Besides the mostly dry goods in my shaker barrel, I've always relied on bakery products and sweets as my main bait and with vanilla and jello powders for scent and flavoring. I call it the dessert bar lol. I have used old meat and fish as a stink/call bait in the past at times but I'm not sure it really helps much around here. Besides that, it reeks up your bait site and stand too at times, and is not fun to dispose of. I mean, what sensible bear wants to go into a stinky restaurant anyway hehe.
To the point, this year I have in my freezer maybe 50lbs of moose scraps that I spent a couple of hours easy, cutting all the meat off what was left of a cow moose after it left the butcher. Like, I had 3 real heavy boxes to start off with. There's at least 8 different bags of it so I can use it in portions. I also got lucky and was given a whole frozen large beaver, minus the hide and glands. That I'm hoping to use as a super treat if a real nice bear decides to visit.
I haven't used meat as a bait before. And I'm a usually a full of questions type guy anyway, so here goes lol.
I would assume that it doesn't take that long to go rank, depending on temps of course. How long before a well fed fall bear won't take it? Then I guess I should toss it.
I like 400bigbear's idea of running a line between two trees and hanging onion bags full of meat. I've kept all mine this year but I'll probably end up using grocery bags, they rip easily. That way I can adjust the height of the line too. I'm thinking 8 ft for the bait to be a good height. But I'm concerned that if I put it too high so only the biggest bruin can get it, then it could make the bear nocturnal if there is no competition.
So do the bears tend to make it point to target the meat daily once they get on it? I don't plan on introducing it until I get a decent loner on camera, but I might throw in the odd little teaser. I certainly don't want to waste it on a sow and cubs. I still plan on using lots of bakery and maybe even a shaker barrel as back up to start off with.
Hows about if I'm dealing with a nocturnal bugger. Would taking most of the meat back out after hunting help? No,wait!!! Scratch that thought. :moose: It can be rush enough sneaking out in the dark when you know there could be bears close by and specially when you can hear them but not see them before dark, hehehe. I don't think I would be wanting to carry out the big guy's prize beaver at the same time lol. Or his moose meat if they take a shine to it. There are no moose around here for the most part so it would be something different to put on the menu.
One last question about beaver tail. Will bears eat it??? I was thinking of nailing it to a tree, or will it just go bad and stink?
Tks for reading guys. We all know that bears in different areas go for different food sources, and what works here don't always work there. Go figure eh? Any suggestions and thoughts from guys with experience with red meat and beaver in particular are well appreciated, as my plan is adaptable :) Same goes for any other opinions on the matter, I look forward to reading them all.
Cheers
