1st bear bait station ever...

[John-W-WI]

I have helped bait before, but it's never been "mine".

Of course, I wait until the hottest weekend of the year to build a bait station.

In an effort to preserve my deer hunting (we lock down the farm by Sept. 1st and hardly touch it until the end of October) I am putting my baits on the fringes of the property.

This site is easily accessible with a 'wheeler and shouldn't bother the deer much.

​

It needs more logs to steer the bear, unfortunately there wasn't much to choose from at the site. I'll haul in more logs soon to fine tune the bears approach.

I've never bear hunted before, this should be fun!

-John

 

[John-W-WI]

If I have any tips, I'll share them... I'm pretty much making this up as I go :)

-John

 

[Bill]

Pik-in-ik baskets should work.

Glad we don't have bears. But if we did I'd hunt em.

My only other tip is kill the bear do not wound the bear :D

 

[BuckSutherland]

John

I'll be baiting for the first time this fall as well. Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks and good luck!!

Feed them with food, not a bunch of crap that is gonna give them the shits and a tummy ache. The wife's grandpa is gonna be hunting on out land. I plan to use corn right from the field still in the husk and some bird seed. Maybe spread a little bacon grease on the logs. I have seen too many baits get hit with the sweet stuff, they eat it and then they dont come back. There is a reason they are hard to get once the acorns drop. They are looking for food, not treats.

 

[browndog]

I have bear hunted for years. We usually dug our hollow logs in and packed them in real tight. It's too easy for racoons to dig under a hollow stump on top of the ground. Use a BIG rock on top of your lid, so racoons can't get in. Rototill around the stump soon and then keep raking around the stump each time you bait, then you can get a get a good reading on the tracks left there.

 

[dipper]

First thing I noticed too brown, coons will have a field day getting to that food. U gotta bury that log. Fresh food is an absolute, especially in ag country. It's fun keeping it fresh in a hole! Ha
Bears have huge home ranges compared to deer. U gotta have your setups in prime funnels, so trying to keep it peaceful for deer won't help u get a bear. Having multiple sights on one property is a waist, I spread my setups miles apart. If the bear are there, they will find the food!
There's huge bears in zone c, it's really some of the best trophy black bear hunting in the world. A 700 pounder was shot in my county the other year. my property has produced a booner just shy of 600 and a 500 pounder in 4 years of actual hunting. We are 4 for 4 on bears, but put in a ton of effort and work.
Zone c also will bring so much frustration. Oh man-lots of frustration.

 

[UP Powers]

couple of things..

1. Make sure that camera is in a bear box.
2. wear rubber gloves to touch the camera. Like latex gloves a dr. would wear. You do not want the smell of food on the camera. If it is there, it's gone.
3. don't wear sunglasses when you bait. The bees will get behind them and sting your eyes. Don't make sudden movements when baiting it will stir the bees and you will get stung. Just move slow and relaxed.
4. Buy some liquid smoke at your local meat market, costco, sams club, etc. Find it in a gallon container. Dilute it to about 1/5 ratio or 20% or less if you want. spray EVERYWHERE by your bait. Tree's. on the ground, stumps, on that rock. Be generous. You want the oil of the liquid smoke on the ground for the coons and skunks. They will have it on them and the bears will scent follow them in the foods to your bait or find the bait themselves.
5. Grease.. Grease.. and more grease. Get the grease on the ground and in the stump. More scent checking.
6. Have a wet stump and a dry stump. Don't put wet ingredients inside dry ingredients.
7. Don't put out anything moldy.
8. sweets sweets and more sweets. sweets before meats.
9. Get a bait bag in the air. pull a onion sack with a chicken in it or a few.. add some chocolate bars to the bag. pull it up a tree. you want a sweet smokey death roaming in the air.
10. Don't take guests to show them the bait. keep the same people going there time and time. If a deer could smell like a bear, we would never shoot them. they can smell like nothing I have ever seen. The bears will shut down if different smells are coming in.
11. Always add candy to the dry bucket. Circus peanuts, chocolate, put don't go overboard. You want them to dig for it and find it. They are very curious and they like to be entertained by a challenge.
12. Take your chain saw and cut some strips into a downed tree and lay by bait. Take peanut butter and smear in the groove you created. Cut it deep and push it in there.
13. Save some two liter bottles and drop small pieces of candy inside them.
14. Nail a sardines can to a tree and put a pin prick in the bottom of it so it drips.

This will keep you busy... :)

 

[Terrific_tom]

John I help a Bear guide in Northern WI for a month. Here is the regimen that we use. We have hollow stumps and we don' bury them. This allows you to move slightly if you need to for bow hunting. Make sure that you bait every day a week before season. Use fryer grease, we dump it around stump and take a bucket and throw it as high as you can into trees. We bait with cookies. We also use liquid smoke mixed with a bear scent called Gold Rush. Also baits should be in vicinity of water. A reminder that Wisconsin doesn't allow the use of meats and have to be in natural containers. No plastic. If you have any questions pm me. Last year we got 75 bear.

 

[UP Powers]

John I help a Bear guide in Northern WI for a month. Here is the regimen that we use. We have hollow stumps and we don' bury them. This allows you to move slightly if you need to for bow hunting. Make sure that you bait every day a week before season. Use fryer grease, we dump it around stump and take a bucket and throw it as high as you can into trees. We bait with cookies. We also use liquid smoke mixed with a bear scent called Gold Rush. Also baits should be in vicinity of water. A reminder that Wisconsin doesn't allow the use of meats and have to be in natural containers. No plastic. If you have any questions pm me. Last year we got 75 bear.

you guys are no fun with no plastic!!!! :) 75 bear is a LOT . wow impressive.

 

[foggy]

I was about to suggest STARTING your bait site with old doughnuts......then soon switching to meats. I didnt know you cannot bait with meat in WI? There is a good book by Dr Ken Nordburg on Do It Yourself Bear Baiting. Has most the the stuff above in it. I think its the Bible for DIY bear hunting.

We were successful with using a rope to hang some of our meat scraps in a burlap bag. The bag was suspended about six feet off the ground. We cut some slits in the bags. The bears would stand on the hind feet and pull the food down to the ground. (I watched it :) ) This way we could pre-package our meat scraps and other things in a gunny-sack, and I stored it in an old freezer. Would take a frozen sack to the bait station and either add it or replace it regularly. Worked slick. Kept the coons and coyotes from getting the baits.

Use plenty of grease to get a scent trail(s) established to the bait site.

 

[dogghr]

Stale donuts and grease hard to beat. Hang sardine can pricked to drain slowly out of reach of bear. Hang milk jug filled with Coke with small prick to leak out. That one is hard to beat. We have to legally remove bait by hunting season, illegal to hunt over such here, subject to 5 years jail time. Can chase them all over the country with dogs and shoot them from a tree but cant throw corn out to bait, go figure.

 

[Satchmo]

Keep it simple so it's fun. Most of us are not commercial operations. We are just putting out a couple baits for personal hunting. Best advise I can give is to use bait that will weather well. I will be using trail mix as my mainstay and covering it with liquid caramel. Then adding a few gummies, licorice, or marshmallows for variety. WHERE you put the bait is FAR more important than what you put in it. The only attractant I use is liquid smoke.

 

[dipper]

Did I mention hunting in ag country is frustrating? Having bears find the bait isn't a problem, but that's why they are getting huge, and doing it fast.
Our booner was a 6 year old, the 500 was five.
John u gonna be hunting around cadott?

 

[UP Powers]

Did I mention hunting in ag country is frustrating? Having bears find the bait isn't a problem.

amen to that. Once the corn goes to milk.. you are done for the year. The will lay in a field and not move eating the corn.

 

[Satchmo]

amen to that. Once the corn goes to milk.. you are done for the year. The will lay in a field and not move eating the corn.

Got that right. I'm lucky in that the little corn around me in cattle country gets cut early for silage and the bears come back to the swamps.

 

[BuckSutherland]

Got that right. I'm lucky in that the little corn around me in cattle country gets cut early for silage and the bears come back to the swamps.

The wife's dad was hunting one year. He was using the sweet crap, liquid smoke, grease, and all this other crap. The bait got hit a few times before the season started and then they quit. I had brought up a couple five gallon pails of corn still on the cob from scouting my fields. I told him to use it for bait and he wouldnt. So I took it and dumped it out in front of my game cam about half a mile away. When I came back up for deer hunting in early Nov I checked the cam and saw that about 3 hours after I dumped those corn cobs I had 4 hungry bears sit down and gobble them all up. Bird seed is amazing as well. All that other crap is just good for making a mess and attracting bees.

Bears love corn.

 

[Satchmo]

The wife's dad was hunting one year. He was using the sweet crap, liquid smoke, grease, and all this other crap. The bait got hit a few times before the season started and then they quit. I had brought up a couple five gallon pails of corn still on the cob from scouting my fields. I told him to use it for bait and he wouldnt. So I took it and dumped it out in front of my game cam about half a mile away. When I came back up for deer hunting in early Nov I checked the cam and saw that about 3 hours after I dumped those corn cobs I had 4 hungry bears sit down and gobble them all up. Bird seed is amazing as well. All that other crap is just good for making a mess and attracting bees.

Bears love corn.

I don't know Buck, I had 11 different bears on 3 baits last year with liquid smoke, trail mix & caramel. Corn ain't all they love.

 

[UP Powers]

corn in the fields yes.. on the ground as you described. IN my experience. Sweets sweets and more sweets. Grease, Grease and more grease. They had a product 30 years ago called 10 dead horse. They don't make it anymore as it was from Canada. I will guarantee you will GAG when you open it. The WORST smelling thing on this planet. I have seen many people puke thinking they could sniff it. You put that on a tree and it was money for attracting.

Also.. if you have an issue with attraction do a honey burn. Take a metal coffee can, sterno, some honey. light the sterno over the coffee can, put a small amount of honey in the car like a table spoon or so or two. it will boil and bubble then smoke like you have never seen anything smoke. Another great option for bear attraction. They will come for a long ways away for honey.

 

[kabic]

I believe the honey burn is also a nono in Wisconsin

 

[foggy]

I've burned a fair amount of honey......with nothing to show for it. Not saying it doesn't work......but I would put my effort into other stuff.