Ridges or valleys for bait?

Joined
Nov 27, 2013
Messages
1,771
Plenty of experience baiting, but always right by salt. This time I will be in mountainous country with big crick bottoms and valleys. Many years of elk hunting has taught me the most stable wind is in the valleys, down from the ridge tops during the last coupe hours of the day or early morning. Any small draw will have wind coming down hard due to the thermals.

I'm setting new stations this year, and I have one spot that could be on the top, with wind going into main drainage all day, and side drainage's during the night due to thermals.

Part of me is saying stay on top, so bears can find the bait, but another part of me is saying it makes no sense if they find it if I don't have a good solid wind to work with the last two hours of the day while I'm hunting.

What is your preference? Ridge tops or down closer to the valley floor for bait sites?

I'm almost thinking I could set up on the top, but have my bait close enough where I can get a treestand just over the lip of the ridge into a draw so the thermals will take me down in the evening.
 

skierhs

WKR
Joined
Jan 23, 2017
Messages
588
Location
Alaska
All of em lol. I care most about what the actual bait sites look like. If all things are equal, I’ll take whatever has the best wind to carry the scent of the bait. Last year we killed bears on bait at the bottom, middle, and top of the maintain.

I would rather have bears on my bait which is tough to hunt than a easy to hunt bait with minimal or no bear activity.
 
Joined
Jan 17, 2017
Messages
567
Location
sw mt
Sometimes you just have to try spots. Learn how the wind acts there, learn how the bears act, and where they like to come in from. Hopefully minor changes in bait position/stand position can get you to where big bears will come in while you are there. We have found that bears will show up to most any bait, but actually getting to hunt them can be a different story. One bait site took us 3 years to finally get the big boys to show up in the light.
 
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