When I use to bait for bears we always used 50 lb bags of dog food covered in cheap maple syrup, lay a grease pad down in front of the barrel with some used KFC or McD grease or wherever you can get it, bear would step in it and leave a trail wherever it went. As a cover scent we used anise mixed with water and would spray it whenever we were on stand. Something else we tried that seemd to work pretty well, we would run sticks through some old potato's and stick them in the ground in spots that would give you a clear shot on a bear while he was enjoying his tater on a stick. We never ran game cameras but used cheap battery operated clocks (not digital) tied to a tree, wrap fishing line around the battery and then string it around the baitsite. Any time they would come in they would trip the fishing string and yank the battery out stopping the clock, then it was a matter of figuring if it was am or pm. I shot my biggest black bear using this method. Good luck.
