The Reluctant Bear Solution
A friend of mine was having trouble with a bear visiting his painstakingly prepared bait station. The bear had been there once but had not returned despite all the goodies left for his whimsical appetite. This can be a common problem with bear baiting. You get regular visitors, but they aren’t the big black bruin you desire.
I suggested an alternative tactic to my friend that I had learned from professional bear hunters, which goes as follows:
1) Go to another area and find fresh bear scat – the bigger, the better. Find as much of it as possible. This is not an easy or pleasant task.
2) Bag it up, and bring it to your baiting station.
3) Leave it in piles around the perimeter of your bait station. Don’t put it too close to the bait. Keep it 20-40 yards away, and try to circle the area with your piles.
4) Bait as normal.
Big bruins are territorial in nature. Intruder scat from a bear that is not “familiar” to your bruiser may cause him to check back often simply to guard his under-appreciated honey hole. He may begin to hit the bait and mark his territory in the process. If you continue this marking process with the scat, he’ll begin to visit more frequently hoping to catch the interloper red-handed. All bears are hungry, but some are simply more fussy. Create competition, and he may turn a case of sour grapes into sweet lemons simply because he thinks he has competition for what he believes is already his.
Is it always going to work? No, but if he isn’t coming back to the bait already, what do you have to lose? If it works, you’ll thank me. Send me those trophy photos!
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