I hate to open this can again but.....

[PolarBear]

Next will be banning trail cameras like Montana.

[Humptulips]

Are they also going to ban hunting over food plots? Or just baiting?

My friend in Pennsylvania has a farm and a few food plots. Baiting is illegal but hunting over food plots is not.
They consider that "habitat improvement" and not baiting. He has to pull any baits 30 days before season. Scents are legal, mock scrapes, etc, just no actual bait piles. He uses a lot of mock scrape drips this time of year in front of his dozen or so trail cameras.

In the proposed alternatives WDFW put out on this topic it included banning baiting for outfitters only, banning all baiting (including food plots), banning baiting but allowing food plots, and maybe a few other alternatives...just curious if they went nuclear (everything)...or if it was one of the milder alternatives?

Did they offer a biological reason why it was necessary to ban baiting?

[vandeman17]

Any of you saying you have "first hand knowledge" of how baiting is detrimental to deer and elk care to elaborate?

[h2ofowlr]

Next will be banning trail cameras like Montana.

Surprised they haven't already.  They banned battery operated decoys for waterfowl as they were worried the harvest would go up.  I am sure the harvest of deer and elk have gone up with the use of trail cams or at least more people killing the trophy genetics out of the gene pool as they are able to determine a pattern to the trophy deer and elk.  As technology and science advances, people start using these new devises to there benefit. 
We see it with very fast bows that are very accurate, in-line muzzle loaders that are accurate way past our eye sight, range finders and long range optics.  I guess there has to be some sort of balance, love it or hate it.  You want to maintain and keep the sport in hunting not just the guarantee of a harvest because you are afforded all these new technological advances.  Deer and elk haven't changed, possibly smarter and fewer in some locations.  Get out there and hunt them like the generations before you have. 

[WARHORSE]

Any of you saying you have "first hand knowledge" of how baiting is detrimental to deer and elk care to elaborate?
[/quot


Sure.  I have hunted the same area all my life. November archery season is always a treat. Chase a big buck blow the stock go find another all day long. The past Three to five years people have been baiting noticably more. Every  truck that rolls threw town has a bin of apples in it. You cant drive in the hills without seeing bait piles from the road in november some even stock pile literally hundreds of bins of apples. No joke. Iam framiliar with the land ownwers that bait and the landowners that allow baiting and the land that the outfitters are leasing to bait. Anyy given dan in november you can go and waych the deer flood into huge piles of apples. Not just oneor two deer either. What does this do to the yearlings that know nothing other then when they are hungary they goteat an apple.  Joe blow kills his deer and3 or 4 friends kill there deer off the same pile. Now its the end of november and the bad weather hits and joey isnt dumping any more apples. Every apple dumped has a sticker on it from there wherehouse. Are deer supposed to eay stickers? I dont know? Doesnt sound healthy to me. Buck numbers are way down. There are two major mule deer baiting outfitters in the area. Each outfitter successfully tags out each client every late archery season. Sounds great right? Well if each outfitter has 25 clients thats 50 mature bucks out of a not nearly big enough area. And that doesnt include every other DIY *censored* in the county.

[RadSav]

Any of you saying you have "first hand knowledge" of how baiting is detrimental to deer and elk care to elaborate?

Sure.  I have hunted the same area all my life. November archery season is always a treat. Chase a big buck blow the stock go find another all day long. The past Three to five years people have been baiting noticably more. Every  truck that rolls threw town has a bin of apples in it. You cant drive in the hills without seeing bait piles from the road in november some even stock pile literally hundreds of bins of apples. No joke. Iam framiliar with the land ownwers that bait and the landowners that allow baiting and the land that the outfitters are leasing to bait. Anyy given dan in november you can go and waych the deer flood into huge piles of apples. Not just oneor two deer either. What does this do to the yearlings that know nothing other then when they are hungary they goteat an apple.  Joe blow kills his deer and3 or 4 friends kill there deer off the same pile. Now its the end of november and the bad weather hits and joey isnt dumping any more apples. Every apple dumped has a sticker on it from there wherehouse. Are deer supposed to eay stickers? I dont know? Doesnt sound healthy to me. Buck numbers are way down. There are two major mule deer baiting outfitters in the area. Each outfitter successfully tags out each client every late archery season. Sounds great right? Well if each outfitter has 25 clients thats 50 mature bucks out of a not nearly big enough area. And that doesnt include every other DIY *censored* in the county.

Where are you hunting that an Outfitter has 100% success on mature bucks during archery season and each hunter gets two buck tags?

[zike]

Well said Seabass.  It's a shame if they take away baiting...  I can tell you first hand that if you bait, it doesn't make it easier to kill a big mature animal.

+

I gotta ask, if it isn't easier to kill a an animal.
Why do it the extra work and the expense of baiting and your odds of harvest is no better, I call BS, no one in there right mind would do it if it didn't raise their odds.

I'll be happy to see if it makes it better for the non-baiters. The animals won't be hanging around some LAH food pile.

[WARHORSE]

2 major outfitters and each outfitter takes 25 deer that adds up to 50 where i come from. 

[vandeman17]

Well said Seabass.  It's a shame if they take away baiting...  I can tell you first hand that if you bait, it doesn't make it easier to kill a big mature animal.

+

I gotta ask, if it isn't easier to kill a an animal.
Why do it the extra work and the expense of baiting and your odds of harvest is no better, I call BS, no one in there right mind would do it if it didn't raise their odds.

I'll be happy to see if it makes it better for the non-baiters. The animals won't be hanging around some LAH food pile.

Ah Zike strikes again on the bait bashing

[mtman]

I don't get why people want to impose what they think is or isn't hunting on someone else.I don't think it feels much like hunting to me to set over bait. But guess what that might be exactly what the next guy loves to do when he goes out to harvest a deer or elk(that's hunting to him). So quit try to push more restrictions on other people.

[zike]

Well said Seabass.  It's a shame if they take away baiting...  I can tell you first hand that if you bait, it doesn't make it easier to kill a big mature animal.

+

I gotta ask, if it isn't easier to kill a an animal.
Why do it the extra work and the expense of baiting and your odds of harvest is no better, I call BS, no one in there right mind would do it if it didn't raise their odds.

I'll be happy to see if it makes it better for the non-baiters. The animals won't be hanging around some LAH food pile.

Ah Zike strikes again on the bait bashing

You bet and and a master baiter like you is working hard defending baiting.

If it is banned it will level the playing field, between the baiters and the nonbaiters, which in MHO is good.

[vandeman17]

Well said Seabass.  It's a shame if they take away baiting...  I can tell you first hand that if you bait, it doesn't make it easier to kill a big mature animal.

+

I gotta ask, if it isn't easier to kill a an animal.
Why do it the extra work and the expense of baiting and your odds of harvest is no better, I call BS, no one in there right mind would do it if it didn't raise their odds.

I'll be happy to see if it makes it better for the non-baiters. The animals won't be hanging around some LAH food pile.

Ah Zike strikes again on the bait bashing

You bet and and a master baiter like you is working hard defending baiting.

If it is banned it will level the playing field, between the baiters and the nonbaiters, which in MHO is good.

I have never killed an animal over bait actually but nice try. I would bring up the fact that I would run circles around you in the hills and I know plenty of people who would agree. Aren't you disabled? What if they took away all disabled permits to level the playing field?

[RadSav]

2 major outfitters and each outfitter takes 25 deer that adds up to 50 where i come from.

Not sure how I missed that sentence.  My apologies! 

Still interested where there are outfitters that are 100% in filling 25 - 50 late season archery tags with all mature bucks.

[stinkbait]

Who baits deer,??? Why?? Lazy mans way I guess.

[stinkbait]

Waterfowl yess, deer ,elk,bear , grouse, Bigfoot. No