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More bear bait questions

Preacher shaner

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Jan 17, 2019
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Every body talks about using sweets and fry grease. But I wanted to ask. About using fish oil for the long range smell. And carp for bait. Any ideas
 
I've found that bears don't typically eat the rotten carp. I try to fill a couple buckets with carp and let them sit for a few days. This is just long enough for them to really start smelling but not fall apart rotten. Then I hang them in tree branches around the bait site. The smell draws the bears in but they focus on eating the bait. After bears are hitting the bait site I will throw out fresh carp.
 
Check your regs to see what fish you can bait with.

I wouldnt want to deal with them. There are easier scents to hang and work just fine in my experience. Honey burn or hang anise oil.
 
Kinda... sure a bear that has spent all fall eating salmon isn't going to taste great, but a bear that ate a couple pounds of rotting fish yesterday. I doubt that is going to have any effect on the taste of the bear whatsoever.

Do you know this for a fact? If a bear is coming to bait why does it just have to be yesterday?

I'll stick to a bear eating berries from a natural source.
 
I've found that bears don't typically eat the rotten carp. I try to fill a couple buckets with carp and let them sit for a few days. This is just long enough for them to really start smelling but not fall apart rotten. Then I hang them in tree branches around the bait site. The smell draws the bears in but they focus on eating the bait. After bears are hitting the bait site I will throw out fresh carp.
I was thinking fish oil and fresh carp. Or just using it for sent to draw them in. Than using grain with something mixed in.
 
I always try to get a few 5 gallon buckets of Chubs a week or so before I start baiting ( chubs are legal in Utah ). I let them sit and get stinky. I think this smell helps draw the bears to the bait but it is usually the last thing they eat. In my experience they always eat the sweet, sugary stuff first.
 
If you are using them to make your bait smell like the town dump I get it. Black bear aren't going out of their way to eat fish oil, piles of carp or filleted fish carcasses. Not their favorite foods. Pop yourself some popcorn and find some budget caramel mix to throw it in. Grain and nuts mixed in molasses. Cinnamon rolls. If you can use fry grease don't forget to throw it up the sides of trees nice and high.
 
Fish does not work. We’ve tried. Meats in spring and sweets in fall are best but sweets generally work in both. Beaver works good as well. Don’t use fish, you won’t be happy.

Granola mixes with various wet sweets is my favorite. A gallon of maraschino cherries mixed with 4 gallons of granola. Pretty awesome stuff.
 
Used frying oil poured out on the ground on and around the main bait. Not only has a smell, bears walk in it spreading the scent trail for others to follow. Toss some up in and on neighboring trees to "catch air" and expand the scent area. Ask local bakeries and private bakers about scrap, waste or old cakes or other baked goods. Let them know it's not for you to eat! A big bag of the cheapest dog food you can get works also. Like popcorn, the idea is they have to hang around to eat it because they can't haul off popcorn or dog food like a old smelly slab of ribs to eat elsewhere. They have to actually continue to put it in their mouth. Friends with anyone in the restaurant biz? Have them give you their food scraps and put it in 5 gallon buckets with lids on them. Let them "ferment" and get ripe. Pour a bucket out at the site. The possibilities are almost endless.
 
Suckers and squaw fish work great. I've put 20 to 25 fish in a bait, gone in 2 days. Also, molasses oat flakes, with liquid molasses old bakery items, apples, pears. bacon grease, fryer oil. They don't like potatoes and onions. I start catching non game fish now for May baiting, freeze them. Dress up the bait site with bear bomb, bear magnet or any concentrated sweet scent. Drip scents work well, except bears destroy them, along with game cameras. Bears will come in a couple of times a day. Check regs though.
 
Bear meat taste like what they eat. Feed them a rotten carp if you like that taste.

Not a spring bear that's been hitting that bait for a week or two. I personally only use rotting meat (beaver carcasses) to attract them and normally run cheap dog food mixed with frying oil. Delicious tasting bear every time!

Fall bears are an other story.
 
Do you know this for a fact? If a bear is coming to bait why does it just have to be yesterday?

I'll stick to a bear eating berries from a natural source.

Pretty tough baiting bears with berries from a natural source.

Me and a buddy baited for years in Idaho’s spring season. Fish worked great, we hung them in burlap bags up in a tree. We also did a mix of sugar, barley and water. Grease from the local burger joint and cheap dog food also.
 

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