Baiting Black Bears

[Shoot2Kill]

Hello all..first off...great site! I'm new to MN and have a few questions about baiting black bears here. I'm not new to baiting (have been in Alaska for the past 5 years and baited successfully for the past 3 years). How much pressure do the no quota areas receive here during baiting season? What are your favorite baits here? We used horse sweet feed covered in gallons and gallons of molasses in AK and the bears couldn't get enough of it! How is the hide quality on bears in September when it's so warm? How about baiting in the state/national forests? Legal? Are there good places to access bait sites with ATVs or is most of the area private land? From what I've seen it looks like you have to dig a hole to put your bait in here and not use any kind of barrel..is that correct? Is there any kind of bear bait class you must take in order to bait?

Sorry for so many questions, just starting to do my homework to get a plan in place for next fall. When I was in Alaska we started planning trips a year out to have all the details ironed out, so sorry if this seems early.

[metrojoe]

Welcome to FM or maybe I should say HSO. I've never hunted the "no quota" zone so I won't be much help there, but I can tell you there is a lot of competition out there. I stopped bear hunting for a number of reasons but one of which is all the activity on the public lands that time of year. Here is a link to a bear baiting topic: BEAR BAIT

I used to build cribs for our bait stations. I've got a couple pictures of one. I'll see if I can get them scanned tonight and post them. The Minnesota DNR puts on a Bear hunting class that I've been told is excellent. I want to say it's free, but there might be a minimal fee of $5 or something like that.

[metrojoe]

Here is another one: BEAR BAIT

[Shoot2Kill]

Thanks guys...that last link was just what I was looking for. One more question...how are the landowners when one asks to bear bait? Do they like the idea of people attracting bears to their land? But then again I guess they might want them harvested too???

Another question...what do you guys look for in a good bait area here? I'm used to hunting them in the mountains and knew where to look there, but here the terrain is obviously different. Near water? Are most bears taken in dense timber? The thicker the better? That's how it was in AK. They liked being able to be concealed as they came into the bait.

Thanks again.

[metrojoe]

Here are the pictures of a crib. This was later in the season and it was a bit knocked down, but the idea is to only allow access to the bait from one side.

The bait is buried under the logs at the base of the tree.

Hopefully this is what it looks like when you come back the next day to check it.