Planning for Black Bear Hunting in Wisconsin

I finally saved up enough preference points to get myself a Wisconsin Black bear license this year, so now the planning has begun. The tag that I drew is for south of Hwy 64; therefore the use of dogs is prohibited. Black bear hunting in Wisconsin involves a great deal of planning and preparation. So lets go through the main steps involved.

The first thing you have to decide is where you are going to bait. I try to find three places to bait and then if one isn't getting hit often, I'll only bait the other two. My family's land is well populated with bear; therefore choosing spots hasn't necessarily been a hard task. But if you have not bear hunted before, one good spot would be land near a large swamp. This year I had more difficulty finding spots to bait bear because there were quite a few hunters in the area who also drew tags. The three spots I plan on baiting this year are all within a 20-mile radius.

The next thing you have to start getting prepared for with a black bear hunt is finding bait. One place to get bear bait is through a local bread distributor or bakery. Be sure to also look through your local newspaper. Some people sell gummy worms or candy hearts by the barrel, which can also be used for bait. The other greatest resource for finding bait is talking to other bear hunters. However please use extreme caution: In Wisconsin, the use of any animal byproducts within your bait is illegal. So you cannot use dog food, honey, fish grease or most importantly raw meat in Wisconsin as bear bait. Be sure you know what type of bear bait you are purchasing. It costs a lot less to be careful in the first steps then getting a fine and loosing your license.

In the spring, once the bears are out of hibernation, the baiting begins. Baits should be checked once a week in the first couple months. Then when it is gets closer to your actual season (so two to three weeks before your season), baiting should be done daily or every other day to learn the pattern and time of the day that the bear is hitting your bait. I usually set up a game camera so I can see exactly what time of day the bear is hitting and the size of the animal. I have two bears already that were 150 pounds, so this year if possible I want to try and get a bear over 250 pounds. We'll see how that goes this fall.

So as you can see, Black bear hunting in Wisconsin takes a lot of sweat and dedication before you actually are ready to hunt. But in the end, all the work is worth it when you celebrate the harvest.