Outdoors
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The end of this month marks the kickoff of one of the biggest hunting seasons Maine has to offer. The Maine moose hunt can be considered the Super Bowl of hunting in the Pine Tree State, but the black bear hunting season is also a huge draw for resident and non-resident hunters alike.
While hunters will not be ascending tree stands until the last Monday in August, the bear baiting season gets underway on August 1. Here are a few tips if you are trying bear baiting for the first time.
Where to set up a bait site
Selecting a bear bait site location is probably the most crucial choice you’ll need to make. As in real estate, the watchword for a bear site is location, location, location. Avoid areas with any human activity nearby, such as ATV trails. This is especially important during the prime time hours of the late afternoon to sunset.
Bear bait sites also have very specific rules regarding distances and setbacks. Consult MDIFW bear hunting rules and laws for the entire list, but here are a few that are easily overlooked.
Remember the 50/500 rule. The bait site must be at least 50 yards from any travel way that is passable by a conventional two or four-wheel drive vehicle.
The site must also be no closer than 500 yards from a solid waste disposal site such as a transfer station or landfill and any campground. If your site is within 500 yards of an occupied dwelling, you’ll need written permission from the owner and/or tenant.
Make sure to label the site with your name, address and contact information on a small sign or tag no smaller than two by four inches.
Scout areas that have water nearby and provide good cover and concealment. Bears like to be sneaky and are more comfortable tending bait sites along hidden approaches.
Clear multiple shooting lanes from the stand to the bait if possible — different bears may approach from opposite directions. Keep the bait site as dark as possible. You’ll feel the desire to open it up for visibility in low light conditions, but tamp down that urge. Bears need to feel secure to let down their guard while feeding. Sites that provide a feeling of concealment will make bears more willing to visit.
Our most successful bear bait sites are set with the tree stand on higher ground overlooking the edge of a transition from wetter, vegetation-rich areas to drier wooded plateaus.
What to use as bear bait
The two basic components of a bear bait site are the main food source and call lures/scents.
What you use as your main bait will depend greatly on what you have access to and if you are willing to shell out a considerable sum for prepared bait from a dealer.
I avoid meat scraps and carcass materials as bear bait. Not only does it attract many more non-target species such as fishers, coyotes and raccoons to the bait, the warmer weather of a fall bear hunt can make meat-based bait spoil rapidly.
Bears may accept rancid meat in the spring as they emerge ravenous from winter but it can be a big turnoff for a bear seeking a high-fat diet in the fall.
Bears are notorious for having a sweet tooth. Pastries, pop-tarts and cookies all provide the sweetness bears crave while providing the fat content they desire for weight gain as they prepare for winter.
Bear trail mix is a simple and very popular bait consisting of mixed nuts and sweets such as M&M’s, chocolate chips and candies. Note that while legal in Maine, chocolate is prohibited in some states as bear bait.
Buttered popcorn is inexpensive, light to transport and works well, too. Varying the bait will ensure bears keep returning to investigate the bait site. Topping the bait with jellies, syrups or cake frostings can reinvigorate a bait site that has started to show slowing activity.
The second component, the call lure, is what gets the bear’s attention and helps them to locate the bait.
Used frying oil spread liberally around the bait site works great. The oil will soak into deadfall logs and the ground creating a long-lasting aroma.
Finish your bait site by tying strips of cloth to branches in a ring roughly 100 yards around your bait. Soak the strips with more fry oil, anise oil or vanilla extract.
Do not let the bait container go empty for more than a day. Try to replenish your site every 1 to 3 days depending on how bears are tending the bait and remember to refresh your call lures as well.
Lastly, bears are trainable. Aim to replicate your baiting process and time every trip to build a routine bears get used to. This will make sure that a bear visiting a site while you are coming to replenish it will not panic and abandon the site when it hears and smells you coming.
Instead, bears will usually move off casually and wait a few hundred yards away, then return after you ring the dinner bell and exit the site.