Wyoming spring black bear hunt

I need advice from the black bear hunting community. I am planning a black bear hunt for the spring of 2018 in Wyoming, I have never hunted black bear and have been researching like crazy. Right now the thing that I would like to know is where to look ( I don't need secret spots or anything), I have questions like "Is it better to glass north facing slopes or south facing slopes?" "Is one better in the morning and the other better in the evening?" "Is there certain kinds of forage that I need to keep my eyes out for?". I know the basics that you can find almost anywhere on the internet or in magazines, but cant seem to find anything relating to "where to start looking". What I'm really after is a good idea of what terrain I should look for when I go scouting for promising areas. Thank you for all the help everyone.

From what I've experienced, afternoons are going to be your best bet to catch movement. As for where to start, look at the game & fish departments female mortality rate or quota, the higher the rate the will tell you a lot about the population. Really look hard for wild fruit patches near water, where I bear hunt there's a lot of wild berry bushes and they'll gorge on those puppies all day. Predator calls will also bring them in and also keep in mind that you can bait in Wyo, just have to register your bait site. If you got out here a few days before you could get a bait site going and keep it up throughout your hunt.

JLDemo said:

From what I've experienced, afternoons are going to be your best bet to catch movement. As for where to start, look at the game & fish departments female mortality rate or quota, the higher the rate the will tell you a lot about the population. Really look hard for wild fruit patches near water, where I bear hunt there's a lot of wild berry bushes and they'll gorge on those puppies all day. Predator calls will also bring them in and also keep in mind that you can bait in Wyo, just have to register your bait site. If you got out here a few days before you could get a bait site going and keep it up throughout your hunt.

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Most of the good bear bait sites are taken and people that have them usually renew them - a person that has a bait site gets the first chance to renew that site. Sites left over can be registered starting April 1 (or the first working day after that is April 1 is on a weekend). There are hunters that spot and stalk bears in the northern Bighorns, but the majority of bears in that area are shot over baits.

ClearCreek

The way you hunt bears totally depends on your style. Personal I could never hunt bait... just because I wouldn't want to sit in a blind for days on end. I prefer to do spot and stalk backpack pack hunts therefore I like to hunt avalanche slides that are greening up or logging roads. My recommendation is to find an alpine back-country spot away from roads and hike in as far as possible. Go as late in the season as you can late (may early june) if the regs allow. Trails will likely be snowy in places and be prepared to slog through lots of snow in the timber (bring gaiters). To do your computer scouting look for really green steep slopes on google earth, I have actually found north facing slopes to be better. You will glass the slopes right at the edge of snow where things are the greenest and wet. Bears are eating the plants that come up right as the snow recedes. On logging roads try to find roads that have been closed for a while and slowly walk them, often bears can be found eating grass on the edges of the roads, note with logging roads sometimes you have to walk the roads and put in tons of miles 10-15+ a day to find bears as the timber can be so dense and/or the stands of timber so flat you can't really glass them.
Cold calling bears doesn't work well but if you get eyes on a bear you can often call them in with fawn/calf elk calls. I haven't found rabbit calls to be very effective in MT or ID in the spring. I have seen spring bears out feeding at all times of the day, but afternoons do tend to be a bit better than mornings.

I agree with the above on afternoons are best. I find bears intriguing. I think they are part ghost. I have seen a few bears that just appear. More than once I have been sitting on a ridge glassing and had a bear show up below me at a couple hundred yards or less. Our of nowhere. No noise no sign, just there it is. I have done the sit and wait ( never over bait as for me I cant do that either). I sat and waited for 4 days straight one time where we had cameras and located bears near water. I probably fell asleep and missed one. I have sat in stand, on the ground and have been lucky one time for a good bear to end my sitting misery. I cant do it any more. Now if I can find scat I will cruise around the area where I can see lots of hillsides. Bears tend to cruise roads or ridges where they have good visual even though their eyesight is not good. Watch your scent. There nose is better than any deer or elk. If you are in bear country I think it can at anytime so be ready.