Don't forget Wisconsin has changed it's baiting rules mostly because of CWD.
I think some people can't live without it, some can and wouldn't mind it banned and some are just in the middle on the subject.
I grew up bowhunting over bait for the most part. The land we did our week deer camp usually late October the owners would literally bring in dump trucks full of sugar beets and now and then pumpkins. They would put the majority of the sugar beets in the middle of the property, thinking it was over 200 acres if I remember correctly. Some smaller piles got put near some of their hunting shacks as well in preparation for their gun season. We often would put shelled corn out near our stand locations in hopes it would bring one in. At some point we started using carrots too as you could buy them and sugar beets in 40 lb. bags. A good portion of the deer we took off that property were over bait but even my first deer was not, it was in an oak flat loaded with acorns.
When I went to college in the U.P. the land that was available to hunt was very intimidating to me. I could find trails, rubs and scrapes but I quickly turned to bait up there as well. Some other college guys I knew hunted near me chose not to use bait and guess who saw more big bucks? They did. In fact I ended up only killing one deer up there myself and it was over bait, a big spike. Had my dad come up one year there for gun season and he ended up killing a nice spike that year too as he was heading towards the bait. To be honest back then I wasn't confident enough to NOT use bait.
For quite a few years after that I killed plenty of small bucks and does off of bait. Every now and then I'd kill a deer that didn't involve bait but it wasn't often.
The first year I gun hunted down in Ohio I was told by my uncle that I was not to use bait, guess he must have heard a story or two and decided it was too unfair LOL. I ended up killing my 4th. deer that year which was a young 8 point. The first deer was a doe in Northern Michigan over a pile of carrots on state land, the second was a 3 point my cousin spooked off the dump truck load of sugar beets and he happened to run down a trail in front of me and the third was a big bodied Western U.P. 6 point I killed as he circled behind a pile of apples, corn and sugar beets. That one deer in Ohio made me realize there was a chance I could do it when we didn't have a mound of bait nearby.
As I began to hunt the Ohio property more and more I started to realize that I wanted to learn how to kill deer, namely good bucks, without using bait. One year an old friend tagged along to hunt down there and pretty much insisted on putting out a pile of corn. I put him in my best spot and wouldn't you know it, the deer stopped using the area. Couldn't figure it out but at the same time I knew that spot was great without the bait.
Over the years I had a lot of frustrating moments when good bucks would pass by just too far away or when I did have them close I wasn't prepared. One thing I was learning though was how to actually hunt without the use of bait. By this time though I was satisfied with eating a tag and having one or two close encounters/opportunities. The property since we have bought it from my uncle has taught me a lot of lessons, including not ever buying from family, that relate to becoming a hunter that doesn't necessarily rely on a well placed bait pile. For me that has been my accomplishment and it's not like I know everything about the land and have the perfect treestand locations. I'm still learning.
Now that my kids are plenty old enough to hunt I am faced with a dilemma. Jenna's first deer was killed on the edge of a standing bean field. It was a tough hunt for sure and I wouldn't change that. However her second and third deer as well as Allen's first deer all were over bait. It's already started to be the dilemma where are the kids satisfied with deer being sighted or deer close enough to shoot?
Now that we are hunting mostly in Ohio this was the first year I continued to put bait at my mineral stations after bow season started. My thought was to keep deer moving towards the middle of the property. I tried putting the kids in decent spots near where I would normally hunt in hopes to catch a deer meandering by, without them hunting directly over bait. Now I am starting to wonder if I am doing the right thing. A couple frustrating weekends of Allen not seeing many deer including a couple mornings of not seeing a single deer caused him to kind of care less to go back down. Jenna is a trooper for the most part but I could see the same thing happen to her too. Our last trip down was over Thanksgiving weekend and that was when I decided to bait a couple spots. It was nice to see deer and it was nice for the kids to see them close enough to shoot. We didn't fill a tag of course but now I am starting to think of next year and how I want to approach it.
I like the ability to choose and hope it always stays legal. For me I'd still rather sit on a well traveled route during the rut. For the kids, I'm definitely planning to have a few good spots set up that will be over bait. Mornings we could still hunt travel routes and hopefully those pan out but evenings they'll be likely be sitting over bait. This may be Jenna's last year to hunt much since she will be a senior this fall. We've been busy the last 2 months visiting colleges and attending softball camps and it will continue up until the beginning of March when HS softball starts. After that it will be travel softball into the Summer so I am really looking forward to giving her as much opportunity as I can this fall. Allen, I'm just hoping he gets excited about it enough to put the video games down. If bait can help all of that then I'm game.
