Black Bear Baiting

Black Bear Baiting - Outfitters Secret

Black Bear Baiting

Baiting for black bear is very time consuming and expensive for outfitters.

First you have to spend loads of time and put a lot of miles in starting up bait sites. You need to travel secluded areas on logging roads.

Some that are not in use anymore and in poor condition. Looking for prospective spots to put out bait, hoping to lure in bears.

Once you have bear coming to these spots the work really begins. Now you have to prepare the sites for hunting and return several times a week to keep them active.

Most outfitters have anywhere from 50 to 100 bait sites. Each site being several miles apart, to keep bears from going from site to site. So you can see how time consuming and expensive it can be to maintain them. Not to mention the wear and tear on vehicles. This is however, the best way and in most cases the only way to be successful at hunting black bear in most Canadian Provinces.

Black Bear Baiting

The woods in Canadian Provinces are amazingly thick, and to harvest bear other than over bait is extremely difficult.

Bears can be picky about what they eat just like people. Even though bears will eat just about anything, they do have tastes for certain food.

This is something that is different from Province to Province.

Bears do have a sweet tooth and just about always fall head over heels for donuts.

Breads and bagels are also good for bait. Meat scraps are also a favorite for a lot of outfitters. Bears that are used to feeding off of winter killed animals in the spring seem to come in good to meat scraps.

Oats mixed with some kind of liquid, like frying oil or even syrups work well in western Canada.

There are a lot of grain fields in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta and oat mixtures work well. In the heavy wooded areas donuts and breads are an excellent treat that bears love.

In my twenty years of hunting black bears, I learned that what works in one Province does not always work in another Province. While on a bear hunt in Manitoba I was amazed how oats and honey burns worked fantastic.

However, when I tried this back east in New Brunswick they didn't want to touch either. At that time we were baiting with meat scraps and the change seemed to turn them off. We then tried bread, and they loved it. Not to mention, it smelled a lot better around the bait site.

So if you want to try a black bear hunt. Give a baited hunt a try, and don't be afraid to tip the outfitter for all his hard work.