Hunting over bait is legal for bear in NH. I'm thinking about doing it for the first time up in Northern NH at our cabin. My question is how often do bait sites need to be refreshed? The challenge for me is the distance to get there. Is once a week enough?
For a start. I don't ever decrease the frequency before i hunt. Once you start hunting, do it every day, and they will get used to the higher frequency.
Yeah, I would bait once a week for as long as you leagally can leading up to season. bait twice the week before season, then everyother day well you hunt. they will quickly get used to whats going on. Biggest hing is to do it consistent, try to bait around the same time every time, say 2pm everytime or what ever works. where good rubber gloves and be as absolutely scent free as possible! have you ever baited bear before?
This will be my first time. The challenge will be the 4 1/2 hour trip north to where the site will be. I'm worried about the inconsistency of getting up there.
in nh you can not satrt baiting until the frist day of the season up north were ther are more bears you will need to put out bait 2 to times 3 per week then in the southern part of the state were thier is not many bears you can get away with baiting once a week
you will want to build a good cribbing behind your bait station, it forces the bears to go around it to get to the bait forcing a quartering away shot for you. a few pointers, 1. get lots of used fryer grease from a local bar or restuarant. 2. go to a feed mill and get liquid molasses 3. try to find as much old bread as you can. 4. as you get closer to the time you will be hunting begin to bait with really sweet stuff, like cakes, dough nuts, etc. to build you cribbing use logs, stack them on each other like a log cabin corner. they should be about five to six feet long. stack them up to create an inside corner, 90 degree ish angle. Make it strong so a bear can't reach through it. then on the inside corner dig a whole about 18 inches deep. you will place your bait, what ever you use in the hole. then pile logs over top of the bait. make sure you make it strong enough that only a bear can get in. other wise the coons will eat all your bait! once you have done this pour the grease all over the top of the bait. splash it up a tree beside the bait six or so feet up all the way to the ground. this will release the scent of the grease all over. the more grease the better. you want that stuff to stick to there paws as they walk away, then when ever another bear crosses there trail they will follow it into the bait station. If you can get a few bears competeing for that bait site, then you have a high probability they will show up in day light! Hope this gave you some ideas. biggest thing is to make sure you get bait out there as soon as you can and then try to be somewhat consistent with it! Good luck!
