I have 1 question, How in the hell can anyone say using bait is unethical?
I don't think that is the issue. You sig says that hunting is your heart and soul. Well it is mine too, only I happen to live in an area of the country where it is impossible to hunt on private lands, as do you. Once baiting is the norm, hunting can no longer be what it was, because it is no longer possible to hunt the way one did before baiting.
I grew up hunting on public land where there is no baiting, and I love that. But, it cannot be done on private land in Louisiana. Once you go to private land, you are restricted to certain stands that sit there overlooking plots or feeders, and what I used to call hunting is reduced to sitting and waiting for a nibble. Like fishing with a bobber - it's a waiting game.
As a person that loves to hunt, but lives in a state where it has been rendered obsolete on private land by technology and deer farming, not only my state, but the states on either side of me as well, I feel a little like the indian in the old commercial who has a tear in his eye when he looks at how things have been trashed up.
Once the majority of people hunt with bait as they do here, they are the first ones to stand up for outlawing any and all other forms of hunting that might interfere with their method. Since sitting in the same couple of stands all year gazing at a feeder became the norm around here, all forms of hunting with dogs are on the way out. Small game hunting - pushed aside. Anything that disturbs the feeder gazers is on the way out. This even spills over onto the public lands, because so many people learn to gaze at feeders first, when they go onto public land they feel the same things are needed - they must have attractants, and they must not be disturbed by other (lesser) users of public land.
So I am not against baiting because it's unethical - that is debatable. I am against it because it changes everything about every kind of hunting everywhere it is practiced. Leaving those of us who prefer not to hunt over bait with little choice but to stay home.
In the area where I live, I must go somewhere and camp overnight to be able to hunt in a wilderness area without bait. There are dozens of leases around here that are always looking for members, but you are not allowed to hunt on those leases except by the approved deer farming/feeder gazing method. Those lands are out for me, so I hunt far less often than I would like to. I love bow hunting deer as much as anyone here, and I would love to have more options.
Topic: Baiting pole (Read 4299 times)
