Bear Baiting

[BearGuide]

A baiting update...

My central Minnesota baits are doing well.  I was a little discouraged, but all is well now. 

My baits in northern minnesota really took off this week.  I was doing good, but now I am doing fantastic!  I feel like someone blessed me. 

Lets hope the action keeps going saturday on opener.

[luvn-luvnlife]

Its good to hear things are turning for the better, I picked up up garbage bag of donuts last night. Hopefully I can be as excited about my baits as you are, haven't checked since tues. I will freshen up tomorrow and hope for the best.

Good luck bear hunters.

[tripnchip]

Glad things are going well bearguide, talking with peopleup here it has been mixed reactions.   good luto you and luvnlife sat.

[luvn-luvnlife]

Thanks tripnchip, I need all the luck I can get. I haven't shot a bear before so this is new to me. The reason I decided to bear hunt is we bought some land up by Randall and after deer hunting and seeing bears a few times I figured I may actually have a chance to get one. If I see a bear I'll be happy, I'm just passing time waiting for bow opener. Now that I've started baiting, I think I'm hooked. It is probably is just as much fun baiting as it hunting. Well good luck and dont get eatin up by skeeters.         

[luvn-luvnlife]

Do any of you guys use trail cameras on your baits? From what I hear a bear will mess up cameras. I have read that you should never put out a camera while baiting because the bears will smell the bait residue and come after the camera and others say its a noise the camera puts out. I have cuddeback digital cameras and they claim there is no noise. any insight from the pros? 

[tripnchip]

luvnlife, if i can find them i will post pics from my 35 mm trail cam over my bait last year.
In one of the pics. Because of thetime on one ofthe pics. I belief I chased the bear off the bait when I came in to freshen it. In another pic. the bear had to of been investigating the camera because all I got was the ears and top of head.
  My camera would fit in a 60 machinegun ammo can ( steel) so I cut out one side of the can so just the eye, flash and lens of the camera were exposed. I then reached through this onening and drilled 2 holes in teh back of the can large enough for 3/8 lag bolts to go through. These were used to mount the ammo can to a tree or post.  Use long enough bolts that you can shim the top of the can to get camera angled down on bait.Once the camera was set in the can I used styhrafom to hold it in place. With my set up I had room to keep extra film and the ratchet and sock for mounting in the can. And once every thing is in place you can put a paddle lock on the can.
  I use to go to a site that had a famous bear guide on it. According to him putting a raidio, flashing lihgt, or anything like that on a bait to try to get a bear to come in in day light instead of after dark will only work for 2-3 nights.
The baer get ust ot it and ignore it.
 Don't know it this helped, but I tried.

[tripnchip]

trail cam


pic 2

pic 3

pic 4

5

6

[tripnchip]

one more time

i give up

[luvn-luvnlife]

Thanks for the ideas and pics tripnchip. If my baiting continues the way it has been lately I won't even be buting a liscense. no hits since tues. last week.

[BearGuide]

I have had really good luck baiting this year.  Everyone of my baits get hit everyday or every other day.  I have some in central MN and the rest up north.  Only two of all the baits are not getting hit and they are in central MN.

[WoodChuck]

  this is great news !! bearguide as many are haveing trouble with no hits and so many berries and acorns in the forest . good luck again with the baiting . woodchuck

[Mayfly]

Thanks for the ideas and pics tripnchip. If my baiting continues the way it has been lately I won't even be buting a liscense. no hits since tues. last week.

Maybe you should throw a couple lbs of bacon out there and see if something like that can get their attention?? Cooked.....with the grease? Not a bear hunter but just trying to think of a unresistable smell. I know I may come running

[Pegg]

I need to get out bear hunting. Anyone know of an area that someone can hunt in the no quota area? I would like to get out this year. 

[kenhuntin]

There is alot of state land north of Mora that was good to us. I have not hunted it in the last 8 years. Mostly because of all the work involved and there so many hunters that go through there shooting squirrel nests with .22s It is kinda scary when you have to holler and wave your arms while camoflauged in a tree because someone is aiming at you because you look like a squirrel nest. If you get back in far enough to be safe there are alot of animals up there.

[BearGuide]

Check the DNR's website for the no-quota areas and what works best for you.  It seems that central MN has a lot of dusk hits and northern MN is mostly night hits.  It seems to be another rough season for bear hunters.  There are people having success as well.  Usually when you first hunt - hunt it hard because after the first day your success rate plummets every day after that.  I started a bait in no-quota a few days ago.  Seems to have been hit by a coon the other day and yesterday it looked as if a bear had been in there.  Seems as though there is a bear everywhere I go.