You say west/central Wisconsin. Curious to know if that is a private land area, as I am talking about the Nicolet forest, some 600,000 acres in Florence county alone, managed solely by the inept WDNR. Locked up private land does have deer on it, as it does, in my back yard also. What does this tell me? It tells me that the landowners can get on the same page and manage vast tracts of land to actually "see" deer, weather its on a camera or not. They only buy doe tags when they "want" to shoot a doe, not to buy one as their only viable chance to get venison. On small acerages you do have more pressure, and you "might" push the bucks into hiding because of bowhunting pressure. Let me be the 1st to tell you, there is NO pressure from bowhunters on these deer in the northeast WI/Mi border forest! How do I know this? There are not the numbers of hunters anymore, to make this a valid excuse. If you like peace and solitude while hunting, are a camera buff, and like to take pictures of Red squirrels and blue Jays this is the place for you. Not your sons 40. In fact, it can now be said, instead of bringing your camera along hunting, bring your bow/gun along while photographing.
I also didn't know that I and others, "Nowadays, folks just want to sit in their permanent stands in front of the Mister Heater and fear if they even walk thru their woods, they'll push all the deer to the neighbors." I don't know who the "neighbors" would be, but one of my favorite methods, is to walk slowly and deliberately through the cedar swamps and catch em napping. I suppose the neighbors are pretty happy, whoever they are.
I too, ride my bike in the northwoods. Running the highway east to west, from the U.P. border to Florence, 70 West, to Eagle River. That stretch from Florence to the T intersection of 70/139 was a suicide run just a few years ago. Crank it up and let your wind sail through your hair, day or night, not a problem now. But be carefull as you get to Eagle River, you start to run out of DNR controlled land and hit the Private stuff, That would be where "you" would be afraid to ride at night. So that would tell me, judging and managing a deer herd solely on a motorcycle ride down a certain stretch of highway is pretty fruitless, albeit, borderline ridiculous..
As far as baiting, that would be another DNR excuse for deer not being seen, put that up there with the harvest being down because to many hunters didn't go out Sunday afternoon because of the game, or hunters leaving early, not because of NO DEER, but some other lame excuse, weather is one they like to use.
Again, where I and others hunt, what use to be a decent place for a chance, baiting is just not prevalent anymore. Most intelligent hunters have figured out it just doesn't work, at one time, yes, but, I agree to a certain extent, deer do get smarter, like the days when treestands were 1st used. Those same reasons for treestand use, originally, are not valid anymore. Besides that the fines are just not worth it, and hunters have figured that out too. I just do not see the slobs up and around, dumping 100's of pounds of corn anymore. Not in the woods or tooling down the highway. Each area is a lesson onto itself, it can change in a 30 mile stretch. You can be fortunate you have private land to hunt, believe me. And the fact you have those hunter smart deer on camera after dark tells me you have what a lot of others don't, A Chance. CRASH87
