To bait or not to bait that is the question

[EOB]

Honestly I am not trying to start any fights, so keep this civil. Christmas is a week away, be nice.

After reading a recent thread on CWD I got to thinking about baiting. I would like to hear from those of you who can no longer bait/feed deer. Maybe baiting was banned in your county or you moved to a non-baiting area. What has your experience been? What did you learn? How has hunting changed? Has your opinion changed on baiting?

 

[MoBuckChaser]

F-Baiting!

 

[Freeborn]

Baiting, why would anyone who values and respects hunting want to bait? Baiting ends the concept of fair chase hunting.

 

[MoBuckChaser]

Baiting...no. Feeding in northern areas once all seasons close...yes.

Agreed!

 

[Four Seasons]

Baiting...no. Feeding in northern areas once all seasons close...yes.

Times 1000...They say CWD can be passed in urine and saliva yet their next breath says they cant use either of the two to test and find the prion? I call BS and great to the guys that have a real. full winter feeding program in the norther states. I know of one close to my heart but it is pricey and has to be done all winter long or more harm than good will come to the deer.

 

[MoBuckChaser]

I know one program also, I leave 50 acres of corn stand all winter and let them have at it!

 

[bueller]

I was taught to hunt and to bait at that the same. Glad it worked out this way because I quickly learned that this type of hunting was not for me. I stopped hunting over bait before it was outlawed in our area. IME the hunting improved in the area after baiting was banned because the deer were very much noturnal when all the bait piles were around. They still go nocturnal due to hunting pressure but not to the same extent as before.

 

[EOB]

I was hoping to hear about some actual experience in a situation where baiting is no longer allowed and how it changed hunting. I do appreciate your opinions. :)

 

[shawnv]

I think if the property you hunt has marginal browse, marginal cover, no standing ag close or a food plot that doesn't provide enough then you are going to notice a big difference in overall deer numbers. If you remove bait I disagree it levels the playing field in all cases, I many situations I think it makes things swing more to those with $$$ and land.

 

[NWWI]

We hunt in the northern CWD zone in Wisconsin. To be honest it hasn't changed all that much. There is still high hunting pressure that keeps there deer pretty nocturnal. They still use the best habitat. The biggest factor for us since the ban was the unlimited doe tags. The herd has been knocked down considerably. My dad used to bait every once in a while, the deer still bed where they always do and we still get about the same number of deer. We just don't over harvest.

 

[Jameson]

Honestly I am not trying to start any fights, so keep this civil. Christmas is a week away, be nice.

After reading a recent thread on CWD I got to thinking about baiting. I would like to hear from those of you who can no longer bait/feed deer. Maybe baiting was banned in your county or you moved to a non-baiting area. What has your experience been? What did you learn? How has hunting changed? Has your opinion changed on baiting?

I've done a little hunting in Wisconsin with and without bait. When baiting was banned the neighbors kept on baiting so there wasn't much difference in the area besides the small chunk of land I was hunting. Instead of hunting a pile of food I switched it up to trying to stalk up on bedded deer. Much more enjoyable hunting.

I never really liked baiting, but after trying and/or hunting in an area with many others using it I dislike it even more.

 

[wiscwhip]

IME the hunting improved in the area after baiting was banned because the deer were very much noturnal when all the bait piles were around. They still go nocturnal due to hunting pressure but not to the same extent as before.

This was our experience as well, almost all movement and trail camera pics were after dark.

IME...the change to hunting was minimal to non-existent...both in Dane and Juneau counties.

This was not our experience in our neighborhood of Juneau Co(about 3 miles from stu's old place), our hunting changed quite drastically when baiting was allowed. Daytime sightings and natural movements decreased considerably.

When baiting was banned the neighbors kept on baiting so there wasn't much difference in the area besides the small chunk of land I was hunting. I never really liked baiting, but after trying and/or hunting in an area with many others using it I dislike it even more.

We quit baiting as soon as CWD was found in our adjoining counties, but some of our neighbors kept baiting for a few years after that, much as DSD had seen. After they had stopped the corn piles(most of them hunt small food plots now) the movement returned to what we saw before everyone in the neighborhood started using bait piles, normal browsing patterns.

 

[shawnv]

I honestly have no problem with baiting, each to his own where legal on their own land but I would be 100% fine if it was outlawed everywhere (It will happen).

My experience and thoughts...
1) I have used it for trail camera inventory on private ground.
2) I don't have money to grow acres of corn like some of you so if I have a plot I want deer to spend more time in...in the short term while other habitat improvements are made I will scatter the legal amount of corn in the plot.
3) I do not like baiting on public land because it causes some feel like they own that spot all season long.
4) Massive piles of illegal bait pull deer in where they should not be making it overcrowded
4) It decreases the odds of you killing a nice buck at that spot.
5) It makes it easy for a new hunter to see a deer and harvest a doe, that doesn't bother me one bit.

For those that hate it under any circumstance, do you feel the same way about Bear hunters who bait?

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I hate baiting. We don't bait on my land in northern WI, but the neighbors do and daylight movement is practically non-existent even though there are decent numbers of bucks in the older age classes. I honestly hope CWD is found in the county near ours just so baiting can be banned. I live in SE MN where baiting is illegal. In SE MN we have fewer older age class bucks than on our WI property, but in MN the deer actually move in daylight because they need to forage naturally rather than just get all their calorie needs in one pile below a permanent stand in a swamp. In WI I've planted thousands of trees, an apple orchard, food plots, timber stand improvement and leave corn and beans standing every winter and I can't compete with my neighbor who literally drops a bucket of apples in a swamp 10 yards from his mailbox. I probably should just give in and bait like everyone else, but so far I can't bring myself to do it. I get closer every day though.

To me baiting deer vs. bears is an apples and oranges comparison. Without baiting bears the hunter success rate would drop dramatically and the number of bears would increase. We already have a tough time getting a fawn or two to survive the predator gauntlet up there, so any increase in the bear population would be very bad. Without bear baiting I think the bear numbers would rise so dramatically that spot and stalk bear hunting would be quite successful in our area though. I guess if I could get a spot and stalk bear tag every year I would prefer that over the baiting tag that is available every 7 years or so.

 

[Reagan]

We never baited through most of my hunting life. We used to look down on anyone hunted over bait even though it is legal in Ohio. Now days we do bait some. It is usually late season for doe hunting with a bow. We don't have much land area for plots so they tend to be browsed to nothing by December or January. My dad will spread a little corn and the deer will feed on it no different than a plot. Baiting does not cause nocturnal deer, pressure does. Baiting also does not guarantee success but some years it does help.

 

[sandbur]

I have always hunted in areas where baiting was illegal and viewed as unethical.
Just not the way I want to hunt.
One year when I had a tag left, a farmer said I could sit by his manure spreader and shoot a doe on the silage pile. I did not do so.
It might be a great way to get a deer for the table, but it just isn't what I call hunting. This was not bait, but was silage stored for cattle feeding.

 

[sandbur]

Ethics are funny...if we were born and raised in Alberta or Saskatchewan I'd bet we'd have few, if any ethical issues with using bait to attract deer for harvesting. I've seen plenty of true big woods hunters in northern MN and WI, VT, ME, NH, and upstate NY make similar statements about using foodplots as many of us do about using a few gallons of apples or corn to bait deer.

Don't know who is right...or if there is a "right" or "wrong"...I just know that "ethical" varies from person to person and area to area.

Ethics are a personal choice, as long as the action is legal.

I agree with you totally.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I'll agree that pressure makes deer nocturnal, but just having bait next to a bedding area out can effectively do the same thing in that general area. The deer will move in daylight, but only from their bedding area to the bait site that is set up nearby. I guess that's good for the guy with the bait pile, but bad for the rest of the hunters in the area. A well placed bait site at the edge of a bedding swamp can effectively soak up the majority of the daylight deer movement in the area. The difference in daytime deer movement in SE MN compared with northern WI is unbelievable even though both areas have tons of small game, bowhunting, wood cutting, etc. pressure on the deer.

 

[shawnv]

If you watch Jim Shockey's show, when he's deer hunting at his home stomping grounds it's all over bait. It seems pretty normal in Canada.

 

[Jordan Selsor]

Illegal here in Mo. I feed pre an post season for better trail cam inventory. I think neighbors baiting is one reason I had a very slow rifle season. Pisses me off. I will be planting corn this spring