Trail K: All right, welcome back to the Game Trail Podcast. ⁓ two weeks in a row, look at me go. ⁓ I've got a guest today. ⁓ we're gonna we're gonna chit chat with my brother Tyler. ⁓ a week or so ago, I think I was headed to Phoenix. We went down there and visited the guys at Marsupio. We did some filming, we did some bow fishing, but when we were driving down there It was early in the morning, probably seven, seven thirty, I wanna say. I get a text message from my brother Tyler, who lives in Wyoming, and he said, Hey, I just shot a bear. And he's he's successfully baited a number of bears up there in Wyoming. ⁓ so today I thought it would be fun to jump on a podcast and talk with him about bear baiting. ⁓ I've on the other podcast, so the Big Hunt Guys podcast, ⁓ in the in the past I've kind of threatened ⁓ or wanted, I should say, to to have somebody on that's into bear baiting and just kind of run through the logistics of how that all works. And ⁓ you guys were kind enough. You reached out with a bunch of different options for guys, ⁓ many of which were in Wyoming actually, because that's one of the few states that you can still bait. But ⁓ maybe we'll have some of those guys on in the future, maybe next spring prior to ⁓ bear season kind of open up, kinda run through it. But I thought it'd be fun today to talk to my brother. ⁓ Tyler about bear baiting and raccoon trapping. He's been out trapping raccoons, which is kind of fun. ⁓ but before I jump in and I get going into it, I gotta do ⁓ a couple of house cleaning items. So one being ⁓ shout out to the sponsor of the podcast, Matthews Archery. ⁓ Matthews makes a great bow. I would highly encourage you do not wait if you think you want a new bow, you want to get into a bow or bow hunting, ⁓ get to your local pro shop and shoot a Matthews Ark. And ⁓ You know, get into a Matthews bow. They make a great bow. So shout out to those guys as a sponsor of the podcast. And then promo code. So if you guys are interested in signing up for a Go Hunt Insider account, you can use the promo code GameTrail. When you do that, you're gonna get 50 points, which is fifty dollars back in the Go Hunt gear shop that you can use towards the purchase of any gear that you want in the shop. ⁓ still plenty of opportunity to do some research, pick up a tag, plan for your hunts. ⁓ I've kind of got my schedule laid out, but Hopefully you guys have have got some tags in your pocket and you're starting to put plans together. ⁓ and you can certainly use your insider account to help you plan that much more efficiently. ⁓ also if you use the promo code GameTrail in the gear shop, you can save 10% on your purchases on pretty much most brands. There's couple, like I said, last week that don't allow us to do any discounts, but for the most part, most brands that we carry in the shop will ⁓ offer you a 10% discount with that promo code GAMETRAIL. ⁓ so with that, how's things, Tyler? Long time no see. How you been? Tyler Kreitzer: ⁓ I've been really good. It's been great. It's good to visit with you. I did miss you this year. I didn't get to go to the expo and Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: It was hard. You know, I've I've been every year for what, seven, eight years now? And but you know, we had other other obligations, family obligations that I had to attend to. And yeah, I've been good. And then watching your New Zealand video, I texted you guys like, Man, that video just made me miss you, man. 'Cause it's been I don't think we've actually seen each other for it's been like over a year, hasn't it? It's been kind of crazy. Yeah. But Trail K: Yeah. Yeah. It probably has been a year. Yeah, we yeah, we both we both pretty busy and then you know, we probably live what ten hours or so I'd say apart. And yeah. Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: I think it's yeah, eight, eight to ten, depending on the day and so Trail K: plans. What do you do with the rest of your summer? I know you like to f you like to ice fish. You love to ice fish, but do you get out in the summer and do much fishing ⁓ that time of year? Tyler Kreitzer: You know, I honestly I honestly haven't done a ton of fishing in the summer. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: and this last winter ice fish in the season was very short. It was very short though. Ice developed really late and then it was off the lakes super early as well. So but ⁓ this summer I'm just kind of wanted to just be at home and do projects around the house and stuff. ⁓ we just got a garden put in and I I was telling you yesterday we got some chickens. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: And ⁓ we just lost our we just lost our first chicken last night when my wife went out to put him in the in the the hen, the you know, the whatever the hutch that they're in. And one of them didn't make it in and we went out there and somehow it got out and our dog had it in its mouth, so we lost a chicken. Trail K: Mm-hmm. The hen. Mm-hmm. The Your d your dog got it. You've You've been so diligent in trapping for c yeah, for coons and then your own dog got your chicken, huh? Tyler Kreitzer: Yeah. Y'all got it. Yeah. So but I don't know. She's just being a dog. I don't know what you do. So she's just Yeah, I mean, like yesterday we let her out. She was really interested in the chickens, but you know, she'd run over there, but you know, she would leave ⁓ alone. She would get bored and then she'd go back. But anyway, yeah, one of ⁓ just somehow escaped and that was it for it. So Trail K: Yeah. Yeah. N nothing, man. Dogs dog dogs being a dog, that's all that it is. Tell me tell me about you coon trapping. So I you messaged me earlier on earlier on in the the year and said that you were gonna start trapping coons because I know that you guys got chickens and you built a coop. And I think my understanding is that coons will put a a pretty big hurting on chickens if they can get in. Have you have you ever trapped coons before? Tyler Kreitzer: They yeah, they do and I No, I had I've never trapped coons. ⁓ raccoons. Our neighbors have chickens as well. And so I was just we have a pond and if you go down there in the summer, there's literally a trail around this pond and it's just raccoons. And I know that they love love chickens and they'll do whatever they can to get into the chickens and just heard stories. So no, I had to do a bunch of research on how to trap raccoons. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: ⁓ and I found that they have what are called dog proof traps and it's just basically a metal cylinder and there's a trigger in it and they'll reach in and you put bait in there and they'll reach in there with their hands and they grab that trigger and it it catches their hand. And ⁓ Trail K: Mm-hmm. What are you baiting with? Tyler Kreitzer: ⁓ so once again, just doing a lot of research and they like ⁓ marshmallows. So I usually put some marshmallows in there, a few marshmallows. but I was having a hard time at first, you know. I caught a couple of them and then I wouldn't catch any for a week or so. And so it's been a kind of a process of finding their trails of where they're coming and going and putting those traps in the path that they're gonna walk. Trail K: Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: And so I was watching a video on YouTube. This guy, he takes cat food, and cat food works really well. But he he would take cat food and he would boil ⁓ bacon grease and pour it on this cat food. And said that so I was like, I'm gonna try that. ⁓ so for my bears, I during the year whenever we have bacon, I take that grease and put it in a bacon and you know, in a in a bucket, and I use that bacon grease as well when I'm baiting bears, you know, just for the scent. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: But so I did the same thing. I boiled some bacon grease and put it on that cat food and I use that. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: that ⁓ and because of their hands they can grab that trigger and they set that trigger off and ⁓ They can be I've had one that was really honri when I went down to check it, you know, it was like growling at me and lunged at me and but most of sit there and look at ya. So and ⁓ yeah. Trail K: That's yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think Tyler Kreitzer: And at first, honestly, to be honest, the first time I went down there and had to dispatch one, I kinda had a hard time doing it, you know. But now it's not really a big deal. So Trail K: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think you I think you sent me a video. You walk down to check a trap and you had one in in the trap and you know, it's standing there kinda looking at you and I was watching it and I thought, man, I don't know if I could do it. They're so dang cute, you know. Tyler Kreitzer: They are cute. They're really cute, but they're also very destructive. And I don't want my, you know, my I don't want them in my chickens and I don't want my dog to tangle with one of those because I know she'll lose in that fight. So and I know it's rare, but I know that rabies or you know, raccoons can carry rabies too and stuff. So I don't want to have to deal with that. So I've been trapping them, just trying to Trail K: For for sure. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: Just trying to you know, do a little predator control around the place, so Trail K: Has it been pretty fun? Tyler Kreitzer: It's fun, you know, I go out every morning and check check the traps to see. Like the last two mornings I haven't had any, which is fine. So that's either a good thing or a bad thing. They just that means may you know, maybe the numbers are g going down and maybe they just haven't been on the place. But last week I went out once and I had a double, I had two of ⁓ in one morning, about six, seven yards apart, you know, so I had to dispatch those two and then Trail K: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: The next morning in a different trap. I had another one. I was like, man. And then of course I went up on the mountain baiting bears. So I don't I don't leave my traps set if I'm gonna be gone. So I don't want my wife to have to go down there and do it. Because I know she wouldn't, and I don't want those animals to I don't want ⁓ to sit in the trap all day till I get home. So Trail K: Yeah. Gotcha. Yeah, suffering. Yeah. Let's ⁓ let's switch gears and let's talk some let's talk bear hunting and bear baiting. ⁓ I was trying to remember how long how long has it been since you started baiting bears? And you know the interesting thing about baiting bears is ⁓ this morning when when ⁓ I had a few minutes, I was looking to see like what states that you can bait bears in ⁓ and in particular like what states out that you can bait bears. ⁓ Tyler Kreitzer: Yeah. Trail K: There's like not that many options anymore. So Wyoming, you can bait. Idaho, you can bait. Utah, you can bait, but you have to draw the ⁓ season where bait is permitted or l allowed. So Utah, and again, you've got a draw system for black bears in Utah. It's not really like you can just buy a permit over the counter and go out and bait. And then you got Alaska. So really the only opportunity out west is Idaho and Wyoming, where you can buy a permit. over the counter and you can bait bears. Which is pretty crazy. Tyler Kreitzer: Yeah. Yeah. Like you said, Wyoming, ⁓ you can just go down to the sporting goods store, Walmart, whatever, and buy a black bear tag. You can also do it online. Yeah, they just you can you can just buy And so why not? And yeah, one of the few states that you can bait bait bears in. Trail K: Right. But ⁓ it's crazy to me that you have all these opportunities to hunt bears. I mean, you have California, which I don't know if you listen to our other podcasts, but California at this point has more black bears than any other state, ⁓ you've got Colorado, you've got Oregon, Washington. ⁓ Montana, you know, all these all these states, Arizona, there's black bears all over throughout the West. And it's it's kind of strange to me that there's only really two states that you can, you know, Idaho and and Wyoming in our neck of the woods, where you can actually bait black bears. So it's pretty much been outlawed in most of those states. And to me, it's I don't know. I don't quite get it. I don't understand it, but I was curious as to like what are your thoughts on? you know, baiting black bears because there's certainly a lot of people in Wyoming and Idaho. They go out and they spot and stock black bears. ⁓ and then there's there's baiting. But I was curious as to like what what's your perception of baiting and like how do you f how do you feel about it? Tyler Kreitzer: So my perception, and you asked me how long I've been doing it, and it's at least seven or eight years that I've been ⁓ baiting black bears, and I love it. I absolutely love it. ⁓ so for example, where I have my bait over there, I would love to see somebody go over there and try to spot and stalk a black bear. I mean, I would just love to see them try it because it's so it's so dense and so wooded. I just I mean Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: I'm over there because I went one year with a friend of mine who had an elk tag. We went in the summer and hung some trail cameras. And while I'm over there, I saw some bear poop, you know, and I'm like, ⁓ that's it'd be a good place to bait black ⁓ bait black bears. And so it's just over there it'd be so difficult to to ⁓ actually find a black bear and and harvest it. But there are places in Wyoming that you can go and it's more open and they're got Hilly, you know, grassy hillsides, you could probably glass one up and hunt them that way. I think that there is just a a huge misconception of baiting black bears. And people, I think, have this idea that, ⁓ it's so easy. You take some food out in the woods and you just sit there and wait for these bears to show up and then you harvest one. ⁓ and what they don't realize is the time, the effort, the money that is spent. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: And hunting black bears over bait. And this is not like Wyoming is not Canada, right? You get on YouTube and watch these guys baiting bears in Canada and they're seeing five, six, seven, eight bears a night. ⁓ Wyoming is not like that. And I'm assuming that Idaho is the same way. ⁓ there's many a night that I've sat on the bait and I have not seen a single bear. Last season, for example, I sat all season long. Trail K: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: And never physically laid eyes on a bear. I mean, I had bears coming in. I had bears during shooting light when I wasn't there, but I physically never saw one. And so it's difficult. ⁓ it's so time consuming. I start prep. This may sound weird, but I start the season opens in April, April 15th, R tree, and goes till June 15th. I start prepping for bear season in December, honestly. So and in Wyoming. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: You have to like read the regulations because there are certain areas that you can't use donuts and bread and popcorn and all that kind of stuff. ⁓ so like my area, I have to use meat scraps and it can't be wild game meat scraps either. So I can't I can't use buffalo or elk or you know, deer or antelope. I can't use any of that kind of stuff. And so I have to use scraps from a butcher's shop. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: And so you have to go down, you have to gather that up. And there's a lot of competition for people that bait in those kind of areas that use that. There's a lot of competition at these ⁓ butcher shops to get that scraps. I'm lucky because I know a guy, I'm friends with a guy who owns a butcher shop. And before he used to charge me, but now he's just like, hey, just come down and get it. So, but because of that ⁓ competition, I go down there in December and start getting meat scraps. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Is this? Tyler Kreitzer: And I have a freezer in my garage that ⁓ I know a guy who owns a construction company and I was telling him, Yeah, I want to get a a freezer just for bear bait. And he was like, Hey, you're in luck, because I've got one in the dumpster down at my place that some of my workers dump some chemicals in there and we can't use it anymore. And I was like, Cool, I'll come pick it up. So I got this beat-up freezer for free and I just cleaned it out. And I so in December I go down and I Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: Just get meat scraps because I'm off. I've got a couple weeks off, and I just go down there and fill trash bags full of meat scraps, and I'll put that in that freezer until May. And so I'm ready to go with it with the meat scraps. ⁓ but then you also have to gather, like if you're using any scent at all, you have to buy that kind of stuff, you know, and it's not cheap. And so Trail K: Mm-hmm. Yep. Tyler Kreitzer: Between December and May, I'll get like one or two bottles every month, you know, every paycheck I'll order some. And I there's a company in Idaho that I order this spray from. And so I do that. ⁓ so and ⁓ so I have it ready in May. I usually get a block of anise, you know, that I can hang up in a tree. And I have to order that from it comes from back east and the shipping is like more than the actual block of anise that I use, you know. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Ha. Tyler Kreitzer: So I do that. And a lot of times too, when you're baiting bears, you'll put ⁓ used fryer grease, you know. You'll dump that at the bait, you'll dump that at the base of your of your barrel, and bears will come in, they get that on the pond or on their paws and they track it out through the woods, and then other bears will smell that and they'll follow it in into your bait. So then you have to get that too if you're gonna use that. And so where do you get that that used fryer grease? I mean, you just Trail K: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: So what I did is ⁓ I went around to different fast food places. I remember I went to Walmart, they told me no because they had a contract with some company that would come and get that, you know, and they would use their. ⁓ I've had good success at going to Burger King, you know, and just going to the manager and say, Hey, I'm yeah. And they they really like the Burger King stuff. ⁓ and I just went and I told the manager what I was doing. Trail K: No, okay. Nice. Tyler Kreitzer: And she's like, Yeah, if you bring me bat down some buckets, some five five gallon buckets, I'll get some for you. And ⁓ it's interesting too, because she was like, Hey, if you get a bear, I'd love to see it. So sh see pictures of it. But I would go down, they would do like they would give me not only the fryer grease from the French fries and stuff, but I would go down and she's like, Hey, I got this bucket, it's just baking grease that you can use. And so I was like, Cool. And then our our other brother Trail K: Mm-hmm. ⁓ that's cool. Mm. Gotcha. Tyler Kreitzer: couple years ago Tracy wanted to get into bear baiting and he he got on Craigslist and found a fifty five gallon drum of used ⁓ fryer grease from some hospital and he's and then he moved from Idaho to Utah where he's like, I can't use this. Do you want it? And I was like, heck yeah, I want it. So I went down and that's that stuff is man, it is potent. I don't know what they ate at that hospital, but geez. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Stinks. Tyler Kreitzer: Yeah. Anyway. Getting back to baiting bears. And another reason I like it is in most of the states, ⁓ it it's illegal to shoot a sow with cubs. And normally you don't want to shoot a sow anyway because they're the ones that are, you know, they're the ones that are gonna give birth to cubs and stuff like that. So on a bait, a lot of times the bears will come in, you've got time to look them over and try to identify whether it's a boar or a sow. You can be st Trail K: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: ⁓ another reason I like it is you can be selective in the bear that you you harvest. Cause normally you want to try to harvest a mature boar. and baiting bears allows you to do that, allows you to look over the bears. Like I had one this year, the first time I sat, it came in. I was at first when I saw it, I was like, ⁓ that's a big bear. And then it came in. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: in front of the barrel and I was like, I got looking at the binoculars, like, ⁓ no, man, that's probably a three year old. That's just a young bear. And we just had a fun evening just sitting and watching it. So it allows you to ⁓ it allows you to to to be selective in the animals that you take. So I just think people don't understand the time and the money and the effort that it takes to to bait bears. And like I said, just because you put a barrel out in the forest with some food in it. Trail K: Sure. Tyler Kreitzer: Does not mean that you're gonna get a bear on there. I mean, and you can sit there all season and never see one. So it's hard, it's tough, it's a lot of time. And this year driving back and forth to the bait, I mean, I was spending fifty to sixty bucks every trip, you know, because of gas prices. So it's it's very time consuming and it takes a lot of work, tons of work, so Trail K: For sure. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I yeah. I the the the ethical debate is interesting to me because it's ⁓ you know, ⁓ most people would say, you know, sitting on a water hole, you know, hunting antelope is, you know, ethical. Like I don't think many people debate that fact. At least I'm not aware of it. It seems to be not nearly highly as can contested as you know, baiting for bears, which to me it's like it it's very similar in regard to like this animal has a need. ⁓ you know, it's different for a bear, obviously it's food and you're feeding it, ⁓ you know, versus water, but it's still like an ambush, it's a setup, right? It's a an an ambush hunting is a is a good method of take, in my opinion. Like I said, I think, or like you said, it gives somebody the opportunity to, you know, selectively harvest the animal that they're looking for. And, you know, with bears, it's even that much more important because you do want to take a big old boar and, you know, you want to leave the cells so that they continue to reproduce. I just don't understand the, you know, the the the ethics around it and why somebody would have you know, issues with it. And and it is like you said, I think that anybody that has an issue with it's never done it because it is so much work. I would bet you put more effort into that than you do than you do elk hunting. Tyler Kreitzer: It is. ⁓ yeah, for sure. You know, it's funny too, how many people in this country hunt whitetails and they're in a tree stand in a tree. I mean it's kind of the same thing. And they're and they do it so they can be selective about what what they harvest, you know. They're just sitting there waiting, kind of the same deal, but yeah, people just I don't know. Trail K: Well. I mean, well, how how many you how many YouTube videos have you seen and they're they're widely popular where it's all about managing your property for whitetail and planting crops and food plots and the right clover at the right time and you know you're you're planting these winter crops that are gonna come up so that you can hunt and you know later in the season and and that they're there's in essence they're they're feeding and farming deer, right? And nobody has an issue with it, nor do I. Like I I could care less. I think it's awesome. They're providing habitat for deer. To me, I don't see it as being any any real difference between baiting bears. You know, you're out there plu you're providing a food source, you're you're baiting an animal that you would otherwise never see. It's just like you're saying the area that you hunt is super thick. you know, you you probably couldn't feasibly hunt that spot in stock. And so really ambush hunting is the only way to do it. And if you didn't bait, you'd probably never see one. Tyler Kreitzer: Right. ⁓ you know, and the reason that we're doing it once again is to man manage this predator population. and as you're talking, it's interesting. I watched a video recently. I don't know, there's a guy back east, he calls himself the Bear Profess Professor. And black bear numbers, I watched a video with him, and black bear numbers across this country are are doing really well. I mean, they're they're going up. And it's funny because I think when I started black bear hunting, Trail K: What's it? Tyler Kreitzer: I think they sold maybe three thousand licenses in Wyoming. Last year I think I read that they sold upwards of seven thousand black bear tags in Wyoming. So it's getting really popular. And like we were talking yesterday, the success rate is not very high harvesting black bears. So I all these people that are buying tags, I don't know if they're just buying them and like, ⁓ I just want a license, you know, during elk season if I see one or ⁓ Who knows? But it's it's it's interesting. But it's a way to manage the the population. And in Wyoming, they have quotas for Sows. You know, each area has a quota that is set. So like there's an area not far from me that it's already closed because they reached that sow quota really quick and it was seven, seven SoWs. And so that area is closed now because they've already reached that that number, you know. the boars are just Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: I don't know. They're just expendable and there there's always going to be more of them. So ⁓ and there's reasons to harvest ⁓ black bears, you know. I was telling you yesterday, like I showed some people my picture of my bear and some some women, ladies, were like, ⁓ I just couldn't do it. I couldn't do it, they're too cute. And I was like, Do you know how many elk calves they kill every year, or deer calves, or and I was like, Do you know actually know that they kill cubs? They will kill and eat. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: Cubs, you know, and they just look, what? I had no idea. I'm like, yeah, they will. And so you're actually helping the population by harvesting these old boars. ⁓ and I will tell you, as far as black bear hunting, to me, is one of the most difficult, hardest things you will ever do is to harvest a big, mature boar black bear. Extremely difficult. The older they get, the more it Trail K: Yep. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: intelligent they become. It is difficult to kill a big mature black bear boar. They're just smart. They are very smart. So it's difficult. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what makes it fun too. That's the that's the the the draw, right? Like anytime I've been hunting and I've killed like a you know, a big mature bull elk or a big mature buck. I mean, it's like you're matching wits with an animal that's been, you know, find a way to survive on the landscape for a lot of years and you know, they've learned their habitat inside and out. And when you you know, you work that hard and you actually complete you know, that process of killing a big mature animal, there's a certain sense of satisfaction because you just feel like, you know, you had to work so hard for it. That's what's fun about it, I think. Tyler Kreitzer: Yeah, you know, like and I've sent you pictures. I've hunted one. There's one particular bear I've been after for five years now. And he normally comes in at night. I never last year was the first time I actually had pictures of him during shooting light in it. This year he never showed up. So I don't know, maybe he just died out in the woods or something. But and I will say not only is it fun to, you know, you you're if you're lucky enough to harvest one, I love, absolutely love Trail K: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: Going in, checking my trail cameras and to just actually see what is there, you know, and to see what I mean, like where we live, there's so many different color phases of them. You got the black ones, the brown, cinnamons, blondes. ⁓ just to see how too, how they interact, you know, what they're doing. It's funny, like ⁓ you were asking me yesterday how often I bait. ⁓ so this year, like I said, I I tried to do it once a week. Trail K: For sure. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: And last year I think I screwed up because I baited a couple times in the evening, which that's the only time I had to do it. ⁓ and if you bait like different times during the day, it kind of throws off their cycle, you know. And so this year I was like, I'm baiting during the middle of the day. And if I can't do it, then I'm not gonna bait at all. And you wanna you wanna kind of keep bait in the barrel because they Trail K: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: They do come in even if there's not bait in the barrel, but they kind of lose interest if there's not. And so this year I would go up on Friday night after work and we would hunt Friday night, Saturday morning, and then Saturday midday we would bait. And there was one time I went in and the bait was completely empty. I mean, it was gone. Nothing in there. And I was watching ⁓ camera footage and there was a small bear. There'd been a small bear in there that morning. Trail K: Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: And ⁓ it was just funny to watch it because he was in up to his shoulder in that barrel and he was just not getting anything. And at one point he's got both hands on the barrel and he's kind of shaking it, you know, like like if you went to a vending machine and put your yeah, and you put your quarters in but you couldn't get anything out, you know. I was like, it's just hilarious. But Trail K: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, like what's in there? That is funny. And man, aren't aren't they cool to watch? Tyler Kreitzer: But it's fun looking. Yeah, and I I've had, you know, several opportunities where they've come in and I'm just like, Hey, that's not what I'm gonna harvest and you just sit there and watch ⁓ They're so cool. I just love ⁓ They're s yeah, they're and they're Trail K: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I think back I I I helped I helped I helped a buddy of mine ⁓ that had a bear tag a number of years ago and I helped him bait. And you know, I remember going in, we kinda picked a spot that I I'd thought would be good and ⁓ we ended up going in, we got the bait registered and we we went in and started baiting. And I remember it was just like that time of year, you know, everything was so green and Just beautiful spring morning and you'd walk in there and you'd be carrying your bait. And we did some, you know, some honey burns and some things like that just to try to put some scent out in the air. And same thing. I mean, hanging a trail camera, and then just the anticipation when you would go back and you would rebait, you'd be packing that bear in, you'd see like, you know, some bear scatter, you'd see a bear track, and you know, you'd get in, you could see that the bear had been in there eating all your bait and moving the bait around and ⁓ you know checking the trail camera and downloading all the photos and you know getting to watch video of it was just like like from that moment like I was like this is so it's so fun. It's so fun. Like if I mean I if I lived somewhere where I could bait like in Wyoming, I would be I would love it. Like every single spring it would definitely be a pursuit that I would have to undertake because it was I remember that when I helped my buddy out. It was just like every time we walked into that bait, we were just like kids on Christmas. It was so exciting just to see what was in there. Tyler Kreitzer: Yeah, it it is. And so bear baiting for me, like I said, I I I wanted to do it. I wanted to try it. and for people who are like, What do I do? How do I get into it? I was lucky enough that I had a friend, Dan. And anyway, he kind of showed me the ropes. He was like, Hey, I've got a barrel you can use and I baited with him several times. And he was kind of a mentor for me, you know, two or three years and kind of got me set up and Trail K: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: So I knew what to do. And if you can find a mentor or somebody that's done it before, that's a huge help. And they can, they can kind of show you the ropes and tell you what to do. And there's just so much that you have to consider when you're bear baiting. ⁓ like location is huge ⁓ of where you put your bait. ⁓ like the area that I'm baiting right now, my first year in there, we put the bait in and I had every bear was at night. I think I had one. Trail K: For sure. Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: That whole season that showed up during legal shooting light. And I was like, what in the what am I what am I doing? What do I got to do? And so once again, research. And I found out that bears need to be comfortable. If you can find a spot where they're comfortable, they'll come in during the day. So I moved my bait and it's not too far from where it was before, but we put it in this. I mean, there's a lot of cover, there's a lot of trees, there's a lot of dead wood, there's all that kind of stuff. And I was like, this would be a great spot. Trail K: Really? Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: ⁓ something else to consider is bears need water and a lot of times they're gonna be around water. ⁓ so in Wyoming there is a law that you have to be 200 yards away from water, which is interesting to me because I had to stop at Game and Fish and say, What in the world is water? Because you know, that could be if it just says water in the regs, that could be a puddle. It could rain last night. You could have a puddle knife your bait. And is that considered water? What is that? You know, am I in trouble? Because I've got water, you know. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: And so the game and fish guy told me that ⁓ it's basically water with fish in it. So they don't want you to have your bait next to a stream and then have you're out there hunting next to a stream and somebody comes in and is fishing and they don't know your bait's there, and you end up shooting and you know causes all kinds of problems. So I was like, Hey, that's cool. Why isn't that why isn't that stated in the regulations? You know. But anyway, so Trail K: ⁓ Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. Right. Tyler Kreitzer: My new spot, I wanted to find a so it's I'm three hundred yards from a stream. And I just put it back in there and it's been a and I'm glad that I moved that bait because I've had a lot of bears that show up during legal shooting light. It's usually early in the morning or in the evenings. ⁓ but I have had some. Like I told you this year, the first bear that showed up on my bait was at mid, I mean at noon, right in the middle of the day. And I've had them show up during the middle of the day too. And so you just never know when they're gonna show up. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: ⁓ but there's just a lot of s a lot of strategy and and and if something's not working out, then try something else. So and you just learn a lot by doing. Trail K: Are they pretty are they pretty consistent on the directions they come in from? Tyler Kreitzer: So it's it's been interesting. ⁓ and you know, they've they've done it's there's what they have is you know, bears create trails and they come in on those trails and they put their foot on the exact same spot every time they come in or go out. And so I've got a trail. If you go down below my bait, there's a trail. And I used to think I used to think, ⁓ they're coming up from that side, but if you look at my trail camera, a lot of times they come from the right side of the bait, almost every time. Trail K: This is. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: And then every once in a while you'll have one that comes up from the bottom, like that the really big one that my son got, he showed up from the bottom. The bear that I shot last week on Wednesday morning, he came up from the bottom. But a lot of times they come around from the right side. So and I've had some of them that have like yeah, I had one year I had one that popped out of the trees like 20 yards below me and then went down to the bait. So I mean it just it depends. Trail K: Gotcha. And Mm. Tyler Kreitzer: So I don't know if they're consistent. Sometimes they are, sometimes they're not. Trail K: So is is Is is your bait in the bottom of a canyon? And if if so, are they coming off the hill? Like d do you get a sense of like where they're betting? Tyler Kreitzer: No. No, so So I've I'm not all the way top. And once again, I purposely put my bait where it is, just doing research. ⁓ you don't, and what I've learned is you don't want to put it down in the very bottom, you want it like midway up the hill. So I've got mine kind of midway up this hill, and the bears are bedding in the bottom and they're coming up out of the bottom up to the up to the bait. So and I think down in the bottom it's cool, it's grassy, you know. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: And they just hang out down in there. ⁓ and we've talked before, these bears, they just they're so quiet. So many times you're just doing what you're doing. A lot of times I'm up there reading and not paying attention. You just pick your head up. You're like, ⁓ there's a bear on my bait. Where did that come from? I have no idea. ⁓ sometimes those bigger bears, you'll hear them, they'll break break sticks and stuff like that. But and it's just weird. A lot of times you'll hear them, sometimes, you know, you hear them. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: Those bigger ones and sometimes you may not see them at all. Cause a lot of times those big ones will circle the bait, they'll they'll scent check. Like that big one my son got. We we heard him like an hour or so before we actually saw him at the bait. You know, he was just cruising around, didn't show up, and then all of a sudden he just popped up out of the thing. There he was, you know. So but it's just a lot of fun. And you have to have so much patience, so much patience. Trail K: Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: When you're hunting hunting black bears. I mean and I you know, I I tell friends, ⁓ yeah, you're just there, you're sitting, you're waiting, and so many of ⁓ are just like, I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. I just couldn't sit there and wait. And I'm like, Man, you're missing up. So it's such a good time. You get a read and go ahead. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Is is the thought pro Yeah. Is the thought process of having it mid slope to carry the scent of that bait, you know, further up into those drainages versus if it was in the bottom that scent wouldn't carry quite as well. Okay. Tyler Kreitzer: Yeah. Right. Yeah. And that and that's another that's another consideration. Like if you're wanting to bait bears is definitely make sure the wind is a huge thing. It's a huge thing because they smell their their smell is incredible. And I've I've read that black bears can smell food like two or three miles away. I mean it's it's nuts. And so my bait, of course, I got lucky. It's in the midhill. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: And we sit ⁓ 90 yards from the bait, and it's up the hill, and there's a rock ledge, and we kind of sit right below this rock ledge. And the wind usually is very consistent when we're there. It hardly ever blows straight down to the bait. It's either blowing uphill past us or it's blowing over ahead. The problem we have is when we walk into the bait, sometimes it's blowing like over towards the bait, but once we get over that rock rock ledge and sit down. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: Most of the time it's going past us. And so there are a few times that I can remember sitting there and checking my wind and the bait, it the wind's just swirled, gone right down to the bait, and I'm like, ⁓ geez. And it's just where black bears, the best time to get ⁓ is when there's no wind, it's warm, you know, they'll they'll come in a lot of time. If it's windy, if it's raining, most of the time you don't see ⁓ They just Trail K: Gotcha. Right. Which Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: They just hunker down. It depends on the wind. But I I mean, all the bears that we have taken, thinking back, it has always been on a very calm evening, calm morning with very little wind and and they'll they'll come in. So Trail K: Yeah. Yeah, interesting. Yeah, I mean when you're when you're selecting a bait site, ⁓ yeah, like the direction that your wind is blowing. Did you I was curious, so like when you moved your bait site, were you also kind of scouting out potential spots where you would like to sit and wait and kind of check in the wind and see and or did you just think I'm gonna put the bait I'm gonna put the bait in and then I'm gonna figure out where I sit from there? Or is it kind of a you have to Tyler Kreitzer: Anyway. Right. Well, we put the we put the bait in, but as we're putting the bait in, we're also looking for places that we could sit. You know, and it's it's interesting where we sit. If you go down to the bait and look up the hill to where we sit, you can't see it. I mean, you can't see us. I mean, we've got a couple logs that are in front of us. There's two logs that are like on each side of us, and then there's this rock ledge behind us. And you get back there. I've had we've had elk literally Trail K: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: walk by us at 15, 20 yards up there and had no idea. Last year I had a bull elk come and lay down 20 yards from me and didn't even know I was there. So it was it was way fun. It was way fun. I mean we have snowshoe hairs all the time. They'll come up. I mean last year they came up and like sniffed me, you know, Tracy was with me and he had one come up and sniff his elbow last year. This snowshoe hair, you know. So Trail K: Yeah. ⁓ yeah. Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: But yeah, you want to pay attention. The wind is a huge thing and I don't I don't use the all that spray and all that kind of stuff, you know, to kill my scent. Just because I think black bears, even if you put that on and if the wind blows straight down to the barrel, I think they're gonna smell you anyway, regardless of what you got on. So you have to play the wind and you have to you have to sit in a spot where your wind is not gonna go down to that bait because they they won't come in. If they smell you, they're not gonna come in. So Trail K: Agree. Mm-hmm. For sure. Yeah. Let let me go back to you said that in your area you can't bait with like pastries. You can't use, you know, frosting or, you know, any honey or any you know, anything like that. You only you can only use meat scraps. And everything everything that I've read is that like meat scraps generally don't do that great, at least early on, because they're it's like their stomachs, they come out of hibernation and their stomach isn't quite adapted to, you know, protein or meat scraps. And I've heard people say that. Tyler Kreitzer: Right. Trail K: if you start baiting, you know, early on in the season that, you know, baked goods and soft, you know, soft ⁓ food is better for bears. But I was curious, do you ever have you ever had any issues with using meat scraps? Does it feel like it takes them a while to get used to it or is any issues with using meat scraps? No. Tyler Kreitzer: I have never had an issue using ⁓ a meat meat scraps for for bears. And it's been interesting. In years past, bears will come in, and a lot of times you'll go up there and you'll check the bait, and there's a bunch of bait in front of the barrel. They've gone in and pulled it out. What I found with meat is they like fresh meat. ⁓ and I've had years where it has rained a lot and that bait gets all mushy and gross. They don't like that mushy, gross stuff. Trail K: Hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: ⁓ what has been interesting this year, and I don't know if it was just because lack of snow or but the bears this year pretty much were eating absolutely everything. There was like we would go up there and be like, ⁓ yeah, there's been a bear in there, but there was no bait in front of the barrel. They were eating everything. Instead of just pulling it out. And Wyoming has this strange law that I have never figured it out, that your bait has to be in the barrel. So Trail K: Interesting. Tyler Kreitzer: If a bear if a bear comes and pulls bait out, when I go to bait that barrel again, I have to scoop up all that stuff that's on the ground, put it back in the barrel. And I so like and you see videos like in Canada and stuff, they're putting bait all over the ground and all that kind of stuff. You can't do that in Wyoming. It has to be in the barrel. So but yeah, like I said, this year they're they're just eating everything. So Trail K: Mm-hmm. Okay. ⁓ huh. So in in you and you Tyler Kreitzer: And I don't, and it's interesting too, because I've talked to people, I had this year a lot of bears, probably more bears than I've ever had this year. And it was funny because I've talked to another guy and he's baiting in another mountain range in Wyoming, and he's talked to several people that just the complete opposite. You know, they were only having one or two bears at their bait this year in other other spots. And I was like, that's really interesting. Something else that was interesting about this year is because of the lack of snow. Trail K: Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: Usually my area where I'm hunting, I can't get in there in April. I mean, it's just ridiculous. I can't get in there. There's just too much snow. But this year, because of the lack of snow, I have two friends that are like, ⁓ I'm gonna go put my bait in April. I can get in there in April. I'm gonna put it in before the bow hunt starts, and I'm gonna start hunting early, you know. And what is interesting, I've talked to both of them. They didn't have any bears show up on their bait till like the second week of May. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: And I was like, so maybe the weather really doesn't have much to do with their hibernation. Maybe it's more an internal clock with these bears. It's just like, hey, it's time to get up, you know. And it has nothing to do with weather at all. I don't know. I don't know. I just thought it was super interesting. They put their bait in early, but no bears showed up until they usually do anyway. So but who knows? I'm not a bear. Trail K: Hmm. Hmm. Right. Yeah, like like they're just habituated to it. Like that's when they come out of the den and that's when they're looking for food. I had a guy I had a guy reach out to me and he was asking me he was he was trying to do a spot and stock bear hunt and he said, you know, based on the snow year, do you think that the bears will be, you know, out earlier? Do you think they'll be at different elevations? And I mean, I don't have the only advice I have is just anecdotal, but I was thinking through it and I'm like, well You know, it makes sense to me that they'd probably be at different elevations just as they're chasing, you know, green up because it's you know, snow levels are different than they would be in previous years. And then, you know, I thought maybe they'll be out of the den that much earlier. But it I mean, as you think through it, I mean it probably is. It's just an it's probably just an internal clock. That's when they wake up. You know, every single year regardless of ⁓ and I and I don't know enough about bears. I should probably dig into this to see if I could figure it out. But yeah, I mean that would make sense to me that they would just show up at the same time that they do every single year regardless of of temperature or or snow. I don't know. Interesting. Tyler Kreitzer: Yeah, and it's it's yeah, the and the guy I was talking to about, you know, he's like only getting one or two bears. And he his philosophy is ⁓ because of the warm-up this year and and lack of snow, that there's a lot of grasses and stuff, and he's like they're probably just feeding on grasses and they're not coming into into the bait. So ⁓ I I did want to talk to you a little bit about so there's an interesting Trail K: Mm-hmm. Spread. Right. Tyler Kreitzer: misnomer about bears that they can't see very well. Have you heard that? So this year I was watching a video of the bear professor again. They've done studies and they've actually come out with the results of these studies and they found out that black bears actually can see as well as you and I do. Trail K: Mm hmm. ⁓ of course. I've said it, I'm sure. Tyler Kreitzer: And I like, that is interesting. Their eyes look really small, but if you get a bear skull, they have a huge, there's a huge eye sock, and their eyes are actually as big as ours. But you know, they're kind of like deer and they only see certain colors, you know. ⁓ they don't see oranges, reds. And I was like, ⁓ so me wearing my fluorescent orange hats, not gonna bother them. But they can see really well. And I was like, I hear all the time from people, ⁓ they don't see real really well. But I was like, you know, maybe that's not true. Trail K: Yeah, tiny. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: So and they can they can hear pretty well too, so Trail K: Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yeah, and they're I mean, their nose is unmatched. They can smell I mean, I don't know what the actual number is, but I've heard it's like five hundred times better than a bloodhound or something. I mean, their noses are insane. Tyler Kreitzer: Yeah, it's yeah, real insane. They're yeah, it's they're incredible animals. So they're cool. Trail K: You ⁓ you you brought up being patient that you have to be able to sit for a really long time. And I think that for whatever reason you ⁓ you, me, ⁓ you know, Tracy probably more so in his in his older age and then Todd, Todd being super patient, ⁓ the other brother. I think all of us have ⁓ you know, we've been we've been blessed with the snack that we have a lot of patience and persistence. Like we can sit at an animal you know, in a blind or tree stand or, you know, on the ground. But I was curious, what what do you do to pass the time? 'Cause I know that you've you've been known like you'll hunt dark to dark, right? So like you you get a weekend to hunt, like you're out there, like you're there before light and you're leaving after dark, right? Tyler Kreitzer: Right. You know, and based on my like this year, I didn't hunt dark to dark this year. I didn't have to, but based on my trail cameras, they were coming in like really early in the morning. And then they were there like late in the evening. But so I always take books and I read. So this year I read two books while I was up there. So and it's amazing. ⁓ so I read this book by Billy Moles. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. What did you read? Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: Be it's what, Adventures of an Alaskan Guide or something, or Alaskan Me and something so I read that one and that was a good one. So and the other book, sorry, was a book about church, so Trail K: Gotcha. Gotcha. Tyler Kreitzer: And it was it was it was funny too because I think I told you like my second book, I literally was on the last page reading the appendix, just closing my book, and I looked up and I was like, ⁓ there's a bear, and that's a good one. So, but anyway, that's how I pass the time. It's just wonderful because you don't have service. Well, I do have service now up there. It's weird all of a sudden that I can text, but I just love sitting there reading. Well, I switched to T Mobile and I got Trail K: Do you ⁓ Yeah. ⁓ weird. Tyler Kreitzer: one bar of four G at my bait. So I can text, but I just sit there and read. I love Trail K: Mm. Gotcha. Do you do you look forward to that? Do you do you look forward to it every year? Tyler Kreitzer: Yeah, in the spring, 'cause ⁓ heavens, yes. So like in the spring, I'm a teacher. I sit and I teach online, so I'm sitting in front of a computer for eight months. And so in the spring, there's nothing more than I want to do to just be out in the hills and just I don't know. You just get out there, you just sit, you soak it in. I know there's guys that hey, spot and stock, we let's spot and stock. ⁓ no, it's interesting. I I posted a picture of my bear on ⁓ Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: Instagram and some guy I don't even know who he is is like, ⁓ cool, that's fantastic. Was his spot stuck? And I was like, does it matter? I mean, honestly. Trail K: Yeah. Yeah. Probably be probably would have been easier if it had been in some other area in Wyoming as much time as you spent going back and forth and baiting and sitting and hunting. But yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: Yeah, but you know, I didn't resp I didn't respond, but I just like sitting. And you know what's interesting, you sit there, how many animals you actually do see if you just sit there and look. And I know I know you're familiar with that 'cause you do it all the time anyway. You just sit for hours and look and you see so many different things when you're not moving around constantly. So I look forward to it. I ⁓ Trail K: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I I love it. Tyler Kreitzer: So where I'm at too, this year we're lucky it it hasn't rained very much up there. ⁓ it's dry but it hasn't so I take ⁓ I have a cot, I have my sleeping bag and I just I sleep in the back of my truck under the stars and I love that. I mean it's it's amazing. So more people should try it. Just and it's it's cool, you know, 'cause I my s my son, I take him with me a lot and he enjoys it too. Just loves it so Trail K: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. For for sure. You ⁓ you brought up like that all your bait has to be in a barrel. So like in Utah it's interesting is you actually cannot bait in a barrel. You can't use a barrel or a container. All your bait just has to be in a gr on a like you can build you like a little, you know, log cabin, if you will, like natural occurring, you know, vegetation or whatever, which is kind of what we did last time. We built like a little bit of a corral and then they would they would come in and, you know, tear the tear all the, you know wood apart and then they would get into the bait. But yeah, it's interesting. Like in Utah you can't use any kind of container at all. But what so what do you use? Is it just like a fifty five gallon drum? Does it have to be metal? Can it be plastic? And then as far as like the hole in it. Tyler Kreitzer: It can be metal. Yeah, it can be metal. It can be plastic. ⁓ I think the regulations state that you have to like file down the edges. If you're using metal, you don't want any sharp edges. It's so if they reach in there, they're gonna cut they're gonna cut themselves. So the edges around the hole in my bait are really soft. And mine too, I've got mine rigged up so the top of it, I built this lid so you can lift it up and it's on a hinge, so you can dump the Trail K: Yeah, just Mm. Tyler Kreitzer: When I first started doing it, we're trying to shove this bait in the hole in the side. And I was Holy cow, this is crazy. So I just built this thing, put a hinge on it, put a lash on the top, and you just dump it in the top. ⁓ and it's just a lot easier. The the hole I'd I've heard so many and read so many different things about where to put the hole. I've seen videos where guys hang the barrel, you know. mine's just in Wyoming, the barrel does have to be attached to a tree. Trail K: Right. Yes. Tyler Kreitzer: has to be attached to something. And you can use fifty-five gallon drums in Wyoming and they change the law. I think I texted you they've changed the law. ⁓ where you can use up to three different containers, but you cannot use more than what would fit in a fifty five gallon Trail K: Mm-hmm. Mm. Tyler Kreitzer: So and the bait, you have your bait site, and all of the barrels or whatever, if you use three of them, they all have to be at that bait site. So I just use and I've used the same 55 gallon drum that my friend hooked up for me. You know, we I remember going to his house and making these bare bait barrels. ⁓ and so also on so on the side too, I have these hooks that I installed on the barrel and I use a metal. Trail K: Gotcha. Which one? Okay. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: wire cable, you know, that's soap about yay big around. And I just clamp it around these trees and ⁓ so they can't rip it off of there. ⁓ this year though I did go up and one of the hooks on the other side they almost had that ripped off, ripped out. So I had to re re ⁓ yeah they've been pulling on it. So I had to renegotiate how I I how I had it arranged in there so they weren't pulling it off. But they're s so strong too. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Have been pawn. Tyler Kreitzer: I mean, it's nuts how strong they are, but Yeah, and it's just weird, you know, if people go out black bear hunting in the West, make sure you check the regulations and make sure you know what's allowed and what isn't. So some places, yeah, you put it in the ground, cover it up. Go ahead. Trail K: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I was gonna ask I was I was gonna ask you, so like i if if I as a non resident or anybody, I guess a resident of Wyoming, like if they just wanted to go out and bait bears, can they just go anywhere anywhere and pick a spot and bait a bear? Tyler Kreitzer: No. So in Wyoming, it used to be so what they have in Wyoming is they have a and you can get on the Wyoming Game Fish website. If you go to regulations and on their website and scroll down to Black Bear, you'll see a Black Bear ⁓ site map or bait site map. And you can click on that and pull it up and you can see and you have to zoom in. But there are mile sections. And if that mile section is grayed out, that means that somebody is baiting that section. They have that section to bait. And so it used to be in the past, you would look at that map, you would look at the different sections, and you'd say, okay, that section is taken. This section isn't. And if you wanted to bait a section that was not open in the past, you would write down the township and location and all that. And you would go into game and fish and say, Hey, I want to bait this site. Nobody's there. And Trail K: Okay. Tyler Kreitzer: And they would ⁓ register that site for you. ⁓ they've changed it now where if you want to bait, if you're brand new, you've never done it before, non-resident, whatever, a resident, you would look at that map. And so because I've baited the same site every year, I can go in and the first of March and I can re register my bait site every year. As long as I bait that site every year, I can I can bait it every single year. I can go in and Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: re-register that same exact site every year. site, I re-register that site every year. And it's good because now the know where my bait is and they expect it every spring. ⁓ and it's just interesting. Like some years it's 11, 10 days before a bear shows up. The last two I've had four days and they show up to the bait. Trail K: Okay. Tyler Kreitzer: Anyway, that's how it works in Wyoming. You just need to you you put in for the different s sites or and each section is a mile section. You have a mile section you can put in for ⁓ two different sections. But and I think residents and non residents equally can do the same thing, put in for the whatever section they wanna they want that's not already taken. So but you just have to look have to look at the map. So Trail K: Right. Okay. Yeah. Interesting. And they they have a map on their website that you can look and you'll see the the various sections that are grayed out. Those are sections that are occupied that are that are that somebody has the debate registration for. Tyler Kreitzer: Yeah, those are sections that Yeah, those are is that's a section that somebody has. And you just like I said, go to the Game Midfish website. The easiest way to do is to go to regulations. If you find their little regulations, scroll down to Black Bears, ⁓ and you'll see it'll say Black Bear site map or bait site map or something like that. Click it and then you you can see ⁓ where everybody has baits. I don't think that you're allowed to bait in the wilderness, if I remember correctly. So Trail K: Mm-hmm. Yeah, that would make sense. Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: Right. But you can national forests and there are certain areas of Wyoming that you cannot bait at all because of grizzly bears. Yeah. Yeah. And the the grizzlies Trail K: Because of Grizzlies? What happens if you have a gr what if you get a grizzly on your bait? Do you have to abandon it? Tyler Kreitzer: So on the in the regulations, it says you're supposed to contact game and fish immediately. And what happens is they will go in and they remove your barrel, they remove your bait from that bait site. ⁓ does that mean that you can't bait it anymore, that you're done? ⁓ no. So I know a a person that had his barrel removed because of a grizzly bear and he was baiting in the spring, and then they told him, you can bait in the fall if you want, or you can just wait till next year. So they just want, you know, because grizzly bears are protected, they don't want to have that somebody mistake it for a black bear and you know. And then yeah, like so my area too, there's a possibility. I've never had one show up on my bait. But like some of these areas, why I use meat, I have to use meat on mine is because the possibility of a grizzly bear showing up. If they ever did, I never have had. Trail K: Two one. Tyler Kreitzer: They don't want that bear habituated to donuts and sweets and all that kind of stuff. So Trail K: Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: barrels, another law in Wyoming is you either have to have your sportsman ID on your barrel or you have to have your name and address on your attached to your barrel as well. So on mine I just use white paint and I just painted my name, address and phone number on it. So I know other people they put their sportsman IDs on there and you just have to have I identified, so Trail K: Mm. Gotcha. Tell me about this bear that you tell me about this bear that you just killed. Tell me tell me what happened. How many days did you hunted? Tell me what time of day you shot it. Tell me tell me anything that you can remember about it. Tyler Kreitzer: Well you know. ⁓ so we started baiting. I think it was the second when did I put my bait? On the twelfth. So this year to my bait in. I actually took a day ⁓ maybe I shouldn't say that because I I said I was sick. But anyway. ⁓ I took a personal day to actually I had stuff going on every weekend the first two weekends of May. So I think I took a personal and I ran my ⁓ bait up on a Monday. Trail K: Yeah. Well it. Tyler Kreitzer: And me and my son got that bait put in. And we went up every weekend on a Friday night. We would hunt Friday night, Saturday morning. ⁓ and something else you do with your barrels, you bait it, put that bait in there. And if you put sticks in the hole, so the sticks are sticking out of the hole, you know. when you go back in there, if those sticks were removed from the barrel, you know that there's been a bear in there. That's just another little trick that you can use. Trail K: Yep. Yep. Tyler Kreitzer: But we I think I baited three or four times and we hunted each weekend, Friday, Saturday. and it got so like I said, this year I had ⁓ four days and I had bears on my bait. and just looking at videos, I it was a good year. I had I don't even know, three or four bears a day, three or four bears a night. ⁓ there was a week that I had a and normally you can't pattern these bears, they just show up when they want to show up. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: The week before I killed my bear, I had there was a bear that was coming in like every evening at about 8 30. And that's been the most patternable bear I've ever had. ⁓ but I think on a Saturday, I went in by myself on a Friday, and Saturday I I put some bait in. Or maybe it was during the week. I can't remember. Anyway, I was like, I didn't take enough, and I only filled it up about a Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: Order of the way, and I was like, ⁓ man, I'm gonna run out of bait. And so I told my son, I said, we need to go back up there on Monday morning. We just need to go up there Monday during the middle of the day and we need to bait it. And I said, I'm taking a ton of bait. And so we took, we went up, we went up last Monday morning and we baited at about 11:30 to noon, and I just filled it up. ⁓ and then I went back Tuesday night. Trail K: Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: And I could see there'd been a bear in there already. Sticks were gone. The bait had already, I mean, it was when we baited it, it was above the hole. It was about three quarters full. And when we I went back on Tuesday, it was below the hole already. So I was like And my son went with me Tuesday night and we hunted Tuesday night evening. We nothing came in that evening. The wind had been blowing though, so but we just stayed up there that night. And the next morning, because I had bears on camera. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: The week before, a lot of times from about four thirty to six. Sometimes one bear, sometimes two. We got up at a quarter to four the next morning and and snuck up there and just sat there. We didn't have any bears at all. ⁓ that next morning and my my son took a sleeping bag because it was like I I think I told you, it got down to like thirty two degrees. It was pretty chilly. But we just we just sat sat the barrel and I I read a book. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's cold. Freezing. Tyler Kreitzer: And then about seven, just after seven o'clock, I was just finishing my book. My son was kind of do dozing behind me, you know, he wasn't even paying attention. I just looked up and I kind of reached behind him. I was like, There's a bear just out of nowhere. There's a bear, and it's a good one. It's a nice bear. And he was kind of like Jonah was kind of like, I don't know, off in La La Land or something. All he he told me all I saw was you grab your gun. So Trail K: Yeah. Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: And that bear came in and grabbed a piece of bait and laid down. And I just grabbed my gun. I had it set up ⁓ on the bipod before I had it all set up, dialed, so I knew when it came in, I wouldn't have to do anything. I wouldn't have to vigilate with the scope or anything like that. And I just ⁓ grabbed my gun and looked through the scope and put the crosshairs right kind of mid body. Even normally they tell you don't shoot at a bear that's laying down. But I'm like, you know what? I've had so many bears, you're sitting there and they just come in, they grab a ⁓ piece of bait, then they exit stage left and they never come back. So this bear, I'm like, I don't want it to like just it could get up at any time and just take off. So I'm just gonna send it. And I I shot boom. And it took off immediately, just exited to the right, just took off dead sprint, you know. And ⁓ we just listened and we heard a crash down there. Trail K: Mm. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: And I would literally it's so weird with me because I hunt deer, elk, antelope, all those kinds of things. Just none of them give me the shakes anymore. But these bears, boy, after I shot that bear, man, I was just shaking the adrenaline. I was just like, there's just something about them that just, ooh, you know, I was just shaking. And my son was like, Hey, did you ⁓ use hearing protection by chance? And I was like, Nah, I just sent it. He didn't he didn't have a chance to put his in either. So Trail K: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: And my gun, of course, I've got a muzzle break. It's really loud. Like, I'm so sorry. But we gave it yeah, we gave it 20, 30 minutes before we went down there, even though I've I didn't know if I hit it or not. I was just praying that I did. ⁓ you know, sometimes the bears will give you the death moan, and you hear the death moan, which is basically the air escaping their lungs, and but you don't always get that. ⁓ and this one there was no no bear moan, no. Trail K: Right. Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: None of the death moan, none of that kind of stuff. But we eventually we went down there. And a lot of times these ⁓ spring bears, their hide, their fur is so thick. sometimes it's really hard to find blood right off the bat. But ⁓ that bear Wednesday morning, there was a lot of blood immediately. And he'd gone off to the right, and we could I just followed the blood trail over ⁓ dead logs pretty much. And at one point I was kind of lost the blood trail. I was like, well, what in the heck? You the blood trail's kinda gone. So we went back to the barrel, started following it again. And he had gone initially I was going to the left. And so when I started tracking it again, I went to the right. And I just got to a spot where I looked over and there was this log and I could see this. He lay he was laying on his his back and he had his legs kind of sticking up. And I could see one of his legs. And I was like, There he is. There he is. We got him. So Trail K: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. So cool. Tyler Kreitzer: And it was just exciting. I I had hit him, I'd hit him. I guess he's quartering down there. I didn't realize, but I hit him behind the shoulder and it kind of came out the neck. ⁓ he'd he'd gone about 50, 60 yards and he was just dead. And ⁓ in Wyoming, a a six-foot black bear is a ⁓ a good bear. And this one we taped him out when we got home and he squared right at six foot. A really gorgeous bear. You know, some of the pictures he looks red, but he's kind of a chocolate brown. Trail K: Gotcha. Tyler Kreitzer: Just really nice, really super nice bear. And I've been telling Huh? Trail K: Mm-hmm. Look like he had looked like he looked like he had a big a big head. Tyler Kreitzer: Yeah, I mean he did. He had a pretty nice noggin on him. ⁓ so yeah, I was texting you the whole time. We got blood, hey we found him, here he is, cool. You know, and then the work starts and so black bears for me, for some reason, are just so awkward skinning. And I think it's just because it's not like a deer or an elk, you don't cut the legs off and the you gotta skin around the legs and all that kind of stuff and so Trail K: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: And I will say, as long as we're talking about black bears, you want to cool that hide down as soon as you can. because if you don't, there can be slippage. And so we got him skinned out and I I laid the laid the hide out, and there was a wind blowing to cool it down while we took all of our stuff to the truck. And I had taken a cooler up there and I told my son, let's just go grab the cooler. We'll put him in there, roll him up, put him in there, and then we'll just pack that cooler out, which is what we Trail K: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: Did so it worked out nice. And then in Wyoming, in Wyoming as well, after you shoot a bear, you've got, I think, 72 hours that you have to take that bear to game and fish. And what they do is they pull a tooth and they'll ask you where they want the GPS location of where you shot it. And so to help out the game and fish, if you guys want to help them out when you take that bear, a lot of times if you don't do this fairly quickly, ⁓ Trail K: Gotcha. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: They'll die with their mouth closed and they get rigor mortise. And it's really hard for a game and fish to open that mouth and pull too. So what I do is I'll find a stick about yay long and I'll just stick it in their mouth and prop their mouth open. It just really helps Game and Fish so they don't have to sit there and try to get that thing open, you know. So Trail K: Mm-hmm. Yep. what can they when when you check that bear in, so they get GPS location. I assume that they pull a tooth. Do you ⁓ Are you able to like get any kind of information on that bear after the fact? Tyler Kreitzer: ⁓ you can. So they'll they'll male their the teeth, the two teeth. And it's usually two little ones. ⁓ well actually it's one they take. On my bear they took two. Two teeth. And it's usually just two little ones. But on my bear too, they also wanted to do some DNA testing and stuff. So they they were gonna take a piece of its tongue, but they actually there was still a little a chunk of meat that they just took a chunk of that meat too, and they Their lab is in Cheyenne and they'll send those teeth to that lab in Cheyenne. And black bear teeth are just like a tree. You can they'll do a cross section of that tooth and they'll count the rings and they'll get an age of that bear. So it usually takes a year or so, but you can get on their website and do some research and stuff, and you you'll find it'll have your license number, and so you can see. You'll find your license number and they'll have the date that you killed a bear, and it'll they'll give you they'll give you an age of what that an exact age of what that bear is. So they do give you a guesstimate when you take it in. They look at it, they'll look at the wear on the tooth. The bear that I harvested, they thought was around five years old, maybe a little bit older. We'll we'll just have to see. ⁓ this year, my goal was just to take a mature bear, you know? And so Trail K: That's cool. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: Game and fish were like, that is definitely a mature bear. You got a good one. And it was funny because the game and fish guy was like, finally a good one. Holy cow, finally. Finally got a good one. ⁓ I was like, okay, I don't know what other people are shooting, but ⁓ awesome. It was just it was a good bear. I mean, it's it was it a giant? No, it wasn't, but it was a it was a a good, a good black bear, especially for Wyoming. A six foot bear is a good one. So and he was just beautiful. Trail K: Mm. Yeah. Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: So yeah, I'm having him rugged. I took him to the taxidermist. And the reason I was talking about the hide, getting the hide cooled off, the taxidermist was telling me about a guy that didn't get into the game and fish right away, and it sounded like he just left the hide out in the heat. And after they finally checked it in, the guy took the hide to the taxidermist and he said there was so much slippage with that bear hide. So Trail K: Mm-hmm. Mm. Tyler Kreitzer: Mine when I got it home, I stretched it out in the garage. I put two fans on it to cool the height off. And once it cooled off, I rolled it up and put it the freezer. And the game or the taxidermist is like, did you put it in the freezer? And I was like, Yes. And he's like, thank you. That's the best way to take care of them. Is just and you just want to, you know, you want to roll them so it's kind of skin on skin. You don't want to, you know, you just kind of roll them up in a ball and put them. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: I just put mine in the freezer. So when I dropped it off, it was in the freezer. So ⁓ that'll probably be the only bear rug I ever do. Trail K: Yeah, you're you're you're talking hair Yeah. You're you're talking when you roll those up, you're you're talking hair out, right? So you're talking Yep, hair out. Yeah. Gotcha. Tyler Kreitzer: You're not cheap. Right, hair out. Yeah, you want the hair out. Yeah, so you'll put it like hair down when you're folding it in and you f fold the arms in, legs and so it's yeah, you want like hide on hide and you want the fur on the outside. So and then the the taxidermist like I had a friend he come over and looked at and he's like, Man, you probably need to salt that and I like, No, I'm gonna let the let the ⁓ they usually don't salt ⁓ until they flesh ⁓ and all that stuff first. So I'm like, I'm gonna that's why you pay a taxidermist to let them do all that stuff. So Trail K: Mm-hmm. Excellent. Yeah, that's it. Tyler Kreitzer: That's what we did. I was overjoyed, happy, excited. It was a beautiful, beautiful bear. So ⁓ so now yeah. Trail K: Yeah. Let me let me ask you about the meat. Did you did you pack quarters out? Tyler Kreitzer: Yeah, I brought some quarters out and ⁓ I I just put them in the freezer. Just because it was ⁓ that day that I got I will, yeah. That day that I got that bear, it was in the 80s, 90s when I got home. It was in the cooler. So I just threw them straight in the freezer. Tomorrow I'll thaw them out and I'm gonna grind it up into hamburger. And ⁓ this time I think I'm just gonna do hamburger. My daughter wants me to do ⁓ summer sausage. I usually make summer sausage out of Trail K: You ⁓ you eat it. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: But this one I'm like I might be the only one in the house eating it, but I'm like, I'm I'm gonna do bear burgers. ⁓ the last bear that I got, not this one, but ⁓ two years ago when I got one, I did a bear burger and it was really good. So So I'm gonna have myself some bear hamburgers tomorrow. So Trail K: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Nice. Do you ⁓ have you ever done steaks or anything like that with it? Or is that your ki kinda your favorite? Is like some some Tyler Kreitzer: It'll be good. No, I've never done steaks. No, I've never done steaks. I don't know. I was just doing some research yesterday and they say with black bear steaks are not the best. Roasts or hamburgers are usually good. And ⁓ black bear meat is one of those ones, once again, because they can't they can have parasites, you want to make sure that you cook it to at least 165 degrees. So, like these hamburgers that I'm going to make with them, I'll have a meat thermometer and make sure I get it. To at least a hundred and sixty five degrees so it kills any type of bacteria that it might possibly have. ⁓ you just yeah, you just it's one of those meats that y you wanna make sure it's well done. So but Trail K: Mm-hmm. You ⁓ do you like the taste of it? Tyler Kreitzer: Yeah, I've not it's been good for me. I've never had any problem with it. I know that you know, a lot of people prefer black bear, so I like it. And I think s some people are just like, ⁓ it's a bear, I'm eating a bear. You just have to get over the fact that you're eating a bear. It's just a mental thing, I think. But I like it. I like it. So I yeah, it's it's good to go. The some is who does that, Brady? Trail K: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Sure. Yeah. Brady eats a lot of bear. He loves it. Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: Yeah. Yep, he does. He needs to, right? He's that bear. So ⁓ Trail K: He needs he needs all the he needs all the food he can get, I think. Yeah. He's ⁓ yeah, he he should eat some more bear and put some more put some cheese on it or something, add some calories. He's always out running, burn a lot of calories. He didn't. Yeah, he didn't get a bear this year. I think this is the first year that I can remember in a lot of years that he didn't he didn't get a bear. I think he had ample opportunities. ⁓ I think he was really hunting for, you know, a big bear. Tyler Kreitzer: Did did he get one this year? Trail K: And so I know that he passed up a a number of bears, but he didn't didn't shoot one. He's he shot some big bears in the past. I think he was really trying to hold out, but yeah, did didn't get one. We'll see what his diet consists of. Hopefully he gets ⁓ a mule deer and elk or something this winter so they'll have something to eat. Tyler Kreitzer: I hope so. Yeah, those big ones are so hard to get. I mean the mega ones are so hard. So hard. Yeah, we've been lucky enough lucky enough to get one giant, giant one. But my son got one, so Trail K: Mm-hmm. Yeah. How how how big was that bear and when you got the tooth data back, how old was it? Tyler Kreitzer: So that bear, I don't know how much it weighed. All I know is when we shot it, we couldn't, we tried to move it for pictures and we could not move it. ⁓ when we taped it out, it squared at six foot eight inches, which is a I told my son that's once in a lifetime. You're never gonna get another one that big. ⁓ it's skull. So Boon and Crockett lifetime is 21 inches on the skull. But to make Boon and Crockett, you have to have a 20, a 20 inch Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: ⁓ black bear. That one that he got scored ⁓ twenty and five sixteenths on the skull. So it was really, really a big, a big bear. So and the tooth, it was weird too, because we stopped at Game and Fish. They did that. They said I was probably about nine years old. ⁓ when we finally actually got the data back, it was a 17 year old black bear. So I mean just older than old. But it was amazing. Yeah, it's an old bear. It's an old bear. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Seventeen. Did you rug it? Tyler Kreitzer: My son did, yeah. And I was kinda glad that I let him shoot it after, you know. They're not cheap to rug, so but his bear when you walk into his when you walk into his apartment, it's the first thing that you see when you walk in and he's like, Man, it's such a conversational piece to have, you know. So but yeah, but like I said, I've had one on my bait for five years. I've been trying to get and he's huge. Trail K: Yeah, the Yeah, when the bill came back. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: This year I don't know if he just died or what, but he didn't show up. But who knows? I hope in my mind's eye, I was like, if he's not coming into the bait, I hope somewhere he just crawled into his hole to hibernate and he just passed away peacefully. Trail K: Yeah. You ⁓ Yeah. Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: So I was gonna ask you, I was thinking about this this morning. Like when you're out hunting, sometimes you find deadheads, you find horns, you find all but I have never in my life been out in the woods and found a dead black bear. Ever. Have you? Have you ever heard of one? Trail K: Mm-hmm. I can't say that I've h yeah, I can't say that I've heard of one and I've never found one. I've also never found a dead lion. I've never found a dead mountain lion. I've never found a dead bobcat that I can think of. I've never I know for a fact I've never found a a dead black bear. Yeah, that's true. I don't know. That is weird. I don't know. Tyler Kreitzer: Yeah, I wonder why. I wonder why those predators, they just I don't know, maybe I have no idea. Trail K: I don't know. I would be interested anybody that's listen anybody that's listening to this, if you guys have found a dead black bear or a dead lion, I'd love to I'd love to hear about it. Yeah, see a photo and I would love to know where and what this Yeah. Yeah. You know what's weird? I found a yeah, I found a dead mountain goat, but I've never found a dead black bear and there's a lot more black bears than there are mountain goats. Tyler Kreitzer: Or just or even found the school, you know. Yeah. I've never even found a school. Yeah, or grizzly bear. I've never found one of those or Trail K: For for sure. Yeah. Pretty wild. The one question I didn't ask you, I was wanting to ask you, ⁓ it's kind of like the it's probably the most common question I would say that probably people get that are, you know, baiting black bears. But like, what do you do with with bears that are nocturnal? Is there anything that you can do or is your strategy just to kind of wait ⁓ out? Or is that just it just is what it is? Tyler Kreitzer: I don't know. ⁓ so what I've learned, and once again I'm not an expert, but just it is so interesting. If you type into Google, what do you do for nocturnal bears? Everybody's got all these different ideas. ⁓ use you need to use ⁓ music. You know, it c turns on at night, and so it keeps or you need to use flashing lights that you know, it keeps them off the bait. ⁓ you need to try all these different things, but in my experience, it doesn't matter what you do. There are just some bears that are just gonna come in at night. ⁓ and once again, like I've done research, the best thing that you can do is put your bait in an area where they feel comfortable. Where they feel comfortable coming in. And then, like I said, that big one I've chased for five years. Last year was the first time ever that I have pictures of him in daylight. And it was like five thirty in the morning, and it was the other one was at like Trail K: Comfortable. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: Eight fifty at night. I mean just I would have had to be there like hardly any legal shooting light, or but he just comes in at night, and I've just like that's just what he does. ⁓ and so those big ones that come in at night, that's just what they do. I mean, I don't know what you do. That's just my experience. You just hope you just hope that one day they'll mess up and they'll come in during the ⁓ during legal shooting line. I do know. Trail K: Right. Hm. Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: Last year, not the big one that I've been chasing, but I did have another really big black bear show up. It was unfortunately it was two days after the season had closed. But I got video of this guy and he's he was ginormous. And he came in at noon, right in the middle of the day, and he stayed there all day. But he had a he had a Sal with him. So and I think that Sal was in there and he followed her in. So sometimes during the bear rut. Trail K: Mm. Right. Tyler Kreitzer: Sometimes they get a little stupid and they'll follow a sound, but I don't know what you do. If anybody has any ideas, I'd love to hear them. I've I've heard people trying all kinds of different things. It's just they're gonna do what they're gonna do. So but I have no idea. Trail K: Yeah. Right. You ⁓ do they what when does your season end? So you you bring up a point about the rut, but like do have you done some reading about when when is like prime time for bear rut and when does your guys' season end in relation to that, would you say? Tyler Kreitzer: So our our season ends June fifteenth and the rut is usually the first couple weeks of June, maybe the third week of June. So and something else about baiting is you could have you can have a bear you've never seen before just show up in June because they start cruising. And I think I've read that those dang things will they'll go thirty, forty, fifty miles in search of a sow. I mean, they just cruise, so you just never know. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: ⁓ but yeah, it's it's in June normally, the rut, so Trail K: Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: it's one of those things you just learn from experience, you know what I mean? So I did have a mentor that showed me a lot of things and I learned a ton from him. ⁓ but over the years too, I it's just it's just been experience. So you learn by doing. ⁓ if something doesn't work, try something else. So Trail K: get him there, right? ⁓ Tyler Kreitzer: ⁓ you know. Yeah. And then heard too, don't change up your scent. So use the same thing every year. Which honestly, I'm like, cause last year I introduced ⁓ the local ⁓ sporting good downtown here, had molasses ⁓ gallon, and then they couldn't rid of it. So they offered this molasses to me in bulk. Normally it's like twenty dollars a jug. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: I went down there one day, is the guy's Hey, if you'll buy it in bulk, I'll give it to you too at a dollar twenty five a jug. And I was like, Okay, I'll take whatever. So last year I introduced molasses in there that scent and it didn't stop them from coming. So it's just you know, you just learn by doing. So but it's cool. Trail K: Yes. Yeah. Hope hopefully I get a chance. So I'm I'm I'm sitting on a bunch of points in Utah and I thought I would potentially draw this year. I think my odds were like fifty percent. So I'm hoping that I can catch the point creep next year and I get a chance to do it. But I think the one the one thing that keeps sticking out to me that you've said today that makes total sense. And if I think back to the the bait site that we shot this big bear off with my buddy, it's that you gotta find You gotta find an area that the bear feels comfortable, right? And so this area that we baited, I mean, that's that's pretty much exactly what it is. Like a bear would feel very comfortable in this canyon that we were in. And that's probably the key to like solving for that nighttime bear, you know, that bear that's only nocturnal. And it probably won't completely solve it. But I think the more, yeah, the more comfortable the bear is in his location, probably the better opportunity is that he's gonna come in during shooting hours. Tyler Kreitzer: Yeah, and I just something else with bears, I guess I'll say real quick, is I don't like going down down to the barrel unless I absolutely have to to rebate stuff. Normally I want to stay out out of there. I don't want to be down there sp spreading my scent all over the place, you know? And one thing a friend of mine, he's always telling me, Don't when you're up there hunting, don't go check the cameras. Don't do it. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Right. Tyler Kreitzer: And there's that there's that temptation. ⁓ I'm here, something's been there. I could tell. I'm gonna run down there, check the camera. Every time you do that, you leave your scent down there. And so I've had to like train myself. Don't check the camera. Do it when you bait. You know, do it when you bait, check the camera. So I don't go down there unless I absolutely have to. Stay out of there, you know. And once again, it's that comfort, comfort thing. If they know that you're and I think, and I'm a hundred percent sure that they know. Trail K: Is it? Yes. Right. Tyler Kreitzer: w you're there when you're baiting. They can hear you, they hear you pull up, whatever. They know you're there. They know when you leave. And they expect it. ⁓ cool. There's food in there now, you know? So there's no reason to run down there when you're not baiting and spread your scent everywhere. And anyway, that's just something I've learned by trial and error. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Right. You you I didn't Yeah. I didn't explicitly ask this, but you don't you don't bait and then hunt, right? Like you bait the day before and then like you might hunt in the evening and then the the morning of like if you're going in in there in the morning in the dark, like you don't bait before you like go sit, right? Like you go straight to your spot. Tyler Kreitzer: ⁓ there there have been there have been times and I'll bait in the middle of the day and then I'll go park, then I'll sneak back in there that evening, hunt that evening and that night. But I've had more success like we did this year. We baited on Monday, we left, then we went back Tuesday evening, hunted, and then my son's big bear, we baited on a Wednesday and then we got it on a Saturday morning when we went back in there. So and I think it just it all depends on the wind. Trail K: Gotcha. Tyler Kreitzer: as well. But a lot of times yeah, it kinda gives them a chance to get comfortable again. Okay, they he left and I can go back in there and he's not gonna be there. And, you know, so yeah. But there have been times, yeah, I've baited and I've sat that evening or and then stayed the next morning. But I've had more success baiting, leaving and then going back a day later, two days later, something like that. So but I I will say that I Trail K: Yeah. Gotcha. Tyler Kreitzer: You know, especially this year baited it in the middle of the day, gone back the next morning and they're they've already been in there at night. So almost every time this year I baited and like if I went back the next day there'd been a bear in there, so sometimes more than one. But Trail K: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So I mean what what I've learned today is that you it's a lot of work, which I kinda knew. you have to be super consistent. You have to make sure that there's there's bait in the barrel. You gotta pay super close attention to the wind. ⁓ you gotta have you gotta have the scent, you gotta collect all the bait. I mean, there's a lot of planning and preparation just in acquiring the bait. I would say that's probably the first step, right? That and getting getting a spot to bait and then securing bait. And then being consistent with it and just being being smart with it and being patient and persistent. And ⁓ you know, you you do all the w you do all the work and you get the reward at the end, which is pretty pretty dang cool. I was really Tyler Kreitzer: Yeah and you Right. And then if you're just starting to, you really need to ask yourself, what am what am I going to do with this bear when I get it? I mean, i you're an elk, you know that hey, I'm bringing home the meat, but a bear, you've also got the hide, the skull. What are you gonna do with that? And you need to realize that that stuff costs money. If you're gonna get the hide tann, it's not cheap. If you're getting it rugged, that's not cheap either. I mean Trail K: Go ahead. Mm. Yeah. Yep. Tyler Kreitzer: So you really need to ask yourself, what am I going to do with it? ⁓ before you do it. And it does cost one of the one of the gripes that my wife has is the money that is I spend. And I've got it down where it to a minimum, you know, like the bait that I gather, those guys are gracious enough just to say, hey, come get it. But then still I've got to pay for the cent, spend over a hundred some dollars on the cents every year. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: The gas this year, I mean, 'cause gas is four dollars and something a gallon. It's fifty some, sixty some dollars every trip up there, you know. So how many times can I afford to go up there and sit the bait? You know, you have to ask yourself all these questions. Trail K: Yeah. Right. Tyler Kreitzer: inexpensive. Trail K: the end it's it's expensive hobby for sure, but in the end, completely worth it, right? What an incredible experience just to to get the Tyler Kreitzer: Yeah, and I always I always tell myself that, you know, when I die, I'm gonna take those experiences with me. ⁓ me and my sons, me and my sons, we're gonna have those memories forever. You know, and that those are things that we're gonna remember our our entire life. And money when you die is gonna stay here and it's just money. So, yeah, you need it to survive, you need it to pay bills, you need it to buy, you know, this or that, but in the end, it's just money. So Trail K: For sure. Yeah. Tyler Kreitzer: But you do have to plan. You do have to plan, so Trail K: Yeah. You ⁓ yeah, you can't take it with you and all you get all you get is memories. I say it's a dollar well spent, baiting bears. And I think recently I said on another podcast, like I spot and stock bears bear hunting, I think is interesting to me, but I think baiting is way more interesting to me than spot and stock bear hunting. I just I love I love every I love talking about it. I love hearing about it, I love the you know, the times that I've I've been able to do it have just been So fascinating and so fun. It's such a fun time of year to be in the woods. I you know, I remember when we baited with my buddy sitting in a tree stand because he was bow hunting and we had two tree stands opposite of each other. I remember this young boar coming in. He walked right underneath my tree stand. He went to the barrel, or not the barrel, the bait. It was open, but he You know, was going through and just like eating and we got to watch that bear for probably an hour, hour and a half at in the evening, and I just remember being completely fascinated with every single minute of that. It just was such a fun experience. So I mean my my interest in bear hunting, I have an interest in bear hunting, but I think I'm really only interested in in baiting. So I ⁓ hopefully I'll I'll get an opportunity to do so. Tyler Kreitzer: Yeah, and you know it's you know it's funny. What's funny too, spot and stock. If you watch these videos of guys that are spot and stalking blacking b black bears, what do they do? They go up on the mountain hike and then they sit there all day in one spot. And wait for them to ⁓ I mean it's the same thing. They just don't they don't have the bait, but they're glassing for hours, you know. It's the same thing. Come on. So Trail K: Right. Yeah, and glass. Same. Yeah, same same same thing. Yeah, true, true statement. Absolutely. Well, I I've had you for an hour and forty eight minutes, so we'll probably wrap this one up, but I appreciate you jumping on. ⁓ is it's it's really fun to hear and catch up and I know that you look forward to that every year and I'm always looking forward to hearing how you did. And I love getting the photos that you send and You know, when you send the text messages that say, Yeah, we're I'm getting my bear bait out. I'm always ⁓ looking forward to to cli kinda hearing a hunting story and getting to see photos of bears and just the the the one thing I really like about it is just the th in the the enthusiasm that you have for it. Like it it comes through in a text message or a phone call. I can just tell how enthusiastic you are about it and how much you love it. And ⁓ that makes my heart happy to know that you're up there and enjoying it. Tyler Kreitzer: Yes. Yeah, it's one of those things that really has become a passion. It really has. I don't know. I mean, in the spring, what are you gonna do? I mean, man, it's just it's just a passion. I I just love bears in general. And I don't care if it's a black bear or a grizzly. Even grizzlies in Wyoming, if I see one, man, they're so fun just to sit and watch. It's amazing. They're amazing. They are amazing animals. They're fun to watch. Trail K: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Tyler Kreitzer: They're they're fun to yeah, it's just it's cool. So yeah, I I have a very passionate about hunting bears and black bears, so Trail K: That's awesome. Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna hit stop on this. Like I said, I appreciate you taking some time out of the day to to chat with me. And ⁓ you know, I I think people find it interesting and useful if they w they wanna get into it. And ⁓ yeah, I just appreciate it. Tyler Kreitzer: I hope so. Yeah, I'm on summer break, so it's all good. It's good to talk to you, man. It's just so good. So we just don't have the opportunity as much as I would like, I know, so Trail K: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I know, me me me either. I know. Lives are lives are busy and they're hectic. Tyler Kreitzer: It's fun just to s so fun just to sit and visit, share stories and catch up, so Trail K: Mm-hmm. Yep. I I appreciate it.