I love these posts, some good advise and I like hearing all your input. Curious if any of you have a suggestion(s) for the below situation...
My favorite bait site is well established. Typically have 20+ different bears visit first week, increasing through the season. I'm not bummed about having this many, but it is absolutely challenging to keep bait in my barrel and keep the interest of big bears. Trail cam pics indicate it's absolute chaos and constant pecking order shuffle. My barrel design is intense, grates they have to reach thru and scratcher bars to help eliminate scooping out more than a couple claw fulls at a time. Still with 20-30 paws in it doesn't last, that is the minor issue. Bigger challenge is not being able to pattern the bear(s) I'd like to hunt whatsoever. It's almost like some the big boars give up... "that's it I'm out, i'm not putting up with 6 b!tchy sows sassn me, I'd rather just go chew grass" It could be they know where other baits are and when competition heats up they go raid others they have less confrontation with. In the past, bait sites with less bears and 1 big dominant boar which established himself as top dog... easy to pattern/hunt/opportunity to harvest him. This site is always a riot & fun to sit on it, see so many bears, just not the 1 or 2 i'm targeting.