Seriously looking for input on this.

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Bonecrusher101
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Re: Seriously looking for input on this.

Unread postby Bonecrusher101 » Sun Oct 09, 2022 2:44 am

I would take everything in baby steps.

It’s public, continue to be courteous and keep communication open between you two. Continue to bait it and give him opening day. Sounds like you are both still seeing and taking bears. Don’t change anything until relationship worsens.

Next step would be finding new parking access and moving bait 1-200 yards away.
Be original and Enjoy every step along the adventure.
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Re: Seriously looking for input on this.

Unread postby Bonecrusher101 » Sun Oct 09, 2022 3:41 am

Another point you should stand firm on is sticking with what you said about not giving the spot up. I say continue to be firm and fair.
Be original and Enjoy every step along the adventure.
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Re: Seriously looking for input on this.

Unread postby Mike Foss » Sun Oct 09, 2022 4:39 am

If I new another guy was baiting close by and it’s been a well established bait station I wouldn’t even think twice about baiting there, even though public I would honor (hunting ethics) and respectfully back out. I had a situation a few years back where another guide and I had bait stations 200 yards away from one another but we both didn’t realize it until two weeks before the season, we worked it out, he got to use his bait station the first 3 days then he would stop baiting then I would start hunting mine. Both our clients shot bears.
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Re: Seriously looking for input on this.

Unread postby Ol Split ( ) Toes » Sun Oct 09, 2022 5:19 am

Mike Foss wrote:If I new another guy was baiting close by and it’s been a well established bait station I wouldn’t even think twice about baiting there, even though public I would honor (hunting ethics) and respectfully back out. I had a situation a few years back where another guide and I had bait stations 200 yards away from one another but we both didn’t realize it until two weeks before the season, we worked it out, he got to use his bait station the first 3 days then he would stop baiting then I would start hunting mine. Both our clients shot bears.

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Re: Seriously looking for input on this.

Unread postby ihookem » Mon Oct 10, 2022 1:13 pm

I would try to stay a few hundred yard further away , try to park somewhere else if you walk in instead of an ATV and try to go there when he is not around. . . Here is why. You may trick him into thinking you are not there anymore , all the while he is , in a way baiting your bear. There are likely other spots that are very good in that area. You could also use the place for a second string spot later in the season especially if he is gone by then. I am like you, I dont like other hunters, and refuse to argue. I most likely would not have even called him , I would just likely have moved a few hundred yards or come in from another way. It may be possible, with all the water to come in by a jon boat. We use our Jon boat all the time to get away from hunters. Another thing you will likely be doing if you move 200yds? away, is pull bear from his stand without him knowing it. I dont do this stuff out of spite, but I do it sometimes when I am hunting really high pressure public land in S.E. Wis. If I see a bow hunter waving at me,,, I will make a circle if I have to find a spot and be up wind from him. This might keep him from messing me up,,, but I will more likely ruin his hunt. I dont do this out of spite , but with so many hunters , it happens . I dont walk past them unless I am past them anyway when I see them, then it is too late anyway. If you find a spot that is likely up wind from him , you are helping yourself an dscent going to his sight , even if 300 yds, is not going to do him any good. I hope this does not sound spiteful cause it isnt, it is a strategy to not ruin a hunt when I am half a mile back there already. I hunted Crane Lake MN. in 2003 . I had a guy bait for me. He showed me what he called a "sucker bait." , it a puller bait. It was bait set that was not too far from another baiter to hurt the guy baiting. This is out of spite though and you could put the hurt on him and he should know that and be polite cause you could ruin his sight and make that sight a waste of time if you wanted to without him even knowing it. I dont do that stuff though. I would try another spot 300 yds and that should be 1/4 mi. If he does not like it, then too bad, that is a sufficient distance.
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Re: Seriously looking for input on this.

Unread postby Freelance Bowhunter » Tue Oct 11, 2022 5:18 am

Good points everyone. Sticky situation and I really would give more info that clarifies the situation but I can't without compromising the spot and also wouldn't be fair to Mike or others. I will say that one of the things that makes this spot good is that there's a mile of ATV trail that leads back to it and really no other way in or out. And as far as I know, nobody but the two parties hunting in there have been on that trail in the past two years, because we are the ones keeping it open by cutting fallen trees, etc. Just a really unique spot so moving the bait just a couple hundred yards isn't realistic, access is the real issue here.

Nearly 150 comments on the video and the vast majority of people are saying to do what I would really like to do, and that's find another spot in the same area. We're already feeding the same bears and that's what I'm hoping to do, find or create another access point and get a bait in the same general area. But that's not only difficult to do, but there are other factors with specific location that are important not just considering travelways, but with cover, the right trees in the right places, etc.

There are not many times in my life that I have walked into an area and said, "Holy smokes, this is unreal" in fact most people do not find a spot like this in their lifetime where you can get big mature bears to feel secure in the daylight and has everything you need to kill them.
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Re: Seriously looking for input on this.

Unread postby Mike Foss » Wed Oct 12, 2022 4:54 am

I also have to add, As a past Bear Guide of many years I wouldn’t put one of my clients even a half mile away from another bait station knowing one is there, I wouldn’t care how good the spot is, I wouldn’t want the responsibility of a possible confrontation from another guide or hunter.
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Re: Seriously looking for input on this.

Unread postby Bearman13 » Thu Oct 13, 2022 2:41 pm

There’s spots all over northern Minnesota like this. I would never set up a site near another hunter has been established in for years, but that’s just me. I’ve been at this game a long time, been through the unlimited bait site years etc. Glad I live where I do and most people respect areas where others are at kind of an unwritten code of the woods.
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Re: Seriously looking for input on this.

Unread postby Bearman13 » Fri Oct 14, 2022 12:39 am

One time I ran into a father and son a couple days before bear opened they were walking up from a trail where I had a site. I was wondering who’s truck was in my usual parking spot. I had notice a trail coming up the one I was walking in on and assumed it was the bears coming to my bait from a thick red pine plantation, well it was and also was the father and son team. They told me that they used to have someone bait a site for them on this trail, they took me to the site and I could tell it was well established and mine was put in the year before if I recall. The kid was probably 10 or 11 at the time. We exchanged phone numbers and I told them I would quit baiting the site and not hunt the area as I had a bait on the other side of the road next to a beaver pond. I told them call me if the kid scores and I would come and help them out if need be. Opening morning came and the kid shot a nice 150 pound bear. I happen to be driving by and they waved me down. I shook the kids hand and patted him on the back. They actually had a guy with them who wrote a article about the kids hunt and they publicly thanked me for what I had done. Every time I bait that site I think of that kid dragging that bear in his plastic sled up that hill. I hope after all these years he’s still hunting.
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Re: Seriously looking for input on this.

Unread postby ihookem » Fri Oct 14, 2022 12:03 pm

Bearman , darn cool story .


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