At the various oil, fishing and mining camps I worked at up north, there were always hunters on staff who tried to sweet-talk we kitchen folk into saving two things for them: old donuts and deep-fryer grease. Evidently bear-hunters highly prize these two items to bait traps with. I've been told SUGAR and GREASE are the two best bear LURES, which would make DONUTS doubly-blessed!
In Wisconsin they've got some strange laws, one of which is that you cannot use meat in a bear bait. But you can use grease if it remains liquid at, IIRC, 78F. Bacon grease does that, but you have to make sure you really strain it well, because even one crumble of bacon could get you fined or worse.
A guide I used to hunt with up Hurley way would go through the fuss, because bacon grease really has some reach. Maple syrup is the only thing I know of with more legs than that.
In addition, hunters were armed with spray bottles filled with liquid smoke. The idea was that every once in a while you'd send a mist of smoke out on the breeze. This both covered the human scent, and served as a further attractent.
A guide I used to hunt with up Hurley way would go through the fuss, because bacon grease really has some reach. Maple syrup is the only thing I know of with more legs than that.
In addition, hunters were armed with spray bottles filled with liquid smoke. The idea was that every once in a while you'd send a mist of smoke out on the breeze. This both covered the human scent, and served as a further attractent.
Liquid Smoke? Wow- POTENT STUFF! I could definitely see that working well for bears.
My uncle isn't a hunter so he doesn't do this for bagging purposes, but on his property he puts out salt licks and brown sugar for the deer. He buys it by the 50lb. bag. He could get in huge trouble from fish & game... but he does it anyway... He just likes having deer in his woods...
Also, speaking of things hunters do that can get them into serious trouble... growing up we knew a farmer who had a pond that was about 4-5 feet deep. In the Fall he would stake chicken wire all along the bottom of the pond- about a foot off the pond-floor. He then scattered several 5 gallon buckets of dried corn into the pond. Soon the honking of the geese and ducks would start... He would go out everyday and wade into the pond and grab MANY waterfowl by their feet from the holes in the chicken wire (birds flew overhead, saw the corn, dived in, dived to floor of pond to access corn and got heads caught in holes of chicken wire...) and he ate goose/duck all winter long! He's probably doing time dining on bread & water, in a cell w/ Bubba at the big-house as I type this!
My uncle isn't a hunter so he doesn't do this for bagging purposes, but on his property he puts out salt licks and brown sugar for the deer. He buys it by the 50lb. bag. He could get in huge trouble from fish & game... but he does it anyway... He just likes having deer in his woods...
Also, speaking of things hunters do that can get them into serious trouble... growing up we knew a farmer who had a pond that was about 4-5 feet deep. In the Fall he would stake chicken wire all along the bottom of the pond- about a foot off the pond-floor. He then scattered several 5 gallon buckets of dried corn into the pond. Soon the honking of the geese and ducks would start... He would go out everyday and wade into the pond and grab MANY waterfowl by their feet from the holes in the chicken wire (birds flew overhead, saw the corn, dived in, dived to floor of pond to access corn and got heads caught in holes of chicken wire...) and he ate goose/duck all winter long! He's probably doing time dining on bread & water, in a cell w/ Bubba at the big-house as I type this!