matt1336 wrote:People will simply stop hunting if they can't bait cuz they don't know how to shoot a deer by any other manner and or they don't want to put in the effort to learn a couple new tricks. Additionally the sale of bait brings much needed money to the communities in north woods. If people stop hunting cuz they can't bait, that takes a huge chunk out of the north woods economy too. Bars, gas stations hotels all that. As with anything, there are political factors at work here.
I think more people have quit up here because there are so few deer. While scouting, I've found places where there are no deer. I couldn't believe it because I'd never before seen it in all my years of hunting. It will take a few more years for deer to fill the voids.
Dewey wrote:I actually agree that many of the guys that quit hunting after the baiting ban really don't know any other way to hunt other than over bait. Pretty sad if that's the case. Any serious hunter would adapt and figure out a new tactic to get it done.
I think this is more of a case for bowhunters than gun hunters. We all know bowhunting can take time, while gun hunters have nine days at most. I think many gun hunters have quit up here because of a lack of deer. The morning before gun season each year, I drive from my home in Minocqua to Ashland, where my gun hunting camp is located. Hotels, gas stations, grocery stores and bars all used to be decorated with "welcome hunters" signs. Not so now. You can buy a hunting camp in Iron County right now for pennies on the dollar.
Dewey wrote:Back when I hunted much more up there I spent most of my season up north so I always had a very good handle on what was going on as far as deer movement patterns. The season after CWD was found and then baiting was banned statewide the daylight deer movement exploded because deer were forced to forage instead of bedding near bait piles. That season was by far the best I ever had up there for deer sightings. It was the perfect storm of a very high deer population and no baiting forcing deer to move more than ever in daylight.
Very true. That was in 2003. My gun hunting camp near Ashland makes a lot of drives later in the season. Normally we move deer during only a handful of drives because the deer are in "pockets" near bait. The year without baiting, we moved deer in every drive because they were more spread out.
Dewey wrote:It's been nothing but downhill since due to the antlerless slaughters. Pretty sad what happened up there in recent years.
I think the antlerless hunting that was done is given more blame/credit for reducing the deer herd than it deserves. If you want a perfect storm, it was the antlerless hunting combined with an aging forest and an unchecked-and-increasing predator population in wolves. Then the winters of 2012-13 and 2013-14 hit. Frankly, I don't know how any survived the latter of the two. That winter sucked. It gave me a whole new appreciation for the toughness of deer.
Twenty years ago when we had a rough winter, all it took to increase deer numbers was to reduce the antlerless permits for a couple years. Now, there's been a substantial increase in the amount of logging on state lands for the last five years, and we've had three years of no antlerless hunting, yet the herd is just starting to show signs of a comeback. A lot of the "bounce" we used to see in the herd is being eaten by predators.
