No baiting of any kind allowed in Virginia. You have to real careful hunting around a picked corn or bean field. Whatever is left on the ground has to be the result of "normal agricultural practices. If you're hunting around that field you better know what's out there. Game Wardens get very picky about that stuff here.
Yes, our poacher in residence here, (sharp things) got nailed because he moved existing spilled corn to a spot near his custom built shooting house. He did it to give his aging father an advantage. (His father would not have approved, and did not know). Problem was, he was seen doing it, and the Warden paid him a visit. He admitted it, recieved a ticket, and paid the fine. Personally, I see no difference between apples or acorns dropped in the yard by the wind, and placing them by hand. It's food a deer would look for, and seek out, so it's bait. I have no issues with bait, since I use it for fish, predators, birds, why not deer? Every scent we use to attract game, every noise we make to attract game is bait, and everytime we position ourselves to intercept game based on learned behaviors is bait, simply because we know why they are headed that direction. We are anticipating thier needs. That is also a form of bait. If nature litters my yard with apples and acorns, and I rake them over to a fence line, or into a pile, many states then call that bait, even though I have done nothing more than move what nature herself provided. And do not get me started on food plots, as being any different than any other bait. Folks spend lots of time and money to feed deer and draw them into the area, that's bait in it's simplest form. And that is hypocritical. Food in the ground vs food on the ground. No difference, yet one may be legal, and the other may not be. Without bait of some type, you might as well hunt a parking lot, because game has no reason to go there, other than some random chance. Every orchard, nut tree grove, and honeysuckle patch is bait, because it alters how game responds. Ohio allows baiting, and I do transport acorns gathered here in-city, to gravity feeders on my property. I do it more to help them get through the winter healthy, and provide another food source. But I rarely shoot a deer at the feeders, because it's rarely at the feeders that I find them.
An unemployed Jester, is nobody's Fool.
the only real difference between a good tracker and a bad tracker, is observation. all the same data is present for both. The rest, is understanding what you're seeing.
