Here is an article I wrote for the Buckeye trapper last year.
I think everyone should have a bucket list. You know the things you want to do or see before you go to that big trap line in the sky. Mine is a long one that's keeps growing every day.
One that was high on my list was to trap a bear.. I remember as a kid the old gun advertising ads with a big bear in a trap. The trapper coming around the corner with one of their guns in hand ready to put the big beast down. I was ate up with these images. That's what I wanted to do.
As far as I know Maine is the only state now that allows taking bears in foot snares. I was very let down a few years ago when they outlawed foot hold trapping of bears. I thought if I was going to do this I better do it soon. Well it took me a few years but I finally decided this was the year I was at least going to try to catch a bear.
In order to trap a bear in Maine a nonresident has to go through a registered Maine guide. I started my search early in the spring. I settled on a small outfitter by the name of Orin Young. This fall a friend of mine Bryon Flowers has taken over a bear camp in Maine. There are lots of opportunities if your interested in catching the largest carnivore we legally can trap.
In Maine bear hunting season comes in well before bear trapping season. The way they hunt bear is by baiting. They start baiting in August for a September season. In the fall sweet baits are used. Bait sights are used every year. It normally only takes one to three days for the bear to start hitting the bait sight. They put hunters on these sights and move them every couple weeks. At that time they know which bears are nocturnal and will never be taken by hunting. These nocturnal bears are the ones they target for trapping.
I talked to the guide about bringing a foot snare. He informed me he had tried them all and was not happy with any of the commercially available foot snares that where on the market. He said that every model had some kind of drawback. With the problems in his mind he went to work to come up with a better design. He came up with a design much like a large dog proof trap. And let me tell you if a bear works the set, It will get caught. With this design there is no snare thrower. When they fire the trap the bear is in so deep that they are caught just under the elbow. What surprised me was that it holds right there. They don't slip down to the wrist like I thought it would but hold the bear just below the elbow. They are not going anywhere.
Since we already had trap sights prepicked we just had to set the trap. Sounds easy enough. By law the trap has to be flush with the ground so you have to dig a hole. In our case a hole about eight inches in diameter and 16 or 18 inches deep. Where we were in Maine the ground was like a bunch of medium sized rocks with some mucky clay packed in between. Not the sweetest of digging. You also need a trench for the snare cable going to the tree to tie to. We tied to a 5 or six inch live tree. Make sure your tree will hold a bear. With the trap in the hole at or slightly below ground level you have to pack rocks and soil around the trap to stabilize it tight. The trap can’t rock up and down. You want no moment at all. The trench coming to the tree will hold the cable. The snare is spring fired and you don't want a bear playing with it. Much like a coon will do at a pocket set if you don't bury the chain. You then lay large leaves in the channel the full length of it. Then set your snare and fasten it to your tree laying it on the leaves in the trench. Again lay large leaves over your cable and finish by covering with dirt and blend it in. The reason for the leaves on the top and bottom is to keep debris from getting in the spring and possibly making it not fire. I believe it would take a lot of debris to do this but you might as well be safe than sorry.
OK, the trap is in the hole and stabilized rock solid and tight. Cable and chain are buried and blended, Now its time to bait. Use day old pasties or old granola or some other commercially available sweet bait. On the trap fill it to the top and a little more. If you have a cup or two on top the trap that's fine. Now you can add a little of your favorite bear lure on it. If your putting it on the bait make sure it is an edible lure. You don't want to turn the bear off with some synthetic
scent just as you where when coon trapping. You can also spray the whole area down with smoke scent. Spray it around your bait, up the tree, etc.. Don't be afraid to use it. And it wont scare any animals away.
Now go sight-seeing, rock hunting, fishing, or something else because its a waiting game now.
It would be nice if we could get inside the head of our intended quarry. One of the other trappers had an extra trail camera that he lent us to put on our trap sight. Several big bruisers came in and hung around the trap sight but just would not commit for some reason.
Let me back track a little. On the first morning of our adventure we went to check a sight with an older gentleman that had been there for two weeks. On our first morning there was a black bear cabled to a tree. We were all excited for the man. This was his third trapped bear. I was thinking this was going to be easy, it wasn't.
Almost without question that big bear would come through every night but he refused all of our tricks and baits. He just would not come to the trap itself. It would come maybe twenty feet from the set, take a good whiff and keep going.
I was beginning to think I was going to go home with no bear.
On Friday after checking an empty trap I told him we need to pull it as we were going home the next day. Orin said just stay one more day. I finally let him talk me into it. We moved the trap to a new location with good bear activity. The plan was to check it early so we could get on the road back to Ohio.
Imagine my surprise on that last morning when we approached the trap sight. Their sat a good bear wrapped up in the brush. Can you imagine what a twenty foot catch circle looks like? I had just lived a dream as I had since I was a small child.
My friend Bryon Flowers is working with the OSTA about having a drawing or auction of some sorts with half the proceeds going to the OSTA. If we get this pulled off and you have ever dreamed of trapping a bear get a chance at it. You could be one of the very few trappers in Ohio to trap a bear.
