Wolves at bear baits

[jkcmj]

While hunting on Saturday and Sunday of last weekend, I saw no bears , but did see wolves on both of my bear baits.  

On Saturday a female wolf came in and spent 15-20 minutes working the bait pile and investigating my trail in, as well as my stand base.  She never looked up at me, but I assume she new I was there.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTuOrcgycPk[/youtube]


The second day, Sunday, I moved to a new bait site 20 miles away,  and again encountered wolves.  A large male cautiously approached the bait, after 1st passing by 2 times on the back side.  He tucked his tail and left the bait when he saw me reaching for my camera.  There were also at least 2 young wolves that stayed mostly on the trail to my stand and in the brush within 10 yards for most of 1.5 hours just prior to dark.  Trail cam photos indicate the wolves at this particular bait have been waiting for the bears to tear the logs and rocks away, then using numbers to force them off the bait and then cleaning it out.  We use mostly grain and molasses based bait, along with some sweet stuff and apples, so I wouldn't think that would be a big draw for them, but obviously they are agressively taking over these bait sites.

Anyone else have issues with this?  Or is this just due to an over abundance of wolves in the Ely, MN area I am hunting in?

[proangler16]

Very interesting for sure.  Welcome the land of 10,000-Lakes and a false count of 3,000 wolves supposedly in MN when its for sure at least double that number. Something needs to be done on the real wolf count and control of them.

[glenn57]

BUMMER!!! WITH THAT WOLF SCENT AROUND COULD AFFECT BEAR HITTING THE BAITS when your there! hope they go away for ya!

[jkcmj]

We had a little better luck last week.  Ended up passing on one small bear, and seeing a lynx come in and try hunting squirrels over our bait.  Pretty cool to see.  He made one wild attack plan that just missed a squirrel, then tried to figure a way to get the ones hiding under the bait logs.  I had my 12 year old son in the stand with me, so he got to see it to.



The other bait with multiple wolves has gone dead now.  We had at least 2 nice size bears visiting the bait that we caught on camera before the wolves messed that one up.

[Outdoors Junkie]

How did the rest of the season go for you?