So, what does it take to attract bears to your bait station? What food(s) to use? What attractant(s) to use?

In my limited experience, attracting bears to your bait site is important, but once you’ve got bears visiting your bait site, it’s important to have an appetizing menu as to keep the bears coming back.

I used all of the following to attract bears to my bait site:

• Honey
• Jello (powder)
• Maple Syrup
• Molasses
• Commerical Jellies
• Blueberry spray

I’ve used the following baits to keep the bears at the site:

• Granola
• Dog Food
• Marshmallow Cream
• Breakfast Cereals (Captain Crunch/Fruit Loops)
• Licorice
• Gummy Worms/Bears
• Doughnuts
• Chocolate Syrup

Which work the best?

Attractant: Honey (the smell of burning honey has seemed to work beautifully in my experience)
Bait: Breakfast Cereal (sugar, sugar, sugar)

It’s that time of year again. BEAR HUNTING! After taking last year off from bear hunting, Jason and I are ready to give it another go. To catch some of you up, Jason Airhart and I started bear hunting 3 years ago in 2005. We both have vacation spots in/around the Moose Lake, MN area so that is where we applied (and continue to apply) for a bear tag.

Jason stuck his first bear in 2005 (yes, we bow hunt) while I was left empty handed.

In 2006, after mixing up our strategy for baiting and bait station placement, I was rewarded with my first bear kill on opening night. Not to be out done, Jason shot a 360+ pound bear the following night. It was an experience I will never forget!

2007 brought the arrival of my daughter, Hannah (August 14th). Because bear hunting really is a two-person job (rather all the preparation that goes into bear hunting) Jason and I opted to take a year off.

That leads us to this year, 2008. It’ll be tough to beat the 2-bear year we had in 2006 (including the monster Jason shot), but we’re going to give it our all.

This past weekend Shelly flew to Seattle to visit her best friend from High School, Heather.  She left on Sunday, which basically left me in charge of caring for Hannah (and the pets) for 4 full days.  Scary, I know.

Sunday was a piece of cake, and my Mom volunteered to babysit Hannah during the day on Monday so I could go to work.  Monday night Dad and Sam grilled out with Hannah and I.

I took work off both Tuesday and Wednesday to be with Hannah all day.  It was great!  Hannah has started to walk now (for the past week or so) so it was a treat to see her giving it her all, trying to balance her fat little belly over her wobbly legs.  It doesn’t help that Maggie likes to zip past Hannah, causing her to lose any sort of balance, regardless of whether or not she even touches Hannah. 

I can honestly that being a ’stay-at-home parent’ is not easy.  I have a much greater respect for those who choose to stay home with their kids!  Don’t get me wrong, I loved my time alone with Hannah, but unlike the Corporate world, there are very few breaks, if any.  And at home when I did get a break (nap-time, ‘playing with the dog’-time), I was picking up the kitchen or the toys.  Boy o boy, I’m getting tired thinking about it already.

As much work as it was, I can’t wait to do it again!

I’m not sure if I’m doing this correctly, but heck, I’ve got time to figure it out.