Aroostook is renowned for its burgeoning population of black bears and the hunter-success rates equal that of the moose hunt.  The County is able to strut its stuff when it comes to this elusive game animal.

     When I talk to guides, who find bear season an economic boon equaling a merchant’s Christmas, the annual bear hunt puts Aroostook on bruin-hunter’s maps nationwide.

Since pre-season baiting is allowed, it won’t take long for you to figure out their trailways. My bait is strictly sweets obtained from a local bakery.

     The reasons for the prospering bear numbers in this largest county east of the Mississippi includes low human population densities, farsighted management practices, superior habitat and adequate food sources.  Without looking at the county or statewide numbers, my personal count is what matters in a proposed hunting area.

     Spring sightings are the best gauge of bear conditions in your region. They’re hungry and searching for fresh, ground hugging greens during that annual riot of photosynthesis, so are easy to see in the ripening fields.  You don’t have to seek out a bruin in dense forest.  Where I live in Caribou, the area is mostly agricultural land with a balance of woods. I take evening ATV bear scouting trips to fields close to home.  On some nights I observe a half dozen bear.

  I recall one evening when I turned the four-wheeler into a wild pasture and surprised a large bear feeding on new clover.  I stopped and turned off the engine to watch the blackie about 50 yards from me.  The sow stood to face me, and then as if in timed sequence her three cubs of two years each stood to greet me in that dangling-paw manner.  If they are present in the spring, they’ll frequent the same territory in the fall.  So once you’ve chosen your hunting location and obtained landowner permission to bait, I have a suggestion for you.

     Each baiter has their special manner to lure a bear to a hunter’s stand.  I try to keep it simple with a ground hide upwind of the paths that the hungry omnivores take to your food lure.  Since pre-season baiting is allowed, it won’t take long for you to figure out their trailways.  My bait is strictly sweets obtained from a local bakery.

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     I buy a pick-up truck load of scrap pastries still in their wrappers for $25.  I unwrap them and dump the various sugary concoctions into a 55-gallon drum.  This can be done months before the season as the contents will not rot before its time to use them.  They will ferment some.  Keep the barrel inside a barn or shed, and don’t cover the container, this allows air to reach the contents so it will remain bear palatable for months.

     Now you’re saying to yourself that the odor of pastries won’t travel far enough to catch the nose of a passing bear like decaying meat will.  You’re right, so freeze a plastic bag full of the fish entrails you cleaned all summer.  Climb a tree close to the bait and tie an old rag with the guts inside off a high branch.  Nothing smells worse than rotting fish, which from its high vantage will waft in every breeze and travel quite a distance.  Leave the aromatic bear perfume there during the duration of your bear hunt as a continual attraction, and there’s no need to replenish unless a bear climbs up to get it, which has happened to me before.

     Another couple of positives about a sweet bait is that if a bear isn’t hitting your offering you don’t have to change the bait like you have to with decomposing meat that is no longer suitable.  Meat is hard to come by, eventually rots to a point that even an iron-stomached bear won’t eat it, not to mention the storage space required for a couple of weeks of animal byproduct.

     The cakes and pies are long lasting if you make the bait container water resistant with a wooden top, then secure it to prevent little omnivores from disturbing it.  If you avoid meat you don’t have to worry about the scavenging carnivores either.

     As you can see in the accompanying photo of my "Bear Wall," Aroostook’s bear hunting is productive.  My only problem now is how to expand for the additional bear displays my son and I will harvest this September.  How’s that for Aroostook confidence?

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Wayne Selfridge is a seasoned outdoorsman who has hunted and fished throughout the world as a military veteran. He works in law enforcement, is a member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association and serves as the Journal’s Northern Sales Manager.

© 2001 Northwoods Sporting Journal