Using Commercial Scents for Black Bear

American wilderness better. We'll talk about tactics, gear conservation who also bring you into some of the wildest country on the planet. Chasing battery. On this episode of the Bear Hunting Magazine Podcast, we're getting back into some tactical how to stuff. They are good friends at Northwood's Bear Products. We're talking with one of the owners, Kolbe McReynolds. We're gonna talk about baiting bears. We're gonna talk about how to use commercial sense inside of baiting bears, so you

can hear about some of their products. But mainly what we're trying to do is educate people on how to use their scent products, because if you're baiting bear, it just makes sense to be using commercial sense because they put off a more powerful scent profile than basically any natural based scent that you can have. Granted, there are some great natural sense that you can use as well. As we get into this, it's a little bit different

than what we've been doing. Again, this is like a tactical podcast, which is that's why a lot of people want. I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to tactics, but I'm also a sucker for a good story and just a fun time, so this is kind of both of those things combined. I also want to put in there the conservation angle, which I think is so important

on everything that we do inside of bear hunting. Hunting over bait is often misperceived as as many many different things, but I'm here to tell you that some of the toughest hunting that I do is our are baited hunts, and they're doing yourself bated hunts I do here in Arkansas and in Oklahoma. Baiting bears is a fantastic way for selective harvests inside of hunting. If you're targeting an older, mature male, it's extremely challenging to target one and successfully

take him over bait. But also baiting with cameras and using sense and all this stuff. It's a great way to be highly selective. So let me ask you a question inside of conservation, which guy is more honorable the guy that goes out and shoots the shoots a younger juvenile bear using some of their method, or the guy that's using bait takes years before he harvests an animal

and kills an older sure mail over bait. That's probably not a real fair analogy, but from a conservation angle, the guy that's targeting the older mature mails over bait is the conservation winner because like for myself, I don't kill bear over bait every year in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Actually I haven't killed a bait a bear over bait in Arkansas I think since two thousand and eleven. Granted I have taken I believe three or four bears in

Oklahoma over bait in the last five years. The point is is that you can't just look at something and say, oh, man, they're just putting out donuts and bait. That's not fair, Chase. That's not hunting man. It is, And you've caught me on my soapbox because as hunters I feel like we

need to stand together. You know that you hear me talk about all that all the time, but we also need to look at different parts of hunting as they are, which these bated hunts are conservation hunts because they're they're taking place in places that spot inst hunting just could not fulfill the management goals of the science based organizations that are designed to make bear populations thrive, like in Oklahoma, Arkansas.

These places, man, they want to take out a certain percentage of bears every year, and baiting is the only way that they can do it. And so that's what we do. So you're gonna enjoy this podcast with my good friend Kolby McReynolds of north Woods Bear Products, and also Bernie Barringer is on here for a couple of minutes worth at the A T A Show in Louisville, Kentucky. Mm hmm, you're gonna like it. Welcome to Bear Honey

Magazine Podcast. We are again at the A T A Show Archery Trade Association Show twenty nineteen Louisville, Kentucky, and we are at the north Woods Bear Products booth, and I've got with me Kolby and Bernie and uh, Golby, introduce yourself first. I'm not gonna say much at all. Introduce, Introduce yourself, and then we'll do the same for Bernie. And then we're gonna I'll go ahead and tell everybody what we're gonna talk about. We're gonna talk about. I

want to hear an introductions from you guys. Then I want to hear from you Colby. Colby is the one of the owners of Northwoods Bear Products. I want to hear about your business as if someone who didn't know anything about it, like bear Sense and what you guys do, because you produce bear sense for tracting bears for hunting. So I want to hear about that. And then we're gonna talk Bernie. And this is where you can get involved, is how we're using these products out in the field

and and how people can use this stuff. But and and north Woods has been a long time partner of Bear Honey magazine, so I've known these guys Bernie as a columnist in the magazine. But go ahead, Colby, tell us who you are, all right, Well, I'm Colby mcconald's uh co owner of Northwoods Bear Products. So yeah, so I'm one of the owners, Me, my dad, Um and Brian he's overworking the booth right now. We are all three equal park owners in Northwood's Bear Products and it's

exactly what you said. You know, we manufacture bear attractants, you know, commercial sense for you know the purpose of attracting bears, you know, um, and it's mostly black bears, but we do actually, you know, some of our stuff crosses over and does quite well with like grizzlies, browns, stuff like that. So so give me like a rundown of the types of products like from like you have these dropt powder sense you have sprays if you could categorize it. Yeah, so our spray sense um they come

in a little bit larger volume. You know, they're a thirty two ounce jug um and they're already they're they're ready to pop a sprayer in and use as is um you know, you we it comes with a sprayer and the idea behind it is you know, use it as a cover scent and also as an attractant. Okay, So each each time we're in and out of that bait um. You know, everybody dates baits at a little different rate, you know. For us, when we're up in Minnesota. You know, we can only get up there once a week, um,

and in Wisconsin we can bait every day. So when we're in Wisconsin, we go ahead and we spray that every time we're in and out. And I don't I don't really get married to one spray singing, you know. I may switch it up um throughout the year. UM. But the idea behind it is I spray it up in the trees around the area are spray sense will spray out you know ft um you can you can find missed it, or you can streak shoot it, you

know and and cover some distance. So I like to get that up and around the tree stand prior to um, you know, when we go in there to hunt. So it's it's just kind of they're used to that scent up in the air, um and that way it does work well as in a as a cover scent you know when you do actually go into hunts. So UM, that's one you know, that would be the application for the spray sense. UM. The is Northwood's been in business,

so we've actually been in business for about twelve years. UM. We have made our own attractants for going on thirty years. Did your dad start the business. Yeah, yeah, Dad did. UM at the time, I was, you know, I was still kind of a young buck when he when he started the business up bubble guns, sense yeah everything, Yeah, you bet cheerios so no. Um. So as it started, you know, uh, this was just something that you know, we were kind of messing with just honestly, UM. We

were hunting bears and that's where our focus was. And we were trying to do whatever we could to either outbate,

outperform you know, our competition. UM. And so we started manufacturing our own you know, since and they've they've all evolved over the years, but UM, you know what started out is buying just a little bit of annis at you know, the grocery store, and you know, things you pick up along the way, and and uh, it just kind of its kind of started from there and it branched out and then got bigger and and I guess the biggest thing was the people that did come in

and hunt with us saw the success we were having. UM. And I think we related it a lot back to the the use of attractings UM. And so you know, we we were getting a lot of people along the way and saying, hey, you guys should really start up a business and you know, and market this stuff. So if that's kind of how I got started, Yeah, well

that's to me. That is a great segue in here to talking with Bernie bringer Um because as as a person who baits bearing myself in Arkansas and Oklahoma and a hunt in Canada every year, these and some people don't understand why you need to use commercial sense because they're like, well, debait that we're using already has scent properties. And the truth is that you could put out a bait with just your bait and you could get bears

to come into it without commercial scent. That's the But the reason we use it is because this stuff is way more powerful than any than just about any natural scent that you're gonna be able to have. So you're gonna attract more bears. You're gonna the bears are gonna get this oil based stuff on their feet, on their fur, on their paths, they're gonna track it all over. So

basically amplifies the scent signature of your bait dramatically. But before we have it, that tell us who you are, Bernie, All right, Bernie Barringer, I'm just a guy that's addicted to bear hunting and been doing it for about twenty years and have killed a few bears. Yeah, well more than that. You're a columnist and a full time outdoor writer in the columnist, however, have a YouTube channel has

a lot of bear hunter followers too. So can you run bucks, Bulls and Bears, Bulls and Bears the weekly email news blast? Yeah? And uh. And I've been sponsored by Northwoos bear PROCs for several years and I love their products and it's very very easy for me to promote them. So you know, you mentioned that you could go out and put a bear bait out without any scent and still probably attract some bears. Well, you could brought. You could also drive a Pento station wagon instead of

an escalade too, if you want. But these really make all the difference in the world, and particular I like their gold Rush. It is Uh. It's a super concentrated formula that you mix with cooking oil and you do like you can put one or two ounces and five gallons of cooking oil and it is incredible the way it smells. I open all my baits when I put a new bait out. That's what I use nowadays to

open all the baits. And if I could describe what it smells like, it's sort of like a butterscotch caramel, you know, if you if you're familiar with like Werther's candy, you know how he addicted those things are though, That's kind of what it's like. And the bears they really really like it. And it's super loud, very strong. So I use that for for opening all the baits. When when I put out a bait, I like to use

I like to say I use three levels. I like stuff on the ground, I like stuff at the bears level, and I like stuff up high. And that kind of covers all of the whatever wind direction you're gonna have, and thermals and everything like that. So you know, the gold rush, that's the ground that's I spread that on all around the bait and stuff like that. And then

the spray sense. Hey, let me let me stop you out there with the gold rush, because I want to talk specifically about that because to me, that that is one of the that's that's my favorite product that you guys make. It really is. And I want to say too that I am not I am not a gadget guy. I mean, like, I don't want to sit here with you guys and promote a bunch of stuff that I don't believe that people need. I mean, that's just the truth. This stuff, if you're baiting bears, is the real deal.

And Bernie said, you mix it with you can mix it with used friar grease. You're used friar grease, exact commodity that's relatively easy to get from restaurants. You get five gallons the friar grease and this gold gold rush. I've got a bottle here in my hand. It comes in eight ounce eight ounce bottles and that will treat forty gallons of grease. And I'll tell you what I do. A lot of times I mix it a little hotter, don't.

I mean, it does absolutely. It works so good that you just want to add extra you know, you're just like you love putting out there. But it but to me, what the the reason that friar grease is so good is because it is a caloric It has caloric value. I mean, like it's something that the bears eat. But it's also it's oil based and so it has the ability to stick on stuff not be as influenced by moisture to dissipate, get all over the bears, fur his feet all over him, and then he leaves and he's

leaving Central. Because when you're baiting bear, the the biggest thing you're trying to do is attract as many bears as possible from as far away as possible. And the more sent signature that you can have on that bait that's not gonna evaporate, if it's not gonna go away within three days, is better. And man, that prior gree stuff,

that that gold rush. You can go back to a bait weeks after you've baited the next year, and you still smell it the next year, you start digging in the dirt, It's like I can smell it the next year. It's crazy, it is. It is powerful stuff. But yeah, and and Kobe mentioned something before we started the podcast. Um, I've I've used the friar the gold Rush to make sent drags to get bait started. Sure, I think you've

done that too before, Bernie. But where you start a bait and then whether you tie a rag to a four wheeler on a rope and you drive down logging roads that lead you know, starting at your bait or whether you go on foot. What I've done a couple of times is gone on foot into areas dragon a rag covered in north gold rush and and had tremendous response of bears f on it quick. But yeah, well yeah, I was gonna say also then that you know, I like to get stuff up high, like he mentioned spraying

stuff up in the trees and things like that. And I found that the specific smells that are really good in the fall tend to be more like the fruit type smells, the natural foods type smells, the blueberry, cherry and things like that. In the spring, stuff like a beaver cast has been really good for me in the spring. It's good year round, but particularly in the spring. That

that would be my number one choice. So I got it up high, I got it on the ground, and then um, people talk about bears tracking stuff around, Well, I like to get the stuff on the bears fur. So I'll I'll see the trails that they're coming in, and I'll spray the bushes along the sides of the trails where they're coming in and out of the bait. And then I just carry a bottle with me every time my bait and I just freshen it up a little bit. And I'm a little different than some people.

He meant, he says, you know, he likes to use a lot of different ones. I've you know, bears are all individuals. They kind of have personalities. That's really not the right word for it, but they are individuals and have individual take and some bears are, especially mature males, can be really much more intimidated by the bait package of smells, which includes the bait and the lures that you're using in your own personal scent and stuff like that.

And if you change up too much on some of those big mature males, it can throw them off a little bit. They might back off. So I tend to use the same I pick one smell that I think is gonna be good, and I just trying to use the same one at each bait and and just carry a bottle with me every time I go in. That's a that's a good topic, and I'd like to hear from either one of you, And I think I know

your opinion. You just said it, but it seems like the rational thing would be, well, multiple types of sens you know, like let's try the gold rush, and then let's try the cherry burst, and let's try this, you know, just thinking that they're gonna be an appeal to, like a buffet style scent. But what you're saying is that

you don't like to do that. Well, I don't like to change it up in mid stream, I guess, is what I'm saying, Because you know, the bears become accustomed to the smells and sights of the bait package, and it's it's not necessarily true small producing something new to them that they're gonna have to you know, a big mature males. He's skittish about this bait anyway. He walks in there like, you know, I really shouldn't be here. You know. That's you know, that's kind of the way

they come in. And so if you introduce something completely different in midstream, like after a week or ten days, he might just go. You know, I think I'm just going back off and wait till dark today because I don't really like this. So that's why I continue to use the same lure at and and I'll even make notes. I'm using cherry at this one, and I'm using blueberry at this one, and gold missed at this one or whatever.

I think the principle that you're you're tapping on there is just consistency because at a bait site, you're trying to produce something that's very consistent. Because in the natural world, consistency means safety. If that bear knows that inconsistency even like when you go to the bait and how how

many people you take in there. I mean, like like you, you want to you want to just do the same thing and be regimented as much as possible every time, So that would even fall into sins you're saying, use the same kind of scent. Yeah, that's my preference, you know, Colby, you know you and your dad been doing this for a long time. I'll let you talk about a little bit. I I know that I disagree with his dad. His dad's real hard to disagree with. I'll just tell you

that right up front. East he's pretty bowlheaded. I guess that's a kind way to put it. But we we don't agree on everything, but we both killed bears. So Colby want to address it? Yeah, yeah, Um, you know, and I think, um, I will, I'll go back with what I said, um prior, Um, you know, I'm not necessarily married to a specific spray scent UM, and I mean, you know, as far as like a specific flavor. You know, I won't just stick with that for the full year.

What I guess I meant by that is, I may have a dozen bait sites and one of them might be exactly what Bernie said. I might have a combination of blueberry um spray scent cherry burst with the powder, and then I use you know, the gold Rush you know, also UM, and the next bait site down the road, I might be using cinnamon spray scent with a gold dust powder UM in the gold Rush, you know. So it's it's I'll mix it up, you know, just to see what kind of reaction we get, you know, on

different baits. Now, I do stay consistent with that bait what's sent I'm using. And if I do switch it up, I don't just switch it up for one night and then go back to something else. You know. If I switch it up, I'll I'll stay consistent with that pattern, you know, for for sure a week, UM and just you know, try something new. If you've got long periods of time that like in Wisconsin, we can bait from

April fifteen, um all the way through October. UM. Yeah, we've got many you know, many months um to play with things and try out different you know. I think for me to chime in on this with what I do, I just don't like to use a new spray or new loud scent like two days before I'm writing, like, so, I use different scents on a bay, but I don't like to introduce something new because I've heard of stories where guys, a hunter coming on a guided hunt, brings

his own scent. The outfitters never used that scent before he comes in and just dousses this area into a bear that's like woud it's like screaming in his ear. To us, it's you know, we can smell it, But to a bear that's his primary interaction with the world,

it's through his nose. And I've heard people I've never experienced it, but I've heard people say they've seen bears come in and be like, wait a minute, this place didn't smell like ten thousand cherries dropped out of the sky yesterday, And so it kind of gets him on edge. But but let me ask you a question, colbe what is And let me give context of the question regionally, different flavors might do better. And you've experienced that, to Bernie,

have you seen a flavor that's the best. And I realized from a you're a business rate, so you wanna you don't want a pigeonhole people into like buying one thing because it just worked for you. But is there

a scent that work? Because that's my question, even and I've used a ton ane of them, and I honestly can't say that I've seen like a massive, a tangible difference between one of the other, aside from the gold Rush, which it's just just a different product between the gold Rush, which is a frig concentrated frageras additive to the to the spray, to the powders, I feel like the concentrated stuff. But but amongst flavors, is that a fair question? Yeah, it is. And I'll say the same thing. I think

far and away gold Rush is the most popular. Um, it's our favorite product to use while we're out, you know, hunting, and and it's just is your dad melt down where there's originals and put it in exactly back in like the nineties, he's like melting them down. Yeah, no, uh no, it's a. It's a combination of a few things and it just works well together. And like you said, that marriage with the um fried oil, it's just the perfect combination, you know. It's it sticks to the trees, gets all

over everything. They can drag it throughout the woods on their paws and hair. But UM, back to your question, UM, you know regionally, I will say, UM, like we do the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Show. UM see a lot of outfitters there, and it is it's kind of it's fun to talk with them, UM because they'll you know, they'll buy a wide variety of spray sense and then they all like over the next couple of years, they each have their own Like we've got we've got one outfitter UM that

just swears by beaver castt. It's all he uses. That's all I'll buy. That's all he uses with the gold rush. UM doesn't really do much with the powders. UM. Now we've got another UM outfitter that is, you know, not too far they're not overly far from one another. He swears by blueberry and that's all he does, you know, is blueberry powder, blueberry spray sin, and gold rush. So you know, it's it's you know, I think it's a lot to do with personal opinion and what you perceive

your bears. How you're therey acting to the scent that you're you're putting out. Um, I can't say that that I have you know, a far way favorite, right, Yeah, that that just outperforms everything else, you know. I I tend to lean on blueberry a lot when I'm in in Minnesota. Only you know, just let me ask you a question, do you like blueberries? That's why exactly, that's the way I pick it. I'm like when I get I get multiple kinds of northwoods every year, and I

think it depends on whether I'm hungry or not. I'm like, do I get the get the blueberry or the doughnut? Oh donuts? Right exactly. I'm kind of being funny, but I'm being serious. I think I think a lot of it. Like to this is what I've always tried to understand is a bear doesn't perceive the world like a human does they? And we know that from the way that they interact with bait. A bear would rather eat a white oak acorn as he would a glaze donut. To us,

that doesn't make any sense. I mean, like, so I feel like they're interacting with this scent different than we are and it and so you know, we're and we're trying to humanize them in a way like oh, he'd like a donut. Yeah. But and I'm not saying that's negative. I'm just saying probably any of them would work. That's

my point. That's that's my point. I couldn't agree more with you, you know, And I think any of them will work, you know, And I think we gravitate to the ones that are more potent, you know, the ones that reach out and slap you in the nose. You know, that's the ones. We gravitated to them. Oh my gosh, that smells so powerful. So it's unbelievable to you and I. It is. They can smell you know, what is it three thousand times better than you and I. So it's yeah,

it's it's unbelievable. Um. So, yeah, like I said, we gravitate towards those that are more pungent and everything, and what we associate with that with that region, you know, like in Minnesota, Wisconsin. And that's a valid point. Is that what you were going to talk about. I was gonna mention that I think that people. You know, I worked at booth with these guys quite a bit and people come walking by and they look and they go, um, oh, yeah,

they got a blueberry scent. You know, we got blueberries in our area. Bears probably eat blueberries, will try that. You know. It's either that or they It's like, you say, where this one. I would like to put this one on my pancakes. I'm gonna take this one, you know. So you know, everybody judges different, But the reality is, what what we're doing here is is we're just putting a scent in the air that a bear walks down win and he goes, you know, I gotta walk over

there and check that out. That's that's really all we're doing. And um, all of the flavors will do that at the right times. And you know, I keep saying this, but bears are individuals, and some of them will prefer a candy scent, and someone will prefer a fruit scent, and someone will prefer more of a like a like the beaver cast or something like that. So it's really hard to say which one could be the best. I'll

never forget when I first baiting bears in Arkansas. I heard a lady that was she I just remember who she was. She's become a friend of mine that she she told me a story and at the time of something I've never seen, but she said she one day put out these little fried pies, you know, like a blueberry pie and a lemon pie, like you'd buy at a gas station, just like individually. And she said a bear came in and he picked through those pies, and when he would bite into a lemon pie, he would

it spit it out, and then he'd go in. And I learned that is that they're just like us. Yeah, they are. They're just like us. They have specific flavors. I had some. Uh. I bought a bunch of gummy bears one time and one of the boxes that accidentally got thrown in it was sour gummy bears, and I gave that. It was like I put it out, the bears didn't need it. And another guy I was saw I met the Lucky seven bear beat when I was

there the next time. I said, yeah, I tried to sour gummy bears and the guy is like, oh, man, I use the heck out of those. They work great, Like the bear that came in wouldn't need them, so they're you know, they're all they're all different. And uh, it's funny how bears will pick through a bait and one barrel come in and he'll dig through all the sweets and he'll dig down to the beef at or

whatever you know. And um, I had a situation where times a year when they do that, yeah, way through all the doughnuts to get to I've seen one way through donuts later in the fall season and grab a beef bone and crunch it. Yeah. I mean like and you're like, wait a minute, you're you're crunching on a rotten bone rather than eating these fresh donuts. But just

for that time of year, that's what they wanted. And I one time I had a guy had a fruit stand that gave me a bunch of watermelons and I took these watermelons and put them out on my bear baits and I come back the next two three days and these watermelons are just sitting there, and I'm like, I guess they don't want watermelon. I just kind of kicked one of them and to look inside of it see if it was rotten or something like that. And it looked okay to me. Well, I come back next

day and every watermelon was completely cleaned up. Well, they just had never they just never opened it, I guess. But once it was opened, they smelled it and they ate it. So there's not many watermelons in the Minnesota bush, No, not too many. It doesn't Watermelons don't do well that that inn alligators, they don't do well in Minnesota. Anyway, I gotta go to a meeting. Man, it's been great talking with you, and uh, thanks for for everything that

you've done. And thanks for Northwits bear products. Man. I got a great relationship with him. I love their products and they've helped me kill a lot of bears. So thanks man. Right on, Bernie, thank you, thank you Bernie. Well Kobe, I think the I started off by talking about how well, let me let me back up. Anybody that's baiting bears, if you're going to invest the time and energy into gathering bait, putting out debate site, you

need to be using commercial sense. And there's tons of guys in the bear baiting community that don't because I mean, it does cost money. It is another thing that you

have to buy. But my whole point to people is and again the purpose being of this not even as much to sell as Northwoods bear products, but just to get people using sense in general, I mean, just the whole concept of it um is that is that it's gonna make You're gonna attract more bears and over a period of time you're gonna end up being able to kill the bear you want, because it's just it's just

another layer to your strategy of attraction. And so just in general, if you're baiting bears and you're not using commercial sense, you're missing out. And then obviously we wanted to buy, we want to buy from you guys, and it's great stuff. So that's not what I'm saying. My point is is that this is in the sales pitch.

This is a this is a pitch too, man, if you're gonna be putting in this energy and effort, trite tried, and I have some um to me, the most beneficial time that I've used these has been in starting a bait, and uh, talk to me about like how you like you like to use it, and so do I throughout the baiting sequence, but like how do you how do you use it? Okay? So Uh. So we're basically we're speaking right now about gold rush is the product that we're talking about, um, you know, and we use it

the same way. That is absolutely how we fire up every single one of our bait sites. We mixed gold rush with fry oil shake it up this last year. I actually, UM, usually what I do is, I'll take five gallons of fry oil, I'll take an ounce or two of gold rush poured in there, shake it up, dump the majority of it on the ground in front of the beat site, take the last little bit and maybe throw it up, you know, maybe head high, just to kind of cover that. You know, I guess his

own two is Bernie described it, you know. So UM. This year, however, I want to try something new. UM. I used the the grease UM, and I put it

in a one gallon uh spray pump like a weed sprayer. Okay, And so I had a gallon of grease and I hadded just basically a cap full of gold rush UM, so the same ratio you know, UM, and pump that baby up and I sprayed it on the ground, sprayed it everywhere, and I was just able to kind of broaden that area that I was dispersing the gold rush into Now I was able to shoot it as at a stream out further behind the bait site, you know, whereas when you're pouring it out, you're concentrating right on

in front of the bait site. They're stepping in it. And that's what you're doing, is you're increasing the surface area that products so that you know, it can disperse me yep. And and then the you know, the I would spray it down the trails that where they were walking in on um just you know, on the same concept of getting it, you know, in the hair follicles, even on their paths and everything, and they're taking that out. They're doing the work for you at that point, you know,

so they're really spreading that out for you. UM. And the hauling um power of gold rush is really unbelievable. UM. I'll tell a short story about an outfitter in northern Saskatchewan that very skeptical outfitters are by far the hardest sell They've been doing it for a very very long time at a very high level. UM, and so anything new, they're very skeptical about anything they got to spend money on. Yeah,

you bet, you bet. And so we were having a discussion with one UM and I said, well, hey, why don't you just try one single bottle of gold rush out on one bait and we'll see what happens, you know. And and so we agreed to that. UM. So what ended up happening, UM, And the exact numbers I don't remember, uh, but it was somewhere around two boning Crockett bears and four pop and young bears. And one week time came off the same bait and the only bait they used

gold rush on at a bait. One of the boone Crockett bears that came UM to this bait was completely nocturnal, eight miles away, never had visited that bait site before, showed up there during the daylight. UM. And they got that bear and they have been after that bear for a few years UM, and so he was completely he sold from that point, just blew him away, you know.

And and uh, they joke about it, you know, the guys that were in the camp that week, We've talked to a few of them, were friends with a few of them, and and they were like it was just you know, it was it was crazy, you know, that they cherished that one eight ounce bottle of gold Rush like it was actual gold. You know, it was. It was. It was a neat story. And we've got multiple stories like that, especially Yeah, go ahead, Well this would be

the kind of story that I hear. Did I hear more of my good friend who's a I call him the bear bait and Jedi of Arkansas, Ryan Grabb. He's been on the podcast before. He uh, and again this story isn't wasn't. He didn't make a big deal of this. He just told me this is he had a buddy in Oklahoma that was bait and bears had a marginal property. It was a property that didn't really attract that many bears, but it was it was it was the private land

this guy had accessed all I had. He put out a bear bait there and I want to say he had the bait out for like three weeks and uh and he had I don't remember what he was baiting with, but it was good stuff. Not a single hit on the bait. He calls Ryan and says, Ryan, what should I do? Ryan Grabb said, you need to buy a ball of gold rush. The guy bought it, put out gold rush, and in two days had his first hit on the bait, and that that's that's what it does.

And to go back even a little bit more in depth on the original story I told about using a drag rag. A couple of years ago baiting in Oklahoma. Put out a bear bait in a place where I had it was an established bait. I had baited there one year before. Typically in baiting bears, if you you know bears, remember where food is at certain times, and so typically once you get going, it's pretty easy to keep them coming in. I'd baited one year before, so

I thought, well, next year, leaving be better. I went out and put out my bait. Like I waited pretty late. I waited like two weeks before season, put up my bait, came back eight days later and nothing had been to the bait, which was really surprising, and I was like, what's going on here? And Uh, that's when I did

the gold Rush drag rag. Just by foot, I cut off some para cord, put about a four ft strip hanging off my ankle, and went for a hike over into another scent area, you know, like in the mountains where we're hunting kolbe. And it's probably maybe the same way where you're hunting, but like you might have your bait down this valley and if the wind patterns aren't right, that scent is kind of contained. And so I find that if you can drag over into the next valley

or get it out into another opening. What I did on this one was I walked down the creek to where it hit a bigger creek, and then walked down the bigger creek and basically spread out that scent signature and then like eight hours or I can't remember. I don't want to lie. It may not have been right. It may not have been aid out. It was within hours, twenty four hours, maybe at most, I can't remember. There

was a change goal was there? And it actually worked out great because my strategy that year was to wait until close to season debate. I didn't want to bait them for two months. And why was that? Was there coition with it? Well, partly is it was. It took a half a day to bait that one spot by the time I drove there, and it was way back in And I found in Arkansas, when we're competing against natural food source in the fall, it's easy to hold a bear for a week it's hard to hold a

bear for a month. And so if you can hit it just right and start later, sometimes you can hold a bear, you know. And every year I go back and forth. Sometimes I like to do that soon as they don't. But that year it bit me in the rear end because at first, anyway, and I baited two weeks before eight days in, still didn't have a bear. So I was like dog gone, should have bit it earlier. But then the gold rush saved me. And and and when that first bear showed up, then all the bears

showed up. It was just like they were just out of that area. They were just somewhere else and they just needed a hint. Yeah, no, and I yeah, We've had certain scenarios that are exactly the same, you know, existing bait sites that we've had for twenty years. You know, you bade them the first week and it should be like clockwork, you know, you should have five six bears in there, and you come back and and there isn't.

We had that this year, um in Minnesota where we were at and uh, you know, so I think in it that might be a little bit of a you know, a misconception to um. You know, I think everybody thinks that well clean newcome started a bear bait, there's gonna be thirty bears on that beat site. It doesn't always come easy, you know, and we gotta work for it and change are maybe not our philosophy, but the way we do things a little every year can be a

little bit different. Yeah, So you know, and and I love the fact that you brought up that you you do only bait two weeks prior to the season, or maybe that's one way you've tried it and had some success now with it, because we see it both ways. UM, we get the question a lot. You know, even outfitters in Wisconsin, they there's a very large time frame that they can bait in Wisconsin. UM, in Canada, and you

know in other parts of the country as well. UM, and in Minnesota, we can only wait two weeks prior to the season opener, you know, when we have a ton of success in Minnesota, and so then you know, there isn't um quantity limitations though or anything like that. We're in Wisconsin, UM, and I speak to Wisconsin a lot because that's what I'm most familiar with and that's where I'm from. UM. Maybe and maybe that would be a good place to to give us an overview of

a lot of people might not be familiar. But like in some of the Northeastern states, you can only there's no baiting, but you can use scent. You can use a certain amount of scent, like in New York and where else? Uh so New York and um man, New York the first one that comes to mind. No, they can't use anything at no no. Um. But we so we do a show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and that draws a lot of people from their surrounding states. And so I'm I can't remember the exact rules and regulations to

each and every sense. You can't, right yep. Um, Like North Carolina just opened up bear baiting this year. Um, and it is hang on, Brian needs a bottle of blueberry here, oh this spray here you go? Um so Um, North Carolina opened up a bear baiting season this year, and they can use like corn. Um. I want to say, they can use peanuts, but there can't be any fat Yep, exactly,

it's got to be all natural. But um, a lot of those states um up around that per area can use up to two ounces, you know, and so that's where our powders, and especially the gold Rush in a in a format that isn't mixed with the with the

grease really comes into play. Um, we do a little test where we'll, you know, tip the bottle of gold Rush upside down, just let a little bit run into the cap, take the cap off and wipe it out with a just a uh Q tip yeah yep, and hold it in front of their face and they can't have it within four ft because it's just so pungent and you know, so it really grabs their attention because in a scent wick um application it works really well

as well. So you know those states that you know are well listening maybe and they're saying, man, I'd love to be able to do that. I just can't. You know, we can't bait. We can only use up to two ounces you know of any sort of attract and um, so there you go, I mean, are are gold Rush can be used as a cent wick. Our spray Sense could be used as a scent wick as well. Um, Golder's gonna last a little longer, a little more pungent

really gets out there. The powders are super super potent as you know, um, it's very hard to explain over you know, a podcast, just how just how potent they are. They that scent really travels um. And the best part about the powders themselves, they're five hundred times to the sugar.

You know, you can it's not considered a bait, it's considered an attracting and you can go ahead and sprinkle that out on logs and stuff that and just even on the on the ground, you know, anything that will absorb a little bit of water something that makes that that much stronger um. And they really really do. What I like about the powders when I use them is that it's not messy. No, it's not at all. The

other stuff is oil based. It's kind of you know, when you're carrying around a bottle of gold Rush, it's kind of like you're carrying around a bomb. Like if it if it spills in your car, it's a good smell, but you're kind gonna smell like for a long time.

But but the point being, some people like I can throw this in a in a backpack and like, because I have been doing some remote bait sites where I'm carrying stuff and uh, but anyway that it's kind of nice to have a dry powder and it is super strong. You open it up and it it's super strong. It is. Yeah, well, um man, that's good. You know. My main objective was just to kind of familiarize people with your products, talk a little bit about how we're using them, and uh,

you know, not everybody's gonna bait bears. But there's there's a lot of states that cambait bears. All the Canadian provinces except British Columbia and well and none of it and some of the other the real northern provinces, right, but they can bait bears on private land and New Jersey and North Carolina thing bait bears, Arkansas, Oklahoma, a lot of the Western states, the Great Lake States, Minnesota, Wisconsin,

Michigan combate bears. I mean, I don't know. I think there's like seventeen states or something's somewhere in there, you know, And there's a few, uh, there's a few that you know, like North Carolina just added there's you know, and so there's a few more popping up. And I guess I'm not sure a hundred percent on the regulations in Florida, they well, there's no hunt in Florida. I don't think

took it away. And I don't know if there's any foreseeable future in bringing that back or not, you know, but I sure hope so, yeah, I hope it comes back to and Cobe. Every time I'm talking about bear hunting, I always want to tie it back into conservation, which I feel like it's got to be on the lips of every bear hunter in twenty nineteen. Is that you know, we're talking about using sense to attract bears. The the end goal of this is that we could be selective

in our harvest. That's the way I look at it. I mean, it's not and that's the way we should look at it, is that conservation based hunting means that we are very selective in which animal we take. That's why I use scent products commercial sense on my baits. Is I'm trying to get that older, mature mail where I can take him out of the population. And to me, it's a you know, I mean, to somebody that didn't understand baiting, they're like, oh man, these guys are you know,

using these high powered sense to drawing bear. There's a conservation side to it. Too. I mean, if all you can draw into your bear, if you can, if you can draw in five animals rather than three, there's a better chance. And that five animals that you're gonna have one that's an older, mature male. That is the right one to take out of the population. That's also the right one that we're after his hunters too. We want to kill, we want to kill a big bear. We're

not hiding that fact. But that's also the bear that we need to take out. From a conservation perspective, He's already contributed to the gene pool. He's done his job. He's a perfect one to take out. So you know, this is uh uh, this is this is a tool a tool for that. But man, hey, thanks for thanks for being on the podcast. Man no, it's my pleasure. It's my pleasure. It was great to listen to you. And Bernie converts back and forth, and yeah, he's a great guy to be around. Yeah, he he. He really

thinks analytically about about bear baiting. I mean, probably more than anybody that I know. We all we all tend to, you know, we all tend to yeah, nerd out Uh well cool, Well, I hope you guys have a great a t a show. And hey guys, thanks for checking out the Baroning Magazine podcast. Check out Bear Hunting Magazine. We're the only print bear hunting magazine in the world. Big fish in a really small pond, but that's what makes us awesome. And uh check out our YouTube channel.

You'll see a lot of I've got quite a few YouTube videos, especially the vlogs that we were doing back in the summer that highlighted the Northwood stuff. We do some Northwoods giveaways every year and uh so check out our YouTube channel. And uh any closing thoughts Colby, No, no, no, just uh, I appreciate the opportunity sitting on them and talk about it. Yeah. Man, Well keep the wild places wild because that's where the bears live. Es