Using the right scents can draw bears into bait sites

Bear hunting season is on the horizon and outfitters, guides and individual sportsmen began baiting bears on July 27. Youth hunting day is Aug. 24 and open season begins Aug.26.

The fairly short season for hunting over bait ends on Sept. 21, and outdoorsmen are hoping the windy, hot and humid spring and summer weather that has hampered many brook fishing trips, and even many lake outings, won’t impair bear season as well.

Maine abounds with black bears, but only about a quarter of the hunting permits are filled each year due to the extraordinary senses of sight, hearing and smell the animals possess.

Even using bait, hunters are hampered by the dense wooded conditions, warmer fall temperatures the last few years and the propensity for most sly, larger, older bears to visit after dark.

With decades of experimenting, it’s become apparent to me that the use of a tantalizing attractant scent not only coaxes more bears to investigate my bait site, but also disguises most of the human odor that a cover scent may miss.

Decades ago, well before any attractant scents were even invented or commercially produced, crafty bear hunters used a “honey burn” to generate a sweet, attractive aroma at bait sites.

They just poured a jar of honey into an old pot or frying pan and heated it over a fire until it began burning and smoking. The sweet, dense smoke would travel on the breeze and adhere to trees, brush and leaves surrounding the bait bucket and far into the forest. Bears love honey, and would follow its scent to the food container.

The pungent aroma also helped cover the hunter’s scent. This old trick still works.

My father, who was a hardcore whitetail deer hunter, would use cut apples or fir tips as scent cover. He also would use cedar oil on his boots to mask human odor. Decades later, natural aromas, along with scent elimination products, still prove an effective combo.

A dozen years or so ago, a bear hunter had the bright idea of spreading used cooking oil from restaurant deep fryers on trails and bushes around the bait. The strong cooking smell drew bears to investigate. When they stepped on the oil or brushed their fur on the saturated leaves as they moved about,they spread the scent on the trails they used. Any bear crossing the first bruin’s travel trail would pick up on the scent and back track to the bait bucket.

Most restaurants are happy to give the used oil away so it’s a win-win for both parties.

The current hunting marketplace is literally flooded with hundreds of shapes, sizes and smells of aromatic products to entice bears and hide hunter scent. I’ve personally tried at least 25 pump sprays, gels, powders, crystals, solids and aerosols in dozens of flavors and aromas.

I think every bear hunter should test and evaluate their own selection of products to judge effectiveness, cost, ease of use, longevity of smell attraction and availability.

I’ve settled on three products, each with a different application style, but all meeting or exceeding my requirements for an effective bear attracting scent. They also shroud my human scent. My go-to product is a bacon-infused bait ball. I hang one of these soccer ball-sized orbs from a wire cable strung between two trees near the bait barrel, high above a big bear’s reach, at the start of each baiting season.

A porous cloth bag encompasses the sphere, allowing the strong aroma to waft on the wind as it slowly dissolves. A single bait ball will last the full two months of baiting and hunting. There are other scents too at bearscents.com.

The Conquest company manufactures a bear scent that looks and operates like a king-size deodorant stick. By swiping the rollout, soft gel core against a tree trunk, blow down or even the bait container every two or three days, there will be an aroma to draw bears to your location.

I’ve not found a more effective gel application for less than $15 that can be used every other day for three weeks.

Gold Rush concentrate and Anise-infused spray from northwoodsbearproducts.net help cover human scent by overpowering a bear’s sense of smell with appetite-inducing aromas. I carry a 32-ounce spray bottle of anise-flavored bear attractor and spray the ground and brush at the bottom of my ladder. I also dose the limbs, branches and leaves around my tree stand.

I mix two ounces of the Gold Rush with five gallons of used fryer oil and splash two or three cups under the bait barrel and on the entrance and exit trails used by visiting bears. With scent-blocker clothing and scent-neutralizing spray, the anise and butterscotch-flavored Gold Rush offers final cover as well as flavor attraction.

To successfully hunt bears, you need to see them. To see them, you need to give them a reason to come into the open during daylight. Food helps, but a properly utilized attractant aroma is a dual purpose lynch pin to opportunity and triumph.