Heavy Rain/Bear Baits?
Wisconsin
OMG - Can it please rain some more?
Woods are getting full of water and creeks have swollen way past normal levels once again!
And MORE coming -
I cannot remember baiting with rain like this...or is it just me.
I'm considering shutting down a bait...the creek I cross is now waist high water. I usually jump from stone to stone....
Is it worth it? Anyone else having trouble?
Holy crap!
Welcome Bloodtrail to what I have dealt with twice this summer and then add trees down. This is why I like baiting with a trail mix bait, even if the holes are filled with water the bears can still pull some bait (nuts) out.
We got just shy of 6" here in the Bloomer area last night.
I've been lucky - I bait with stumps and tree trunk slices over both ends so I am dry that way.
Trying to get a new bait started and the scent all washed out and getting to the baits is getting to be a problem. Sucks!
Never had it this bad baiting as far as water....
It's been the wettest summer that I can remember. Standing water even in sand country.
It is what it is, all we can do is keep trying!!
Good luck!
If you can get the bait out there they will eat it even if it gets wet. I spray scent up in the air under leaf cover. Gets the smell where the wind will carry it farther and helps keep it from being washed away in rain. You can easily get it up over 15' with a good pump sprayer.
Earlier when the Hayward area got lots of rain I was carrying a can with me to bail out the baits that the bears had dug holes at. Bait was still all gone. Rather have it rain now than during the season.
Reports near/around Trempealeau County of trees uprooting because rain has saturated the ground and trees in the high winds have blown over.
This was in the last few storms from what I was told.
Saturated ground and high winds will take large trees down easier than anything. Both of the storms in Hayward 2 years ago and a month or so ago came with already saturated ground. Between those two storms I logged the fallen trees on my 18 acres I have sent a total of two logging trucks with trailers full of red oak saw logs to market. Probably half of my largest oaks. Mostly #2 grade with some #1 and #3. Biggest was 32" at the base. My skid steer then had a 1800# working load and I could not lift that 102" log. Had to drag it.
At one point I drove the skid steer too close to an uprooted stump and dropped both wheels on one side into the crater. If not for the roots sticking up higher than the skid steer it would have rolled over. To make things harder I was low on fuel, the skid steer tilted enough that the fuel pickup was not in fuel so I ran out. Then I couldn't pour fuel into the spout because of roots in the way and the angle of the skid steer. Had to siphen it in. grrr, when shit happens it generally gets worse before it gets better.
Jeff, I thought I was the only one that had days like that.
Had to forge a new [ath around a swollen creek to a bait today - water way to high...cannot cross...that was fun!
BT, I almost had to do that also. The water in the swamp I cross was almost over my knee high boots. It usually is ni higher than ankle to bottom of shin deep at this spot.
Rain here all last night - not heavy - but more expected today!
Damn - sucks!
On the plus side, all the standing water should make some more funnels
Bears have no trouble or issue going through water and in the heat they lay in it. All the water will bring tons of skeeters in a few weeks if, no when it warms up again.
Yeh, I was going to say the only funnels they will make is for us hunters - bear love water for the most part. Deep water not so much but yes, they lay in shallow pool on hot days - just like us humans!
2.5 inches around Hayward over the last couple of days. It rained all day today, sometimes quite hard. Most of my lawn is under water again. I did manage to get one bait tended to. Sunday looks to be good weather to get the rest of them taken care of except one where the road will not be passable for a couple of days.
Right now I am scouting with google sky view to start a couple of new bait sites. I have two baits with maybe last resort shooters, the rest are small or sow with cubs. Keep wishing a big one will show up but nothing yet.
Looks like rain to hold off now for a week or so...God only knows - sucks!
Jeff- Nice to enjoy the sun and cool temps...finally!!!
Well that last 2 days - got pounded again last night 2" RAIN WAS REPORTED BY A FEW NIEGHBORS - DAMN!
BT, look at it this way. The trees are growing bigger, faster so there will be better trees to hunt from (just giving you a hard time). I am really appreciating all the rain. Ample moisture means strong trees. Strong trees fight off infections better and grow faster. It may cut 5 years off the 120 years for the veneer black walnut I have (again, facetious). Good luck hunting.
Treefarm
Leave it to you to find the silver lining!
I guess your right - sucks to get around however -
More rain predicted here for Saturday!
Over the last two years I lost a lot of mature white oak, partially due to saturated ground. That is the down side. The plus side most were mature anyway and I profited about $6000 after expenses two years ago by logging them myself. The profit figure this year is still unknown, they are at the mill but my sale/trucking agent has not told me what my check will be. Hopefully around $2000. The current check will be spent on my daughters wedding. That plus the $3500 my late dad set aside for the wedding will help her a lot.
It was just drying up enough for me to get to my very wet bait area. Then the last storm hit two nites ago. I said heck with it and walked a long way with that bait yesterday.
Today the buddy I'm baiting for was with me helping bait. I had told him how wet it was and to wear his knee high boots. He forgot his knee high boots. We are walking in the woods and he says it isn't that bad out here. About 200 yards farther he walked right into a deep spot in the swamp. He was up to his waist. I maybe could have steered him around it. But what kind of friend would I be to not let him get the full swamp bait experience?
Rut, if I drank coffee I would have just blown most of it through my nose and all over my screen. Yup, when you bait for a friend they need to know how much money, work, blood, and sweat it takes. Professional guides charge a lot of money but most of them earn every penny of it.
Now I gotta go mix bait for tomorrow.
I use a home made waste paper basket (back pack) to carry my bait in each time which can get very heavy. Yesterday while walking on one of my trails to bait I slipped on some bear scat, tried to catch my balance, stumbling about 15 feet and fell face down, the bait came sliding out and covered my head. I laugh now but it wasn't funny at the time. My head and shoulder were covered with pie filling, bread, cookies, topped off with peanuts.
MF, I thought for sur you were going to say you landed face down in a pile of bear poop.
MF -
Good one! That's why I carry the buckets instead of the back pack!
Rut-
Of course you could have helped him keep dry, but what fun would that be???
Mike F. I used to carry the buckets but having lower back problems and walking great distances I thought this would help, which it does, only if you don't slip and fall.
I was gong to run baits this morning and you guessed it pouring rain again around Hayward. Huge cell mostly north and west of Hayward. Gonna wait for it to clear, it is only 7:00 am now. But it has rained enough already to mess up dirt roads for a while.
Wow, outlook for Hayward is no rain today and the next 3 days. Great news.
