Hunt247365 2015 WI Bear Season

[Mike Foss]

[quote="Hunt247365"]Picked up the bait today and ended up with a good load of all kinds of breads and some bagels...maybe about 3 barrels worth. Loaded one barrel and used myself jumping up and down on it every little bit to smash it all down. Barrel must be over 400lb! Have any of you have good luck storing bread this way without molding under the top layer? I smashed it down real good and shouldn't be much air space in the barrel. Also the trail mix turned out to be a great mix with lots of nuts. This should last us for the season I hope. Running baits Monday again and hope they like the bread mixed in with the rest of the bait0


Packing a barrel and compressing it down is also what I use to do, only the top 2 or 3 inches would get moldy, the rest would stay good for months. I would just peel off the top like a cover and put it back when done taking some bait out. That last picture with all the bread on the garage floor sure did bring back some memories when I used to have a connection with Hostess, would get a pickup truck load for $10.00. The trail mix with the nuts are the ticket, unlike bread, if it rains out it will last, the bears love nuts.

[Hunt247365]

Thanks for the feed back guys. Have two barrels packed as full as possible and had to stand on the top to get the lid down to close the ring. Was able to get about a barrel into the frezzer. The rest will be putting out tomorrow when I run baits. Will be using the 2 barrels up in about 3weeks time and I think it might help that everything is still 2-9 days from due date. Will have some more pics to post when I get back.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[crappieangler]

Interesting thread. How many days a week are you baiting? IF you don't mind me asking, what you think you'll spend total for baiting this season?

[Hunt247365]

I was baiting every 5 days sometimes 4 for most of the summer. I'm picking that up to every 3 days now for the next few weeks then going to everyday for the final 8-9 days before season opens. I haven't gone through the total cost yet but did sell a good amount of bait back in May and June (got in bulk and sold extra) that did take a good dent out of it and along with the things that I got for free I'm around the $500-$600 area in bait.

Ran baits today and all 5 were hit. The Skeeter site had 2 bears at it with one being ok size and one being a small fella. Did see what looked to be a dog guy siting along the road right before where I park......not sure that means much of anything. The Maple Grove site had one nice bear at it 2 out of the past 3 days. The Tick site had 4 bears at it over the past 3 days and 2 being good bears and 2 smaller looking ones. Did get a cool video of 2 fighting at the bait. The Lake site had 3 bears on it with 2 good ones and one small one as well. Well will be back at it on Thurs.

[Hunt247365]

[crappieangler]

That's a cool video, looks like you've got a few good sized bears to target. I saw your other thread, hopefully you can work around the one guy setting up close to your other bait...sounds like a good spot. Keep up on the posts, enjoy following your guys' posts. Good luck

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[Hunt247365]

Ran Baits today and had 4/5 hit. Some nice bears on cam and still some good ones showing up during hunting hr time frame. Looks like the past week here has turned into running into people problems for me. First as I have already talked up had a guy setup early close to me and right on my walking path and have decided to stick with that bait site and just scoot around his site as far as I can (only about 50yds or so) as I still have good bears coming in. Now today at the Skeeter site have 2 pics of a guy and then 20 or so min him and another person. Not sure why you would come back 20min later for....if it were me I would back out and leave the guys site alone. I thought no way anyone would come across this bait with where it is located and I guessed wrong. Will see if they come back I'm going to go ahead and move that site a little ways and if they don't and bears keep coming in will stay put.

With that said the cam on the Maple Grove Site had dead batts and at the Lake Site and Tick Site had some good action over the past 3 days. They seem to really like the bear cakes that I made them....a layer of bread and layer of trail mix with caramel drizzled on it and repeat tell pail is full and when it pops out of the bucket looks like a big cake and can see all the layers. Did start 2 more sites up today that look promising and could work good maybe to replace the Tick Site and Skeeter Site if need be. One is in a cedar swamp right along a beaver pond and where the swamp meets a bunch of young aspen and also some older growth of maple and oaks. The other spot is also in a cedar swamp next to a trout spring pond that flows into a stream...also is a block of woods coming out into ag fields from a very large chunk of woods. Here are some pics from today.

[Hunt247365]

Ran the baits today in the great rainy weather we had. Good news is 8-8 on baits getting hit! Did have some problems though with one trail cam getting knocked around the tree by the first bear in, another cam started taking pics every 15sec for some reason and filled the SD card up with only 2 bears on cam before that happened and had the guy I had pics of last week looking at my bait again.

To start with the Skeeter site where I had pics of people last week ended up getting pics of him again at the site. Did have pics of one bear here. Seeing that I'm not sure what this guy is up to decided to move the site today when I checked it. Didn't move really far but enough that hopefully it won't get disturbed by anyone now. I'm starting to think that from the way he is coming from if it isn't the guy from the land next-door as I'm not excessively far from the property line...maybe about 100yds or so.

Next the Maple Grove site had one bear at it for two nights in a row which seems to be this bears pattern every 4-5 days shows up for 2 nights in a row then gone for 4-5days again. Would be nice to get him in every day but my bait must not be in the best location. If he keeps that pattern for the next few weeks he still very well could be a killable bear if you time your hunt at that site right

Next ran the Lake site that had 2 bears on it before the SD card filled up with pics of mostly nothing Was a bit mad about it as the bear I named scarface was due to show this past week as he comes in every other week for over 1.5mths now.

Next is the Tick site that had some good video of a nice bear that has been coming in good but this trip all night video of him but stays for 30min-1hr at a time at the bait.

Next checked the new site I started last week the Beaver site which was hit in less then 5 days! No cam here

Next checked the other new site Trout Pond site and it was hit as well in less then 5days again no cam

Next is the site I named Death Swamp. I started this site back at the end of May and never had a hit...nothing! Been going in every 5-10days a spray scent and a couple gal of fresh bait and basically no longer counted it as a bait site. Today decided this was the last time I'm checking it and not even sure why I messed with it this long. Got right up to the tree I planned on putting my tree stand and just about tipped over when I see the log tipped and the rock moved a ways from the log! Well rebated it and will see if I can keep the bear coming in reg now. This site is set just getting into a tamarack, spruce and elder swamp and thought it would had gotten hit a long, long, long time ago. Not holding my breath but would be nice if i can keep it coming in now.

Last was the Cedar site that was hit and all cleaned up but again no cam here.

[BassBoysLLP]

A lot of sweat equity here. Good things will happen. You have a lot of regular bears. Are there any particular bears that you are targeting over the others? Thoughts on being selective the first few days/weeks?

[olivertractor]

Hopefully it's just a curious resident checking your baits and not some guy teaching his kid those unethical habits

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[crappieangler]

A lot of sweat equity here. Good things will happen. You have a lot of regular bears. Are there any particular bears that you are targeting over the others? Thoughts on being selective the first few days/weeks?

I too was curious about this. Keep after em, it'll all work out. You'd think the other guys would stop checking your baits....seems really odd b/c you'd think they'd want you to stay out of their sites as well or that they'd realize someone was already there and would change their spots. Kinda stinks you've been keeping bears in the area and they're kinda taking advantage of all your work. Like BP said, Good things will happen for you.

[Hunt247365]

A lot of sweat equity here. Good things will happen. You have a lot of regular bears. Are there any particular bears that you are targeting over the others? Thoughts on being selective the first few days/weeks?

Yes I have my eye on a couple bears that have become very regular that I will likely hold out for for the first 4-5 days maybe longer. My goal was to get at least a 200lber but now that I have seen the size of some of the ones coming in has left me with a tuff call as I really like bear meat and def want to get one for the freezer but also know there is no way of getting one of the bigger ones if I shoot the first bear that comes in but also know that after the first week your odds drop big time on getting one. If my dad gets one before me will make it easier to hold out for a bigger one with one in the freezer. Yes I have been working my but off so far and put some miles on on the days I run the baits but this year I have the time and was able to get some good deals on bait. One thing a local bear guy by us told me is yes many guys kill a lot of bears with just one site or two baited but it is def not a bad problem to have a number of good sites. Seeing I had the time this summer decided to scout out a number of areas to be able to hopefully have some options for each wind and just never knowing what sites may go cold or have to much people activity around them. Then again I could get lucky and fill my tag the first night and could of saved a lot of time by not messing with all the other sites....who knows maybe I'm just a little nuts as well. Going to move the cams on Fri to other sites to see whats going on at those spots and how big of bears are hitting them.

[Hunt247365]

Running baits tomorrow and tried basically cooking some black liquorice in some French fry oil and boy does it smell really good but strong. Now I'm thinking of just using it for scent because I think it might be to strong of taste to mix with the grain.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Hunt247365]

Ran baits today and 6-8 were hit over the past 3 days. Only down side is had some cam problems...one cam died right away on Tue before anything cam in and one cam got moved to the backside of the tree by a bear right away Tue night.

The Skeeter site that I moved on Tue was hit by one ok size bear that was back on 2 afternoons out of 3. Hopefully some of the others will find the site soon but at least this time no people pics. Only downside here is when I moved the site I didn't end up as far off the logging lane as I would have liked.

The Maple Grove site had bears on it one night but the rain messed up the lens on the cam and all pics ended up blurry and can't really tell whats in the pics.

The Lake Site was hit and all cleaned up but the cam died before any bears came in.

Tick site was cleaned up good with 3 bears on the videos 1 smaller one during the day, one that I think is a ok bear during the day and one good bear on couple of the nights.

The Beaver site was hit and cleaned up as well and by the crap that was by the bait filled with soybeans, corn, and sunflower seeds would say he was at my site more then once. Moved one of the cams over to this site so will see next trip whats hitting here.

The Trout Spring site was hit as well and nothing left. Moved a cam to this site as well.

The Grave Yard site was not touched in the past 3 days but did get good news from the landowner that the guy from the farm next to them got a pic of a big bear they think would be near the 400lb area. The guy told him that Im the only one baiting in the area as the guy on the other side along with his farm no one has tags this yr. Put a cam here as well and now hoping that the one hit I got last week wasn't just a fluke.

The Cedar site wasn't hit either over the past 3 days.

Here is a video of one of the bears I have coming in what are you thoughts on size? I know I don't have anything good to size him up against. Just curious of any of your thoughts that have more experience then me.

[Mike Foss]

Good looking bear.....175lbs.....