Bait station and timing. UPDATE: 09-24, Final Update

[oldleclercrd]

Amy Winehouse....wow...... now thats funny right there

[h20hunter]

thank you, thank you very much. I may need to go to rehab, i say no, no, no. really, I don't know the song or have it on my ipod for rock'n out....anyway, cob, peanuts, buckbran, redspot block, all packed and ready to go in the am. Look for the results when I get back.

[h20hunter]

Wow, 12 pages.

Welcome again huntaholics. In a nutshell. Last week the bears waited less than two hours to come in and work over the blocks. Got 400 and some pics of bears, a yote, a surveyor, his massive rotweiller...and no deer. This time I left behind a buffett of peanuts, buckbran, and cob. There is also another redspot salt block I had. I'm going to leave it for about 3 weeks while I bear hunt elsewhere and see what happens. I hope that once the bait is depleted the bears will be less frequent and the deer will start traveling there more as we get towards September. I posted a bunch of pics in my trail cam thread so for brevity I'll post a pic of the buffett and wait until I have something other than bears to post here.

[AKBowman]

"Last week the bears waited less than two hours to come in and work over the blocks. Got 400 and some pics of bears, a yote, a surveyor, his massive rotweiller...and no deer"

I hate to be the one to tell you but maybe you should think about relocating, or stop baiting that area. Sounds like there was more deer activity there maybe before you started baiting. Once the bears find it they will not leave and the deer find other areas where they can relax without the pressure

[h20hunter]

I think you may right AK. I'm not going to put anything new out between now and Sept. My hope is the bears spend less and less time there. There are plenty of berries for them. Also, if I quit baiting now I can hunt bear and deer at the same time in that spot.

[sticky]

Is it legal to bait deer?  I know at one time salt licks were illegal but I checked the game regs and didn't see any mention of baiting except for bears.  I was thinking about taking some of the apples from our trees and set some out now and maybe freezing some to use during the season. 

To my way of thinking, baiting isn't all that different than growing a field of clover and ambushing Bambi at dinner time.

[h20hunter]

You can bait for anything except bear/fowl/cats.

If there is a bear around he/she will find your bait. I am not going to put anything out anymore to see what is travelling the area. I have way to many bears at my site and the baiting may have shut down the deer. Time will tell and I'll keep posting on this thread regardless.

[h20hunter]

By the way, I agree with baiting being similiear to planting a food plot. I would also argue that baiting should be legal for bear but not deer. However, another thread another time.

[MtnMuley]

You can bait for anything except bear/fowl/cats.

You can bait cats.

[huntnnw]

not deer but bear? usually that comes from hunters who can easily hunt deer but struggle or seen very few bears in the wild. Bears are about the easiest critter to bring to bait..not to include wind which is a non factor in every bait I have done for bears, once they are on the bait there are hardly spooked unlike whitetails

[h20hunter]

So, went for a little hike hunt and decided to swing by my cam. I had about 1500 pics since the last check. I changed a few settings on the cam and with the buffet set it was game on. I had bears, bears, bears, bears, bears, deer, deer, some hunters, bears, bears, bears, and myself.

The buffet showed the cob to be the clear winner. The fat ol bears would just lay right down and put their face right in it. I did get a few pics of them licking the blocks which is cool. As far as the peanuts...all eaten with only the shells. It tooked like the bears and whatever else would chomp them and then eat the nuts after the shells were chewed up.

Thanks go out to the two guys that were checking out MY SPOT. Kidding here. It is a free country and open ground, hunt away fellas. Thank your for not jacking with my cam, the metal box, or the spike screws sticking out of it. Also, thanks for not chucking my salt block and trophy rock over the hill.

Here is some of the pics from the last few days. The first set is pretty interesting. Note the time stamp.

[h20hunter]

Here are two for "scale". By the way...I'm just under 6' 1" and am pushing the 240 range.

[h20hunter]

Deer! Yeah......more deer and a little spike to show for it as well.

I will not be taking in any more food for the bears. Hope the deer keep coming and maybe pick up the pace a bit.

[D-Rock425]

That's a big bear.  How many hunters did you get this week so far on camera.

[h20hunter]

Only two, hunting together, checked out the area, the blocks, headed out of the area.