Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting MI Bans Baiting!

I'm for it too...and I live in the Yoop. Wish it would be banned up here. I travel out of state just to get away from it and see a deer herd with natural movement patterns, strong rut, etc. I know MN confiscates your gun/bow if you're caught baiting. Wish that'd happen here!

Scouted NW Wisconsin a couple years in a row back around 2010. Left without ever returning due to their bait issues.

In my area of the U.P., the success rate hovers around 15% with the majority of bucks shot being yearlings. Those same deer could be saved without bait, IMO, increasing the age class and competition. Speaking of competition, our woods are almost devoid of buck sign nowadays. Another reason I travel.

I give the MDNR the least amount of money possible for deer hunting. They need to earn and deserve my money. Change things and I'll get interested once again.

I don't like or use bait for deer hunting either, but see page 46 and 47 of the linked file for better numbers. 48.6% of hunters in the western U. P. and 36% of hunter in the eastern U. P. took one or two deer each.
https://www.michigan.gov/documents/dnr/2017_deer_harvest_survey_report_628089_7.pdf

Exactly. It's going to be a huge change to the hunting culture, but I firmly believe that hunters will have a better hunting experience without the bait around, even in the UP. Until game cameras came out we never knew those bigger bucks were there. Of course, we only got pics of them at night. I'm sure that it's the same throughout the state, but baiters just can't help themselves. I guess the law will hopefully change things.

So you have nothing but bias against baiting. I do not bait for deer, just to be clear, but I do feed deer on my place, year around, with no stands near the feed and a camera on it. You will starve hunting this feed unless you hunt at night. What few come in the daytime are doe and young bucks. I also keep salt and mineral blocks nearby. CWD in Arkansas was most likely introduced by the game and fish when they bought Elk from Colorado to stock the Buffalo River area. They want to gloss this over and blame everything in the world except their part in the whole fiasco. If not for the Colorado "experts" that turned out a bunch of Elk with CWD to see what happened, there probably not be any problem in the US. In my common sense view, a pile of feed is a pile of feed, whether it be acorns or corn. Disease knows no difference. I have no idea how to get rid of it, once started, but common sense does not need to be ignored. miles

I just found this link for your perusal. CWD miles

Thanks miles....but I don't DO facebook AT ALL.

From the AGFC.com site you can search CWD and find info as well.

Jerry

Smart move. Those pricks are doing their best to crawl up the azz of everyone in the world. No point in helping them find yours.

Pappy

That's EXACTLY why I don't patronize F B.


Jerry

You won't see this at AGFC. I tried to copy and paste this info, but facebook would not allow. Maybe I can find it elsewhere. miles

I have seen acorns 6-8 inches deep in places in West Central Arkansas. Steep draws where the acorns roll to one area. miles

I never thought of putting mineral licks out as a hunting strategy, just a way to keep things checking your place out.

Not what I was looking for, but pretty close.

Dr. James Kroll explains Chronic Wasting Disease in whitetails in this Dr. Deer segment from NAW TV.

There’s rarely a lack of disagreement between wildlife agencies and whitetail hunters. Of course, that’s nothing new; hunters have been complaining about season lengths, bag limits, appropriate equipment and much more for as long as there have been game agencies to put restrictions on hunter behavior.

But it isn’t always just hunters who disagree with agency decisions. Sometimes it’s other members of the wildlife management community.

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a case in point. Even now, nearly a half-century after this deadly deer and elk disease showed up in Colorado, and after untold millions of dollars have been poured into research and control measures, we still know frustratingly little about CWD’s origin or even how it’s transmitted.

But what we do know is that some harsh measures are being tried in an effort to stop CWD from spreading.

Read more: http://www.northamericanwhitetail.c...er-disease-the-cwd-debate/#ixzz5OLXyS2bF

Deer in Arkansas, or at least where I live will quit Salt licks when the acorns start dropping, along with most corn use. As long as acorns are plentiful, hunt acorns. Soybeans come in second. miles

I put out Trace Mineral blocks. They are in the majority salt with just a trace of minerals.
Normally,-- my deer go thru 2 or so 50 # blocks each Summer. They need the salt to help preserve moisture/water.

However - this year 2018, I have ONLY put out 1 and there is some of it left right now. I bought another and it's in storage.

Here and in 3 other areas I've hunted since 1986, deer ONLY use the salt licks in Warm/Hot and dryER weather. Anyone sitting over a salt lick for bait is WASTING his time. I put them out to help wildlife. I see Doves and some other birds, my horses, & deer SIGN at my salt block.
Most of the time my deer hit the salt at night.


Jerry

Guys, I searched this Subject and BUMPED it up. Start on P 1 of CWD in Ark.


Jerry

The following is an excerpt from the Ark CWD thread and info pertaining to CWD.

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"The only skepticism I have of that is, the stocking happened in the 'early 80s'. That info is in the first Elk Hunting regulation guide.

That has been at least 30 yrs. [/b]The info about CWD says that the it 'can lay dormant for decades',[b] so it is possible.




Jerry

The following is from P 10 of other thread: NOTE "mudhen"

[/b]Re: Chronic Wasting Disease Has Reached Europe [Re: mudhen]
KC Online content
Campfire Guide

Registered: 03/22/01
Posts: 4695
Loc: Colorado Springs, Colorado USA[b]
Actually there is nothing new about Chronic Wasting Disease. It has been around since biblical times. It's just the name and identification that is new. CWD in wild cervids, mad cow disease, Scrapies in sheep and goats,

***and Creutzfelt Yakob disease in humans,***

are all the same disease. Scrapies has been around as long as men have herded sheep and goats. It's only that people are beginning to notice the rare disease in other animals and humans that it has become renown.

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/nervou...ng_disease.html
"CWD is a member of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) family of diseases, or prion diseases, that includes bovine spongiform encephalopathy; scrapie of sheep and goats; transmissible mink encephalopathy; and kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), and variant CJD of people."

It's often associated with cannibalism. Creutzfeldt Yakob disease was first identified in the 19th century in native cannibals living in the south Pacific and east Indies. The cause of mad cow disease was identified as stemming from placing the remains of dead cattle in cattle feed.

It also seems to be more prevalent in herds of animals living in confined spaces. This leads researchers to believe that cannibalism is not the only means of transmission.

KC


The following short quote comes from The Wildlife Society News Bulletin:

IN this longer report Matthew Dunfee said,

"Because there's no known management technique to eradicate CWD, the name of the game is not to eradicate CWD, it is to manage it."

Mr. Dunfee goes on to talk about CWD in Arkansas.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Manage it...... Contain it.

Jerry

as i am understanding the debate & discussion, that baiting doesn't matter one way or the other in the long run?

if a disease of any kind is extant in the system, then to minimize the number or amount of carriers might make sense?

this strategy might upset a lot of folks in the short-run, but in the long run it might be the only effective method available to us?

And the Deer eating the carrots, turnips, etc before it is sold for bait piles?

This was/is Michigans baiting regulations: "No more than 2 gallons of bait on the ground spot at any given time. It must also be spread out over a 10 foot diameter."

I've ran across a couple while hunting Grouse in the upper UP. The limited size and amount, mean not many Deer are going to have much to eat for any length of time. Unless it is constantly refreshed, congregation will be minimal. Much less so than the place the bait was grown.

I've seen better attractants and concentrating of Deer during a good acorn mast than what 2 gallons of potatoes will do. I'm not for baiting, except when I'm hunting close to farmers corn, bean or alfalfa field.

Here in Pa, some are clearing and making small food plots right in the wood. I've said it before, plantings or food plots and baiting are the modern day "Ring of Fire".

Addition: Those planted food plots in the woods would be legal. Hunting around apple tress would also be legal. Bring in a bushel of apples and it becomes illegal and if found by or reported to the GC there are fines and the area will be closed to hunting for 30 days after the bait and all residue has been removed. Doesn't matter if someone else did it, you can't hunt it.

Addition 2: Then someone could secretly bait your property and turn you in. Now prove you didn't do it????

It's a slippery slope.

I know it happened here in Bedford Co.
Several years ago, when PGC announced that if you were in the vicinity of bait, you were guilty.

The first day of deer season a friend was hunting on another acquaintance 's property.
The owner had an ongoing feed with a neighbor. Who, it is suspected, spread the corn, then reported it.
Anyway, Robert was in the owners stand, when the warden showed up. Showed him the shelled corn and fined him.
Somehow, I think it was because all the corn was so fresh, he got the charges dropped.