If you bait, they will come. I hear people say this and that about bait. Just plan old table scraps work as good as anything. I use a 10 gallon metal bolt bucket my brother got free from a metal build job. Just throw everything in the bucket all week, tator peelings, pizza crust, hamburger grease, stale or moldy bread, milk, soda or beer even your kids veggies. Bear love it! So do opposums, coons & fox. Sounds like your in prime bear county don't get discouraged, stay in your stand.

Hunter if your wanting to bait here is what I use. I live in Idaho and live for spring bear hunting. Get you your donuts and breads and dump them straight on the ground cover them up with branches and logs. Totally cover them. Then take 10 gallons of grease from a deep fat fryer from a fast food rest. Dump this on top of the logs and branches. Leave about 3" in each bucket to throw the grease up into the trees so it drips down for scent. Also smear it up and down the tree trunk you put the bait under. also put some on the ground around the bait site so when the bears walk on it and they walk away they will advertise and leave a scent trail for other bears to find.
i put out 3 bait sites this spring and had 2 get hit within a week. The third got hit after the season closed. I took a 6'2" bear off my bait this year. my brother missed one also. I baited for 5 weeks then the last week I took off work and went and sat on it. I just kept taking bait up so they got used to the bait being there. took 6 days off to hunt them. Left on a Sun. at 2 p.m. and was home at 1:30 a.m. Mon. morning so got right back to work.
good luck and have a safe hunting trip.

I have yet to get a bait in the woods. I will be out in the morning to put one out in the place I told you about. I also have another spot on the oposite side of the same public land I was talking about. Its about a 5 mile drive between the two and I will also be talking to the landlord I rented from 4 years ago. The bears used to drag my garbage cans down into the woods about once a week over there. Hopefully I will have 3 sites working in a week, that gives me almost 4 weeks on each before the season.

I will definately keep you posted. More towards the actual hunting time or if bears start to hit the bait.
I have learned a few things already!
1-bear hunting/baiting is a lot of work
2-people don't like bear hunting.(too f-n bad!)
3-my hunting partner is not as into the work as I thaught/as I am.
4-My truck goes places I didn't think possible!!!!
5-I'm haveing a lot of fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah....about the stink bait. I hung a big azz fish from the tree. I will be putting a chicken up there too.

supersider...........nice buck!

hunter777,The best thing you can use for a stink bait and to keep a bear at a site is grease that they use to cook french fries and other fast foods in. Most places give this stuff away because they have to pay to get rid of it and it adds up quick. So they love to see someone come and get it.

If you can find old bake goods mix it with this grease and you have the best bait you can find.
A bear will come for a long ways to get to this stuff.
Give it a try and you will see.

Good luck.

I got Bears!
One of my 3 sites was hit on day 4 it was out. I brought my daughter up with me and walked up the hill and came around a big tree on the trail and ut-oh 4 bears sitting 30 yds away!!! I said look!....... Lets get out of here!
I took her back to the truck and went to the next bait then came back and left her in the truck. I went back up the hill and they were still right were they were when I left them last time. I kept about 30 yds between me and them and did a loop around them and they just watched me........SO COOL!!!!
I got permisionj to hunt a ppiece of property across the street from where a bear broke into two houses and that bait has been out for 4 days today, problem is the state of NJ caught that bear this morning. That bear is most likely dead already. It seems a woman was feeding it everyday but she went on vacation a week ago and the bear waited outside for its food but when it didn't come out the bear went in and got it. After it ate all it could find in the first house the next night it broke into the niegbors house.
Its been reel cold here the last few days. The temp went down to 20 and 22 and is borderline freezeing every night. Will the bears go into hibernation soon?

[ This Message was edited by: BigE on 2004-03-15 07:35 ]

We went to a seminar put on by the state of NJ. They told us that the bears that were born this past winter would be between 125-150 lbs by Dec.
I would only be guessing but I think the small ones were about 100 lbs. The sow was much bigger than the 160 lb. bear I got 3 yrs ago. I would guess around 200+.
I have another bait site setup 250 yds from a couple houses that were broken into by a large boar. They say that bear is between 400 and 500lbs. No luck there yet.