Pub land baiting

[Billy74]

How realistic is it to hunt bait on public land?  I could head out the weekend before opening rifle and bait, maybe pick a few areas and be on one first light of opener but if that wasn’t successful I worry I’d just be giving the next guy a free shot.  If You can’t be out putting out bait regularly are there other keys to baiting on public? 


I’m east side, primarily in WT county far enough from Ag I’m not worried about that as a food source. 


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[jrebel]

Likely a waist of time and money.   It takes time for animals to find and use bait regularly.   Could you get an animal to stop and eat it yes….are you gonna bring in animals that would otherwise had not already been there…no.   

Just my two cents.

[vandeman17]

If you are going to be hunting the area already, no harm in going the weekend before and putting out some feed. Sit on it for the first few hours of opener and see what happens. Hang a camera and grab the card on your way in. That will tell you if they have found it

[stickbuck]

One week is plenty of time for the deer to find it on public land. Use apples and the deer will likely be on it within a day or two. Apples and alfalfa are an easy pick no matter the weather conditions. Never a waste of time either. Good luck!


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[GWP]

I can hardly wait for the ‘Some jerk was hunting my spot!’ thread after the season opens!
While I am kidding, I had a situation that easily could have turned into that, as my first spot I sat at one year, on public land, was about 40 feet away and over a slight hill from someones bait. I had no idea it was there.
If I hadn’t decided to move over the hill I would have never known it was there.
Even if it ‘may’ not pull in others, it will at least have critters stopping to check or eat.

[buckfvr]

Establishing and maintaining a bait site is a lot of work and expensive.  The weekend before idea IN MY OPINION, if you do it legally as in 10 gallons, it will all be gone like it was never there long before the next weekend.

If range cattle, moose, bear, elk are present, it can be gone over night.  If you intend to put out "candy", (sweet cob, corn, apples, etc., bears if present will eat it gone, moose too.  Living in 121 for years, and feeding the deer where applicable, and observing year after year, guys throwing out corn, sweet cob, and alfalfa for the october opener, I can say it (to me) is a waste of money and effort and time lost that you could be glassing and waiting for deer to move around naturally. 

Later in the season, like last few days of october and into the late season, maintaining a bait site can be productive if you do it right.  I know plenty of guys who bait each year and rarely get a deer.  Do it wrong and the animals will feed on it all night and never show in the daylight.  Cameras can prove that.

I see bait as something to keep does and fawns in an area (young bucks too), and once a does time comes then you can expect to see generally older age class of bucks start to show.  Younger less experienced bucks to begin with, then as it heats up you will see matures show up on the fringes scent checking does.  My best luck has come using scent in conjunction with bait to position a reluctant buck where you want him for a shot because your best chances are going to come under the canopy near an edge rather than out in the more open areas.  I shot my best buck within 15 minutes of hanging fresh doe in estrous wicks as high as I could reach in a tree.  The buck walked right by the does on the alfalfa straight to the scent wicks, end of story.  My shooting position was 250 yards away.

When hunting late srchery from a tree stand, I always hung a scent wick in my tree as high as I could reach standing up.  Bucks looking for love rather than food always came in from down wind, behind me, and I would hear them before Id see them. 

[CP]

I’ve put salt blocks on public land in the past.  They were usually stolen pretty quickly.

[Dan-o]

I’ve put salt blocks on public land in the past.  They were usually stolen pretty quickly.

Interesting. 

I put out of a bunch of salt blocks on public land without having thenm stolen.

I've had cameras stolen over my salt blocks, but never the salt.

It did make me change over to powered salt though.

[buckfvr]

Looking for matures, small chunks off blocks and a camera, move both until something of interest found.  Then to establish a long term salt/mineral site, switch to loose salt trace minerals with selenium.

[mburrows]

It can be super effective but there have to be deer there. Bait doesn’t just make animals appear. They’ve got to be using the area consistently already.

[dilleytech]

Likely a waste of time as a bear will find it and eat all your bait. At least that’s been my experience.

[vandeman17]

Likely a waste of time as a bear will find it and eat all your bait. At least that’s been my experience.

Haven't found too many bears interested in bales of alfalfa 

[mcrawfordaf]

I've been packing up 5lbs of cracked corn and spreading it around a salt rock weekly to bi-weekly over the past month and a half on public land and my target buck plus his buddy show up at least 1-2 times on cam consistently. Finally had a cow elk show up last week as well. No bear. No moose. Lots of does and a late drop fawn. I don't know if its the correct way of doing things but its making me confident in the spot. As my wife says "oh you're off to fatten up our deer again eh?"  we'll see.

[buckfvr]

I always spread it around because if you dump a pile, a dominant animal, young buck or boss doe will hog the pile and other deer will wander off.  You want them all to learn to come in and leave scent for the boys to check out.  Turkey can become a problem too.

Early, from what I see, alfalfa isnt much of a draw.  Theres just too much browse available.  Once it rains for a few days, all the dried-out browse reconstitutes and becomes palatable again and gets lots of attention.  I wont say they wont hit alfalfa early on, its just that I see them get a few bites and move right along.  Just like they do with everything else when theres a plethora of browse.

The later it gets, especially once things are covered by a bit of snow, alfalfa becomes a magnet.  I like to take a couple flakes of alfalfa tie it up tight and put it up under a young pine with low branches, so they have to work for it, then spread some corn and sweet cob in the tall grass......make them work for it or its gone too fast.

One last bit here, Im talking white tail here in mid 121.

[scoutdog346]

Yes and salt works well too.  Not so much on the west side.  Wet cob is good too.  Bear will come in but in my experience bucks r not that scared of bear like many people think.  Does with fons r.