Ban on Baiting

[gooser]

Did you happen to catch the news?.... ... no baiting for deer in the lower peninsula at all this year.
this due to a deer found on a private farm ,to have CWD. (Chronic Wasting Disease).
I think there will be a lot of revenue lost because of this. Ordered by the DNR.

 

 

[warrior1]

i caught it, i thought extreme measures,how ever , when you consider how fast this disease can spread it is not a bad move. my only thought would be
the dnr could have went a step further and said the ban would be reviewed
at such and such intervals to determine if the same could be lifted.

it could be an interesting deer season,especially in the north if the acorn crop is down.with a good acorn crop there remains some decent hunting. dan

[1sourdough]

 It(bait ban) sure does cause an uproar. I'm sure they had some plans in the hopper in the event CWD did come up. We have plenty if recent experience here in WI that they can copy. The deer are still in the woods & think of the money a guy will save since the bait prices are up anyway.

 I have never really done much baiting, maybe just help a partner a time or 2. I don't get worked up if it is banned or not. I may feel a little more for the guys that sell the bait.

[Cap'n Jon]

All those carrot fields in the thumb look foward to the sales.  I used to buy a 50 lb bag and can them.  They are pretty good for being a "bait" carrot. I got away from baiting a few years ago.  I just sit on my trails and wait for the deer to go thruogh on there way to my neighbors stand who baits.

[petemi]

I'm on 120 acres 7 miles north of Engadine.  I must have 200 volunteer apple trees throughout the woods, 20 acres of alfalfa, hay fields, sanctuary woods and water.  In almost 20 years here, I don't think we bought 50 dollars worth of bait.  We've got lots of good active deer runs and we know their patterns, bedding and feeding areas and times.  I'm going to camp with some buddies next weekend Pat hunting, and I'm bringing a dozen rainbows, a venison roast and two backstraps, and a gallon bag of morels that came out of the Sleeper Lake fire area.  They've been frozen since spring....I hope the shrooms are ok.  Some folks got 60 and 100 pounds of morels out of that fire area this Spring!

It's time to jerk all the venison that's left in the freezer.  I'll be taking my 13 year old grandson out on his first deer hunt on the 27th and 28th Youth Hunt.  He's got both buck and doe tags, and we've got plenty of deer.  On our place, bucks have to be 8 point or better and we don't allow taking does with fawns or fawns.  There are lots of year and a half old does and some good bucks around, so I think he'll get his first deer........and learn to field dress it and process it.

Yesterday morning at 5 a.m.  I had 3 wolves howling from the North West, South West and East.  They're the main reason we make sure a doe doesn't have fawns before we shoot.  I don't believe a fawn has a chance of making it around here without his mom.

[yooper77]

I understand the reaction with baiting deer and CWD, but how is that different when you see groups of deer in a potatoes or corn fields feeding all together.

I am sure baiting will be banned in Upper Michigan soon; it’s only a matter of time.
 
I don't have the time or money in gas or bait to properly set up a baiting station anyways.  I STILL HUNT, so I usually see many more animals then baiting and sitting and waiting.

Isn’t planting food plots baiting or is that a thin line?  If not, just grow some corn and forget to harvest it every year.

yooper77

[petemi]

My neighbor on the North side has multiple feed plots all over the place, and he gets Management Antlerless tags every year.  Kind of a contradiction, don't you think?  I believe if you just manage a place for deer and small game, you'll have lots of both.  I'm going out back for pats right now....opening day.  We may have steak and pats on the grill tonight, perhaps a bunny too.

[Lloyd Smale]

I for one think its bs that a guy cant bait. A guy with enough money can buy land plant apple trees plant alfalfa and draw every deer in the area in and away from a hunter that doesnt have the money to do it. We have a camp and we bait. Its no differnt then hunting over a crop. Its a lot safer way to hunt as my young son and nephew arent wandering around bumping into other hunters. Ill will be a dime to a dollar that this law will result in accidental shootings in the future. As to spreading deseases that bunk too. Deer are socail animals and will run together no matter what and desease will spread. If they have a problem with cwd in an area then the only way to end it is to eradicate the population in that area. Stopping baiting will do nothing. For the most part at least up here in the Up the people who want it banned are the people who have large tracks of land to hunt or have areas like yours that they have artificialy placed food plots. Why not. It would sure increase there chance of shooting large deer.

I'm on 120 acres 7 miles north of Engadine.  I must have 200 volunteer apple trees throughout the woods, 20 acres of alfalfa, hay fields, sanctuary woods and water.  In almost 20 years here, I don't think we bought 50 dollars worth of bait.  We've got lots of good active deer runs and we know their patterns, bedding and feeding areas and times.  I'm going to camp with some buddies next weekend Pat hunting, and I'm bringing a dozen rainbows, a venison roast and two backstraps, and a gallon bag of morels that came out of the Sleeper Lake fire area.  They've been frozen since spring....I hope the shrooms are ok.  Some folks got 60 and 100 pounds of morels out of that fire area this Spring!

It's time to jerk all the venison that's left in the freezer.  I'll be taking my 13 year old grandson out on his first deer hunt on the 27th and 28th Youth Hunt.  He's got both buck and doe tags, and we've got plenty of deer.  On our place, bucks have to be 8 point or better and we don't allow taking does with fawns or fawns.  There are lots of year and a half old does and some good bucks around, so I think he'll get his first deer........and learn to field dress it and process it.

Yesterday morning at 5 a.m.  I had 3 wolves howling from the North West, South West and East.  They're the main reason we make sure a doe doesn't have fawns before we shoot.  I don't believe a fawn has a chance of making it around here without his mom.

[1sourdough]

 I heard some talk the other day about a possible future U.P. bait ban. That one will take 30-40 years to implement. I have never shot a deer over bait but I'm not really against it. I did have some older relatives that hunted over bait their last years hunting.