bakery one day a week. Someone told the owner that I had sold some of it (which I did not do). Well is shut down that source, not just for me but other people that were getting some bait from that source.

You are better off working the Jackson county area before the La Crosse area. A few of my friends Kill bears every time they draw a C tag in the warrens to Black River area. Not a lot of pressure and the area does hold a few. We are seeing more bears on north post of Fort McCoy and saw some good sign in the Public around my house in Jackson County.

Thanks for the input guys. Sounds like bear hunting takes a lot of time and work. I will probably look into finding some private land to hunt in Jackson County.

Lot of work? That's funny as many people around here will say from the bar stool mostly. That I do not work, LMAO!!

Low side hours spent. May-June average 40-50hrs per week July-Aug average 70-80hrs per week. Sept-Oct average 80-100hrs per week

This does not include time spent taking car of dogs, speaking with customers, dealing with bait at house, repair of vehicles, etc. Mostly just time spent in the field.

So a lot of work? Nahhhh, just ask the guy who wont get off his bar stool to come carry a bait bucket for me!!

Bear guides do put in a lot of hours. That is one reason why the much later baiting start date in MN is good in one respect. Less bait cost, fewer hours and less fuel running baits so early. You could prep the sites and put up stands, just no bait.

The last two times I bear hunted in MN we didn't even pre bait by much. Went to totally new areas both times. Only scouting was online looking at, topos, plat books, and talking to anyone that hunted the areas before. We would get there about 3 days before season and start baits. Two times ago we got baits hit but not hard and only half of them. One of two of us got a bear. Last time we started baiting maybe a day sooner. All the baits got hit and were doing quite well. We both got nice bears.

We only ran into one other bear hunter. He had a cabin in the area and when we met he gave up his bait site that was close to ours. (seldom happens, after my partner got his bear there we left a case of beer at his cabin) In another area some people were chain sawing like the dickens off the main trail to one of our baits. We checked it out later and it was prep for deer hunting.

As a guide, I am glad for the early baiting regs in Wisconsin, clients pay good money for there hunt and I will give them there monies worth and some.

I got drawn for my first bear tag in WI too, zone C. I have hunted bear in MN and was successful taking a P&Y my first year and I did all the baiting myself. I incorporated a lot Dr. Ken Nordberg's techniques and I feel that had a lot to do with my success. There is a big difference in just baiting and see what shows up, or going about it from the standpoint of finding a location preferred by mature boars and maintaining it to keep them interested by the time season opens when there are multiple food sources available. In addition, you are also competing with other bait stations. There really is a science to it because there are so many uncontrollable variables.

My biggest concern with baiting in WI is their strict rules on the amount of bait that can be placed and foods that can't be used. In MN I would typically carry in two 5 gallon buckets in each hand and I would offer a variety of foods: pastries, fresh meat scraps, frozen carp, whole fruits/veggies, and bacon grease or fryer oil mixed with cheap dog food or other grain type food.

Bears can be like people, in that some like certain foods or are picky. If you use the same type of bait over and over they can also become accustomed to it and decide to move on to find other food sources, or it doesn't create that urge to want to visit it on a regular basis, especially during shooting hours. To me the ala carte approach seems a bit tough with a 10 gallon limit, also, with 10 gallons you need to bait more frequently, which poses certain challenges. I prefer to bait 2-3 times a week, or every 3-4 days.

I was going to hunt a property a couple counties away and have a guide do the baiting, but the couple that owns the property also drew tags. They hunted it two years ago and ran into the problem of no longer having bears come in when the season opened. They either lost interest in their bait, or the bears were alerted by their presence. I saw their bait sites and I felt they were not in the best areas.

I will be baiting a couple places close to home, but I do live in St. Croix co, so I know that will be a challenge. I want to use the corn to my advantage and bait near the edges with a food or attractant that won't be their main diet, but more like dessert, or something they can't resist. Obviously honey and bacon grease are out of the question, does anyone have a suggestion?

MF

+1

Plus it's a lot of fun seeing what bears are out there!

Knife2sharp-

Zone C is a whole new world when it comes to bears. Yes, bears are fussy just like humans, but once you have them on an established routine they will continue to use the bait sites. Everyone complains about the corn and acorns. But there are other influences. Zone C has very few big chunks of property where it is hard to be the only bait within miles. I have an area where there were 13 baits within a mile o f each other last year. This made it tough hunting, but we got the job done.

If you can get a mature bear on a route and not mess it up you can kill that bear. Be patient, do what you do best and it will work out in the end.

Remember that drawing a tag doesn't guarantee filling it. Every season is a learning experience, even after doing it for 30 plus years!

Mike, do you have a suggestion for bait(s) you are willing to share? I know some people use cookie dough, bulk candy or homemade popcorn balls/blocks. My initial thought was something along the lines of a mineral lick, but bears don't seem to frequent sodium based sources like deer do in the summer. So I was thinking of something highly sweet. To me it doesn't make sense to offer a grain based food source, which may be OK in the summer, but not so much as fall approaches.

Knife2sharp - Everything you mention is great. I would stay away from the mineral thing on bears. All I would say on grain baits. I know people use them usually corn and molasses with success just can be very messy, but hey it's bear hunting.My son and I have tags for zone D this year and will be baiting. We bait off and on until August and then hit it. Cookies,grease,frostings,and fruit based stuff is what we use.We had four youngsters last season and three got bear. The other was waiting on a large boar and he impressed me with his penitence.MG

Knife2sharp - We've had success using oats soaked with molasses or used cooking oil through out the summer. One thing we noticed is that some of the oats that get scattered around the bait site and not eaten, sprouted with the rain and warm weather of August were chewed down by the bears. I also believe that if you get multiple bears competing for the bait it will increase your chances of an opportunity during legal shooting hours. Early in our baiting experiences everything was nocturnal, but there was usually only one bear on the bait.

Knife, check your PM's. I sent you my secret weapon bait tip.

Jeff - How come I don't get your secret weapon bear bait?

Damn....

The bears are starting to move.. A 200lb was saw walking usfs rd 136 in price co. last sat.

Is a 200lb bear big for wi? Or I guess the question should read, what is the average size bear taken during the baiting season? Does anyone on here hunt bear w/o the use of bait or dogs? I'm not of the same opinion as neverbait where I think that's a bad way to hunt, I just don't think that's the way I want to hunt bear. Any advice on hunting unbaited bear?

BT, I will send it to you.

Crusader, spot and stalk is about the only other way to hunt bear and is very impractical in most of Wisconsin. I don't think I have ever heard of anyone attempting it. I suppose a few bears have been taken by people that just happened to stumble across one in the woods or in their back yard.

A 200# bear is a very respectable size bear. I would guess over 50% of bears harvested are under 150 dressed.

I have taken clients to corn or oats fields and an apple orchard that the bears were using. That really is a giant bait plot though. To just spot and stalk a bear would be pretty difficult and a very good accomplishment. You might try a good oak ridge.

Thanks for the PMs guys. Crusader Dad, another option is calling, either with a distress call or sow call. I have an old VHS tape or two showing this method. I tried it once or twice when my bait went cold one year, but knew bears where likely still in the area. This method is best suited near clearcuts and stand or blind locations where they can't approach downwind. I think a remote call would also be a must. I don't see anything in the regulations saying they're illegal. Hmm, I may need to revisit this method for myself. I think another great location would be along a cornfield edge. I also like cornfield edges for rattling.

There are some advantages to the calling in that it's more of a run and gun approach. You aren't dealing with bears patterning you. You also wouldn't have to get on stand as early, or have someone drive or walk in with you and leave after you get on stand.

I've incorporated ground/Turkey techniques into deer hunting and I shot a 130" 8 pointer in NE, while sitting on a pile of tires this year and missed another 130"-140" last year from my ghost blind.

A couple areas I have in mind for baiting I may just change location or with the aid of cameras, setup off the bait, especially if the bait goes cold.

" This method is best suited near clearcuts and stand or blind locations where they can't approach downwind."

Keep that in mind for bait/stand locations too. Water, open fields, busy roads are typical 'barriers' that I look for. Large beaver ponds are very good water barriers. Just don't let the beavers cut down the tree your stand is in. They started on one of mine once and I quickly protected it with wire mesh.

Yes, Jeff I agree most bears shot are under the 200 ld area and about 135-150 in weight and an "average" bear in Wisconsin.

Many tags issued this year....hunter conflict will be on the rise!

Hopefully everyone makes an effort to get along!

Register here to reply to this topic