Stone Branch
10 pointer
Some well spoken and thought out responses.
My take. If it’s private property, you should be able to hunt however you see fit so long as you stay within the harvest guidelines. Baiting, as some of you have pointed out, IS NOT shooting fish in a barrel. In a way, it makes it harder depending on your personal goals. Banning the use of bait is just more government overreach on property you paid taxes on to purchase, paid taxes on to keep, all so the government can threaten you on how you are allowed to use it.
Ultimately, if you are setting over a pile of bait, sitting on an oak flat, sitting over a crop field or foodplot. You are using those items to your advantage to ambush an animal.
Some others pointed out access to land. Not all propertys carry the same potential. Whether it be lack of acreage, location, lack of cover, habitat improvement not being possible or even physical limitations. None of us are equal, and never will be. Sometimes baiting is the only option some people have to even see a deer. You pretty much end their hunting opportunities by ending baiting methods.
Our states deer herd is one of the best in the country. We got here by baiting and no one complained. As property sizes shrunk, land access shrunk, and leases more popular. That’s when the trouble started.
CWD will not be stopped by ending baiting. Not a single state has stopped CWD no matter what method they employed. Man has never defeated nature. Man never will. Nature will fix itself just fine if man will stay out of its way.
CWD is not nature, it is manmade, man propagated, and man transported.
G
