Bear Bait recipes

[lang]

The old water bottles are super easy to pack. We just take one each time in and think it gives plenty of scent off. I also will collect paper towels soaked in grease while cleaning pan and hang those in trees around bait site. I want cheap and light weight as possible!

 

[wildwilderness]

Beaver carcasses have been a big hit.

 

[bbassi]

I’ve been saving my cooking grease in quart mason jars. I planned on trying to get some 5 gallon buckets full from restaurants too for the bears to track around. Do you not think that’s necessary for a new site? And it was cheap bacon I promise

3 out of 4 bears prefer Chinese take out frier grease. That chit's nasty!

 

[william schmaltz]

I'm only on my 4th year so I consider myself a very novice beginner but I quickly realized I was way over thinking it. Plain popcorn and the cheapest dog food I can find. I'll buy a couple bait em 907 ground covers (nasty boar and usually something sweet) and then a small paste canister of nasty boar and magnum martin (credit to Nick on the MM). Make a few yoyos with twine and pinecones with the paste and throw them in trees and that's it. Even opening a new site that way last year and my bait was a war zone in a week.

 

[Timberline001]

I'm only on my 4th year so I consider myself a very novice beginner but I quickly realized I was way over thinking it. Plain popcorn and the cheapest dog food I can find. I'll buy a couple bait em 907 ground covers (nasty boar and usually something sweet) and then a small paste canister of nasty boar and magnum martin (credit to Nick on the MM). Make a few yoyos with twine and pinecones with the paste and throw them in trees and that's it. Even opening a new site that way last year and my bait was a war zone in a week.

Thanks for the tip on the ground cover. Sounds like it’s a good replacement of grease for making scent trails with their pads.

 

[Timberline001]

3 out of 4 bears prefer Chinese take out frier grease. That chit's nasty!

I used McDonald’s greese last year. Worked great. It was just nasty and I hate asking for it.

 

[FortuneTeller]

I used McDonald’s greese last year. Worked great. It was just nasty and I hate asking for it.

That's awesome. Big Mac grease. I'm gonna have to try that!

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[Mibowhunter49]

A game warden told me they used sunflower seeds to trap problem bears. when I hunted Quebec we would broadcast semi sweet chocolate chips around the bait sight to make them "hunt" for the good stuff. It gave us more opportunities and angles than just filling a barrel.

That's a good idea. Might even bring my shoulder broadcast spreader out for that.

 

[Marmots]

I found the holy grail of discarded fryer grease: Long John Silvers. My weak human nose found racoon and bear tracks a hundred yards from my bait by following the smell of a fish sandwich. The network of grease trails leading to and from the barrel was super effective at calling bears in. I'm not sure if I would do it again because even with careful handling, the smell of fried fish clung to my hair and gear for a long time.

The Utah Department of Wildlife published a study comparing some common broadcast scents for bear research and found that Anise was most effective. Going forward I'd rather risk accidental exposure to licorice scent.

 

[Nick Muche]

KISS...

Dog Food, Fry Grease, Magnum Marten, Knock-Out, Beaver's if you can get them and they are legal.

I used to do a lot of things that wasted time, costed additional money and I get the same results now as I did back then. The amount of pop corn we used to pop was absurd and it took forever. The amount of fancy attractants I've purchased was overboard and unnecessary.

Scent and Food. That's really all you need. Make sure your scent is the strongest you can find and make sure the food is the cheapest you can find...

I do love a good sow in heat spray/scent in June though!

 

[Timberline001]

I found the holy grail of discarded fryer grease: Long John Silvers. My weak human nose found racoon and bear tracks a hundred yards from my bait by following the smell of a fish sandwich. The network of grease trails leading to and from the barrel was super effective at calling bears in. I'm not sure if I would do it again because even with careful handling, the smell of fried fish clung to my hair and gear for a long time.

The Utah Department of Wildlife published a study comparing some common broadcast scents for bear research and found that Anise was most effective. Going forward I'd rather risk accidental exposure to licorice scent.

I hate that grease so much! I’m trying dosing fresh vegetable oil with boarmasters carnivore candy. We’ll see if it’s as effective

 

[Sourdough]

What does the "cheapest" dog food cost. And no I can't just go to the store to shop. Thank you.

 

[Marmots]

What does the "cheapest" dog food cost. And no I can't just go to the store to shop. Thank you.

I've bought some stuff from WinCo that was somewhere around 26 cents a pound. That's $13 for a 50 pound bag.

It was just called "dog food". I'm pretty sure if I closed my eyes and tried to draw a beagle I could have made a better logo than the one printed on the bag.

I would never feed it to any animal that I loved, but the price was right for bear bait. The bears that ate it left neon colored poop all over the site.

 

[Nick Muche]

I find dog food most years for around $11/bag and usually get enough of it in March or so to last me the spring. Free donuts, etc, any "filler" type food would be the cheapest and sometimes people are lucky enough to have that option... I haven't in quite a while.

If I lived in a cabin, on a mountain, in beautiful Alaska, I likely wouldn't be putting much effort into baiting bears as there would be more enjoyable ways to hunt them out my front door. But I don't, I live in a small house, near the city, in beautiful Alaska.

 

[Coveyleader]

If you're in remote alaska, look into that program walmart has, the name is slipping me. Essentially, they order an ship out to remote areas and get the goods from the lower 48 at no extra cost. I shipped around 2800 lbs of bait to a remote place in AK for a total 2k. Split 4 ways, it was pretty cheap. It was something like 50 50lb bags dog food, sugar, the whole deal. Very hands off as Walmart worked with a local shipping company etc.

At the same time, you could always just spot and stalk depending on the area.

PS.........I like dog food, but it's heavy. I prefer the lighter options mixed at times but there is nothing like post holing for a mile with 50lbs of dog food on your back 4 times on a weekend.

 

[meatsports]

good thread. thanks for the info guys.

 

[Timberline001]

My baits have been up for a couple weeks now. Put pizza and donuts on one site and self popped mushroom popcorn doused in Boarmasters razmaspazz and powdered sugar in the other. Poured 20 gallons of used grease spiced with Boarmasters concentrated concoction in carnivore candy on each site (5 gallons twice a week) and have been spraying scent trails with the carnivore candy mixed with conola oil. I’ll put up updates with how my bait worked. We’ll see

 

[Bearman]

Sun dried Northern Pikeminnow (Squaw fish). There are a ton of those where we fish, they are considered unprotected and a nuisance here in Idaho.
Slice them in half and hang them over direct sunlight (downwind from the house), mix it up with wet cob and/or corn mash.

 

[Timberline001]

Both baits got hit for the first time last night. Ran out real quick this morning and poured 5 gallons of castor scented restaurant grease at both sights for them to drag around.

 

[GarnerAF1]

Beaver carcasses have been a big hit.

That is awesome. I did not know I could repurpose the beaver carcasses. Thanks!!


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