# Wisconsin Bear Season



## brownegg (Jan 5, 2006)

Finally have a harvest tag after a long 10 year wait. Been hauling the bait north of here 85 miles...looks good, and have a nice one coming in almost every day. This will be my 4th bear if i'm lucky enough to harvest one. I've shot two with the gun and one with the bow....prolly gonna use the rife this time around.

The season opens this Wed for folks using bait....

I enjoy the meat and hope to have some sausage made too. Bear roasts are some of the best eatin in the world....just sayin.

brownegg


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## Badger (Jun 11, 2010)

Good luck to you! Bear summer sausage, excellent!


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## Gregg Alexander (Feb 18, 2007)

Good luck and happy hunting.


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## diamondtim (Jun 10, 2005)

Good Luck and Good Hunting!


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## Homesteadwi5 (Mar 16, 2008)

good luck our 5 pd hunters are rolling in tomorrow, all my baits are cleaned up every day so hopefully they'll all fill up.


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## Micheal (Jan 28, 2009)

Don't take this the wrong way - but doesn't "baiting" and having it attract bears almost guarantee a kill???? Where's the "luck" in that???

That is unless unluckly someone beats you there?

I've never hunted a baited area; just wondering........


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

Micheal said:


> Don't take this the wrong way - but doesn't "baiting" and having it attract bears almost guarantee a kill???? Where's the "luck" in that???
> 
> That is unless unluckly someone beats you there?
> 
> I've never hunted a baited area; just wondering........


No it doesn't as matter fact it saves a lot of Bear as far as having time to look over and making sure you are not shooting one with Cubs.

The only time I hunted them was using Dogs,killed a lot more Bears but sure some had Cubs.

big rockpile


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

Micheal said:


> Don't take this the wrong way - but doesn't "baiting" and having it attract bears almost guarantee a kill???? Where's the "luck" in that???
> 
> That is unless unluckly someone beats you there?
> 
> I've never hunted a baited area; just wondering........


Not at all. Bear are smart critters. You may be able to guarantee a kill if you will take "any" bear but most bear hunters want a mature boar, and a bear doesn't become a mature boar without learning a thing or two. Often a smart bear will hit the bait during darkness so you have to figure out his habits to get him on the way to or from the bait. 

Most habitat in baiting states is thick woods where you would never see a bear without bait. All the bait does is give you a chance. If my memory is correct baiting success around here is around 30 percent.


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## MikeG49 (Aug 22, 2012)

Micheal said:


> Don't take this the wrong way - but doesn't "baiting" and having it attract bears almost guarantee a kill???? Where's the "luck" in that???
> 
> That is unless unluckly someone beats you there?
> 
> I've never hunted a baited area; just wondering........


Don't knock it if you havent tried it. I've spent quite a bit of time on a bait and have only seen some smaller bears (year or 2 old) And one good size boar just after shooting light. It gives you a good chance of eventually seeing a bear but absolutely nothing is guaranteed. If you don't use a bait or dogs, you basically have to be lucky enough to stumble across a bear or you'll never even see one.


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## brownegg (Jan 5, 2006)

Thanks for the " Good Lucks" sent my way. Don't know for sure if this will be my last go at it....aint as easy as it was ten years younger.

Yep, as others said Micheal...it's the only chance you even have at filling your tag with a good Bear or any bear at all....years before the laws changed, our group of 5 with all active baits only took one bear a year. That's 20% even lower than the state average.

I've had folks tell me that hunting over a bait isn't hunting....I can tell you right off, that they aren't hunters....I'd love to get them as far back as we go and have them walk out after dark when the bear didn't show in time.....that would be priceless.... bet they would say, oh ya that's hunting.

brownegg


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I spent 7 days in a stand in Ont. Canada in the mid 1980's over looking bait trying to harvest a bear. Never seen one except on the road home.
I came home empty handed even thought the baits kept getting cleaned up. Two others of the 4 of us did get a bear with rifles. So I guess that would make it 50% for us.

 Al


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I spend a lot of time in the woods and I can count all the bear I've seen on one hand. I doubt I'd be able to shoot a bear without baiting.

Yesterday I did happen to see a bear. We were just crossing a clearcut when I saw something black ahead in the hazel brush. I got my camera out thinking it might be a fisher. It turned out to be small (40 lb?) bear cub. I called my dog back and then backed out of there. If we had stumbled on that cub on the rest of the trail with thick brush things could have turned out really bad. I never saw the sow but I'm sure she wasn't too far away.


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## Micheal (Jan 28, 2009)

Thanks for the comments/answers, like I posted "just wondering" since I've never hunted a "baited" area...... and ya know the only dumb question is the one not asked.....

brownegg - add my "Good Luck" to the hope you get one pile!!!


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## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

My husband waited 7 years for his tag. He hired a guy with dogs and thats how they treed the thing. This was in WI. That bear now stands on a wooden base with his little squirrel buddy in our living room.


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## Homesteadwi5 (Mar 16, 2008)

lonelyfarmgirl said:


> My husband waited 7 years for his tag. He hired a guy with dogs and thats how they treed the thing. This was in WI. That bear now stands on a wooden base with his little squirrel buddy in our living room.


We use baits and hounds,yea for zone A (my zone) it's 6-7 yrs for a tag zone B i've heard of ppl having to wait 9-10 yrs,just dumb.i wish the dnr would loosen up the strings a little on the tags,our bear population is one of the largest and healthiest east of the mississippi,even the dnr says that we have to many


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## brownegg (Jan 5, 2006)

Afternoon Everyone....just wanted to say that my hunt turned out to be a success! The second day on the day stand around 5pm the bear finally showed up. It took another 45 minutes for the bear to give me a perfect shot. My daughter was next to my ladder stand in a ground blind. She got some good pics and a short video. She had a blast. I drove 100 miles to bait and hunt...then when I got back the neighbor 2 miles from my house shot a monster bear that weighed 487 dressed. go figure, eh!

I'll have a good eater and a rug for the wall...all in all I'm happy...I have other friends that haven't even seen one...even though their baits are wiped out every day...not as easy as some folks think it is.


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