Zone C Tag

I would link up for the Wissota Event, PM me if needed

I posted a couple of weeks ago for anyone needing a co for Lacrosse BFL. I haven’t heard from anyone so just call and register and I will be your guarentee. R.D.

Hi guys and gals I have been frequenting this site for over a year now and I thought now would be a great time to sign up and try to gather some information from the fellow hunters on here. I drew a Zone C tag this year and I want to do a diy hunt. I hunted with my wives uncle in Hayward five years ago and I didn’t see a bear. I was anxious to get back out so I applied for zone C knowing I would have a great chance at drawing. I am not asking for exact locations or anything like that but I have found some state land on the DNR site in Barron County, and some in Chippewa County. Does anyone have some advice on where else to look or any information on the state land I mentioned. Also I am from Trempealeau County and I am looking for information about where I can get bear bait in the area. I have looked online and everything I have found is in Northern Wisconsin. I have off tomorrow so I am going to go to some bakeries and outlet stores.

When I hunted five years ago I bought a load of bread and I found a place that had cherry sauce. The guy that baited for me would mix the bread and cherry sauce. The bait was getting hit almost everyday until I started hunting and then nothing. This is all we used and I dont know if the bears got sick of the same thing or if something else happened. Hopefully I learned from some mistakes and I look forward to the challenge.

Welcome to iDohunting Stosh

Someone will chime in and help you out

Welcome , One of these WI guys will give you a hand I’m sure when they see this post

It’s nice to have a mix of goodies for the bears but, Bears are funny sometimes and it’s nice to have more than one bait site for when this happens . Many things could have went wrong , The bear could have seen you in the tree, could have been bait burn out ” to much food and got sick of it ” found another bait site with better eats . Just like you said it’s all about learning and it happens to us all trust me

Welcome to iDoHunting stosh! I’m hoping someone from WI will chime in and give you some tips where to hunt in Zone C.

In regard to your baiting quesitons, here is some good info from Jason Ramthun (GMAN) on bear baiting:

How we find and bait bears in MN

Thanks guys I know this the people on this site will come through.

stosh:

More WI guys will chime in, both of my sources are from northern WI as well. One is in Danbury and the other is here in St. Germain. I know that last year one of the fishing bait shops had some bear bait, but it didn’t go particularily well so he may not do it again.

In terms of your problem in your N. WI hunt earlier, more than likely a natural food source probably became available. It seems that during the fall, some nut or berry becomes available and sometimes in great quantity in the area you were hunting. Wouldn’t get all hung about it.

In terms of looking for bait sites in your zone, you can start baiting April 15th, so get some bait, talk to a bunch of people, fuel haulers, mailmen, etc. and find out areas where you may have private access as well. I have friends fairly far south that are able to make contact with black bear, so just start working it and maybe you can get ’em coming and be complaining about shooting your bear too fast!!!

Mark

“This is all we used and I dont know if the bears got sick of the same thing or if something else happened. Hopefully I learned from some mistakes and I look forward to the challenge. “

First off welcome to the site, lots here to learn from.

I guided bear hunters up north for quite a few years. Lots of tricks to the trade. A bear is a bear, no matter where you hunt him, they don’t know that hwy 64, or hwy 70 are zone lines.

You mentioned that hopefully you learned from mistakes. Did you? What mistakes did you make? If you don’t know the mistakes you made, you won’t learn from them.

Things to remember:

Private land won’t have the pressure that public land has. Even if it’s not bear hunting pressure, baits can be really touch. Campers, fishers, hikers, small game hunters, deer hunters, will all affect your baits on public land, if they are present.

Bears travel a lot through June, bears you get on camera or see, may only be in the area for a short time, in that time period.

Bears are big, seem slow, and don’t really seem that smart. Big bears, can be very sly, and almost always use their nose, and they have a good one. Keep the wind in mind (SW) when setting your bait stands.

A bear prefers natural food, over the stuff we put out, when the crop is in season. Once acorns, apples, cherries, berries, and other masts come into season, you have to have patience. Bears will travel miles to a freshly ripened food source.

Starting too early, in my experience, doesn’t seem to work out like one would hope. I have found starting later, and baiting lighter is more productive.

Feel free to holler if you have more specifics.

welcome!
DT

There is a ton of county forest land in Clark, Jackson and Eau Claire counties and there are lots of bears also. The problem there is that there are alos lots of oaks. It might be worth a shot as it could be closer to your home than the other areas you mentioned. whittsend from this site was successful last year in the Eau Claire area. Maybe he can hook you up with some private land to hunt on.

Les, I agree on the lighter amount of bait put out!!! I am usually running somewhere between 1-2 gal for my baits, are you lighter or am I in the vicinity??? I have started as early as late April or early May without a lot of success, but have heard that while they are looking around pre-rut, you might get a big boar to remember where you were from his travels… My two successful seasons I started in mid-July and went twice a week til the last week, then homed in the time on a daily basis and hoped the acorns didn’t start to fall too heavy!!!

Mark

Hi guys thanks for all the great information. I am planning on baiting once a week starting in mid July. Then for the last three weeks I want to bait about every 3 to 4 days. Keep the information coming guys. Thanks again

Mark, your program sounds perfect. Very similar to what I do.

stosh:

Others may disagree, but we usually bait every three days from the time we started in July and then the last week, we baited at the appropriate time you think you are going to hunt. For example, I couldn’t get out of my store until 5 p.m., so that’s when I baited and when the bear came in, thus hunting in the p.m. made more sense.

Mark

Stosh… My season was a touch “abnormal” last year, but I was successful on my first WI / first DIY hunt….

I baited one site only this last year for a week and a half total. I started one week prior to the season, which might be a little “abnormal”, but you should have seen how hard and how fast the bears hit that bait!! I had tons of photos and many different bears coming to the baitpile… (8-12 different individual bear??) Many photos during the day. I hunted two days and on my second sit I shot nice young boar (~200lb) 10 minutes into the hunt… If you want to read about my story from last year, here are some more details. My story is the first one posted if you scroll down.

http://www.idohunting.com/forum/showflat.php/Number/627488

I’ve talked to some guys that say baiting right before the start of season like I did (vs starting in the spring) seems to work quite often… Might be a nice gas saving option for you if you have a ways to drive to your bait sites… Like others have said, a gallon or two of bait is PLENTY… Don’t put out the maxiumum amount of bait – it just seems to rot and turn the baitsite sour…

I’m no expert, and I’ve only hunted bear a small hadfull of times (a few times in MN and once in WI)… [Sidenote – I am going to Newfoundland this June and can’t wait to bear hunt again!!] But if you have questions about what I did to tag out or about the area, public land, etc, I’d be more than happy to answer them to best of my ability. I live in Fall Creek and work in EC…. I know some of the public lands around the area, although I’m not sure how hard they get bear hunted (I would guess somewhat lightly since its zone C, but I shot mine on private land, so I’m not sure) Just send me a PM. I can provide you with an email as well if that works better for you.

Oh ya – as far as bait goes, Just take a few bucks up to Vic’s in Cadott.

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&oq=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=vics+cadott&fb=1&gl=us&hq=vics&hnear=cadott&cid=17655483539611236443

$70 should get you more than you need to last for quite a while. A huge barrel of goodies (costs between $40 and $55 generally for a 55 gallon drum, depending on the mix), a gallon of liquid smoke, and some icing or molasses or whatever else looks good. I can tell you exactly what else I used / how I went about it if you want.

Let me know how I can help!!

Mike

One more thing – If you search this forum for last year’s posts, you will find a ton of useful information – There were a large number of EXCELLENT posts by some of the bear experts on here – Bear hunting primers, how-to’s, tips and tricks, etc…. Lots of REALLY GREAT INFO, just search back starting last spring/summer. These guys have years of experience and helped me quite a bit last year, simply by reading the posts.

Just scroll down in the bear forum and show “from all dates”

Or search for “primer”.. Tom Gursky had some excellent “Bear hunting primer” posts. Johnny P et al also had many very informative posts.

Good reasearching!!