Bear Baiting in Wisconsin

This article will be based off the Wisconsin DNR regulation site as well as my personal experience and knowledge as it relates to Zone C, Class A, bait sitting only. 

The fall season for black bear hunting in Wisconsin this year runs from September 3^rd-October 7^th.  As always, the deadline for getting your application in for the following season is December 10^th.  The baiting season begins on April 15^th and patrons carrying a Class A license may begin feeding bears until the hunting season opens.  A resident license is around $50, and most hunters in Zone C obtain a kill permit after 4-5 years of applying for preference points, though some of the northern counties require 8-9 years to obtain a kill tag. 

 There is a 10 gallon total limit for bait at a time, which includes mineral and liquid scents.  Baits must be placed 50 yards from a public trail or gravel road, and 100 yards from any highway or interstate system.  The two most common mistakes first-time baiters make are:

1) No man-made materials are allowed at the bait station.  The bait must be inaccessible to deer, and totally enclosed within naturally occurring materials.  A hollow log half buried into the earth with a heavy rock on top is the most effective and common wait to prepare a bait.  Digging a deep hole and covering it with heavy logs is another method.  Hollowing out a stump would be a great option as coon would not be able to dig underneath.  No man-made materials means that you cannot use plywood nailed to the bottom of a log, and no tires, buckets, barrels, etc.

2) No animal parts or by-product may be used for bait.  In most states and Canada, the most popular bear bait is meat.  Hunters are very successful in using beaver and roadkill, creating a great renewable resource for the environment.  However, in Wisconsin, it is illegal to use any animal meat, fish, and even by-product, so that includes honey.  Fryer grease however, as long as there are no solid animal fat chunks contained in it (so french fry grease but not fish), is legal but is still considered in the 10 gallon limit.

My setup.  Hollow log buried into sand pit, large rocks on top to keep coon and small bears out.

                                       Types of Bait to Use

For most baiters, unless you go with a guide service or have access to create your own bait, it would be suggested that you contact a local bait seller and purchase a couple 55 gallon drums for your baiting season.  Most sellers price 55 gallons anywhere from $50-$80 depending on the type of goodies.  Some common staples in the baiting game are sugar cones, cereal, pie filling, cookies, candies, chocolate, trail mix, granola, and cookie dough.  These are some of the cheapest ingredients, though pricier products include corn, molasses, liquid smoke, and confectioner’s frosting. 

A lot of people ask about what they should use for bait.  Is it too sweet? It is not sweet enough?  Will they like this, will they like that?  My answer is simple, bears have two main thoughts.  In the spring, mating is number one.  But after the mating season stops in July, bears care about nothing more than fattening up for the upcoming hibernation.  Bears have been known to raid bird feeders, dumpsters, and grain bins.  Like humans, bears have varying tastes, and Bear A may gorge on the trail mix while Bear B might ignore the mix and go straight for the donuts.  That’s just how it is and part of the game.  If you have a big bruin that seems to return night after night for those jelly donuts, it would behoove you to continue filling that station with those jelly donuts and make him happy.  I don’t really believe that bears “get sick of” any particular bait, but when for no particular reason, a bear decides to wander off from the station for a few weeks, baiters assume it was because they got sick of the bait, when it reality, they just chose to move on.

This big boy was not leaving anytime soon.  The sticks placed in front of him were to try and manipulate the bears to feed on this side of the bait, so I could have a clear open shot from my stand that is behind this camera.

Baiting Tips/Tricks

Tree Tootsie Pop:

When I first put bait at my property, I was having 16 different bears hitting the one bait.  I noticed on trail camera pictures that some of the shooter bears were coming into the bait after it had been cleaned out by a previous bear, and then hitting the road, not sticking around since the site was emptied and of no use to them.  So I went to Sam’s Club and bought the biggest container of cake frosting and peanut butter and returned.  I took a brand new paint brush and simply smeared the peanut butter and cake frosting all over the trees and stumps around my bait site.  Keep in mind that this counts towards your 10 gallon limit, and also, DO NOT put it on any trees that you wouldn’t want damaged, like oaks or apple trees.  I found that the peanut butter oil seeps into the bark and stays through rain for months afterwards.  Coon and bear will lick, claw, and chew these spots on the trees, sometimes killing the tree in the process.  This solved my “emptied bait” dilemma.  Bears were still coming in after the bait was emptied, and though they didn’t have much to eat on, they had a “tree tootsie pop” and scent, which is enough to keep them returning the next night.

Poor Man’s Popcorn Ball:

While at Sam’s Club, I also bought a movie theater sized bag of popcorn kernels and a big bucket of Kool-Aid mix.  I popped the kernels, creating a massive amount of popcorn.  Go buy a couple 5 gallon buckets.  Fill the buckets up with the popped popcorn.  Sprinkle Kool-Aid mix over the bucket.  I then created a quick confectioner’s syrup on the stovetop by stirring in white sugar with boiling water.  Pour the syrup over the Kool-Aid covered popcorn and let cool.  You have now created a 5 gallon bucket popcorn ball to take into the woods with you for your next re-bait.  This is a great way to stay with the exact 10 gallon limit of baiting, and the sweetness mixed with the airy kernels will keep the bears coming back for more.

Grease trail:

My cousin showed me this trick and the results were awesome.  Throw grease all over the bait site.  The grease soaks into every leaf, tree, stump and log in the area.  When you enter the woods, the smell of grease is lingering throughout the canopy.  Bears that visit the bait site will have greased soaked into their pads and the thick fur on their legs and feet.  Upon leaving the bait/area and tracking grease all over the woods, they are creating a “Hansel and Gretel bread crumb trail” for other nomad bears to follow.  This allows you to have a variety of bears frequenting your site so you have the opportunity to choose your trophy.  Be sure that in Wisconsin, your grease does not contain any animal by-product.

Banging bucket theory: 

Old timers and experienced guides swear by this trick.  Bears aren't stupid; they understand that the bait site is not a naturally occurring phenomenon, and that humans are the reason for the smorgasbord in the middle of the woods.  After filling the bait station, bang hard on the bucket a few times.  Chances are, the bears that are frequent flyers are bedded within earshot and it will create a “Pavlov’s Dog” type of effect.  The bears will associate human activity on the bait site with food, and if they hear you enter the woods during open hunting hours, they will relate it to food instead of fear.

Choosing a Bait Site

The great thing about bear baiting is that you can pretty much choose the tree that YOU want to sit in, and place your bait accordingly.  There are, however, a couple keys points to remember when choosing your site.  Water access is vital.  Whether it is a river, lake, swamp, or a small creek, bears follow waterways, keep cover in the cool temperatures during the day, and drink a lot of water throughout the day.  Thick cover makes feeding bears feel more secure, but still bears can be coaxed to feed in an open grass feed if they’re hungry enough.

Big guy feeding in the open grass field in broad daylight.

Once your baiting commences, and you start getting different bears, it’s a great idea to place a trail camera over your site to range what bears are frequenting and when.  If a sow with cubs comes into your bait site, it’s best to stop baiting all together and abandon the site.  A sow’s purpose is simple, to raise the cubs.  If she finds a food source that is replenished daily, she won’t leave.  Being protective, she will run off any other bear, even a massive boar, just to keep those cubs on that bait site.  Last year, I had a sow with 4 cubs take over my site at the end of May, and stayed until late July, so I abandoned the site and went elsewhere.  Once the sow took to the bait site, there were no other bears pictured on the camera except her and the youngins, though they did take some cute photos. 

Scent control is a huge factor in your hunt, however, I have a theory that if you keep your bait station smelling human throughout the summer, that it would not have an impact on the bears during the month of hunting.  I would recommend wearing tennis shoes, jeans, and whatever you wore to work that day when you hike out into the woods to re-bait.  The frequent bears will recognize that the human scent is related to food and will hopefully lower their fear factor when the season opens.  During your hunt though, still take a scent-free shower and wear camo that as little scent as possible.  But if a bear winds some of your human scent, but you used this method throughout the baiting season, chances are the presence of human scent won’t alarm it enough to take off.  Remember though that bears have very poor eyesight, but 10x the nose power than that of a whitetail deer.  Because of their awful eyesight, they overcompensate by being able to smell incredibly well.

One thing that I learned during my bear baiting season was that it’s not too important to begin baiting right when the season opens in April.  I spent a lot of money and time stocking my baits and having family members keep my baits full at all time throughout the summer.  The bait site that I eventually ended up shooting a bear was a site that was created less than 2 weeks prior.  After the sow took over my best site, we had no choice but to put out a desperation bait site on the edge of public land along a riverway.  It produced many different bears, and was the site of my harvest for that season. But remember that even if you make the perfect setup a baiting season, once the berries ripen and the acorns fall, all the sweets in the world won't bring a bear to your bait. Be patient and persistent, and hope that after a couple weeks the bears will be done gorging themselves on acorns and might come back to your baits, hopefully with a few days left in the hunting season. 

First Wisconsin Archery Bear

After 5 years of patiently waiting, I finally drew a kill tag for the 2012 Wisconsin bear season. I quickly learned that filling a hollow log with sweets would not guarantee a bear would come in easily, especially with the acorn season coming up fast. I had started baiting in mid-April and had three primary bait sites that were actively getting hit by many different bears. One site was overtaken by an old sow and her four cubs early on, and she ran off any bear that tried to cross her path, so I had to let that stand run cold. 

My second site was a ground blind on public land in Jackson County, in the heart of wolf country. I had sat there several times, and it was a seasoned bait site that my cousin had used to run dogs, so every bear in the area knew that site was there for years. There were no trees in the swamp site that would hold a stand, so a ground blind was my only option. Opening day I went into the blind and heard something running on the dirt path, but no bear ever came in. When I left the blind and cut my own track in the dirt, there was a huge wolf track right on top of mine, like he was following my scent. Needless to say, I was a little nervous sitting in the ground blind with only a bow during the hunt.

The season started on the first Wednesday in September and I had been hunting almost every day for two weeks, not seeing any bear. I had consistent hits on the baits that were filled with cookies, donuts and sweet syrups in the months preceding. The week of opening season, the acorns had steadily started dropping and getting a bear to hit my baits seemed impossible. I had talked to other bear hunters who reported that they were having baits run untouched all week because the animals were overindulging on acorns. I was getting very discouraged that I was spending countless hours in the stand over a log filled with goodies, when the bears would rather do work to dig through the leaves for nuts than have an easy free meal. 

Finally, on Sunday September 16th, 2012, my time came. I went into my third site; a bait that was setup by my cousin in early August as a last ditch effort to pull some bear off the river and into the public land swamp. As I settled into the hang-on stand, I was almost getting lazy with my hunting since I hadn't had any luck for weeks. I didn’t take a scent-free shower before I went in, I didn't put camo makeup on my feet, and I didn’t wash my clothes that I had been wearing for two weeks. My hair was in a ponytail, still full of hairspray and perfume from the night out on the town before, and I just rubbed some dirt on my face to stop the glare. A few hours in, I was starting to get discouraged. I had trail camera pictures of several big bears that would always come in together at around 4 pm and gorge themselves for a couple hours on the bait site 15 yards down from my stand. It was now 5 pm and I hadn't seen a thing. 

The downfall to bear hunting is that you aren't able to observe other wildlife because everything stays clear of the bear’s buffet. There are no deer, squirrels, or turkey to occupy your attention while you wait for a bruin to come in. I suddenly heard a twig crack over my right shoulder, and slowly turned to the sound. A small bear, maybe 100 lbs., was casually walking into the site. It looked like a small sow, and though any bear is a good bear, I decided it wasn't worth the time and effort that I was putting in to fill my tag.

About an hour after the small cub walked off, I heard more footsteps coming from my left shoulder this time. I turned slowly, and again, a nice sized bear was coming right in for the bait. As I grabbed my bow, nocked an arrow, and clicked in my release, I was prepared to take the big sow that appeared to be about 250 lbs. The first thing I noticed was the white patch on her chest, which in my area, 1 out of 100 bears are said to have a white patch, so that intrigued me even more. She sat down and began licking the peanut butter off the rocks on the bait site, and was facing me straight on. I decided to take her with a shot through the chest and drew back. As soon as I felt the let off and put the pin on her white spot, I caught some movement out of the corner of my left eye. Another bear was coming in and I saw his huge block head right away, letting me know it was a big boar. I let my bow down thinking that I might want to re-evaluate which bear to take. 

The sow with the white patch is on the left; my boar is laying on the right.

He stopped in his tracks, looked me straight on, and began sniffing the air trying to catch my scent. Bear have very poor eyesight and in the darkness of the woods, he was unable to make out what I was, though he was slightly alarmed. Just then, the strangest thing happened. A big doe walked through the site about 40 yards behind the sitting sow and stepped on a stick, making a loud crack through the woods. Since the boar was already weary of the movement he saw in the tree, he took off at a full sprint back into the swamp. My heart sank into my stomach. I thought I had blown the best opportunity I would have at taking a trophy bear. But I realized that the sow was still perfectly content eating sweets on the bait pile, so I continued to hold my position, knowing that if she was happy, the boar had to come back. I was standing barefoot on the metal stand, still holding my bow, not drawn, but in the upright position. Thank goodness for my tree harness or I would have shaken right out of the tree because my muscles were starting to fatigue and adrenaline was pumping through my veins, making my knees weak. I had stood there in that position for what felt like the good part of an hour. Just as I thought he would, the boar came back to the site when he realized the sow was not alarmed, but instead of coming right in, he walked a complete circle around the area, staying about 60 yards out.

I was so proud to take this bear with a bow, just like I had planned!

He finally decided it was safe to come in and walked up from behind my right shoulder this time. When he was broadside on my right at 10 yards, and his left leg took a step forward, he stopped and watched me draw back. I took a fraction of a second to put the pin on the quarter size spot I picked out and let the arrow fly. It was a solid THWACK through both lungs and he let out a loud groan like someone had knocked the wind out of him. He barreled through the swamp and I heard him fall over about 60 yards away, with a terrifying death bawl shortly after. I grabbed my phone and called my cousin who was bowhunting a couple miles away and through the heavy breathing and shaking managed to tell him, “I got him, I got a big one, he’s a big one!” The bear was still moaning so loudly that my cousin could hear the death bawl over the phone.

Harvesting a trophy is a family affair!

Once all the family came to help me take care of the bear, we went back into the woods and recovered my arrow that cleanly passed through and was lying right where I shot 

him. There was no need to follow a blood trail, as just a few yards away I could see the black brute lying in the swamp grass. I was proud of myself for sticking out the season and not being discouraged when baiting didn’t work. I was unable to get an exact weight on the bear, but it was estimated to be about 300 lbs. The skull green scored at 18 inches, so I missed Pope & Young by a fraction of an inch. I had it half mounted and he hangs in my living room, posed in the exact position I shot him, head turned to the left, his shoulder forward taking that step. 

The skull dried to 17 7/8 inches; missing P&Y by 1/8 inch!

I relive the hunt every time I walk past the mount and my heart pumps just as hard as moment I shot him. It’s a memory that will last a lifetime and just goes to show that perseverance is a quality that any hunter, be it whitetail, turkeys, or bear, needs to possess in order to bring a trophy home. 

Very happy with my mount done by Bill Vyvyan at Timberline Taxidermy!