Want some input on baiting

[Tikkamike]

I am starting from scratch basically here. I aquired an allegedly good bait site this morning so I want to hear what works for you guys from what to look for in selecting a place for the barrel and how to set the barrel up. along with baits and attractants. I have a brand new heavy duty plastic 55 gallon drum. I plan on filling it with dog food, grain, old donuts, and break and as much sweet stuff as I can find. I know some people pour vanilla or maple frosting in their baid and use for scent sticks. Mainly I am wondering the best way to position a barrel and cut it so that your bait lasts as long as possible before refills but still keeps the bears interest. Any advice is welcomed.

 

[Broz]

I have heard Bacon grease works well on a tree stump. But I am far from an expert. It is not legal here or I would be a Master Baiter.

Jeff

 

[Tikkamike]

haha thanks Jeff

 

[C.O. Shooter]

My family owned a restaurant a few many years ago and we would store the old deep fry grease in 55 gallon drums until a guy would come empty them. One night my dad was taking some boxes out to the dumpster when he saw a 400+ bear taking the lid off one of the drums. The bear paid him no attention as he was lathering himself in the grease and lapping it up. The bear was a frequent customer to the restaurant! It was like crack for bears. If you have a friend who as a restaurant, try to get ahold of their old grease.

 

[IdahoCTD]

I get old doughnuts and bread from thrift stores. They love doughnuts or anything sweet for that matter. It works good to pour syrup or bacon grease on the bread. You can buy gallons of syrup fairly reasonable. Years ago we actually used dog food and syrup.

I use a metal barrel. They can wreak havoc on plastic if they are a big bear and you get to clean it up afterwards.

If your using a rifle I like to be 100-125yds away to keep the scent away from the area the best I can. I usually put the bait on one side of a draw and sit on the other. Try not to put it in an area that is too open or they tend to come into it really late. Most of the bears I've seen on bait come in between 5:30 and 7pm.

 

[Coyboy]

fryer grease is good but don't mix it with pastries and grain, it will go bad and make it rancid then the grain and pastries aren't worth much.

The best reason to use fryer grease is as an attractant, slob it around on the ground and the outside of the drum. The bear will get it in his paws and leave scent trails for others to follow.

 

[HARPERC]

I never used a barrel we always just manipulated naturals. We used almost everything for bait, if you feed them very long they end up tasting like what they been eating...so use the better grade dog food LOL. Seriously we had free fish one year, could barely pull hides without gagging. My partners salmon eating grizzly still oozes fish oil from a skull boiled and bleached 5 years ago. The oils can be helpful in keeping them at the site. Poured out like a mineral lick and they'll dig it out like one. Pour it over sticks and they'll eat the sticks. Mix it up. Depending on your regs, an old horse that leads will keep them busy for a while. Just wire it up so they can't move it. A good crop of maggots keeps regenerating also.
Location is much more important than bait type, a big bear is tough to pull from naturals so stay closer to the feed. Spring they're traveling, rutting, and may disappear for the length of the season. Big bear don't like direct light. Start with a good map, pick up your creeks, these are travel routes, I prefer the darker side of the mountain, and overcast a bit helps as well. Find the thickest timber you can, and now you've got food, water, shelter from the sun, and cover. If you can find a finger into an open spot (open meaning exposed to light short brush won't hurt) they are much less likely to come in behind you and cut your trail.
Position logs, and stumps behind the bait so they have to come around front to feed. With a little experience-observation you can position them for an ideal bow shot. Look at your kitchen table and your approach, if there is a wall side you don't use it much, if there's a chair that fits better you use it. Can you see the TV stuff like that.
If you tree stand-camo tarp etc. behind you so you don't skyline, if your rifle hunting don't cut a shooting lane wider than you need, try to combine it with your access to the bait. I always groom these so I can come in and out in the dark without making noise.
Take a yard rake etc, I've known to rake a quarter mile path. Just wide enough to walk is all you need.
Stay on stand until full dark. The last few minutes is always best (it's why we have no pictures of our best bears). Coyote in and out. If you need to add bait, late morning or midday.
Mind your topknot Pilgrim, Yellowstone isn't that far, and some old Grizzly tired of laying awake listening to wolf howls may go walkabout. But that's a whole 'nother chapter. I'll send you some pictures if one of the kid's stops by for some technical help, Good Luck

 

[Tikkamike]

Thanks for the advice carl. Ill keep that all in mind!

 

[IdahoCTD]

My uncle use to guide in western Wyoming and he used to use old horses too. He would chain them to a tree and wait until they got ripe. He use to put a cow head in the bottom of the barrel when he used barrels so if you ran out of bait they would keep coming back for a few days to try and get the head.

 

[retiredcpo]

Tikkamike
we have been baiting for several years now.
The first two years we did alot of experimenting. Penut butter here.honey there apple suace over there. Grease fron resturants, Green apples red apples ect.
We tried cooking honey and bear crack jjust about everthign you can think of.
Now I only use dog food and cheap peaches if I can get them.
If you are using a barrel put a half circle at the bottom and put bars accross the top to keep them from climbing in Chain/strpa it to a tree tightly. Dump in a couple of bags of dog food and then some peaches then dog food on top, this will smash the peaches and get the juise all over the dog food. You can also sprinkle jello mix on the dog food.
Poor the grease on the ground around the bait so they have to walk in it. They will track it around leaving a scent trail for others to follow back to your site
Use a trail camera if you have one and post some pics for us. I got some pics of a three legged bear last fall.
good luck let us know how it goes
retiredpo

 

[sp6x6]

I went on a few trips with a guy that put in almost 15 yrs baiting. We got treats and baked goods from store or Eddies.Unwrap all goodies,piesbrownies, twinkes,etc. Then trash compact. This made a compact about 45 # package. We had a small trailer full. Enough for 6 sites 2-3 weeks, fresh almost each day if hit. Used barrels and set to height to help judge bear. Paw, big sized,hole. Laggged and washered to tree.Some metal also. We had a stink barrel kept going for years,halibut,beaver, rotten anything.Fill a gallon jug and pour on trails in way in to bait,and high on trees for scent to carry.This barrel made some loose it. We later went to liquid smoke,commercial,in a spray bottle, spray everything on way in and high on trunks. This camp took over 70 pope bears over these years.Several Boone and one 21 3/4 archery.

 

[axe3761]

heres what i do for my stink baits...
i pick up every tulobee and dog fish and fish carcasses i can get my hands on from ice fishing.
i then put a few in plastic pails with about 2 gals water or fill em full of snow when i pail em up.
sealed, they sit untill i get them into the bait site where i dig a small hole so the lid is sticking up out of the ground.
i then poke as many small holes with an ice pic as i can in the lid before i can't stand the stank anymore.
i put on a steel cover made from an old expansion tank from an old boiler that has the dish in the ends.. i cut it in half and cut crosses into the dish part so the rain water keeps it wet and the small ice pic holes let the water in but keeps the flies out. i weld a couple tabs on the tank end with holes cut in em big enough to slide a re-bar shaft cut on an angle then pound em into the ground about 3-4 feet. they can't get them out of the ground no how. lol.
these stink for weeks and you only gotta do it once.

use your fryer grease for pouring all the way around your barrel and down the trails they use so when they come in they get it on their fur and drag it out with them down the diff trails they use so other bears that might not smell your bait will smell the grease on the trail. let the bears do the work for you. they go places you won't and that grease stays with em a long time.

hard to beat beavers for bait but hard to get enough to rely on those to make it to the end of the hunt.
doughnuts work well but just as hard to get as the beavers, they last forever. lol.
if you use meat scraps, make sure you keep it fresh...well as fresh as you can get anywho.
i notice a lot of guys put their baits in light cover...big mistake.
get your bait into the darkest, thickest spruce you can find, hopefully close to water.
they are wary to expose themselves in daylight but feel safe in dark spruce. giving you more shooting light before legal time because they are coming in earlier. hope this novel, lol, helps out some new bear hunters harvest a bear this spring.
one last tip...get or make a good trail camera and use it. you can see whats coming in and when. its gonna save you tons of time by not sitting on a bait that has a sow with cubs at heel. you might as well pull that bait. lol.
you won't be shooting her or cubs and she will chase ANYTHING that come near her newborns. yearling cubs are another story...they will be getting kicked out as soon as she comes into season(breeding) and you can use her to pull in the big boars in early june. hides will be rubbed but you will see the big guys then.