Am thinking about bringing my smoker to my parents' cabin in the Blue Mts this weekend and smoking up a bunch of salmon. There are bears and possums and raccoons and all manner of critters that live nearby.

Has anybody ever had their smoker visited by the local wildlife? My main concern is bears, but I can sure see some coons breaking into the smoker for a snack.

Any experiences with this?

Lawnchair+.30-30=Safe Smoker

Sounds like a good way to side-step the no-bait bear law.

I would suggest setting that smoker a ways away from the cabin...it is SURE to draw bears if there are any in the area.

Better yet, take SOL's advice...set downwind about 200 yds. with the '06 and then smoke the bear too..;-)

Mike

Wow, sounds dire. How do you guys who live out in the sticks smoke your fish?

Out in Olalla, we dry 'em up real good and roll our own

I have raccoons all over the place, and haven't ever had them try to invade the smoker, even when I smoked all night. Now I'm back to using a Big Chief, and can do a batch of fish in 12 hours, so confine my smoking to daylight hours and never have an animal problem. It probably helps that my smokers are only a few feet from my dog kennel, so critters don't get too close. I don't have bears, though, so can't answer that one.