Brownies? No thank you I've had enough.

[CAMERON_907]

I'm new here to the forum and this is my second year baiting black bears. This year I had my first black bear hit the site on May 8th, I let my uncle take it since he had never gotten one with his bow, and it squared 5' 8", he was very excited.

On May 19th I walked in on my bear that I spooked off the barrel but he didnt seem to scared so I assumed if I waited hed be back soon, so I got into the stand real quick and waited and about an hour later he came back out and proceeded to lick syrup off my barrel. I was trying to get the shot on video but as my luck usually goes the camera died as soon as the bear was in a good position....so no video yet this year, but I ended up dropping him with my .30-06 and he squared just a hair under 6' 1".

Since those two bears were killed I have had several black bears in the 5 footer range hit the barrel, but have been plagued with brown bears, I think I have identified atleast 5 different brown bears in trail camera pics.....the worst of them are a pair of young brown bears, looks like their first year on their own, they just wont go away.

I'll post some pics of the dead blackies...

[CAMERON_907]

[CAMERON_907]

And heres some of the brownies.....







http://youtu.be/TqT0vmiUJO0

[AGL4now]

You have any other photos of that two tone bear in the last photo........?

[AK Ray]

I like the perp walk height board. Do you put some scent up high to get them to stand for the photos?

Based on what I have gathered over the years I would guess that your hole is too large letting the bigger footed browns get too much food. Or at least they are able to clean up what the blacks leave on the ground. Also browns love dog food, so if you are using their favorite food you will get them in regularly. But then there are only a few brown bears on the kenai so I don't know why you would be seeing so many.

[CAMERON_907]

Sorry thats the only good pic of the two tone brownie, camera caught him in one more pic but its just a blurry partial of his head.

Ya, I agree that the hole is too large, were planning on using a different drum next year. As far as bait I have never used dog food. Last season I used strictly oats that I mixed with molasses, syrup and immataion vanilla extract. This season I started with COB but that runs another $5 more then the plain oats, and so far I havnt noticed a difference, other then more brownies....well ya they say theres only so few browns down here, yet I've seen atleast 5 this season and I know of atleast two other baiters that have seen quite a few also.

[CAMERON_907]

Actually I'll add that, other then the young twin brown bears, none of the brown bears eat any bait. Its just thrash the barrel around and dump it out and leave, so I do tend to believe they dont really care for my bait a whole lot. But just the fact that they keep showing up every night I know is pushing black bears away.

[Justin_907]

Yeah. That is so weird to see a brown bear on the Kenai. (I get your joke) Seriously though, everybody I've talked to has had a brown bear on there bait this year. We had doughnuts and COB with Molasses in our barrel and of course our hole was too big. A couple of brownies dug through it and ate every single doughnut but ignored the COB. I'm not a biologist but it seems to me that there are getting to be more and more brown bears down here.