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Post by skeeter on Jul 9, 2018 16:31:08 GMT -4
Time to start my thread, so to speak. Anyone who knows me or has followed my posts know I tend to take the path never travelled. Someone needs to do it and take the road to the end. I hope this crusade will at least shed some further light on this bear baiting game. Over the years I sure know what doesn't work. Just like the perfect mouse trap - still never quite finished
I went through last years 2017 records for our 5 bait sites. We filled all 5 and used 15 bags on our initial baiting (Aug 3). 18 days later (Aug21) we went back and used 3 bags to refill completely all 5 baits. 8 days still later (Aug29) and we used 6 more bags. Finally getting bigger bears on the baits. When we went up to actually hunt after another 7 days (Sep 5)..we brought up 3 more bags and all the baits were getting hit real good.
So our entire 2017 season was 27 bags. We had an issue at 2 bait sites with lesser non target bears and they actually ate the most! I figured they cost us about 8 or 9 bags total. Corrections have been made (again) and we hope to recoup those 8 bags this year. We will see!
We will be using our teaser baits every time we rebait so there's no surprises and they'll actually know there's something special in them.
Also the plan moving forward this year is to remove any bait remaining from all 5 sites from the main barrels and take these home for next year. On our first bait check (the day before the hunt starts) we'll just scoop out any bait remaining in the barrels directly into the DEMO bags. The gravy trains ends right then and there!
We are going full steam ahead with our suspended bear teaser bags. No break in our feeding program but just a reduced, rationed, controllable sized offering. The barrels will be empty but the teasers will be refreshed daily. This also will allow us the chance to offer different types and flavors of baits to hopefully tickle the pallet and get a little competition amongst the bears at the site. Since we only have BIG bears it will be interesting to see how competition between big ones actually works out.
We've taken some great bears in the past and it always seems to evolve around the same set of circumstances. Usually the big bear is the only one on the site. Or the big bear just found the bait and we were hunting it shortly, Or there's a couple bigger MALE bears on a site (competing). Baiting the way we use to in the early days it was always a long time coming before all those stars lined up. The number of Big bears in any area is usually only a fraction of the actual bear population - as we all know so well! My lofty goal has always been ATTRACT large bears only, FEED large bears only, and KEEP large bears only, on a bait. Anything else (in my world) is a waste of time, money, effort and bait!
We've been fairly successful at the ATTRACT, FEED, and KEEP chapters of this book. NOW comes the final chapter - KILL"'em consistently. Hence our teaser bait approach.
In my mind (after so many hard lessons) I do think we're on to something with this approach. This season will tell.
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Post by losthunter on Jul 10, 2018 5:56:56 GMT -4
Time to start my thread, so to speak. Anyone who knows me or has followed my posts know I tend to take the path never travelled. Someone needs to do it and take the road to the end. I hope this crusade will at least shed some further light on this bear baiting game. Over the years I sure know what doesn't work. Just like the perfect mouse trap - still never quite finished
I went through last years 2017 records for our 5 bait sites. We filled all 5 and used 15 bags on our initial baiting (Aug 3). 18 days later (Aug21) we went back and used 3 bags to refill completely all 5 baits. 8 days still later (Aug29) and we used 6 more bags. Finally getting bigger bears on the baits. When we went up to actually hunt after another 7 days (Sep 5)..we brought up 3 more bags and all the baits were getting hit real good.
So our entire 2017 season was 27 bags. We had an issue at 2 bait sites with lesser non target bears and they actually ate the most! I figured they cost us about 8 or 9 bags total. Corrections have been made (again) and we hope to recoup those 8 bags this year. We will see!
We will be using our teaser baits every time we rebait so there's no surprises and they'll actually know there's something special in them.
Also the plan moving forward this year is to remove any bait remaining from all 5 sites from the main barrels and take these home for next year. On our first bait check (the day before the hunt starts) we'll just scoop out any bait remaining in the barrels directly into the DEMO bags. The gravy trains ends right then and there!
We are going full steam ahead with our suspended bear teaser bags. No break in our feeding program but just a reduced, rationed, controllable sized offering. The barrels will be empty but the teasers will be refreshed daily. This also will allow us the chance to offer different types and flavors of baits to hopefully tickle the pallet and get a little competition amongst the bears at the site. Since we only have BIG bears it will be interesting to see how competition between big ones actually works out.
We've taken some great bears in the past and it always seems to evolve around the same set of circumstances. Usually the big bear is the only one on the site. Or the big bear just found the bait and we were hunting it shortly, Or there's a couple bigger MALE bears on a site (competing). Baiting the way we use to in the early days it was always a long time coming before all those stars lined up. The number of Big bears in any area is usually only a fraction of the actual bear population - as we all know so well! My lofty goal has always been ATTRACT large bears only, FEED large bears only, and KEEP large bears only, on a bait. Anything else (in my world) is a waste of time, money, effort and bait!
We've been fairly successful at the ATTRACT, FEED, and KEEP chapters of this book. NOW comes the final chapter - KILL"'em consistently. Hence our teaser bait approach.
In my mind (after so many hard lessons) I do think we're on to something with this approach. This season will tell.
good luck.....i'll be checking in..... |
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Post by skeeter on Jul 11, 2018 14:59:03 GMT -4
Just got the results in from a friend of mine. Dave is a guy in my moose group and has a cottage on an island in northwest Quebec. (I'll be on that island for a week, end of July) He parks his truck on the mainland at an outfitter. This is a long time, established operation. Runs about 50+ bait sites. This spring hunt he had 26 hunters and killed 19 bears. One was wounded and not recovered. Largest was 357 lbs, a few near 250, and all the rest under 200 right down to 75lbs. I only post this to show that this is the makeup of what's out there OR to show that the methods used are not really geared towards larger bears. It appears that any large ones are either non-existent OR the methods used are not tailored to larger bears. Right in my own area last fall I know of 15 bears actually taken (19 guys) (I know each guy personally). I got the largest, my partner got the 2nd largest and my son the 3rd largest. The other 12 bears ranged from 60 to 166lbs.
The one common denominator with the outfitter and all the guys I know is they ALL use barrels on the ground with different holes. Add in different food concoctions, magic bear lures, commercial foods and scents, etc etc. (the list is endless but the results seem to be the same)
My hats off to every successful hunter. We all hunt and harvest for different reasons. BUT I know some are disappointed in spite of success.
Something I learned a long time ago. Find out what everyone else is doing.
If you like their results then mimic them. If you want different results then you better do something different. It's comical because they all have game pics of better bears to prove that they're out there. They're all waiting for the bear to make a mistake. Most of their taxidermists and most of those bears will die of old age. Never to cross paths!
Like I said in my opening post. I am taking the path never travelled! The thing that separates me from most of the others is - I expect failure and use failure as a guide in my learning curve. Trust me! I have failed! Hard lessons!
BUT I know what's out there! The numbers are not great, but enough to make it feasible.
I sure wish there was a blog somewhere with the answers I'm seeking or a sure-fire tactic or a magic bait/lure. If it exists, I can't find it!
It appears as though I might be the one to figure this out .... I hope I live long enough!
I sure wish one on you guys/gals would lead me to the promised land. huh huh
Anyhow I hope the stats I just listed give you guys something to think about. |
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Post by skeeter on Jul 11, 2018 15:18:01 GMT -4
Here's the schedule for this years hunt. In the past we have started later and also started earlier in July. One thing that seemed to be consistent was when we got big bears to find our baits. The timeframe from Aug 18th to 21st just popped with most of our big bears - initial visit. Our records going back for years had about a 90% initial visit during this window. It pays to keep records. This little tidbit of info is huge for us. Start too late and wandering/migrating bears go right through and you've lost them. Too early and you're wasting bait and effort. This seems to coincide with the seasonal demise of the berry crops. I know from my conversations with the MNR that radioed bears will travel great distances to find a new food source. Kinda like a fall migration. My conversation with the biologist says about mid August LOTS of bears leave his area when the blueberries dry up and head about 80 kilometers eastward to the oak ridges waiting for the acorns to start dropping.This year the migration may be earlier. It's super dry here in Ontario and forest fire warnings are everywhere. What is paramount to us is that we're ready and our calls lures are running at 100% to get a passing bear to find us. Lots of bears find us BUT we only want to feed and KEEP the bigger ones. All the rest move on and find someone else's bait sites. Perrrfect!
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Post by tuketu on Jul 29, 2018 9:04:04 GMT -4
I think if anyone has the answer to the Promise Land, I'd have to say you'd be the Messiah !
Since you started sharing your endevours from way back in the "Bears East" days , I've followed you religiously ( pardon the pun).... Your methodology just makes sense. Every season you take it to the next level, and each year valuable lessons are learned. Sometimes I feel a bit guilty piggy backing on all your hard work .
I'm sure to some out there your baiting tactics are way over the top , in so much as their complexity, they just want to throw some stuff in a barrel and shoot a bear ...and that is fine !... to each his own. I've never been a Trophy bear hunter myself but certainly wouldn't turn down the opportunity if one strolled in. I have shared in the frustration of having really good bears on camera at the bait but never seeing them when I'm on stand. And yes we're all familiar of the definition of insanity.
I sometimes question using the same bait site every year as well. It seems the bears almost become accustomed to me and have formed a routine around by hunting strategy. I might be better served at a new site in which a bear(s) are not so familiar to bait sites.
Looking forward to your next status report Skeeter !
tuk
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Post by skeeter on Aug 5, 2018 10:24:05 GMT -4
Just came back from a fishing, relaxing, entertain mama, trip to a northern Quebec cottage on an island. There were 4 couples total.
On Thursday we took one of the guys, John, about 60 km west back into Ontario to his hunt camp. We timed it perfectly to meet two of Johns brothers at the camp. They're getting their baits in for the Aug 15 opener. Boy they had a ton of stuff! Wet donuts, grease, bacon drippings, dry donuts, etc. and 3 new blue plastic barrels to replace the plastic barrels the bears destroyed last year. I never said a thing! Really I didn't!
Dave, Mark and I went back to Quebec. Dave's cottage is about 10 km from the Ontario border. On Friday we put in 3 baits for Dave's Ontario hunt. Dave uses steel roller barrels with a short 2 foot cable. I made a suggestion at the first bait about letting out about 4 to 6 feet of the cable BUT he said he likes it short. So like a good listener I did whatever he told me to do. He always gets bears proving there's more then 9 ways to skin a cat. I installed the cameras at all three spots. I hope I got it right! HAH!
Made the 8 hr drive home sat night and getting ready for my first, initial, baiting run on Wed Aug 8th. Calling for 32C for next two days, feeling like 41C. I sure hope it cools off for Wed.
On another note there appeared to be lots of blueberry's and quite a lot of raspberry's too. All this hot, dry, forest fire weather here had many thinking the berries would be in short supply. I stopped along the logging road and got a ball cap full in about 4 minutes for the pancakes for the girls back on the island.
I also mounted my GoPro to a ball hat mount and filmed one of Daves baits going in. Hopefully I mastered using it to film my own bait sites.
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Post by skeeter on Aug 9, 2018 22:38:05 GMT -4
August 8th has come and gone and we got our 5 baits in. Yahoo!
We left a 4:40am to beat the Toronto traffic, all loaded up with bait and the 4 wheeler.
Everything went in without any fuss or real effort and proves that good planning sometimes yields good results.
All of our moves and alterations and adjustments were done back in May and everything was how we left it.
We go back on Aug 20 for our first replenish and fact gathering. Hopefully the bears co-operate.
We had enough time at the end of the baiting to actually go back and do some trail work/clearing at one site and apply some round-up at 2 other sites.
It was getting pretty thick with regrowth and the last round-up from 4 years earlier was starting to give in to mother nature.
I hate walking out in the dark and not being able to see my feet.
Each barrel got 2 bags of dried donuts. 2 auto sprayers were suspended at each site (call lure). and 3 teaser bags hung to get the bears accustomed to it's special treat.
Cameras are all running on my auxiliary 18650 battery packs. 30 sec video. 5 min delay. we need the Intel to either prove or disprove our design as bulletproof.
We continue to learn and make more tweaks to (hopefully) get to the bulletproof classification.
My only complaint was we used dried donuts made and packaged by Mark. He filled those DEMO bags just about full. They were heavy!
It only took 2 bags to completely fill the barrel to the top. Some we couldn't get the lid on!
He threw a twist into my 3 bags per barrel formulae. GGRRRR!
We actually brought 5 bags home. I knew right away before we left we had way too much because there was hardly any room on the truck for gear.
I think he now knows to NOT fill them up like that again!
Next trip I will take some pictures and hopefully have some intel to share. now we wait and dream! |
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Post by tuketu on Aug 13, 2018 15:31:14 GMT -4
Anxious to see your setups Skeeter.
Good Luck !
tuk
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Post by skeeter on Sept 2, 2018 21:56:13 GMT -4
Well I'm all packed up and ready to go to bear camp. It's like the night before xmas.
I never chimed in on my first rebait because there was nothing positive about it. We were being beaten by some non-target gymnastic bears. At 2 spots we had them jumping about 6 to 8 feet from nearby tress and get on top of the barrels. Those stole the teasers in short order. and we had a couple barrel rim walkers. 5 baits sites and we had over 1000 videos. I studied videos and specifically looked for weaknesses in our set-up.
3 years of positive results all went down the toilet this year. Leaves one shaking their own head. Anyway I had 8 days to come up with remedies. On my 2nd rebait We made the necessary corrections. We cut down any trees in the vicinity of the barrel tree. We added one more layer of wrap at another site. I devised and installed the fixes. We knew we had some rim walkers last year but kinda blew it off as a minimal distraction. WRONG! It only escaladed this year. I actually made a complete new barrel for one site which included all the latest ideas. Our barrels have been modified so many times that the patches are actually helping the little buggers with handholds. I took and old barrel and cut it up radially and made rim covers for the 4 barrels still up there. we brought in a zip saw and self tapping screws and McGivered them right in the bush.
Any roots were also removed to ground level to eliminate a step. Another small problem was them jumping and getting up on the hoist pins. I made pin covers for all 10 pins - 2 per bait.
It was a 16 hour day on Tuesday to get the fixes in.
One last problem was we had a chin up bear that was JUST tall enough to hook the hole and do a chin up. I fashioned a roller device. like a roller pin to roll when the bear put weight on it. This roller design is on 3 barrels for evaluation.
All the reports I'm getting from all the other hunters in the area is that everyone is swamped with sows and cubs. The guys that just went up for the sept 1 opener say big ones are just showing up now. They seem to be late this year.
Any droppings at the baits were solid blue with undigested blueberries or red packed with raspberries. This seems to be about 10 to 14 days later then previous years.
We did have one nice boar on one bait that I figure is around 340 to 360.
I told my partner that the worse bears are on our baits right NOW. This is like the 2nd intermission of a hockey game. We made adjustments and we'll see how the 3rd period went when we go up tomorrow. I think we'll surprise some of them. hopefully All of them.
It's not bulletproof YET! The videos are invaluable and I don't think any of this would be possible before the advent of the cameras.
I'll report in from camp on my phone. |
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Post by tuketu on Sept 12, 2018 9:52:16 GMT -4
Can't help but laugh Skeeter !
Those little buggers are smart. I expect they got together in the off season and devised a plan, in light of the Intel from the previous years.
Can't wait to see some pictures.
tuk
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Post by tuketu on Oct 4, 2018 11:16:47 GMT -4
Where are ya Skeeter ?
Where's the bear pictures? How you making out this season?
How's the latest revamp on the barrel system.
You still in Hunter mode?
tuk
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