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Five reasons bears are not hitting your bait

By Bernie BarringerApril 7, 20152 Comments

First time bear hunters and those who know little about the difficulties of bear hunting over bait often have this misconception that you can dump out a bucket of donuts and get ready to shoot a bear. If that’s the case, then why do bear hunting success rates average about 30% in most states? Because it’s just not that easy, that’s why.

I have been shooting bears over bait in some of the most competitive areas of Minnesota for 15 years, and I have made a lot of mistakes and learned from them. I went through a frustrating process of being unsuccessful, but as I analyzed the factors that were causing my baits to be ineffective, I made the changes necessary and my success rate showed it.

Location is important, type of baits used, frequency of baiting and several other factors can cause your bait to be ineffective. If your baits aren’t working as well as you would like, here is some advice that will make a big difference in putting you into that 30% of hunters who are calling up the taxidermist.

Your Bait is Off Location

Many people believe you can just put in a bait anywhere and the bears will find it. That may be true, but you can significantly increase your odds of not only bringing bears to your bait for the first time, but also keeping them there, and creating an environment where they will feel comfortable coming in during the daylight.

Choose a place for the bait where the scent will drift downwind over known bear habitat. They like thick willow swamps, lowland and they prefer heavy brush over open forest. Spend some time on Google Earth and find locations that allow you to tempt the bears with your sweet smells.

Bears need water every day. They are eating 20,000 or more calories a day and they need to drink a lot to aid digestion. Bear hunting takes place in early summer and late fall, when the bears are hot with their thick coat and layer of fat. They will spend much of their time lying in water. Locate your bait near water.

Bears do not feel comfortable walking through open forest and they will especially avoid moving through the forest with thick canopy and an open floor during the daylight. You need that bear at your bait before it gets dark so make sure they have a corridor of thick cover to move through. I once moved one of my baits only 50 yards and went from the frustration of having few bears visit during the daylight to killing three nice bears off that bait in the next four years.

There are several keys to bringing big bears into your baits during shooting hours. If you mess up any of them, your odds of filling your bear tag goes way down.

Leaving too much scent

This is the toughest temptation I have to overcome. I love checking baits, spending time in the woods and especially checking the trail cameras. Man it is hard for me to stay away, but I have found that if I want to shoot a big bear, the less I visit the bait the better. In areas where I have a known big bear I will haul in 200 or more pounds of quality bait and only check it once every 4-5 days.

As a general rule, I do not allow others to come into the bait with me. There are exceptions, but I try to minimize intrusion as much as possible. I use Scent Killer spray to reduce my human ground scent by spraying it on my shoes and pantlegs before I walk to the bait. Big bears will pattern you. They know exactly when you were last there by smelling your ground scent. If it is strong, they may hang back and get in the habit of waiting until dark. You can’t eliminate your scent or convince them that you were never there, but it helps to reduce your impact as much as possible.

 You will never totally eliminate your scent to the point that a bear will never know you were there, but you can significantly improve the chances that they will drop their guard when you reduce your ground scent as much as possible.

Not baiting often enough

This may seem like a contradiction to the statements I just made, but there are trade-offs. It’s important to know how many bears are using your bait and how much they are consuming. I hunt in areas with quite a few other baiters, and it’s common to have at least one other bait within a mile or two of my bait site. The bears know where the baits are, and if they come to your bait and aren’t rewarded with food, you may lose them to another bait site and their skin will be on someone else’s wall.

I will bait just frequently enough to make sure that there is always bait at the site when a bear comes. There is often a balance. I may have to go in more often than I like just to hold the bears at the bait, and risk having a big, mature bear go nocturnal on me. These are the decisions that have to be made given the information you are gathering through your cameras and the amount of bait that is being consumed.

A sow with three yearling cubs can go through an astounding amount of bait every single day. If you are going to hold the other bears, you may have to carry in a lot of bait every day, and at times I do. You won’t often kill a giant this way, but if your objective is to just fill your bear tag, you better make sure you do not lose your bears by running out of bait.

Your bait needs variety

Bears are individuals, and have different “personalities.” Some bears are bold and some are very timid. Some love meat and others will eat the fruits before they dive into the pastries. Baiting with one type of bait can be a big mistake. Would you like to eat the same thing day after day? Neither would a bear, so mix it up.

I use a lot of pastries because the bears all love them and they will hold bears better than anything else, but I also mix in some outdated fruits, trail mix, meat scraps and candy to offer something for everyone. (Know your state laws regarding what baits are legal) You know the feeling you get when you have had too much sugar, you kinda have this “bleah” reaction when someone offers you another piece of that super-rich dessert. Bears can get tired of too much sugar too.

Whenever possible, I like to load up a bait site with a large quantity of bait and let the magic happen. A good variety of bait and lots of it is the key to keeping bears coming back for more.

Others are ruining your bait

A friend of mine came to me with a story about how his bait had gone dead. He learned that someone had poured a gallon of bleach all over the bait and surrounding area. That’s an extreme case, but many times baiters do not know that others are visiting their bait and leaving scent in the area or worse, bumping a bear off the bait. If you are driving a 4-wheeler right up to your bait, that means others can drive right in there too. Someone cruising along a logging road sees the ATV tracks and follows them right back to your bait. They look around, leave their scent in the area, and possibly steal your trail camera. A grouse hunter may see your trail and walk right in on your bait.

It pays to minimize the sign you are leaving as you maintain your baits. Use a different trail and do not create any kind of a path. I do not drive an ATV right up to the bait, there are simply too many problems with that. Smart bears will pattern you, but additional disturbances and sudden intrusion by someone else can cause them to go nocturnal or abandon the bait altogether.

Bear baiting is not rocket science but it is not as easy as many people think. If your baits are not getting visited as much as you would like, or if your bears are not coming during the daylight, one of these five things is probably the culprit.

Bernie Barringer
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