is it legal to bait deer in washington

[500 long]

I have never eaten with Mr. Pope, Young, Boone, nor Crockett. Table fare means more to me than a bragging score. Don't get me wrong i have saved every antler from my first 3" spike deer to my biggest 4 x5 deer or the 5 x 6 elk.  They make a nice conversation piece but I will not eat tag soup waiting for a "trophy".

[PolarBear]

Tag soup tastes better than baited venison.

[huntnnw]

Baited venison tastes better than a mt buck 

[500 long]

FYI polarbear I have never harvested game with bait, except fishing. But I would not turn it down if it was a have or have not situation.  Legal is legal. Tag soup is not very nutritious. I hope you feed your family better than that.

[PolarBear]

I raise beef cattle so yes, I do feed my family better than that.  And to me tag soup is much more rewarding than shooting a deer over bait.  I hunt for the challenge not just to fill a tag or "the freezer".  These guys that spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on feed for wild game and claim it is all in the name of "feeding their family" are kidding themselves.  If it is legal and you thing, knock your self out just call it what it is and stop kidding yourself and stop telling everyone how hard you "worked" for that animal.

[buck man]

I raise beef cattle so yes, I do feed my family better than that.

Save the beef for guests and feed the family elk and venison

[huntnnw]

beef no thanks..thousands of dollars in feed and work for not so healthy meat ..Ill pass

[PolarBear]

 

[500 long]

So feeding something inside the fence is OK but feeding outside is immoral. That's interesting.  If you want challenge lets fix our government.  I am not trying to rough the hair on you polarbear. This post ask about the legality of feeding deer. I've had a legal deer under my apple tree a couple times over the last couple weeks and only shot it with my camera.

[huntnnw]

u will never be right 500...polar is an elitest and u probably cheat when u hunt in his eyes...

[PolarBear]

To answer your original question, yes it is legal, knock your socks off.

[NWBREW]

Yes...legal. And just for the record, I love elk and deer meat but sometimes a nice big fat juicy beef ribeye is DAMN good too.

[DBHAWTHORNE]

I raise beef cattle so yes, I do feed my family better than that.  And to me tag soup is much more rewarding than shooting a deer over bait.  I hunt for the challenge not just to fill a tag or "the freezer".  These guys that spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on feed for wild game and claim it is all in the name of "feeding their family" are kidding themselves.  If it is legal and you thing, knock your self out just call it what it is and stop kidding yourself and stop telling everyone how hard you "worked" for that animal.

Do you hunt from a treestand? How you feel about bait is how many hunters feel about "ambushing" those poor helpless animals from treestands. Afterall its not natural to the environment and success more often than not relies more on the efforts of good scouting than the hunt itself. There are some people in the NE United States who follow the Benoit family methods who believe tracking a deer is the purest method of hunting the animal. They see it like this:

Treestand: Scouting/Ambush
Baiting: Scouting/Ambush
Stillhunting: Scouting/Walking Slowly
Spot & Stalk: Scouting/Optics/A light foot
Driving: Scouting for Knowledge of escape routes
Tracking: Hunting the animal down

Of course they do recognize there is some degree of skill in each of these things. Some more so than others. I can't disagree with that.

Do I agree with them as a whole? No...but I can't argue that there is probably no purer way for a man to truely hunt an animal than cutting a track and following it to conclusion himself.

PB by now we all realize that you are the bowhunting master and hunt in the purest since of the tradition. We are mere mortals who bait and don't do any "work" for our animals. Yours is the truest form.                 

[BULLBLASTER]

  awesome post.

[Hyde]

I couldn't care less either way... but is baiting any different than posting up on a water hole, or hunting animals in the rut and using scents and other commercial trickery on them?  Is a bow hunter who uses a compound bow that can zing an arrow 80 yards a "true" primitive hunter?  This debate could go on and on for ever.  As long as it's legal, do what floats your boat, and leave others alone who do the same.