Minnesota 2022 here we go!

[Freelance Bowhunter]

This got kinda long, hope it's interesting. More to come. It's going to be a challenging year, there is a ton of natural food where I am baiting.

https://youtu.be/q-JhMJnNm5g

[Buck11pt24]

Good luck Bernie. My favorite day of the year is a week after baiting opens when I am checking and refilling baits after my 4.5 hour bomber bait run!

[ihookem]

We dont have many acorns where I am baiting but we have a lot of mushrooms . I also found a fawn leg about 30 yds from my stand.

[ihookem]

Do you ever use corn with molases? I use that as a starter bait and then go to more variety . However, I started real late this year cause I have a Wisconsin tag for Zone A. It is on the Price / Sawyer co. line and there are a lot of bear there. Does Minn. give enough time to bait bear being it is only 2 weeks? We start in April but never thought it was a big benefit. I have had some baiters do quite well just starting a month before the start date . This yr. is Sept. 7 .

[Mike Foss]

Early in the start of the baiting season corn might do well here in Wisconsin but this late in the game it would be best to throw out some good quality bait, those bears you are trying to feed have probably established other bait sites. FYI I would never use straight corn & molasses. Good luck

[Mike Foss]

Early in the start of the baiting season corn might do well here in Wisconsin but this late in the game it would be best to throw out some good quality bait, those bears you are trying to feed have probably established other bait sites. FYI I would never use straight corn & molasses. Good luck

[ihookem]

I will get other things now. I understand I am a day late and a dollar short with the baiting. The bugs were really bad and I had an awfull lot of work to get done. I even have a customer that is mad at our crew. I am sure I have a very good spot however. It is about a 300 ac. swamp just north of where I am baiting. It is a terrible mess in there.. I am very close to a creek that runs out of it and into the Flambeau River about 100 yds away. A LOT of cover, and high grass too and the river is south of me, the swamp is to my north. I am on a small ridge. I am sure they feel safe there. One thing that molasses does is carry the scent. On a south wind in to the swamp , every bear will smell it. I have to go 3/4 mi. down stream from my cabin. Another 3 miles downstream to the next road. The next cabin down stream is 7 miles. It is a mile walk to my spot if someone wants to hunt my area if they come from the north. It is very hard to go up steam with several rapids. I will post how I did. If I do bad , I will still post for information and a learning lesson to others. I dont think a person needs to bait that long if it is a good spot. . A good spot is very important and I have used spots that are noticably not as good. Another problem is a lot of mushrooms, the rasberries are very small and already drying up though. I found a fawn leg right by my stand too.

[Ol Split ( ) Toes]

I will get other things now. I understand I am a day late and a dollar short with the baiting. The bugs were really bad and I had an awfull lot of work to get done. I even have a customer that is mad at our crew. I am sure I have a very good spot however. It is about a 300 ac. swamp just north of where I am baiting. It is a terrible mess in there.. I am very close to a creek that runs out of it and into the Flambeau River about 100 yds away. A LOT of cover, and high grass too and the river is south of me, the swamp is to my north. I am on a small ridge. I am sure they feel safe there. One thing that molasses does is carry the scent. On a south wind in to the swamp , every bear will smell it. I have to go 3/4 mi. down stream from my cabin. Another 3 miles downstream to the next road. The next cabin down stream is 7 miles. It is a mile walk to my spot if someone wants to hunt my area if they come from the north. It is very hard to go up steam with several rapids. I will post how I did. If I do bad , I will still post for information and a learning lesson to others. I dont think a person needs to bait that long if it is a good spot. . A good spot is very important and I have used spots that are noticably not as good. Another problem is a lot of mushrooms, the rasberries are very small and already drying up though. I found a fawn leg right by my stand too.

Plenty of time yet get some good bait on the ground and some good scent in the air, you'll be just fine ..

[Uncle Lou]

Good luck to all the bear hunters. I helped a friend start a couple baits in Red Oak unit of northern Michigan last week. Finally got a bear in on Sunday.

[CBM]

Good luck, Bernie.

No baiting allowed in my state. We're still 60 days out from the start of the season, but I use a drone to monitor the "hot" cornfields. Typically, the bears will stay on the corn until it's picked.

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[ihookem]

CBM, that is very interesting . Is all the spots in the corn field bear damage? What state? I know New York does not allow baiting. I always wondered why corn N mollasis doestn work very good. It works, just not real good. They sure like the farmers corn though.

[CBM]

CBM, that is very interesting . Is all the spots in the corn field bear damage? What state? I know New York does not allow baiting. I always wondered why corn N mollasis doestn work very good. It works, just not real good. They sure like the farmers corn though.

Yes. All bear damage. I'm in Pennsylvania. I've found cornfields to be the most powerful draw in my areas. It's illegal to use drones once the seasons open, but I use them strictly over cornfields for preseason scouting. I now have some farmers requesting that I drone their fields because they otherwise don't know of the damage until they combine. It actually led some of them to change their farming practices to try and prevent the bear rolls. (And it's working) Still not easy to get on them but it's another piece of the puzzle. I've arrowed one Booner on the edge of a cornfield.

[ihookem]

And you can hunt them every year too, right? In New York, no bait but the license is over the counter.

[Ognennyy]

Good luck, Freelance. Here in NY the bear season opens two weeks prior to whitetail archery. Every year I see your journals and it gets me all fired up to get a bear. So I go out and stink up my deer spots and never see bears!

Last year I did see one, a big one. He came within 70 yards of my tree before winding me and moving off. I was bow hunting so never got a shot. Only my second time in seven years of hunting that I saw a bear in the woods. Maybe I'll finally kill one this year.

[CBM]

And you can hunt them every year too, right? In New York, no bait but the license is over the counter.

Correct. We're the same. No bait over-the-counter license.