A good idea, no?

[Dan Salmon]

http://www.outdoornews.com/May-2012/Prohibiting-Baiting-and-Feeding/

Sounds like a pretty well thought out and good idea. Seize the opportunity while you have it and learn from it. Maybe baiting isn't a big deal to movement patterns?

[MacGruber]

Amen to this. Ban it state wide and let's get back to some real hunting. It's sad to know the only way many people have ever experienced deer hunting is sitting over a large pile of corn.

[Jslotter]

Some hunters are gonna bait regardless. They will just become more creative with it to hide it.

[kellory]

Some hunters are gonna bait regardless. They will just become more creative with it to hide it.

Naw, farmers will just get "sloppy" when loading corn. "Spillage" isn't considered bait in most places, and friends of farmers will profit from knowing where a farmer missed the truck.

[Dan Salmon]

I'm not advocating just getting rid of it, on the contrary, I'm advocating the study of the practice and it's effectiveness/ineffectiveness and relationships to movement timing in the deer herd.

I have my opinions of it, but they are only opinions based on my observations. Hardly a steadfast and tested rule.

[willypete]

Your judging something you have never done i assume? If you have ever baited you would understand it isnt as easy as you think. I always hunt over bait, and i may stop this year. Now i am only saying this from a rifle season standpoint so keep that in mind.

I have hunted over a corn pile for 4 years(and hunted the same amount) and i have killed 4 deer doing so. Now you may be quick to point out averaging a deer every season is pretty darn good, but it had little to do with the free food. Only one of those deer got up and had the intention to go near the corn pile. BUT it was in a youth hunt which is a tad easier to get a deer to go to a corn pile during that time. The next deer i shot from this stand(the next day) was 50 yards away through the top of some trees standing up leaning on the tree. Defiantly no easy shot and they weren't going to the corn pile. So in this case the corn pile was no help. The next deer is a little different. While it happened to go to the corn pile i don't think it knew it was there so i don't think i lured it. Cause in months of trail cam photos it was never on there. Also if it wasn't there i would have been able to stop the buck regardless of the corn being there. The last case the corn pile worked severely against me. A mature doe knew exactly about the corn pile and knew to avoid it. Instead of going straight for the corn like you all think they do it sneaked behind me. Which forced me to make the most insanely lucky shot i probably will ever take in my life. Had to spin around pull the gun up and shoot with no support through a ton of saplings.After the bullet hit 7 branches(confirmed) it ended up skimming the bottom of the deer ripping the bottom open. It ran 400 yards before the stomach fell out then then quickly lost all its blood...luckiest shot and recovery i will ever witness.

Just consider that when you think it is a walk in the park to use a bait pile.

[Dan Salmon]

I'm not suggesting that baiting makes hunting easier at all. All I am suggesting is that the State of Wisconsin and/or Biology Graduate Students from Stevens Point/Madison seize the opportunity to study the effects of a baiting ban on daytime deer movement.

I think it would go a long way toward providing answers to questions that are being asked and/or hypothesized without a proven answer. Which leads to all the discourse between hunters that do/don't use bait for hunting.

[bullwinkle]

I quit baiting for the most part about 7 years ago. I still do it once in a while second season if I want to take out some does quickly. Frankly, it's too easy and it is more about killing than the chase. Developing habitat is so much more enjoyable and rewarding. I don't think it is good for hunters image as well. To be honest, I am not that proud of my baiting days.

I really don't get too passionate about eliminating baiting if this is an individual's choice. I do believe baiting will be eventually eliminated state wide very shortly as CWD continues to expand

[willypete]

I agree that they should study it and have in depth online surveys to fill out if you bait. Then maybe on that little card they make you fill out when you register a deer put a question asking if the deer was shot over a bait pile. Because if there was a guarantee the amount of mature deer shot would be light years higher on cards that state it wasn't over bait. If it was answered truthfully the results would be amazing how bad a bait pile will effect your chances at a mature deer. Honestly if you shoot a trophy buck over a bait pile you are the luckiest person on earth.

And in all my years of baiting with the help of trail cams i can safely say outside the peak rut bait piles make mature deer 100% nocturnal. They defiantly will effect movement and they will make deer more nocturnal than they normally would...by a noticeable difference.

[umpiremark]

Instead of placing a 5-gallon pail of apples near my stand, I plant 25 apple trees in an opening every year for 4 years; nurture them and care for them until they bear fruit.

Instead of placing a 5-gallon bucket of corn near my stands, I till up the eath near my tree stand and plant 1/4 acre of beets and turnips in 4 "kill plots" and hunt over them in the evening when deer feed in.


In this state we talk about baiting (the act of pouring something from a pail to the ground) like it's the evil of Satan ruining hunting as we know it, yet as hunters we'll spend millions on equipment, fertilizer, lime and seed and say what good farmers we are. Both scenarios above get deer to alter patterns based on their stomachs - hopefully somewhere near our stands. The first part is illegal and imoral, the second part is widely accepted and practiced.

Goofy logic if you ask me.