Bear baiting help?

[wisconsinteacher]

I am helping a young buck on his first bear hunt this year.  I started my bait station 9 days ago and for the first 6 days, there were bears there all the time.  On day 6, there were 3 bears there from 4:00-7:00 pm, with two of them shooters.  Then out of the blue, the bait goes cold.  We hunted on the 7th day the bait was set and did not see a bear.  Day 8, we passed on 3 bears.  Two were 100# and one was 130#.  There are still a few bears hitting in the middle of the night.  Any tips to get the big boys in earlier?  We bait between 6-8 am every morning.  Today, I added some berry flavor scent to the area so they can smell something new.  I figured why not try it.  We will be hunting after school tonight and a few other nights this week.

[Hot Hap]

ttt

[VTer]

Do you know this from trail cams or have you been hunting it?

[pow-bow]

A few things to try.

Bait less, they soon learn if they don't show up quick they get nothing.

Bait with sweets, something they can't get anywhere else.  Blackies are suckers for sweets. Stale donuts, popcorn with syrup or similar.  

Bait at the same time every day.

Make noise, the same noise everytime you bait. They get conditioned to noise = food.  Don't sneak in to bait, you don't want to surprise them on the bait.

Are you using and can you use a barrel?  If so you want the opening just big enough to get a paw in to pull out bait.  Makes them work harder, stay longer, and make more noise that attracts other bears.

[warbird]

I've had good luck in Maine by covering the bait area with used fry oil. The bears track it out everywhere attracting more bears.

[Gil Verwey]

In Maine we also had luck with a bacon burn. We would get to the stand a little earlier than usual. Fry bacon. Dump the grease on the bait (we used french fries). Hang some of the bacon on tree limbs around the bait. That worked great for us. It seems they can't resist that bacon smell for long. It might entice them to come in early.

[wisconsinteacher]

We have hunted 3 nights and only seen bears on one of those.  We passed on all 3.  I am getting pictures of bears after dark on my camera.  We have baited everyday for the last week.  I think they are on to us.  We can not hunt tonight, so we did not bait this morning.  We are baiting at the same give or take an hour.  We can not use a barrel, honey, or bacon.  I would love to do a honey burn.  I might try "bear crack" this weekend.  I also use fry oil but need to get more soon.  As far as noise, we talk and bang buckets everytime.  We also spray juice in the air and on trees everytime we bait.  I have talked to a few people in the area and they are having the same issue.  My dad has a bait 70 miles away and no one has hunted it and it died this week also.  I know it happens every year, we just need to keep hunting and a good one will come in.  Keep the info coming.

[formerbutcher]

Acrons are starting to drop, might be a reason the baits are going cold.

[wisconsinteacher]

I was starting to wonder if that was the cause.  Well they will need some bait when they eat all of them up.  We will give it time.  As the season goes on, the natural food will get less and less for them.

[ChuckC]

You can't burn honey or bacon, but I don't see where it says you can't "burn" blueberry pancake syrup.

If you sit a bait and they smell you, those bears may not come back in until after dark.  Make sure the wind is in your favor.  Hunt as high as you can safely get to help avoid that.

You may have caused that already.
ChuckC

[wisconsinteacher]

Good point about the syrup.  The three nights we hunted, the wind was out of the west and we were on the east side of the bait.  They would have a hard time getting around us due to the fact there is a creek behind us, also, I can see down the hill east of me and nothing came in from down wind.  The three bears we had in by us did not spook.  We have been very careful about scent while hunting.  I know we will not fool a bear's nose but we are trying.  We are going to give the bait site a rest for a few days so our smell leaves.  I hope this helps out.

[Ragnarok Forge]

I always sprayed anise oil around the bait, on my boots and on my stand when I baited here.  No longer legal.  The bears would come in shortly after I got done making noise.  I only put enough bait out to hold them for a few hours and used the small hole trick in a barrel trick. It Made them work hard to get the baitI always ran three or four baits and rotated my hunting.  To much pressure on one bait pushes all the big boys out until full dark.

Can you dig a deep hole and put logs on top of it?

[wisconsinteacher]

Ragnarok, my bait is a hollow log up on end that is 1.5" tall on top of that is a solid block of wood that is 40 pounds so it is covered until the first bear hits it.  I am thinking of putting out a new bait site to see what happens.

[Bill Sant]

If we have bears that have gone nocturnal and have some subordinate bears hitting the bait, you can use the old dominant bear bellow to pull them out of the woods.  Usually they won't be out of earshot of the bait and hearing what they think is a dominant challenge to the food source will often piss them off enough for them to come take a look see.  We use the Wayne Carlson bear squealer call with pretty good results.  Good luck

[Manitoba Stickflinger]

Bears will take advantage of natural foods when available. I'd say that they are on acorns or another local food source that they know they need capitalize on prior to den up. Fall bears are tough for this reason along with berry crops, acorns, farmers crops, etc. etc. Let them run their course....they'll show up during daylight hours.

Also, if you haven't already...try only hunting when the wind is favorable. I know most guys will disagree but it certainly doesn't hurt. I'd also put down more bait at one time so you don't have to re-bait every day. I've had good luck with once a week baiting. Just my 2 cents!...Ryan

[wisconsinteacher]

Well, the kid baited this morning and we are going to hunt to night if it is not raining after school.

[snufer]

As others have said, when the acorns drop, the bears vacate the bait sites. It just happened to me also, lots of trail cam pics of big bears up until the drop, then only small bears hitting. Lots of acorns this year (darn it!!)

[wisconsinteacher]

Maybe, we will let the bait sit for a week and deer hunt this weekend. lol

[steadman]

Try the bear crack, I had good results with it as well. Good luck!

[cleopatra]

I took Ryans advice and baited once a week with lots of bait. My fall season was horrible due to the abundance of natural forage. The spring was a different story as I connected on a bear. Richard.