# Bear Baiting.



## iwantabuggy (Feb 15, 2005)

I didn't see a topic about bear baiting, so I thought I would see if I could get a thread going. I am mostly interested in what types of bait are the most popular and/or work best.

Does anyone have any advice they could give on this? 

Neil


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

Well first your going to need a good stink bait. Rotten fish guts, fish oil, heads, animal guts, chicken scraps can make a great smell. Put this in a 5 gallon pail. Let it sit in the sun and bake. Be careful because sometimes gasses will form and the lid will burst off and it will be messy. Anyway hang that from a tree. Poke some holes in it so the scent gets out. That will be your attractant. Now you need something the bear will want to eat. I usually used dog food. I would mix syrp or molasis with the food. Put it in a 50 gallon drum and chain it to a tree. Make a hole in the drum so the bears can get their paws in there to get the food out. Also a lot of guys will get grease from McDonalds or a Donut shot. If you have a pastry shop get all the stuff they are going to throw out. Bears LOVE sweet stuff. Good Luck!


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## taddy1340 (Dec 10, 2004)

Hang Porkchop from a tree...his a$$ stinks bad enough to attract anything!


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

I will refraim from comment in case there are children viewing. You will regret our next phone conversation!


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## Lil Sand Bay (Feb 2, 2005)

Our problem here is not attracting bears, just leave the garbage out more then eight hours; we've got way, way too many black bears!
Although a minority of hunters, here, run bear with dogs, even they set up bait stations to get them located.
Pork Chop is right about attracting with smell bait, the only problem with his suggestion is you better be a sniper as you won't want to set up your tree stand closer then a 1/4 mile from that smell!
To get the bait station going try filling a tin pie plate with corn syrup and lighting a STERNO can under it. Clear all the brush away so you don't light up the woods. Leave it to cook off all the syrup. The smoke and smell clings to all the brush etc. down wind for many days. this will get them attracted initially to your site. Honey is better, but is an illegal bait here in Wisc. 
Bears eat anything, but stale pastry is a good idea as they have a sweet tooth. A lot of guys up here use Gummee Bears (candy) ironic huh?
The absolute best bear bait I've seen is a product by Frigid Forage who also make a great, northern climate, food plot seed for deer. Google Sun Rich Farms out of Bemidji, MN. Their bear bait is a pellet made with blueberry flavoring. Nice thing about this bait is I don't have to put it in a container to make it hard for the bear to get at. By spreading it around the bait site they have to pick up individual pellets which has a tendency to keep them busy at the site for a while, which is the object. Hope this helps, I just wish the Wisc. DNR issued more kill tags for this zone as I spend all Summer chasing them out of the yard with a sling shot.


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

Once you get a bear or bears using your bait you can get rid of the stink bait.

I also agree you need something that will be small enough that the bear will stay there and eat. I saw a video where the guy had donuts and marshmellows in his bait. The bear would grab one or the other and run to the bushes to eat it. Probably was a bigger bear in the area. Also if you use a pellet or dog food put some brush over your bucket openning to keep the birds and squirels out. Another thing you can cook over the sterno is bacon fat. Lots of guys were doing that in AK and it seemed to work pretty good. I did it one time and the grease caught fire so shyed away from doing it anymore.


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## Goose Guy350 (Nov 29, 2004)

We too have a big bear population that most people don't understand because they don't see the bear. All four of our baits last year were hit the first night we put them out and were hit everynight until we stopped baiting. Here is what we do. If we are not in a spot we have used before we fill up a spray bottle with liquid smoke or mix up a peppermint smell mixture and spray that all over the trees around the bait. Next we cut up some trees into six foot long pieces, we used six foot long peices because that will be something for you to measure the bear against to size them and decide if he is a shooter or not. We try to use logs large enough that we have a hard time moving so that racoons and other animals can't move them to get into the bait, we pile the logs over the bait and seal it up as best we can, and don't worry the bear, they will throw the logs off like rag dolls. We usually use crushed sugar cones and expired jams and jellys that a guy has in our area but we have used anything from old bakery to cadbury eggs which were a real pain to peel before we put them out. Typically anything sweet will bring in the bear and should stay in long enough for a shot while they move the logs and pick throw the bait. Hope this helps, Good Luck.


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## Sasha and Abby (May 11, 2004)

taddy1340 said:


> Hang Porkchop from a tree...his a$$ stinks bad enough to attract anything!


LMFAO x 1000 :beer:


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## Trapper62 (Mar 3, 2003)

I am by no means an expert on this, the only knowledge that I have is from past hunts and what the guides used. The hunts were very successful and had lots of bear sitings.

In northern Manitoba, our guides used 55 gal. drums with about 2/3 of the top cut out for the bears to get at the bait. These barrels were layed on there sides and chained to a tree. The only bait that they used was oats and old cooking grease. They would put about 10 gallons of oats in the barrel and then pour about 2-3 gallons of old cooking grease in the barrel on top of the oats. The remainder of the grease, about another 2 gallons was poured on the ground in a large circle around the barrel. The logic to this was that any bear that entered the bait site would track the grease away leaving a scent trail for other bears to follow into the bait site.

I sure can't say it's the best method but it sure has worked for us!


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## iwantabuggy (Feb 15, 2005)

Thanks for all the help. I think most of it was good. The rest was funny. (Sorry Porkchop).

I'll take all the advice I can get.

Neil


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

nhunter said:


> Thanks for all the help. I think most of it was good. The rest was funny. (Sorry Porkchop).
> 
> I'll take all the advice I can get.
> 
> Neil


Don't be sorry. I have been giving Taddy a hard tome for a while. I had it coming! :beer:


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## MossyMO (Feb 12, 2004)

Oops, wrong topic, thought we were gonna talk about beer baiting !!! :beer:


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## Niles Short (Mar 18, 2004)

try various baits bears are like people and will lose interest if the same thing is presentd to often. your call how much stink you want because you are the one that will have to have your satnd by it, before you bait/hunt hang bacon straps 8-10 above a ttree (tie to main beam) of a soft wood tree preferably a birrch (6 different spots) and check 3 -4 days later for scratch marks where bear went up tree. set stand up in most likly spot and bait no earllier than 3 days before you hunt and at the same time if you can try not to mix bait together and have a healthy diet of sweets with it... do not overfeed you want to put a days worth each time so they are retuning on a reguler bases any other questions pm me good luck about a 40% in Mn but if you do it right and are patient you should be 100%


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## birddog131 (Oct 28, 2004)

Where are you hunting can also make a difference, as far as regulations.
Where are you planning to bait?


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## iwantabuggy (Feb 15, 2005)

I'll be baiting in Idaho. 

I have baited before. It was about 10 years ago. The bears always came at night. Back then we used anything we could find dumpster diving, but now that is harder to do and is frowned on  . Used to have the donut shops save stuff for me too, but the competition is very stiff for that and most of them want you to pay for it now. If I am paying for it, I want the most bang for my buck. (pun intended.)

Neil


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## PJ (Oct 1, 2002)

Goose Guy 350, I do what you do. Dig a hole that is a cubic yard. Top it with a pyrmid of logs. Raw chicken in the hole and top the logs with molass.
Make sure you whistle or sing to yourself when you go to check it. Also, the bears will typically go to the bait at night. So you may have long hours in the stand.


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## hunterboy (Dec 5, 2004)

stay with bakery goods and molases and liquid smoke. learn from my escapades uke: and you might stay married if you follow this formula. uke:


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