Bear Baiting with honey

I've tried burning honey many times. Actually, I became quite good at it. However, I've never seen a bear showing his appreciation to my hard work by running, walking or even crawling for it. I truly believe that burning honey only works if you're hunting bear within or very close to a baited area. You can't just go out in the bush start burning honey and hope to see a bear parade.
I quit burning honey a while ago. It's too much work and has never produced a bear for me. Canned fish is much cleaner, faster and is effective (at least to me).
That's what I used on my last bear hunt. Two bears came to the "bait" within the first 30 minutes. I shot the second one (nice full grown male) and a then third bear came in after the shot when I was climbing down from the tree stand. I actually had to chase him away by yelling and throwing stones at him.
 
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I wonder if our local grizzlies would come to a honey burn like they do with moose gut piles? I might set up a trail-cam and see what turns up
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Wouldn't be legal. Even tho you're not hunting 'em, it's still baiting.
 
Would it be legal to set up a trail cam at a gut pile and see what shows up?
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Yup. 'bait' requires you to have placed it there for the intention of luring an animal. A gut pile is simply waste disposal.
 
I'm going Bear hunting for the first time on sept 15th. Up at my hunt camp i seen 2 bears in the 2 days i was up there. Both real close to the same spot and they weren't the same bear becasue one was big other was small. I plan on using a honey burn to try and attract them. The friday night i go there I'll dump all the bacon grease and molassas at the site. Next morning I'll start the honey burn and add more stuff like fish and other goodies i can find.



Anyone have some advice or tips to give me? We havnt baited bears up there before, I couldnt get up there before hand to start the bait pile earily, so hopefully it still works.
 
A couple of years ago we shot a 6' black bear and after skinning it, we dumped the carcass in the bush about a mile east of our camp. It took several days for the odor to get just right (I guess) and then on the same day, we tracked 2 black bears, that both walked over 3 miles, directly to the carcass.
I was quite impressed with the fact that both of these bears went dead to this carcass, from that distance. It was obvious that they were not traveling randomly, but zeroed right in on it.


rustysdream said:
I've tried burning honey many times. Actually, I became quite good at it. However, I've never seen a bear showing his appreciation to my hard work by running, walking or even crawling for it. I truly believe that burning honey only works if you're hunting bear within or very close to a baited area. You can't just go out in the bush start burning honey and hope to see a bear parade.
I quit burning honey a while ago. It's too much work and has never produced a bear for me. Canned fish is much cleaner, faster and is effective (at least to me).
That's what I used on my last bear hunt. Two bears came to the "bait" within the first 30 minutes. I shot the second one (nice full grown male) and a then third bear came in after the shot when I was climbing down from the tree stand. I actually had to chase him away by yelling and throwing stones at him.
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Rusty what kind of canned fish are you talking about? Sardines? Salmon? How big are the tins that you used? Did you just open the cans and dump 'em or what? Did you suspend the opened tins?
 
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Demonical said:
Rusty what kind of canned fish are you talking about? Sardines? Salmon? How big are the tins that you used? Did you just open the cans and dump 'em or what? Did you suspend the opened tins?
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Demonical,

Just go to a Dollar store and buy 4-5 of cheap canned sardines (or whatever they have). Take the plastic or paper wrap off (if any) and throw it in the garbage at home. Open up the cans by your tree stand. You can pour some of the content on bushes and hang up the cans on three branches about 6 feet high. That's it. This method is really quick.
You should clean up the tins when you leave so there is absolutely no mess left, also because other animals can hurt themselves. Take fresh cans with you if you go back next time.
If the wind is in your favor, and there are bears in the area, they will come.
Good luck!
 
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You could set out bait for wolves or yotes with your trail cam. Legal to bait that stuff
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Actually - technically it's not in this application unless you take some additional steps.

I had a long talk with the ministry about this a few years back - you CAN bait wolves BUT - if you leave the bait unattended then you are guilty of FEEDING a predator which is illegal. (if you're there they assume you'll shoot it and it won't get a chance to eat, so that's legal)

This struck me as one of the more stupid catch-22 laws that i'd heard in a while :D Basically you can only legally bait a predator (yote, wolf whateve) while you are there to watch the bait. You can't leave food baits where an animal can get it.

So ... You COULD bait for wolves without being there IF you ensure that whatever you left the bait in, the wolves couldn't actually GET at it.

Gotta luv our laws sometimes. :)
 
Foxer said:
Wouldn't be legal. Even tho you're not hunting 'em, it's still baiting.
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Yes and the other side of things........
BC also has a NO FEEDING dangerous wildlife law.
Remember the idiot they finally charged for feeding Bears donuts in his backyard :rolleyes:

Just another thought before one sets out "food" even if it's only for photos...still could get pinched :wave:
 
I use the leftovers from my uncle's butcher shop, pork,beef and poultry scraps and offal. Dump it in a barrel, nailed a can of smoked kippers about 8 feet up a tree and cracked the seal then took a bottle of liquid smoke and sprayed it up as high as I could onto the brush to get a scent trail up high. Had a bear hit the bait about 3 days after I put it in. Season opens next Monday here in NS, can't wait.
 
DVXDUDE said:
I've heard of ppl nailing full cans of sardines to trees up high then breaking the can open a bit so the juices runs out down the trees.


sounded like a pretty good idea to me.
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IMHO, that's perfectly fine as long as those hunters go back and remove the cans from the trees after finished hunting.
Just my 2 cents...
 
So....I tried the bacon as opposed to mollasas burn yesterday (opener).

Didn't see any bears (wasn't really expecting to, I'm just trying to get some to find my bait barrel) but there is one HUGE downside to using bacon.....you get HUNGRY! Seriously....the smell of that bacon cooking 20 yards away just about drove me crazy. The rumbling of my gut will scare away any bears before they hit 100 yds.........
 
I agree rustysdream. I'd always take them down. As the tree grows it will push that nail out and eventually pop it right out and the can would be on the ground. I just seen the idea in another thread and it seemed like a good idea, I'm going to try it out in a couple weeks.
 
If you want a cheep source for honey, visit a bee keeper. They usually have old rotten honey from cleaning equipment and the like.

For some personal entertainment, and I'm not condoning this in any way, shape or form, just relaying the story.

This was posted in a company flier by an employee years ago.

Step 1. Hang large rock from sturdy branch so that the bottom of the rock is 6" off the ground.
Step 2. Dig hole below rock. Hole needs to be about 12" round and 12" deep.
Step 3. Fill hole with rotten honey.
Step 4. Climb into tree stand and observe.

The story went on to say that they had a bear come in to the rotten honey. The bear would swat the rock out of the way and stick his head in the hole. The rock would return like a pendulum and crack the bear in the side of the head. Bear swats the rock, rock does a loop and cracks him in another location, add infinitum. According to the story teller, the bear was so persistent, they didn't think they were going to get out of the tree stand before dark.
 
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