Can we legally fall turkey hunt in Kentucky??

[Valley Station]

Corn/bait must be removed from bait site 30 days prior to fall turkey hunting. With corn baiting being a very common practice in Kentucky during deer season,and fall turkey seasons coinciding with deer seasons, can we legally turkey hunt??
Currently, turkey baiting laws are not being enforced! If , they were probably 90% of the fall hunters would be in violation!
Outlaws are shooting them over corn and know that it's almost impossible to enforce!!
What do you think??

[rlb165]

Good question, I just don't think there is a perfect answer.

You could make baiting for turkeys legal, which would be disastrous IMO, or you could make baiting for deer Illegal, which wouldn't be disastrous, but would upset a substantial # of people.

My guess would be that some day before too long, baiting for deer will be banned (CWD), so it'll probably take care of itself, except of course for those that don't follow the law.

[schuyler olt]

Valley,
To paraphrase the regs, it's illegal to hunt over bait or with the aid of bait. You may have seen an earlier post of mine where I raised the hypothetical where my farm's not baited but my neighbor's is, and I shoot a turkey that is travelling to or from that bait site. I think if I was ignorant of the baiting the outcome would likely be different than if I knew about the bait and took advantage of it.
Enforcement-wise, the Department really stepped up its enforcement last spring, citing 84 individuals. That was a huge increase over prior years. Unfortunately, what it shows is that the baiting mentality carries over into spring. I don't have the figures for this fall, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a significant number of citations.
Ultimately, the answer in my mind is that it is legal to fall hunt turkeys PROVIDED you elect not to use bait, or you hunt public land where baiting is illegal. Obviously, I don't bait my lease and since doing the work on the food plots, I don't know why I would.
I do a fair amount of flying for recreation and it's amazing how easily a corn pile can be seen from the air. They stick out like the proverbial sore thumb, even from several thousand feet, especially on a sunny day. With a hand-held GPS, it's child's play to map them. My personal stand on deer baiting is that it's legal, but if someone is illegally baiting turkeys, the penalties need to be drastic, including forfeiture of guns, equipment, rigs and the like. Poaching is poaching, and it is a bigger threat to our resources and our privilege to hunt than anything else.

[Big58cal]

Oh Boy, a great big 84 citations! There are 120 counties in KY and only 84 citations????????? That's less than 1 per county. I'd be willing to bet that during deer season, there were greater than 84 citations issued in 1 county. What's wrong with this picture? I would like to think that turkey hunters are more law abiding and ethical than deer hunters, but I'm not going to go there and besides, pretty much the same people that turkey hunt also deer hunt.

I'm not going to get on the kick of C.O.'s not doing their jobs, and have it kicked back that they don't get any support, their hands are tied, they can only work so many hours, etc. What I would like to throw out is one C.O. in particular that I know will give a citation to a person for not having a tag on a deer while that deer is being dragged out of the woods. According to the reg., the deer is in my immediate possession and does not need to be tagged.

Now, with the knowledge of 84 citations throughout the entire state last spring for baiting turkeys, and the knowledge of a C.O. that will cite for not tagging a deer, when you don't have to tag a deer, what do you think the problem is?

Sorry, but some of this stuff just P****s me off to no end! 84 citations statewide.....Give me a break!

[schuyler olt]

In the prior years, the number was in single digits. It's improvement. And if you bust a thousand of them, it won't stop the problem until we make it hurt. I wish enforcement was better, but the guys in the field are stretched really thin. The ones I know bust their butts, but there's only so many of them. We need more officers, but that takes money and guess what we don't have!

[Valley Station]

Schuyler,
I did notice your hypothetical example on turkey baiting, but, that was not influential on initiating this topic.
It is however, an example of how confusing and unclear the turkey baiting regulations are.
F&W law enforcement has always told us " turkey movement influenced by bait, even on other property, no matter what distance , is considered baiting". If your hunting turkey that are traveling between roost site to neighbors bait site, <u>even unknowingly</u>, is still baiting.
In theory, any non-hunting landowner, by putting bait on his property, can prevent legal turkey hunting by adjoining property owners .
We need to correct this ambiguous regulation.
It's my understanding , that turkey baiting law is being overlooked and not enforced in the fall, due to the "common" practice of
deer baiting.

[ceohunter]

I'm curious. How many turkey hunters hit the woods in the spring and how many deer hunters hit the woods in the fall? 84 may be a small number, but could potentially be a percentage equal or greater than the percentage of deer citations. Don't know the numbers so I don't know the answer to my question.

[schuyler olt]

Don't know the answer either. Valley, I absolutely agree that the reg is ambiguous. As a lawyer, I can tell you from experience that a bad guy can abuse that kind of reg in a heartbeat. Judges do not like to hammer folks if the reg is not clear. Everyone understands "x yards." Many folks don't understand something George Wright has talked about for years, and that is the health danger posed to turkeys by corn piles. Shelled corn frequently has a fungus in it that is really hard on turkeys. You can't tell if the fungus is there with just your eyesight, either. I don't know, but I'd bet that if that fungus is death on turkeys, it probably isn't good for the grouse and quail, either.

[Valley Station]

I have an old farm in Hart county, were most of my immediate neighbors are Ammish. The turkey flock is not doing well there for some reason. They all seem to put out corn piles.
I can't determine if problem is corn fungus or Ammish lead poisoning!

[INKYHUNTER]

I think the law is unfair to the turkey hunter. I don't walk over my neighbors property before I hunt. How do I know if they have put a corn pile out. I know what I would do if I had the authority, however a lot of deer hunters wouldn't be happy.[;)]