Anyone one else looking forward to Spring bear hunting?
We start the baiting process on May 04th... :)
We will hunt the week of May 27th...
I didn't see a bear in our 2023 spring season so I am overdue... lol
Printable View
Anyone one else looking forward to Spring bear hunting?
We start the baiting process on May 04th... :)
We will hunt the week of May 27th...
I didn't see a bear in our 2023 spring season so I am overdue... lol
I didn’t have to bait for bear last year, my wife did it for me with her compost pile. We had a small bear show up on the first day of bear season while I was turkey hunting. He took a 100 gr. Rage while standing in the middle of my decoys. That ended my bear tag in hurry, but I didn’t want her hanging around the house
After limited success seeing bears in the spring we are going to concentrate resources on the fall season this year. I might bait one stand for the long weekend just to see what happens.
I did have an encounter last spring but didn't have an opportunity for a shot and eventually got busted.
I like fall better, or at least seem to find the time then, but yes I will be baiting for spring bear
I will probably bait again this Spring but am not going to spend a whole bunch of money doing it, just would like to take a bear as predator control and to try the meat as I have never harvested a bear.
Mixed success last year, got bear coming in but mostly after legal time. Also I am limited on getting a bear out because I have not bought an ATV yet. Saw a 4 liter jug of Molasse's in my local club warehouse, last year I could pick up an almost expired jug at half price for $5.00 regular price now for same jug $34.50, talk about inflation.
I hear ya dragging bears is a chore! If I were bear hunting solo I would quarter it up gutless and pack it out. Your body will thankyou for that... ��Quote:
Originally Posted by Gilroy
You getting &*(^'d on that molasses. I pay $32 for 20 litres at the feed mill. As far as dragging get yourself a fall arrest harness, lanyard and ice fishing toboggan. Harness lets you pull with your entire core plus your legs and keeps your back much straighter. Rigged up like that i pulled a 350 lb bear solo without quartering it. Not fast and took lots of breaks but only needed to get it 200 yards to the side by side. Otherwise just pick your target accordingly. Lots of bears out there between 75 to 150 lbs and they eat like Angus beef. Good luck!Quote:
Originally Posted by Gilroy
Hemming and hawing about whether to get out this spring. Took a nice 125 lb eater last spring.
Well I have a small sledge and I have a harness and I am in pretty good shape so can probably get her done, just need to figure out how to get them in during legal hours which always seems to be the jocker in the pack.Quote:
Originally Posted by Species8472
Crazy early this year. The bears have been out of hibernation for about 6 days now on my farm in Fenelon Falls. That's almost a month early from my observations here. I think the poor Boo-boos are going to be awful hungry. I'm already doing nuisance beaver removal so I'll pitch them some carcasses to help them out till green-up.
What has worked for me (in no particular order). Some of these are from Dr. Ken Nordberg and others are from experience:
Refresh your bait between 11:00 am and 1:00 PM only.
Never hunt in the morning.
When you plan to hunt, go in at 1:00 PM and plan for a long sit.
If at all possible go in with another person on hunt day. They refresh the bait and you stay in the blind (2 men in, one man out).
Never walk from your bait directly to your blind or vice versa.
Set up your blind a week before you plan to hunt.
Leave one of your stinky work shirts in the blind.
Never have food in your blind.
NEVER go to your blind after baiting.
If you have a trail camera, always deal with the camera before you bait.
A lot of good advice there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pioneerfreq
We tried spring bear hunting a few years back and got ate alive by black flies so fall hunt it is for us. I do admire folks that endure the spring conditions
one word THERMOCELL
That's the way I do it. I butcher myself anyway, so doing a good chunk of it in the bush takes a little longer as your working on the ground, but not that much and it needs to be done anyway. Also don't have to drag the scraps back into the bush to dispose of them.Quote:
Originally Posted by bellerivercrossbowhunter
X2 on that. Thermacell is life saverQuote:
Originally Posted by sabmgb
I took my daughter and her boyfriend to an outfitter near Timmins about 3 years ago. It was her graduation present. We didn’t go into the stand until 4:00 PM. The outfitter would freshen up the bait while we were climbing into the 20’ high tree stands. We would attach out harnesses, light our Thermocells and get ready for a long sit. They baited with popcorn inside of a large blue drum with a small hole in the side. The popcorn was flavoured with strawberry syrup like the stuff you’d use on a snowcone. He then spread the blueberry version of the syrup around the bait. The blue drum was chained to a tree.
The bears would come in between 7:00 & 8:00 PM. They would pick us up from our stands between 9:30 and 10:30 PM. It doesn’t get dark until close to 10:00 PM there at the beginning of June. They had cameras on the baits. There was a large boar coming to my stand at 6:00 AM so I never got a chance at him. I passed up a sow one night only to take a slightly smaller boar the next. My daughter got hers the night before as did her boyfriend. He had 4 bears hanging around his stand for 3 nights until he finally shot one. He took movies of them with his Go Pro one night. After he shot his the other 3 circled his stand until we got there with the outfitter who fired a couple of shot over their heads with his Remington 911 to disperse them..
He had an old commercial popcorn maker he used to make the bait. I prefer spring bear to fall bear (I’ve had both) as the spring bear has no fat.
I hope there is some information in this that can help somebody.
I tried it but didn't seem to work on the black fliesQuote:
Originally Posted by newbiehunter
I wear a full bug suit while spring bear hunting and run the ThermaCell. Bugs buzz around me but can't get to my skin... :)Quote:
Originally Posted by huntnmachine
Baiting begins this weekend! :)
Going to be buggy!!!!!!!!! :(
Good luck!
Bugs not that bad yet JeffQuote:
Originally Posted by bellerivercrossbowhunter
Good luck to everyone on your Spring hunt!
Excellent!Quote:
Originally Posted by mr meat
Flies are starting to come out. Not biting yet but soon. This is on south shore of Nip. Sign that it is time to start bating. So that's what I am doing this afternoon as well as putting boat out.
Earliest I have ever launched boat. Usually still frozen on May 4th.
Getting old. First year I have bait in 20 kg bags. In the past always used 40 kg bags. Can still carry/lift the 40s but my knees don't like it - especially on uneven wet slippery bush trails.
Good luck and look forward to read your hunting story as usual as I really enjoy it and thanks for sharing all your experience with us.Quote:
Originally Posted by Species8472
Read from another thread you got a truck and congrats!
Cheers
Beautiful day yesterday but yes the blackflies were out. More than I expected this early in the year. A little south of Sudbury.
No bear activity for me yet but I’m fattening the coons
6 baits set in the Temagami area. Already had 2 visitors at our baits. Only 1 bait doesn't have cellular reception so we could be 3 for 6 hits already... lol
I'm giving it a go again this spring. Planning to open up baits on the long weekend. 18-19th, then hunt the first weekend of June. Have 100lbs of kernals popped and made some hardcandy bear lollipops. Some to drop inside a roller barrel to keep bears interested once the food runs out, and some to chain to a tree for them to lick. Going to try a 2 blade head this year. Giving these 2 5/16" Simmons Great White's a try
Attachment 44813
Good luck Mike! I have no doubt you are going to take a 400+ lb bear with your trad gear. Always amazed at your skill using trad gear. Typically i have used rifle but gonna hunt exclusively with the excal this year.Quote:
Originally Posted by LowbanksArcher
I have taken my last two bears with my excal Joe Using the G5 fixed heads. Bleeds them out in a hurry. Recovery was inside 50 years for both.Quote:
Originally Posted by Species8472
Just got back now and I baited on the 1st May and had a bear come in on the 3rd, 4th and 5th all over night visits with the earliest being 10.15pm and latest 4.15am. I set up a blind and changed the barrel location by 25 yards and it seemed to be two bad moves as I have no action since then. Evening before last saw a cow Moose feeding about 50 yards north of my stand and last night three big deer busted me
on the stand all real healthy looking, snorting like crazy. Pretty sure the bait will get hit again when the place settles down so not to worried, still trying to figure out how to get them in during legal shooting times.
The one bear I had hitting the bait would be around 140lbs and its an all black bear in color.
The first time I baited I had racoons, a fisher and a flying squirrel all visit one night.
Hmm well we had 2 baits visited by a bear but they haven't returned in 3 days. That seems odd. Still lots of time before we start hunting on May 27th..
By following Dr. Ken Nordberg's guidance I never really had a problem with bears only coming in at night. Having said that, I often thought about having a small portable battery operated radio on a timer that would play some talk station quietly during non-shooting hours to discourage bears from coming in at night. Bears are greedy. If they want the food, they will have to come in during legal hours to get it. Never actually tried it so YMMV.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gilroy
Having a strange spring season with our baits.
Bears will show up one day and feed. Then they vanish and have yet to return with any consistency. I am wondering if we have made a dent in the population hunting the same spots for the last 10 years or so? Could be time to branch out to new territory.
We're not even into the best half of the season yet. I'm sure your baits will light up in the last weeks of MayQuote:
Originally Posted by bellerivercrossbowhunter
Ha! Would be nice but I don't see bears that size in this area. That would be a late night of quartering the bear on the spot to get him out. Better I stick to 150 pounders :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Species8472
Good luck this spring. Baits should be heating up soon, along with the bugs
Being a forum novice,I hope my spring bear picture attached okay. My young boar came in during both day and night hours. A surprise afternoon visitor was a single hen turkey, that proved useful as a sentry, should any bears arrive. Finally, quiet as a ghost around 7:15pm my young boar cautiously approached the barrel, but stopped short behind the trees and just nosed around. After what seemed an eternity, it appears he didn't like something and started slowly going back into the bush. Waiting for an opening in the trees, I fired a broadside rifle shot and it ran across me and up a hill. After a long wait, we did an increasing larger loop looking for blood sign, as a light rain started to fall. It wasn't until next morning that we made the recovery. I immediately punched my bear tag and thankfully, dragged the bear downhill to the bike. I'm guessing it went about 50 yards. The bugs weren't too bad this early. I didn't even have my Thermacell on. Good luck too, to all you other bear hunters !!
Picture did not attach. But congrats on the bear!Quote:
Originally Posted by wknwrur
Thank you ! Trying to attach picture again. (1) I type my greeting text. (2) Click on the 'Insert Image' icon. (3) Open IMG_2152.JPG from my computer (4) 'Insert Image' "Browse" Box shows my selected IMG_2142.JPG (5) Click on 'Upload Files(s) .... and that's it, Nada, poof , gone !! Suggestions please ....
shrink the picQuote:
Originally Posted by wknwrur
Sent u a pm.Quote:
Originally Posted by wknwrur
Thanks for FFF and Species for your help. I am one old dog who doesn't mind learning new tricks . I'm still mind stuck with the old desk typewriters. Okay, back to bear hunting !!
Posting for wknwrur - congrats:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...06abfa6c_k.jpg
Congrats man. Good eats!! :0)
So I made the 5 hours drive to open up baits on Saturday. Decided to save on gas and get some exercise. Left the truck and quad at home and took the Toyota bait buggy. 3 barrels inside and 1 up top :D
Attachment 44820
Attachment 44821
Worked away on baits from 6:30am to 9:30pm. 3 of us got 6 baits prepped.
Took about 24hrs for the first visitor. The lollipop was the first thing to go. I'd made a lollipop with banana candies added on top before the candy syrup hardened. Seems they worked on that for a day and it's gone now. (2nd to last pic)
We'll see how long the bait lasts. Not planning to hunt til the end of the month and hoping to avoid a re-bait trip before then
Attachment 44822Attachment 44823Attachment 44824
Love it lowbanks. Good amount of work you put in there
Good exercise delivering your bait by bike trailer. Your crib setup looks great too. Hopefully the bears keep cooperating by coming in for your hunt during the day, and you're good to go !
Looks good!
Smart move using the Toyota. My Hemi Ram truck fuel bill will be outrageous this spring season! ugggg!!!!
So 5 hours from your home base is somewhere between North bay and Temagami or perhaps the north side of Sudbury? Looks good man. That first guy mid day looks about the perfect eating size. I only have one bait set this spring and it is on my own property. Have a busy schedule for the next bit (2 of my kids are getting married this summer and putting the hit on my time and wallet) so will take it as it comes. I am hosting 2 stag weekends at the cottage and have been made the designated sober guy who will be driving the boat pulling the tubes, wakeboards and skis. I never hunt the spring too hard anyways as there is always the fall.Quote:
Originally Posted by LowbanksArcher
Ya maybe I should say 4.5hrs. Depends on how much I take my time on the back roads. Over by the Grundy/French River general area. A fair amount of other hunters and not many BIG bears unfortunately.Quote:
Originally Posted by Species8472
You got a busy summer ahead! I'm not fall hunting in this area anymore. The bears seem to leave the baits by the time the season finally opens after labour day. And also, with kids age 4 & 7 at home, that's back-to-school time. NOW is the best time for me to put the effort into taking a bear. Prepare over the winter and hunt a few days when the bears are most active on the baits. Kids have soccer (and i'm coaching) Mondays, Tuesdays, & Wednesdays. So a Thursday to Sunday hunt it will be next week.
Now, if only this bait would last until then. I dont know why, but the bears are really liking my elevated barrel this year. I put some caramel shake powder seasoning stuff that i'd picked up from https://www.sweetbearbait.com/ on the popcorn in that barrel and maybe they're liking it a little too much. There's 4 sight glasses in the side of that barrel so i could see the level and it's now down to the bottom 1/3. I added a threaded rod out the bottom of the barrel as a stir stick so bait wouldn't get clumped up and not reach to small bottom hole. I figured they'd accidently bump the rod now and then and loosen the popcorn. Well shoot, it almost looks like they're stirring it with their paws now ;)
Attachment 44825
The green barrel has NO holes in the side at all. Only one 1.5" hole in the MIDDLE of the lid. Bears will need to try to tip it up to get bait out after the first half is empty. It should be impossible to completely empty and there should always be SOME bait left in there to keep their interest. But I think i'll need to make another trip up this weekend afterall, just to be sure.
Attachment 44826