Thoughts on Baiting

[ALwoodsman]

This year Alabama passed a new law allowing bait but you must be 100 yards from it and not be able to see it.  The club that I recently joined has decided to allow individuals to put out bait.  There are 70 members and about 6500 acres.  Some of these guys don't really even hunt, alot of them don't hunt more than 100 yards from their 4 wheeler and not far from camp. I am wandering how this is going to affect the hunting.  I do not plan on baiting and will be getting as far away from the other hunters as possible.  Anybody else that has hunted in this type of situation, what are your thoughts?  I am not looking for answers reguarding the ethics of baiting.  I choose not to but everyone has there own opinion.  I am just looking for insight on how this will affect the hunting in a state that has never allowed baiting.

[Izzy]

I like hunting over bait. Its not always as effective as one might think though. Only takes a few killings at a bait site and the animals in question go on high alert.

[Bear Heart]

I wish Washington state would have never banned bear baiting. Not being able to hunt cats with dogs is also nonsensical.

[JamesV]

I have no problem with any kind of legal hunting or the use of any weapon that is legal.

[awbowman]

The key to bait working for you, at least where we hunt, is minimizing pressure.  A mature deer will simply not come out in the open during legal shooting times if there is pressure, PERIOD.  They know that the bait is there and they will come only AFTER shooting time. There is no great hurry for them to be there.

The key to hunting bait is finding where they "stage up" to wait for dark.  Situate yourself near a feed tree (they may want a few acorns until they wait) that is dropping in between the bedding and the feed (at least 150-200 yards from the feed).

Mind you, we do hunt pressured deer, but that is my suggestion.

As a side note, I find bait is more effective early (when they are not as wired up) and LATE season (when the natural browse is dead and the feed trees are at the end of bearing acorns).

As a final note, the 2 greatest PLUSES for baiting is that it is the best way to keep deer fairly close to your hunting area AND my favorite, it will give a kid time to make a good ethical shot.

[Blaino]

Hunting baited deer isn't like shooting fish in a barrel as some will have you believe.  Deer will come into the bait all jacked up and be VERY jumpy about everything.  Not many mature bucks will come to a bait site during daylight hours. I don't put bait out until the end of the growing/harvest season when all the fields are picked and the oaks are finished. I’ll take natural bait over anything else every time. Just on the basis of the deer being more relaxed.... it's hard to beat a white oak when it's dropping acorns like rain!

FYI your deer might act totally different since this will be the first time baiting has been "legal".... They'll figure it out pretty quick though.

[TxAg]

Just figure out where they're baiting and set up on trails leading that direction. Could work in your favor. From experience, deer are much less spooky on their way to bait, than while actually at the bait site.

[Sticks2117]

I HATE baiting there are many articles written about how it negatively affects natural deer movements. I tried it and witnessed that it does affect natural deer movements. My advise is to get as far away from bait as possible, thats what I do.

[Paul Shirek]

I agree with Sticks. In my experience, baiting wrecks deer hunting and deer hunters... JMO

[JamesKerr]

I hope this thread doesn't become a bait vs. non bait ethics argument like they usually do. Down where I hunt in the southern states mainly LA and AR but sometimes TX, everyone baits mainly with corn feeders and food plots. I agree with what Izzy said. It is not as easy to kill game as one thinks especially when you hunt in high pressure areas. I use bait for almost all of my hunting, I don't think it makes me any less of a hunter than anyone else if that is what your getting at. I look at hunting like this as long as it's legal and done ethically and respectfully I am game for it.

[Joeabowhunter]

Originally posted by JamesV:
I have no problem with any kind of legal hunting or the use of any weapon that is legal.

x2 But I will say around my area where the deer have more beans, corn and acorns than they can eat, baits are much less effective than people may think.  Late season when snow is on the ground and it's very cold you'll get more action but the mature deer know to stay nocturnal and baits mean danger to them.

[halfseminole]

I live butted up on the Bankhead National Forest, my land is legal to hunt and I've been observing some patterns.  But if baiting is legal, that would give me a lot of help that most of you don't need.  

I'm blind in one eye, have one arm that's shorter than the other and severely damaged and I don't walk well any more.  I know how to place a shot correctly, I know how to ignore what won't be a clean kill but I don't have the strength to hike backcountry for days or drag a kill that will almost certainly outweigh me by a lot very far.  I'd be interested in drawing one near enough I could recover it myself to continue to preserve the illusion that I am still independent a little while longer.  It also doesn't hurt that I hunt to feed myself and my wife, and I don't give a rip about trophies (antlers in my house get made into things-there are no mounted antlers or taxidermied parts in the house.)  I'd probably prefer trying to drag up a fat doe than trying to trick the ten-point behind my house (who is probably the picture of breeding fitness) and keep the breeding lines strong.  We have too many deer here, too many lots of things, and I'm trying to keep one of those things from being empty plates.

My two cents.  I'd still hunt with poison like my forebears did if it were legal-but I don't care about antlers, I care about eating, I control access to my woods and who hunts it, and I can't eat the whole woods worth of deer in a season.  I might understand the ramifications and proper usage, but I can't expect everyone to, and so I agree with it being illegal for that fact.  

I'm not trying to step on toes, I'm a crippled hunter who will not quit for the love of the hunt.  I refuse to stoop to computer aided guns and such, my wishes are for a fast, humane kill and not to blow my failing heart out getting it home.  Too many seasons I let them go because no good shot presented itself (and I had very little time to hunt many years, as well.)  Even now, as I rely more on it, I still plan to be the same way-I'll just be a little hungrier for it.

My two cents, as they say-not that it buys you anything any more.  Guess you could throw them at people or something.

[JMG]

I don't hunt over bait but I do put out bait throughout the year. I really start putting out a lot of mineral supplements, corn, apples and deer licks the week after bow season ends. I do this to help them get through the winter, help the does with their pregnancies and help the bucks recover from the rut. I put out more throughout the months of January to July then I do during hunting season. I believe it helps the deer a lot more to put out food during the winter and early spring as on a management level. I like to think it helps the deer herd in my area stay healthier and for me, that's what its all about, a healthier deer herd. As the season approaches we slow up putting out bait considerably. Even though we put out food, we don't have a stand within 100yrds or better to the site.

[Centex]

Hunting over bait is the norm where I live in Texas.  When hunting private property bait has always been close.  Real close.  However this year I have plan on personally imposing the same limits as your states laws.  

In green years deer don't pattern well to feeders.  Older bucks are wary (more familiar to stupid human tricks) around baiting areas.  I plan to hunt the trails and scrape lines I found in February.

[Cmane07]

I don't hunt over bait but they passed that same rule here in Mississippi a couple years ago and I honestly don't think it affects my hunting much at all unless there is almost no forage around or very late in the season.

[Roger Norris]

Originally posted by ALwoodsman:
This year Alabama passed a new law allowing bait but you must be 100 yards from it and not be able to see it.  The club that I recently joined has decided to allow individuals to put out bait.  There are 70 members and about 6500 acres.  Some of these guys don't really even hunt, alot of them don't hunt more than 100 yards from their 4 wheeler and not far from camp. I am wandering how this is going to affect the hunting.  I do not plan on baiting and will be getting as far away from the other hunters as possible.  Anybody else that has hunted in this type of situation, what are your thoughts?  I am not looking for answers reguarding the ethics of baiting.  I choose not to but everyone has there own opinion.  I am just looking for insight on how this will affect the hunting in a state that has never allowed baiting.

Joe...with 6500 acres and 70 members....you WILL be hunting over bait whether you like it or not.

Say goodbye to the wonderful NATURAL daytime movements of your whitetails. They will soon become mostly nocturnal, and there will be "wagon wheel" spoke -like trails leading to all of the piles.

Sorry if I sound negative, but large scale baiting sure screws up an area, IMHO.    

[BUCKY]

Hate it!

[Thumper Dunker]

Whats the diferance between food on the ground or doe in heat ect  hanging from a tree and sitting buy a scrap ?   Im like others here as long as its legal.Shoot what you want(weapon) and use what you want.

[halfseminole]

Is that Elm Bluff by any chance?

[Bear Heart]

Natural patterns? Like those around corn and soybean fields?