Starting to get the itch

[Bo D]

Well it's getting close and might be time to start refreshing my bear baits. And because of the lack of rain these past few months the apple trees in my back yard started dropping apples. I've got enough on the ground from one tree alone that'll fill five, 5 gal pails. I'll be bring them up as well dropping them at a couple of our watches.

I don't hunt over my bear baits but use them to try and get a start off of them with my dogs. Gotta love it when they start snuffing. You can see them circling the bait pile and the circles keep getting wider and wider until they get it lined out. Once that happens one of them will open up with a locate bawl and then it's game on....

Get excited just thinking about it..

[Birdbuff]

That sounds like a pretty cool way to hunt them. I’ve always hunted over bait. How long or far does a bear hunt like this take?

[Bo D]

Depends on the bear and just how much pressure the dogs put on the bear. Another factor is how long has it been since the bear was at the site and the distance he's traveled since leaving it. I've had them tree a bear within minutes of starting it and I've had young bears that had their Nike's on and traveled over 10 miles. No matter, it's all about the dog work.

[finsfurfeathers]

Depends on the bear and just how much pressure the dogs put on the bear. Another factor is how long has it been since the bear was at the site and the distance he's traveled since leaving it. I've had them tree a bear within minutes of starting it and I've had young bears that had their Nike's on and traveled over 10 miles. No matter, it's all about the dog work.

doesn't matter the size of the game as dogs always make it better

[huntnmachine]

A few of us are heading to Burks Falls Monday for a few days to start filling our bear bait barrels. We are heading up Sept 7th for a 4 day hunt and can't wait. Last fall we tagged 4 bears in the first two days and called it quits.
We have a few nice bears on cell cams without baits so its looking good again for this fall

[dean.f]

After striking out on the spring hunt our first year on the property, we have at least 3 bears visiting consistently since the season closed so I'm really excited to get back at it.

[Bo D]

Was up at the camp on Sat and wound up filling 12, - 5 gal pails of apples, grounders off of one tree in the back yard and brought them up with me and dispersed them on different watches as I scouted and cleaned up our two bear bait sites. Couldn't believe the amount of moose tracks all over the property. The logging that was done on our property last winter seems to have paid off. They are already on the new growth...

[Deer Hunter]

That’s a lot of apples.
Logging in mix wood always makes great Moose habitat.
That’s good news, hopefully you get a Moose tag.
One year I seen a small calf hoof in a huge pile of Bear scat on my property.
There was a huge sow on property at the time.