Bear Baiting Tips

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Through the school of hard knocks of bear hunting, we’ve learned a few things and here are our baiting tips:

First you need to know where to find black bears in the Spring.
Some people think that your bear bait should be on a ridge, but we like to put them in the bottoms. The wind is more reliable. The goal here is to fill the canyon with the smell of your bear bait.
Place your bear bait as far away from roads and trails as possible. Try to be the only one hunting the bears in your area. This should up your odds of a trophy boar visiting your bait site. We sometimes use horses to pack in bear bait.
If you use a barrel, keep in mind that a good bear baiting barrel should hold bait for up to 2-3 weeks.
Bears prefer sweet bait as opposed to meat scraps. Another advantage of sweet products such as breads, doughnuts, and dog food mixed with syrup is that they will only attract bears, not wolves and coyotes.
Pour A LOT of grease on the ground all around your bear bait. When bears come and go from the bait, they will step in the grease and leave scent trails for other bears to cross and follow right back into your bait. Let the bears do the work for you.
Don’t check your bait for at least a week after you have it set. Eventually a big dominant bear will claim and begin checking it throughout the daylight hours. This is hard to do, especially if you use trail cameras.
Set your tree stand or ground blind downwind of access points to your bait.
Attractants can be very effective. Early season add some sort of sweetener to your bear bait. Later in the season (late May through June), use Sow in Heat Scent.
When you do finally sit your bait, try to sit all day (hard to do) and definitely sit until very last shooting light.
If you don’t want to do it yourself, here’s what to consider for booking a baited black bear hunt. We offer some great baited black bear hunts in Alaska, Alberta, Idaho and Saskatchewan.

Learn how Russ Meyer hunts black bears.

Scent… there are two schools of thought:

Wear rubber boots and use rubber gloves when touching your bait barrel and or trail cameras.
Don’t worry about your scent, in fact, hang dirty clothes around your bait so that the bears get used to smelling humans.