I am hoping to pick some brains here as I have been pondering this whole deal for weeks now and can't quite settle on a theory.
Up here in Mn we have three weeks to bait before season opens so once baiting opened I put out a two 55 gallon drums that have been welded together. Inside I filled it with roughly 300lbs of whole corn and 30 gallons of used fryer oil. Below the barrels I put out a bunch of windfall apples and sprayed the surrounding trees with anise and vanilla extract.
Over the next two and a half weeks I had over 1500 videos of bears hitting the bait at all hours of the day and numerous videos of multiple different bears at it at once. I was also out doing some other things on the property during the second week and I stood about twenty yards from one bear I met on a trial who wandered off unspooked and later that evening saw two bears hitting the bait at once.
All that was great and incredibly exciting as I really enjoy just watching the trail cam videos however about two days before season opened they just completely shut off except for a couple visits that lasted a couple minutes in the wee hours of the morning.
Since then I have added marshmallows, syrup and some pastries to the bait along with some freshly cooked bacon each time I hunt with some prevail as I passed on a smaller bear who stopped by however nothing close to what it was.
What I am wondering is if I possibly over fed the bears and are sleeping the gorging off, found another food source, simply not interested in the bait or something else entirely.
Any insight would be appreciated.
MN DNR, this is all on private land and in accordance with the 2016 regulations.