Sounds like you're speaking from experience. You can't judge everyone by you and your buddies actions.I don't care if they do or don't, I rarely deer hunt anymore anyway.I'd bet really good money that 90% of private land hunters are baiting if it could be proven. On another note i see what the state allows to happen to our deer herd every summer, with 0 boundaries, i think its absolutely silly that they regulate the ones paying their salaries but not the others. I've just got enough common sense to see what's going on around us. Don't be naive, start paying attention and it will open your eyes. Between Walmart, feed mills, and co-ops its not hard to see how many people are buying corn.
All of our deer get wasted on the neighboring properties in the standing summer beans, to the point we don't have any age structure beyond 3.5 yrs of age, and that I can prove. It will happen again this summer.
Turkeys are no different last year me and a few buddies killed double digit gobblers across 6 counties, about 50% public, 50% private. 93% of them had bait in their crop. I couldn't even begin to tell you the last deer I killed that didn't have it in its stomach content. Maybe it's just here but I doubt it.
Baiting Bill HB1618/SB1942
- Thread starter bjohnson
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Lol no wasn't our bait and I can assure you of that... I wouldn't haul it into the places we hunt for it.
Bgoodman30
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2016
- Messages
- 2,481
NO
As far as the work it requires I'm not naive enough to know that it takes way more effort for a food plot. That's not my point at all . Yes food plots can be more beneficial...I get that but both have one common denominator.... to attract wildlife to a certain spot but through other's posts that is not the only reason . Those who don't have the means ( equipment, the type of the property , etc ) to put out a food plot and don't have natural food sources then they could be somewhat successful by putting out bait of some sort . I only said yes only if it becomes legal and use bait that don't harm the wildlife which you can and I found that out on this site . So discussions such as this as long as we are civil to one another we all can learn things from our hunting brothers. Plus only on private property which then you would still have the choice to bait or not, public you wouldn't have a choice . Now this is the only post I'm going to reply to anymore because it's been beat to death and everyone has a right to their opinion . I'm a person that will offer my opinion based on my thoughts and not to impress John Doe Hunter because he's a staple on this forum !! I'm not about pizzing off someone for just fun of it unless it was intentional for a laugh . Enough said... I do appreciate everyone that gave their opinion even if we disagreed on this subject because for now it still is a free country !!
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The problem with your opinion is a food plot isn't a great attractant. Once acorns drop, food plots and corn piles just make you feel better. I would take a nice white oak flat any day over a food plot. The only reason I have a food plot is because I don't have but a handful of oaks. At one time, my place was just crossed and I hoped having a change of food might slow one down. Nowadays, with all the building that's went on, it makes for slow hunting. Late season, it tends to get better, but it's still not a given.
easttennjed
Active Member
easttennjed
Active Member
Do any of you anti baiters use bait to catch fish?
MidTennFisher
Well-Known Member
Absolutely not. It's terrible all around for wildlife. It's one of the things I hate the most about South Carolina. Everyone and their mother pours corn on the ground here to kill deer. Literally zero hunting skill needed, just shoot at the corn. Seriously this place is 2nd to Texas. My 6 yr old daughter knows more about hunting than all these corn pile guarders.
Take it from a guy who has lived in SC for 4 years and seen the absolute piss poor quality of hunting as well as talked to many lifelong residents who watched deer and turkey hunting rapidly decline in the upstate once baiting was legalized.
I can not think of one positive outcome of dumping piles of corn on the ground for the overall health of a wild game herd in any state. All it does it make it incredibly easy to kill a deer for lazy people. The only time corn should be dumped on the ground is if it's in a hog trap.
Take it from a guy who has lived in SC for 4 years and seen the absolute piss poor quality of hunting as well as talked to many lifelong residents who watched deer and turkey hunting rapidly decline in the upstate once baiting was legalized.
- Feeds turkey nest predators like coons and possums thus propping up their population
- Feeds hogs, they eat a lot of it. So you'll also be propping up their population.
- Concentrates larger predators like coyotes wanting to ambush deer
- Great for spreading communicable diseases (you want extended CWD rifle seasons statewide?)
- Significant impact on deer movement
- Rots and produces enough aflatoxin to kill turkey poults and quail
- Pulls game animals off public land
- No nutritional value for the deer. They are better off eating green food plots, browse, and acorns
- Negative impact on survival/foraging instincts that wild game is supposed to have. Wild animals should stay wild.
I can not think of one positive outcome of dumping piles of corn on the ground for the overall health of a wild game herd in any state. All it does it make it incredibly easy to kill a deer for lazy people. The only time corn should be dumped on the ground is if it's in a hog trap.
deerhunter10
Well-Known Member
This may be the dumbest comparison I've ever seen.
easttennjed
Active Member
Thank you for your wonderful response
Controlled baiting would be fine with me and I hope it passes. Some argue that corn molds on the ground which is true. Out west where there's miles and miles of corn fields that get harvested there's corn left all over those fields not in a pile but still molds. General purpose of a food plot is no different than controlled baiting.
What does controlled baiting mean exactly?
And I'd disagree about general purpose of a food plot. I have several and hunt none of them. Their purpose is to offer year round food source that isn't available naturally anywhere else in the area, which draws in and holds deer on/near the property. In winter when hunting season is over is when a plot really shines. Everything else is dead and brown but the deer still have green lush food. Not only does it keep deer utilizing my property but keeps them healthy and gives pregnant does an advantage over other deer that don't have such a source of winter nutrition. Healthy momma makes healthy fawn makes big racks at maturity.
Baiting on the other hand offers zero nutrition outside of carbs and only happens during season for the purpose of hunting over. Once season ends the bait is no longer necessary, abruptly ending which leaves all the deer it attracted immediately with nothing. If not for the bait they'd have moved into more productive winter ground. So yes there is a very real difference between the purpose of plots vs bait. Unless you're putting supplemental feed out year round then baiting serves zero positive for the deer. Plots do.
Yep, artificial only.
Great food plots are a lot of work
Kill plots and other plots are real easy
Break ground throw seed pray for rain
Controlling how much you put out with a feeder or other means so there is no corn or whatever you put to rot, everyone does not have fertile ground to grow something, not everyone has equipment or means to transport equipment to a place to work ground. When you get to the bottom of it there's not a single difference between a plot or supplemental source of food. The wildlife is being attracted to a location. How come every state that it's legal there's no issue. Being lazy or skill has nothing to do with it. Everyone has different situations for what they are able to do.
This whole thread is a joke.Twra allows feeding year round as long as your not hunting over it.then claims feeding wildlife is bad for there health. Surely y'all are not blind.its just a money racket open your eyes and quit being so naive. I guess they can only get dieses during deer season.GIVE ME A BREAK! Gonna have to come up with something better than there health being a reason or stop baiting all together.
AT Hiker
Well-Known Member
I'm digging this!
Hear me out.
So, I'm sitting in a tree over top a major pinch point. I've got my #16 fly rod tipped with a corn dry fly……
DoubleRidge
Well-Known Member
After 7 pages its clear everyone has pretty much made up their mind and I'm amazed at how many people believe there is absolutely no difference in a bait pile and a food plot. Food plots done correctly can add diversity to a property, improve nesting cover, improve fawning ground and improve soil quality.
A corn pile does nothing to help wildlife, zero...keep feeding coons and do nothing to improve turkey nesting habitat...that will help turkey numbers...and for those who dont believe aflatoxin is real...ask why does Texas requires certified aflatoxin free corn? In addition, deer eating too much corn too fast is not healthy...its not healthy for any animal. Ten minutes of research will show those who want to learn...the negatives of bait piles far outweigh any positives.
There is a difference in managing habitat for all wildlife and doing whats best for the deer and turkey....verses serving our own singular interest of killing a deer or turkey....there are givers and there are takers.
And as for the repeated theme of the "haves and the have nots"....if you can afford to buy bags of "deer corn" from walmart or TSC then you can afford a gallon of chainsaw gas.
Work on some habitat improvements...Work on improving fawning cover...Work on turkey nesting and brooding cover...Work on simple throw and mow plots to help deer through late winter after the season is over.
To improve the habitat takes some work but the return on investment is much greater than what you'll get from a truck load of corn.
A corn pile does nothing to help wildlife, zero...keep feeding coons and do nothing to improve turkey nesting habitat...that will help turkey numbers...and for those who dont believe aflatoxin is real...ask why does Texas requires certified aflatoxin free corn? In addition, deer eating too much corn too fast is not healthy...its not healthy for any animal. Ten minutes of research will show those who want to learn...the negatives of bait piles far outweigh any positives.
There is a difference in managing habitat for all wildlife and doing whats best for the deer and turkey....verses serving our own singular interest of killing a deer or turkey....there are givers and there are takers.
And as for the repeated theme of the "haves and the have nots"....if you can afford to buy bags of "deer corn" from walmart or TSC then you can afford a gallon of chainsaw gas.
Work on some habitat improvements...Work on improving fawning cover...Work on turkey nesting and brooding cover...Work on simple throw and mow plots to help deer through late winter after the season is over.
To improve the habitat takes some work but the return on investment is much greater than what you'll get from a truck load of corn.
A quick search on youtube will pull up hundreds of videos of people creating plots in the woods using nothing but simple gardening tools you keep in your backyard shed. I've got several such plots of my own in places you'd have to airlift equipment into if you were going to use it. Acidic soil in rugged terrain and I grow clovers, brassica, grains, even peas & beans.
The argument that baiting is a substitute for plots for folks who don't have equipment or fertile soil is bogus.
If you want to argue in favor of baiting then do so on its merits, not by falsely comparing it to plotting. Explain why baiting is good, how it's beneficial. The proposal isn't about plots. Its about bait. So what about bait, standing on its own, is worth legalizing?
I appreciate what you are trying to accomplish with killing nanny's all over the state, but obviously you don't have a lot of food plot planting experience. In 40 years of doing them I've never done one that was "real easy" . Soil testing, spreading lime to get ph correct, spraying weeds, planting* , fertilizing, praying for rain. Re- doing it all over again if you don't get timely rain. None of that is "easy" or cheap. Of course that doesn't include equipment cost, fuel, equipment maintenance & repair, herbicide, time, etc...,, " Break ground, throw seed & pray for rain" is a recipe for disaster., Good thing that you know folks that will let you take advantage of their hard work & $ to support your endeavor.
* Our seed cost alone exceeded $3k, nothing easy about that.
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