How about opening a hunting season during the 9 day gun season like they had long ago. Could do it like the old days with party tags but have the listed participants printed on the tag and make it a separate draw for the tags from the regular seasons tags. The DNR do the draw after bear season and just allow the unfilled quotas as a guide to the numbers given. All bears need to be registered before the start of deer season and it would just be another tool in the DNRs management plan. No bait no hounds.

Just a thought

Or the Bears were coming in until they knew the hunter was in the tree, I think the acorns dropping becomes an easy excuse rather than a major factor, maybe all bait stations should be placed under oak groves. Natural forage is always a contributing factor but so is: stand selection, wind direction, bait selection and scent.

I always set my baits up with emerging food sources in mind, corn, oaks, berries. Stands are set in clumps of trees and moved year to year. Planning ahead year or two in advance is good. Wind I have never concerned myself with much. Stands are set with SW prevailing winds but I don't believe it matters much. I believe bears know your there, they circle, enter the area leave and return. Sometimes takes a couple visits. Bernie B suggested this year to have a higher nut ratio for bait as season approaches. I used some trail mix with nuts and added cashews for more mix. Also when bears are full they still check scent out. Mix scents, sweets to strong, .

I ran two baits in North Central WI, I had 1 sow w 3 cubs, 1 sow w 2, 2 sows with 1 cub. Two dry sows for sure. Growing you bet.

I know 2 guys personally from Iowa that tagged out. Bigger one was 440 pounds.

Interesting thread,especially since our DNR's own studies show bears increasing across the state,but there's rumblings from the Dept.about cutting back on licenses sold.

While I appreciate that bankrunner, I know many that are eating tags. Dog hunters are doing well, walking corn fields now with good success.

Our PA bears are managed by their social carrying capacity, which is lower than our natural carrying capacity. We have too many people that live in bear country that don’t like their garbage and bird feeders destroyed. Our season was typically 3-4 days before thanksgiving. This mostly protects pregnant sows, as they are usually denned up by then. A couple years ago, our estimated population hit 20,000. PGC instituted a 1 week muzzleloader season in mid October which was overlapped by a 3 week archery season. After 2 years of these extra seasons, our population is now estimated at 16,000. Reason being, the 3 week early season does not protect our sows. Sows reproduce every other year. I’m guessing our early seasons will be shorter next year. I believe the way to control bears is in the way ya manage the sows.

Welcome to the political agenda of the Minnesota DNR. Hopefully there are more common sense individuals involved in your policy decisions than we have.

Osky

I had a wise large bear on bait last year. Talk about circling. I found a light trail perpendicular about 200 yards off the stand one side of the trail. Bear came up then turned back when hunted.
After 3 no show nights. 4th day I took the hunter in at baiting time just before noon, past that trail intersection riding the atv nearly to the bait then hustled him up the stand to wait quietly the afternoon.
The big bear crossed the walk in/atv trail that evening and came in to be harvested at 6:35. As clean as that walk in trail was the bear was picking up the hunter walking in at 3:30-4:00 and it was an old flat logging trail there, no side brush involved just hard sand ground. I’d had the guy even using rubber bands to hold his pant legs from dragging.
When people say the bears quit hitting the bait when hunted, bears are simply busting the hunter. The wind, the scent on the walk in as above….noise. I back track trails at baits after season to learn and at least where I am at bears on a good bait that holds enough food to keep them happy will be holed up during the day a lot closer than people think. Hearing any sort of vehicle they are not used to towards evening puts them off same as hunter smells and other things. Hearing is crazy good for them.
Interesting to me as well is the big boars in the roughly 350-550 lb range are the most cagey. The bigger boars than 550 which I’ve seen and some taken at times come plowing in with seemingly no worry. They could however be doing all the precautionary foreplay just out of sight? The jumbos are not shy about piling right in at the bait.
These are some of my observations from the heavy bush of Northern MN. Different areas bears certainly act differently.
I never use sweets.

Osky

Sows with first year cubs are off limits. Releasing a full grown sow with cubs nearby would be a nightmare!

I'm in Sheboygan Co, there were bear sightings this summer and one hit and killed on the road.
One also hit and killed in Waukesha Co this summer.

It was a rare event for one to be seen this far south, now its a every spring/summer thing.

how much longer before they are full time residents I don't know.
But I'm willing to bet it'll happen.

I've got some friends back there that hunt them with dogs. Just hunting weekends and a week or so of vacation they are catching 40-50 a year (including training season). So there is a decent population where they are hunting. Adding additional methods of take (such as footsnaring) isn't going to affect the population because the harvest numbers are regulated by the limited amount of tags they give out. Those friends of mine there usually harvest three or four a year, by having friends and family put in for tags, because it takes years to draw a tag. If the Wisconsin DNR wants to lower the population they will have to increase the tags given out.

I hunted Wisconsin during those days.

I recall that as well. I remember too Minnesota had a bounty on bears when I was really young, my father spoke of it. Bears were able to be killed year round I believe.
Edit: I am not however as old as White17 and was not around for the bear migration across the Bearing Sea land bridge.

Osky

They definitely are expanding their range.
Buddy on the Kenosha/Racine County line had one on his trail camera a few times, with one showing it stalking a doe and fawn.
It's been dubbed the 'Wheatland bear "

I don't know when they dropped the tag system in WI where you could shoot a buck deer or a bear, but there were two large groups from my home county of Jackson that hunted in the Winter Draper area along the Thornapple River and I know at least a couple seasons there were one or two hunters who harvested bear during those seasons. One person got a bear two seasons in a row. That was the first time I ever saw a black bear when they came back from their camp. One was sizable, I don't remember the weight but they weighed him at the local feed mill. Lot of people dropped by to see the bear. This was the late 50s and through the 1960s if I remember correctly.

Bryce

That political agenda was driven by input from the public. People complaining about too many hunters disturbing their QOE. Instead of managing the wildlife the DNR is more interested in managing people it seems.

I am not a bear hunter but if I was I'd be glad that I reside in the no quota zone.

Oh and I don't think anyone is as old as ole White17. Well except for maybe the beav. I don't know if the beav saw the land migration but he for sure sat behind George Washington in the 6th grade.

True. I'm not sure how Maine handles that issue.