WI Bear hunt

[lokidog]

My dad drew a tag this year and transferred it to my son. He'll be using a crossbow but will have a .35 Marlin lever to back it up.  This year, the baiters get the first week of the season so we will be out in a blind the evening of the 5th. It's too bad the deer season doesn't start until the 15th or I'd be bringing my bow....

Two years ago,  a friend of my parents got a huge bear (400+ pounds) that had been terrorizing their camp. This year, it looks like there a couple of bruisers. One site has about 8 bear coming in but mostly young and a female with triplets. Another has the huge one, but so far, he is only coming in in the dark. And, the third one, probably where we will start has the good sized bear hanging around the log with the hole in it.

[Widgeondeke]

Wait!   You are going to allow your son to miss school for hunting?

AWESOME!!!      He will sooo much more being with family and providing for them

Good Luck to you and Z

[h20hunter]

Very cool. Good luck to your son.

[lokidog]

Wait!   You are going to allow your son to miss school for hunting?

AWESOME!!!      He will sooo much more being with family and providing for them

Good Luck to you and Z

He's not feeling well.....   

Actually, he is more worried about missing school than I am.

[Timberstalker]

Good luck!  I hope you two have great success.

[lokidog]

10 hours in a blind yesterday, nothing so far.

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[Machias]

Good luck, I'm hoping your Son gets a nice one!!

[lokidog]

Well, 24+ hours in a blind the last two days and nada. Second to last night two bruisers came in ten minutes after we left, after shooting hours. Then, insult to injury, another big one came in a half hour later.

The day before, while we were in a different spot, three medium sized bears came in at different times during the day.

A friend of our family offered to transfer his tag next year or the following year, what a great offer!

Part of the problem, I think, was the guy doing the baiting was using crap for bait (though they are not allowed meat or meat products or honey and has to be less than two gallons concealed in a hollowed out log.

Oh well, it will make a future bear all the more exciting. I'll post some trip photos when I get back to my computer.

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[ian_padron]

Very cool. I was born and raised in WI, amazing state for an outdoorsman, that's for certain. 

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[Machias]

Next time you go, check out Bob's Bear Bait!!!  https://bobsbearbait.com/

[lokidog]

Next time you go, check out Bob's Bear Bait!!!  https://bobsbearbait.com/

They did seem to like popcorn, when it was used.  Cookies and old candy was pretty much left alone, except by the raccoons. The big thing that got eaten that I added was peanut butter and bread with pancake syrup on it. We used a "bacon" scented gel after I got there as well. 

The problem seemed to be no consistency in when the bears would show up. The reasons I can think of was that baiting was not done at a similar time each day and that there was little in the bait that the bears wanted to spend the time eating.  The night the three larger bears came in, they were there for almost an hour because by that point we had started doing the baiting ourselves and had upped the ante on the bulk of food the bears actually wanted to eat. Unfortunately, it was too little too late.