How early for Spring black bear

Matt,

Down here in the S.E. portion of the State, winter ends much sooner than up there.

I'm going to start around the middle of April. Last Spring I took my bear around the third week of April, and the bears were already out. The advantage of starting sooner, is that it's the boars that are more likely to be out first. Probably the last to show up, are the sows with cubs. It should help with the number of bears that are rubbed, but I saw lot's of rubbed bear at that time. I've been told that lot's of bear emerge from the den already rubbed, so who knows? :?

Matt,

I thought the same thing about baiting when I came up here two years ago. All the guy at the shop was talking about their bait stations and I thought it sounded stupid. Last year (2002) I hunted out of a friends bait stand a couple of times and actually enjoyed it. While in the stand you might get to see many bears up close. One of the guys had 12 different bears on his stand, but no shooters. He had a good time watching them. I also had a grizzly come on my bait barrel one night when I was half asleep in my stand. Scared the living **** out of me. All I could see was this giant shape moving around stomoing his paws and grunting.
I too would prefer to do a spot and stalk over baiting, but I will hunt again over bait this year.
My bait station will be set up down on the Kenai. I can leave after work and drive down and walk up to my stand. Sleep a little when it gets dark and leave the stand at about 0600 and drive back to work. You might want to give it a try.

PWS

Over here the guys bait too. Some even have automatic feeders like the ones used for deer. Dog food laced with something is the cheapest way to go. Buy the cheap stuff from SAM's. The bears seem to come out at different times depending on the hill they hibernate on. No idea why, but some are on the north slopes and some the south. It seemed last year that the hills with the young skunk cabbage were hit first.