MN bear baiters - Natural foods?

[Freelance Bowhunter]

Just wondering what others are seeing out there for natural foods. Seems to be an abundance of acorns in my area, and the hazelnuts are really loaded down. What's it looking like in your area?

The natural foods always make baiting challenging and this is going to be a year of lots of competition for the baits around here (central Zone 45) anyway.

[headgear]

Insane year for acorns, agreed on the hazels as well. Not as many blueberries as past years.

[LOTW]

I’m in 12, we don’t have a ton of oaks but they do have acorns on them. There was a good blueberry crop but they were spotty, they are mostly done now.
It’s a slow start here.

[Bearman13]

I’m in 31. This is the most natural food I have ever seen. Hazelnuts, blueberries, raspberries, wild strawberries, pincherries, rosehips, dogwood berries, mushrooms, it’s unbelievable.

I’m running 38 baits and we’ve been averaging about 28-30 hit the last week. Some new spots have been hit asap and some of our old baits haven’t been hit yet.

This is also the most hunter activity I’ve ever seen as well.

[218er]

Tons of acorns in 51 area. I feel like they are falling a little earlier then last year. It was basically raining last year on opener.

[Mnbearbaiter]

All 6 of our baits got hammered within 24hrs in 28. All 55gal barrels were 2/3 full or better and the bears were making multiple visits daily. 16-18 bears between all the baits. I saw some blueberries and raspberries last week when we went and setup baits. Places where I saw berries last week were good of them this weekend. Saw a few hazelnuts as well. Not a ton of oaks in my area so as of now I'm pretty excited. This week is gonna be a killer with the anticipation!!!

[Freelance Bowhunter]

We are in for a really tough go of it around here. Acorns are loaded and tons of hazelnuts. Berries are pretty much done but everyone I am talking to in this area is struggling to hold bears.

Really makes me think I should be applying for and drawing areas without so many oak trees. Still hoping to get it done despite tough conditions, we will see.

[Mnbearbaiter]

All 6 of our baits got hammered within 24hrs in 28. All 55gal barrels were 2/3 full or better and the bears were making multiple visits daily. 16-18 bears between all the baits. I saw some blueberries and raspberries last week when we went and setup baits. Places where I saw berries last week were void of them this weekend. Saw a few hazelnuts as well. Not a ton of oaks in my area so as of now I'm pretty excited. This week is gonna be a killer with the anticipation!!!

[218er]

I had acorns flip a switch on my sites last year. So far so good this year but most of the acorns are on the trees still. Way up north most the berries are gone by the time opener rolls around. That is definitely one less thing to compete with.