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Kill seasons approaching fast here in MI and just thought id mention something i do when having problems telling which way a bear left a bait when sand isnt available. I'm sure many people have dont this also, besides the use of a trail camera, but thats flour. a little bit of flour around a bait does the trick, tracks ole big foot right out of the bait, and doesnt bother the bear either. Anyone have any other types of tricks they use?

Yep, I sure do, It's called a dog. LOL

You mean those leopard spotted bear dogs know how to trail? J/K no really, I like to see the size of bear I'm gonna run during kill season and could care less about free casting because that isnt the problem. And would rather not bother getting onto a sow with cubs.

sand, sand, sand, and then some more sand.

sand also. find some and load up the truck. find the trails that there are using and and them up then you will know there ins and outs. that reminds me thats what i gotta do this weekend.

bearhunter 611 : I have to agree with others Sand is the only way to go .Over the years we have 6 baits for my son and I .We use the same locations every year simply because THEY WORK . We do play around with the baits every year " DIFFERENT CONCOCTIONS " depending on what is available and things we want to try .However 4 of the bait sites we have used consectively for 12 years . Amazing how much sand you can put down in that much time .I would be willing to bet that 90% of the time the bears use the same path in to the baits and 90% use the same path leaving the baits .Every once in a while one will come in from a direction we had not planned on ,but I would guess they are WANDERING BEARS .
I do know someone who uses Flour as you described but we have NOT tried it yet

I've never used sand nor flour but they sound like a great idea. One thing I've done over the years is check the trails going in and out of the bait. Generally there's one trail going in and one trail going out. Look for bear scat on the trail. In my experience if you find bear scat it will be on the trail going out.
I'm no different than those bears. After a good meal if I walk around for a bit my stomach settles and the pipes start a workin and before you know it I'm looking for the nearest restroom.
Also bears tend to come up downwind from a bait. As we all know night drafts go down hill, so trails going up hill to the bait are generally the in traffic and trail going up hill from the bait are the exit.
When I put those two theories together I've found out over the years you'll find bear scat uphill from the bait.
That's just my two cents.

Yeah Ive spent my days hauling 5 gallon pales of sand into baits, and do it every year. also use trail cams to tell whats been there and what time the bear was there. Some times hunting in the U.P. Ive found that the coons will pack the trails down after the bear has hit it, and is where flour can be handy to tell exactly where it went. Just thought it would be a helpful little bit of information to somebody down the road, because its worked for me!

My son has to go down to Portland on Business tomorrow . I told him to pick me up 2 50lb Bags of Flour Will try it on a couple of bear baits . As they say Curiosity killed the cat . Would you suggest SELF RISING FLOUR