Cheap Bear Bait: They Don’t Know the Difference

Making your own bear bait can be as cheap or expensive as you want it to be. When it comes down to it, the bears are drawn to the sweet scents you put out there. They’re not eating your bait with a pinkie finger up on their paw. They just want access to that heavenly scent your laying down!

Below are listed a number of common ingredients for making your bait. Like a good hamburger, we all prefer different toppings…though we all love a good burger! How do you know what’s working? Test it.

What works in one person’s area may not work as well in yours. Bears in different regions are accustomed to the local flair of bait and natural food in their habitat.

Again, test it out. Be the one that comes up with the next “Bear Crackalicious” bait mix and snicker when you keep your own secret ingredient to yourself.

Basic Bear Bait Ingredients:

• Popcorn
• Dog Food
• Doughnuts (Pastries)
• Syrup (Bought or Homemade)
• Jello Powder
• Cooking Grease

Popcorn: using popcorn is about as cheap and simple as you can get. The only tough part is popping it. I’ve seen people use a burner and a small, metal trash can with some vegetable oil in it. Just pop several batches and you’ve got what you need for the bears to sit down and enjoy a good time at your barrel.

Dog Food: One of the bonuses of using a 50-lb. bag of generic dog food is that it already has some additives baked into it (chicken, pork, beef, fish). It’s fairly cheap and you can scatter some of it around the bait site as well as putting it in the barrel.

Doughnuts (Pastries): Though fresh donuts are not cheap, outdated and dried up donuts are cheap. If you go to your local donut shop and talk with an owner or supervisor, they’d probably be more than happy to still turn a buck on what they would otherwise have to throw away.

Syrup (Bought or Homemade): You can buy generic gallons of syrup or make your own. Homemade is simple and fairly cheap. Water, sugar, and maple extract; done. Put the syrup on whatever you fill your barrel with and then splash it on surrounding trees and the ground so the bears track it around and away from your site.

Jello Powders: Generic jello powder is a great additive, much the same as syrup. The smell and sweetness drive the bears nuts and provide a great scent that carries in the wind and draws in the big boars.

Cooking Grease: Any type of used cooking grease works. The best way to get the amount you need is to contact a local restaurant owner and see if you could either dispose of some of their used greases or buy some off of them. This is easier than it sounds, it just takes a little people skills and a few smiles.

Why Popcorn and Dogfood?

Let’s think about this. If you put a quarter of ham inside your bait barrel and a hungry boar comes by, do you think he’s going to sit and eat it or try and take the biggest chunk possible and retreat to a safer area?

Exactly. He’s going to rip off a big chunk –– or rip out the whole thing –– and disappear somewhere to eat at his leisure.

You want him to stick around and spend some time at your site. To get used to the area around your bait barrel and within bow or rifle distance of your hunting stand. You want this to be a community center for hungry bears. An empty bait barrel won’t cut it.

Popcorn and dog food cause the bear to take the time to eat smaller portions and to stick around. In order to get enough of the delicious bait you’re leaving, they have to sit down and chill while working on the bowl (barrel) of popcorn and dogfood.

Why sweets like jello and syrup?

Two reasons: 1) scent brings them in, and 2) after diving into the bait they will track it back across the woods with them.

The scent from the jello and syrup, added to the sweetness it adds to the popcorn or dog food, will keep the bears more interested in their next handful of deliciousness versus worrying about hanging at the site too long.

The sticky sweetness will also stick to the fur and paws and provide a great trail from wherever the bear roams back to your site. Not only for this bear but for other bears trying to track down the happy smell and flavor in the air.

What about used cooking grease at the bait site?

The grease is another added benefit to your marketing plan. Not only will spreading grease around the bait site (ground and trees) bring in the bears, it will also act as a greasy sort of breadcrumb trail back to your bait site for other bears.