Baiting now Legal?

Did I hear today that baiting for deer and hogs has now become legal?

Not yet. It passed one hurdle but isn't there yet, but it will be from all indications.

It passed the house, now on to the senate

Didn't it hang up in the Senate last year?

WSFA made it sound like was done deal.

I might not have listened correctly

yep.

It passed 69-18 in the house. That was supposedly with the $15 annual fee to be able to bait.

Just for reference it passed the house last year 62-35.

What was the senate vote last year that shot it down and will the $15 fee allow it to get through this time?

Unreal. A $15 permit to pour out corn to shoot a deer, and people are approving of this new government regulation and fee.

Conservatives scream about less government, fewer fees, fewer taxes and yet won't bat an eye about this and even will support it.

Just unreal. And coming from a GOP-administration and GOP Legislature. What a bunch of f'king hypocrites.

Yep, legalize it or not. I don't care either way but the $15 fee is pure bulldoodoo.

Amen, Clem. If they charged a $15 annual fee to mow your lawn, there would be riots in the streets.

$15 permission slip. What a crock of sshit!

Do y'all think the $15.00 fee is to make up for lost revenue from hunting over bait violations?

Is that the intent behind it?

Stupid, stupid, stupid...

The $15 is just a tax for being a lazy ass.

if they thought compliance with game check was low, wait till they see the compliance with the $15 permit BS.

Answer this...

A hunting club has 3000 acres and 25 members.

The state passes this new law or regulation requiring you to buy a $15.00 permit to put out corn.

Above mentioned hunting club decides they want to put out corn this next year.

Does the hunting club buy a $15.00 permit that covers all the acres in the club or does each member of the club have to buy the $15.00 permit?

Again, I think this is stupid, stupid, stupid!

So the folks hunting ag land is gonna pay a $15 fee, too?

Hell no im not.

Those details (implementation) were not addressed in the amendment I saw.

You don't have to pay anything unless you wanna hunt over corn. It doesn't appear to be mandatory.

I wish the game wardens good luck finding my feeders because I am not going to pay $15 to put corn out. That is just plain stupid, have they lost their minds?

You shouldn't have to, no more than the dude with a feeder should have. The fee is ridiculous, if true.

Agree 100% anyone who does nothing but sit in a shooting house and watch a big open ag field should have to pay a $15 fee if the guy sitting in an hardwood bottom with a pile of corn 30 yards from him has to

The hunting club drama this has the potential to create will be epic.

Yup.....

Basically they've just made baiting legal, and free. You already can't get a GW to investigate a baiting complaint. Now all they gotta do is say, "oh he's got a permit" and never even make up an excuse for not going.

You dang right!!! That was my first thought. 1 member putting out corn and another member finds and hunts it. And if he kills a deer over it....HOLY $&%#!!! Clubs will have to address this early and often. What about public land? GWs will be handling assault cases instead of baiting.

There is NO way to cause worse drama in hunting clubs....hell, hunting in general!!!
It may give another reason for it.....but, not make it 'worse'.

As for Public Land, it will still be illegal to bait.

Well, here's how it worked in Florida...

Let's say your hunting club is 3500 acres, with 20 members. Before the baiting law came into effect, everyone hunted the entire club...first come, first served.

Baiting law is legalized. People put out feeders in "secret" spots, with plans to hunt them opening morning. Come opening morning, they get to the club, and their "secret" spot is already signed out...ie, someone has found the feeder and plans to hunt it. The fight ensues. A miserable hunting season for all club members is endured...lots of fighting over "my" spot.

After season is over, club management develops a plan to avoid the same problems the next season. The club is broken up into "sections". Each member is given 2 small "private" sections in which they run their own private feeders. Members are only allowed to hunt their private section and club food plots. Some club members are overjoyed with their sections, some are just ok with theirs, and the other club members know they got the shaft. All members end up watching at the same two feeders all season long, year after year.

Kids getting into hunting go from learning how to scout...finding food sources, identifying travel patterns, searching for scrape and rub lines, etc...to learning how to open a bag of corn, pour it into a feeder, and making sure the battery is fresh.

I haven't heard this much pissing and moaning about $15 since I went to a yard sale with my grandmother.

Well said. Bunch of ignunt basturds in Montgomery. Course we sit around in our sewing circle, doing nothing but complaining and taking no action on anything we have forced on us.

this is as big a load of crap as game check is.

I haven't read all the bill but it seems theres going to gray areas in this too.
Does this fee/tax/fine mean
1 it only covers the individual and one feeder
2 it will cover the complete property regardless of how many feeders.
3 it will cost you per feeder.
Looks like the old saying is appropriate "HERE WE GO AGAIN"

Obviously the argument isn't about the $15 but rather the whole stupid mess. Either make it legal, or enforce the law! Right now we have LOTS of illegal baiting with little fear of getting caught. Good luck getting a GW to invest any shoe leather for a baiting complaint.

Sounds like a fundraiser to me. If the money from feeder permits goes to pay for more GW’s or something of that nature….would you guys be ok with it then?

Pay the $15 and shut your pie holes. The DNR is broke as it is. Baiting needs to be legal and along with it, more antler restrictions and a shorter rifle season. I swear some folks will cry about everything

Here is another scenario for you. Club has 35 fields and lets say 20 members (number of fields and members irrelevant). 11 members pay the $15 corn fee and 9 don't because they disagree with it. The 11 members with "corn hunting" on their tag put feeders in every field and all the high traffic areas in the woods. Now the 9 members without the permit are restricted to hunting only the places that the other 11 didnt put out corn.

it won't I promise.

Easy solution. Clubs will have to be "corn" clubs or "no corn". If you don't like the rules, don't join that club.

The commissioner, or the CAB, will promulgate(makeup) regulations to clarify the "rules" under the new law..if it passes.

Even if it did, all money is fungible. That means they'd just take the money currently used for something, take it away, and add this back in its place. All money is interchangeable, that's why earmarks like that would be stupid. They'll still get the money where they want it to go.

I have no problem with the $15 fee per feeder, if the money is earmarked for the game and fish program. I just hope some of the gray areas are clarified in the final law.

Preach!

The dept could use the funds, and wardens could use the time to focus on other offenses like trespassing and poaching.

ya'll do realize it is just another TAX????

No, they don't.

Not all government is bad. Some entity has to ensure herd management and ensure herd survival. It's our job to elect people who will be good stewards with the responsibility they have.

I’ve been hearing for years that the DCNR was underfunded and that we needed to raise the cost of a hunting license …..is this not true?

^^^^^^^^^THIS is what hunting in Alabama will look like in 5 years. Mark my words. Grew up doing it in Louisiana and it's the only way that hunting clubs will work once feeding is legalized entirely.

I disagree with everything you think we "need".
Baiting does not promote more deer, healthier deer or even hold deer. There's no sound reasoning for legal baiting. There's no practical way to measure or count antler points in most wooded areas, making antler restrictions totally impractical. We have a buck limit and that's sufficient if its enforced. And likewise there's no sound reason to support a shorter season either.

It is for sure. It's no different than FL hitting us for a hunting license which you cant legally hunt with until you buy the following:
$5 Archery Permit
$5 Deer Permit
$5 Turkey Permit
$5 Muzzleloader Permit

Some FL clubs do it this way, but your higher end clubs do it a little better.

Each member gets 1 private section during bow season and 1 private section for ALL season gun and bow. Then the club puts feeders on plots and random stands in the woods which are all first come first serve. Club buys all corn for these feeders.
It's not terrible since it opens up many club stands for you to hunt in addition to your private section.

The way I have always done it is leave my private section alone until the rut and conditions are perfect. Hunt club stands any other time

Yeah, legalizing baiting, but shortening the season to "sustain the herd" sounds like competing idologies to me.

We’re already there more than most folks realize. I don’t think the DCNR realized to what extent they had opened the flood gates until they started flying around in planes last year. The use of feeders has exploded over the last couple years.

Last I checked I didn't have an option to pay taxes. It appears only those that hunt over corn will be charged.



Probably a moot point anyways. I doubt It passes.

You can fly from Prattville to Clanton, in a small plane during deer season, and the ground looks like a yellow brick road.

They don’t really have a choice at this point. It’s either legalize it or wage all out war on writing tickets. I think they know what kind of backlash would come with that. The cat is out of the bag and it would literally be like trying to herd cats to ever get it back in there. That’s the conundrum they’re now facing. Is that really what the DCNR wants to put at the top of their agenda….a war on corn?? If they don't legalize it then that's what they're facing.

All of this.

Ok Helpy Helperton.

A tax is something you have to pay, you will not have to buy the license.

Hunting has become all about the $. We are all just sitting back and letting them do it. Eventually it's going to get where no one can afford to do it legal and we will all become outlaws.

you have to pay a TAX when you buy cigarettes, that you don't have to buy either.

You can pay the $15 and shut your pie hole if you want to, but I won't.

I could care less on the corn issue. Make it legal or illegal; that doesn't really bother me. Having hunted where you can bait, I did not see that much difference nor did we have issues on the lease. We also didn't just have sections to hunt. We tried to spread feeders out across the property and hunted like normal. We weren't all trying to sit over a feeder. I think it can be used and obviously will be abused but it's not a magic bullet in my experience.

The $15 is complete BS. I pay a tax when I buy the corn; they can work out how to take some of that with the state but I shouldn't have to pay again to pour it out. It's like me paying taxes when I buy ammo and then they tell me I have to pay another $15 to use that ammo to deer hunt. It's not our problem if they can't manage their finances and divide the tax money how it needs to be divided and this $15 will not help that. The baiting can be debated all you want but their lack of leadership is not up for debate. They have shown they have none.

If you don't want to bait , then don't. NO $15.00 fee needed.
I still won't hunt over it myself, but geez, you guys take things to the outer limits with the rants.....

But the difference is that you still choose to smoke or bait. Just like this proposed bill. You have to rent bowling shoes, or buy your own when you go bowling, after paying the fee to bowl. Is that a tax? There are examples everywhere. You have to buy the popcorn from the movie theater or break their rule and sneak it in. Is that a tax?

^^^^this^^^^

I understand your point. But the sales taxes you pay on that ammo does not goto the DNCR. it goes to the general fund. The DCNR get's no general fund money.

Nope, movies aren't a constitutional right in the state of Alabama. Hunting is.

Any nobody is stopping you from hunting.

Some of us are talking about hunting club issues, which you may not have to deal with, so congrats to you. But a lot of hunters are in clubs. This crap will cause problems, period. It will cause stupid changes just like some posted above.

Whether we are pro-baiting or not, doesn't matter, we are saying to just make it simple. Legal or not. Move on.

Chuck Sykes is over herd management and herd survival. When and how did the people vote and elect him and when in hell is the next election?

I want change anything I do now if this passes so I'm kinda neutral on it.

These kind of posts make me scratch my head. Do you really have that much faith in the government and the DCNR to believe that when you pay that $15 it's going to directly impact the health of the deer herd in Alabama? Or that they are going to take that money and hire more GWs? I sure don't. I'm ALL for the DCNR enacting regulations that will GROW the deer herd in Alabama. So far in the last few years they've given us a worthless game check system and extended the season to feb 10 in areas where we didn't need it. So, like I said. I wish the GWs good luck on finding my feeders and writing me a ticket next year. May the odds be ever in their favor.

why hell no ,,,, it's aaaaaaaaaaaa . user fee !!!!!!!!!!

Holy $hit this is getting deep.

DCNR commissioner (Guy) is appointed by the governor, as are the members of the Conservation Advisory Board. DCNR's Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Director (Sikes) is hired, not elected. This mirrors most other state wildlife/fish agencies throughout the country.

A baiting permit reminds of those ADEM permits required to build certain infrastructure across wetlands. You can pollute all you want, so long as you buy the right permits.

Yes, I know all that. The other guy was talking of the officials we elect in charge of herd management. I WISH THEY WERE ELECTED!!!

Oh. Sorry. I figured you knew but wasn't sure. Others probably didn't know, though.

They should have legalized this a long time ago. If I gotta pay $15 then I'll pay it. It's just 15$.

I just read HB 43, I see no mention of 15 dollar fee

I see it in HB 184,which is not the one that passed

The greatest benefit to legalizing corn won't be killing more deer. The #1 benefit will be that our game wardens can spend their time dealing with trespassers, thieves, poachers, and night hunters instead of spending half their time hiding out waiting for someone to climb a tree next to a pile of corn.

I have long believed that if you don't have the resources or ability to properly enforce a law, then it shouldn't be a law at all. Unenforced laws promote a lack of respect for the law. It leads to a society where people only follow the laws they agree with. Which is basically what hunting in Alabama has become. There is very little respect for game laws in this state because the state has over-regulated hunting. You shouldn't need to memorize a 45 page book to hunt and fish in this state. Get rid of the petty laws that are impossible to enforce and then strictly enforce the most essential game laws with the resources you do have.

I stand corrected hb184 is in the Senate now,it is bait privledge license, obtained in the same manner as. a hunting license. People exempt from purchasing hunting license will not be exempt from bait license

Senate has a bill SB189, that does not include the not on the ground language or the 15 dollar license

I see a potential problem with HB184 , they left baited field crossed out in 9-11-245

This is what game wardens in both AL & FL should be doing all along. Go after the fire hunter and outlaw not the regular guy that follows rules and already pays too much in fees to hunt. There is something wrong when regular guys that are law abiding are made to feel like criminals and made to pay more fees.

Disagree - there was always good reason and good wisdom in the law that banned hunting deer over bait.

And game wardens enforcing that law is a good thing imo.

The bs 100 yard rule was *designed* to be the prelude for the bill that is pending now and it is all bs imo.

Bad for the sport and bad for neighbors.
It is going to be battle of the feeders and battle of the corn piles and even such battles RIGHT ON PROPERTY LINES!

This is bad, bad, bad.

People are feeding now.

It has been going on for years. It is not illegal to feed deer during season.

I wont change much at all.

My $.02 which ain't worth $.02 is I don't care. As Hogwild said, I too am on a lot of properties and there is a tremendous amount already out there. IF last year my neighbor would have had 1 or 10 feeders out he was hunting over, I wouldn't have given it a second thought. Doesn't fit into my type of hunting but if chose that route it wouldn't bother me. I have and will continue to plant the corn I hunt over. But there is at the very least 3 facts y'all can take to the bank already pointed out: there is already a tremendous amount of corn already used, it is going to cause some major turmoil in some clubs and neighbors, and the $15 is a tax.

I can care least if any of y'all or any of my neighbors is hunting over a mountain of corn 20 yards away. It's not a guaranteed success. And it's their land and their choice on what to do. They can shoot them at night for all I care if it's on their land.

Now I ain't going THAT far!!!

Well said

Me neither. I gotta draw a line somewhere. It may be their land but it ain't their deer.

People putting out corn piles or feeders next to or near someone else's property is CERTAIN to cause conflict. SERIOUS conflict.

If they are going to pass this redneck backwoods goober lazy gay "hunter" bill they need to include a prohibition of any bait or feeder within 200 yards of a property line.

And then corn prices will double or triple

The redneck lazy gay goober bill ...
I like it! That's much more fitting.
I wonder if we can get the existing senate bill renamed.

I'm hunting over white oaks so I don't give a....

What will be the charge for hunting over bait without a permit, old hunting with aid of bait or no permit?

What if one is 100 yds away and out of sight? That law still apply? Won't need a permit for that .

Will there a situation where the old hunting with aid of bait applies?

Here we go again, I see another cluster in the making.

And you don't think this was already happening? Were those giant pallets of corn at walmart that magically appear during deer season being fed to the birds? I don't hunt over corn and likely still won't (mostly because I don't think it works), but I would rather they legalize it than keep it illegal and act like they can control it.

Corn is actually about to get really cheap if we put a tariff on Mexican imports and Mexico responds with a tariff on American corn or they start buying most of their corn from South America. Mexico is by far the largest foreign buyer of American corn.

2Dogs, I have those questions also. No telling how many more confusing things we haven't thought about.

If it was enforced they could control it. They simply have not enforced the baiting law for several years. Not entirely the GWs fault either. Judges didn't want to be bothered with it and threw out many cases. Probably because they, or their family, are masterbaiters as well.

You are 110 percent correct! We give our rights away.

Had a conversation about this subject with My dad. His reply was "people will do anything for a buck". Thought it was funny because he is talking about both sides and 2 different types of Bucks lol

Ummmmm. No

257, what do you know about corn? Are you a farmer or something?

Care to explain? Mexico buys 27% of America's corn exports. If (and it is certainly still an "if") Mexico tries to respond to an American tariff by buying their corn elsewhere, corn will absolutely get cheaper here in the US due to the lower demand for it.

The US does not have a global footprint in corn. Mexico may be the largest buyer but even at 27% that's very little volume being that the US cannot be competitive in the global market. Nobody can compete with South America on corn. They can produce 2 corn crops a year in most places. The US actually imports corn from South America because it can actually be bought and imported cheaper than it can be bought in the US. Corn prices aren't going much lower than they currently are at the moment. The strength of the USD and the Brazilian Real play a little role in who gets the business but given the current exchange rate the US will not gain any more demand. The US sells some small tenders of corn but it would take a catostrophic event in Brazil and Argentina for the export volume to amount to anything. Corn prices are steady to bullish especially with the reduction of acres this year

I hope your property gets surrounded by corn piles, moron.

He thinks that hunting over corn is a lazy way to hunt, a point of view that I happen to also share, and he does want it out close to the property lines which can cause a rift between he and his neighbor, and that makes him a moron? Please explain.

Think somebody misunderstood Wm.

Nobody really cares what you and him think. If you don't like baiting then simply don't do it if it passes. Don't resort to pissing on somebody else's way of hunting by calling it gay and lazy. That makes you a moron in my book. Many ways of hunting could be deemed lazy other than a $5 corn pile.

I have to agree with this. I go to a lot of properties and see how a lot of folks hunt and its silly to be bashing each other. To each his own. If you want to go cut down a tree and carve out your own bow that you use to shoot your own hand made arrows with hand knapped arrow heads…….then by all means have at it. But if another guy wants to sit in a small condo and use a rifle, then he isn’t necessarily less of a hunter because you don’t want to do it that way. We need to be far more concerned with hunter participation than bashing someone for not adhering to your own personal preferences.

I love TN

There's nothing wrong with being ignorant but you can overcome it. I'm sure its tough looking in the mirror and finding a shameful face of lost integrity staring back at you. But stay positive, work hard and keep focused. You can eventually cast off the shame. Just let me be your mentor and keep telling yourself, "I can do better". Outback will guide you to the light.

Exhibit A ^^^^^^ what a piece of crap

x2

Very good!
Let it out. That's an important step in your rehabilitation. It'll be hard to accept at first but baby steps, you know, take baby steps.
Let Outback guide you to the light.

Corn. The four letter word that brings out the worst in us.

You got that right... More people showing their butts than at a Chicago Trump Tower Protest event

We'll let 2 dudes get married in this country because it's nobody else's business, but won't let a man put a corn pile on his own 500 acre tract.

A man could make a fortune selling cheese to this grouper of winers/whiners/wieners!

WmHunter a 200 yard property line restriction is an unbelievably bad idea. That would mean that if you had a square 40 acre property then you would have a magic 40 yard circle in the center for baiting. That's great for big property owners but the little guy would be screwed again.

The cats is out of the bag. Corn is everywhere and open legalization with no restrictions is now the only fair and equitable solution. Will I or wont I use baiting is my own personal decision once legalization occurs. As for the $15 bucks if they would earmark for conservation then I'm Ok with the tax/fee as I love this State and I support efforts that are proconservation.

Terrible comparison. 1 is packing corn while the other is piling corn!

This thread went downhill way before this.

My question is when will we know if it passes or doesn't pass?

Idiots just can't help themselves......They're going to create another mess.

When the GW shows up in the middle of your hunt to inspect your feeder for the corn fee sticker.

Where did you see anything about a sticker?

Guys, yall really should read the damn thing yourself before you get all worked up and rant about it. It kinda proves the point that you are gonna bitch no matter what when you don't.

I’m hearing that the stickers have to be placed on the top of the feeders so they are visible to the drones. They said its gonna be a big neon yellow sticker you put on there that can be easily seen from the sky.

I'm for building The Great Feeder of Alabama and it's gonna be big enough to see from the international space station, yeller sticker or no yeller sticker.
With the letters F and U big enough to fill the space on top.

The fact that some people were violating the law on baiting does not mean that it should therefore be legalized. That is a very immature and illogical argument to make. "Oh, some people sell heroin and crack therefore we should just legalize it."
"Some people jump off a cliff therefore everyone should."

That is very foolish and illogical argumentation.

In other words, NOT a VALID argument at all.
It is a fools argument.

**Note, I am not calling you a fool, just pointing out
you made a foolish, illogical argument.

Only an immature moron and total asshole
would say such a thing.

^^^^See the conflict already created by the Alabama
Legislature over this proposal??? It will only get worse if bating is legalized.

Whether logical, illogical, rationale or irrational, it certainly seems to be headed towards passage. If not this year, then soon. And, just because someone puts out corn doesn't mean they are violating the law on baiting. The current regulations on putting out feed/bait are a joke.

I hope the ambiguity is removed (highly unlikely based on the past) and everyone can move on.

If you are against it, and your neighbor is for it, he will be putting out bait and you won't. You will have no control over where they put feed/bait or how much they put out. If you have enough land to hunt, it might not affect you too much. If you hunt a smaller piece of property, it could have dramatic affects.

I have a friend in Mississippi that hunts a relatively small piece of property (well under 100 acres). They don't bait at all. It's just a couple of them that hunt it and they don't really have any food plots to speak of. They have seen and killed a few good bucks through the years. Now, they see next to nothing. The people all around them are baiting. He is coming to the realization that if he ever wants to see deer on that place, they are going to have to join the baiting crowd. His, "we don't cheat" attitude is changing to "we have to bring deer back onto the property." He stuck to his principles until he was deerless.

After I eat corn, it is usually pretty easy to tell when it passes.

You get two of these!

I personally could care less if someone hunts over corn or not. To me there's no difference between hunting a corn feeder and hunting a loaded white oak. Only difference is you have to stink up the place to fill a feeder so you won't be killing many mature bucks over it.....which means more big bucks for me.

If it passed the debate will be over. Now I really hope it passes just to piss you off

I think it is humorous that y'all think that leaving scent while filling a feeder will prevent mature bucks from visiting it....I really do!

It shows how little you know about animal behavior.
There is a thing called 'Conditiioned Reaction'.
Don't overhunt the area, climbing trees every day and slinging arrows at every Doe that comes by or shooting every buck that walks through and guess what.....
That same mature bucks becomes conditioned to the act of filling the feeder and associates it with fresh groceries.

But, I prefer folks to keep up the 'it spoils em away' and 'it makes em all nocturnal' talk, though!! LOL

I found this supposed full text version of the bill. I don't know if it's been linked on here yet or not, but this is the totality of what's being discussed and debated:

https://legiscan.com/AL/text/HB137/2017

https://legiscan.com/AL/text/HB137/id/1501791/Alabama-2017-HB137-Introduced.pdf

As best I can tell, the UNDERLINED portions are the proposed changes to existing law, but I'm certainly no legal authority.

You are saying all mature bucks will react the same??

Conditioned behavior for 3 months on and 9 months off?
Let's face it, the feed will only be there in the vast majority of the cases for 3-4 months. How long will it take to condition mature bucks with this pattern?

I don't know.....how long does it take them to find a food plot? And how in the World are they bushhogged, disked planted and fertilized with no human scent?

You have more faith in the AVERAGE Alabama hunter than I do. This is what I have seen and believe its common. The AVERAGE hunter doesn't think about deer or hunting until a week before season. The weekend before season they will dump out a bag of corn. They will put a camera on it. If time permits, they might shoot their rifle. But it was on last year so that is no big deal. Opening day they will sit watching the corn. Wind direction is irrelevant. When they leave they will check the corn and camera. "Scout" the area for about an hour then head home. This process is repeated over and over all season long. Then on Feb. 10 they will kill the new state record.

I think you've solved my question of why 9 out of 10 mature bucks we kill are in the woods not plots. A mature buck in a hunted area has " conditioned behavior" all right, overly cautious , stay alive behavior. A pile of corn is no different than a primary scrape or plot for that matter , go in and sit over it a couple days and your odds of killing a MATURE buck go down every day. I just don't think a big ol stud buck is gonna ram his head in a corn pile in daylight with any regularity.

That state record set of antlers is on the head of the dumbest buck in the state.

Not and live. I don't believe around me they can even move during the daylight and live

You reap what you sow. All you baiters think you are finally gettin what you want, well yall cried so loud now your are bitchin about an unconfirmed $15.00 fee hell it may not even pass, I don't see an effort from anyone on here to tell your reps that your are for or against. That rack buck smells your ass like we smell a papper mill. My neighbors can and do pour it to them and I will cut them off without putting too much pressure on my lil ole lease. I pour a little out too but adhere to the current law. Im a FloraBama hunter and have taken deer on both sides of the line. Look it still aint easy even over a pile everything has to come together, but it is more of a challenge without the corn. I vote no to baiting and let the outlaws pour it to em, I ll still fill my freezer and put one on the wall every now and then.

$15.00
DAN MOULTRIE
STICKER
LAZY
U MAD BRO?

So you're a baiter too.

No, he is a master baiter.

#imabaitertoo

Depends on how big your feeder is.

I have one that is made from a 275 gallon tote and it will hold 1800#

Proving again that you are an immature asswipe.
That is nothing to be proud of.

You stretched my argument much further than I did. And my argument is not foolish or illogical. It's just different than yours Socrates. Obviously there are lines to be drawn when it comes to legalization because of inability to enforce. I would argue you should balance how harmful the act is against the difficulty of enforcement. In your example, heroin laws are difficult to enforce, but heroin also does a great harm to society which results in murder, homelessness, orphans, etc. It is also done by a very small percentage of the population. Baiting laws are also very hard to enforce, but it's still debatable if baiting even harms wildlife or the sport of deer hunting. Also it is widely done illegally by a large percentage of hunters.

I think it should be 25.00 per hunter. Per feeder...

BaitLivesMatter

Is this going to affect the price of canned corn? What about frozen corn?

i think the state should pay me to feed the deer .

Make hunting great again. Pass the baiting law !! Ahhh who am I kidding, I'll be hunting out of my corn igloo weather it passes or not.

Duh huh some more than others.

Baiters cant help it there addicted to it.

I should be blind by now. 🤓

You might be on to something

You don't have to pour out corn or pay the fee.

Why not make some money off of what you cant control?

But, I agree with you that we have too many regulations. Remove all regulations except the bag limit and enforce that if you can. One antlered deer and one unantlered deer, per person, any method, per year.

Shine'em at night over corn and you too can be a great hunter like Timber 2!!

I agree. The reasoning is to help build the herd

Or is it $15 per bait station. They will have you putting stickers saying that you've paid

who cares, damn if I'll buy a sticker from the state to put out feed for deer on MY land.

What if I bait with apples and pears, does that cost extra or is it free?

I never hear any people like yourself call people who hunt over green patches redneck, backwoods, goober, lazy, and gay. Seems odd to me since it's hunting over bait just like hunting over a feeder would be. I never hear you or people like you call for hunting over green patches to be made illegal.

So here is your chance to explain to me how climbing into a shooting house or tree stand over a green patch requires any more intelligence, effort, or skill than climbing into one in sight of a feeder.

Now I have asked this question many times on here and never gotten a decent answer so let me help you out on how not to answer it by shooting down in advance some of the meaningless answers I have gotten in the past.

First, I don't care whether you personally hunt over green fields or not. I guess it might make you a little more of a hypocrite if you did but all that matters for the sake of this question is that you never advocate banning them or belittle the people who do hunt over them the way you do people who favor legalizing feeders.

And second, in the context of this question I don't give a tinkers damn about the nutritional value of a food plot vs a corn feeder. Some biologic blend having 14% more of a deer's daily allowance of riboflavin doesn't have s##t to do with the effort or skill required to hunt over it.

Hope that helps you out. I shall await your answer.

Can't a hunting club have even stricter rules than the state regulations? Just because the state allows something it doesn't mean your club has to. For example most clubs have stricter rules than the state on which bucks can be killed. So if the majority of people in a club are deeply offended at the prospect of baiting then by all means vote to make it against club rules.

The CAB only has the health of the herd in mind here. They only use sound biology to make their decisions that protect our deer herd and other wildlife in the state.

https://www.alabamawildlife.org/uploadedFiles/Deer%20Management%20Issues.pdf

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/lo...sease/94500986/

https://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/files/fw-feeding_deer.pdf


https://blog.wildlife.virginia.gov/outdoor-report/2016/08/deer-feeding-ban-to-begin-september-1/

I could go on and on. But anybody with any sense knows the truth of the matter in this debate .

Does anybody have fifteen dollars I can borrow?

So with this very understandable and thorough assessment in hand are we to go forth thinking just feeder locations are a detriment? or are the food plots also detrimental due to an associative congregation of animals? There is/are other post(s) going on and on about whether or not it's hunting when on a bait field or by a feeder. However, my interest purely exists within the confines of do the deer benefit from green fields?

Since we answered your question by stating that plots will provide more nutrition to deer and are biologically beneficial to the gamut of wildlife in Alabama, but you chose to discount those facts, let us ask you a question. Why are you so hell bent for baiting corn? It shouldn't be that hard to kill deer in your neck of the woods. They are plentiful, so why?

Thinking about creating Deer Vitamins, Fortified with Riboflavin!

Could be a winner.

No, you didn't.

The quality or nature of the bait has no bearing on the skill or knowledge required to hunt over it. And you nor anyone else on the anti baiting side has even attempted to explain how climbing into a shooting house over a green patch requires any more knowledge, skill, or effort than climbing into one overlooking a feeder. Yet people who would hunt over a feeder, if legalized, are called lazy, ignorant, slob hunters while people who hunt green patches are not.

Men with an ounce of integrity would concede the point and stop characterizing an entire group of people in a way that is both unfair and hypocritically inconsistent just because you disagree with them about a hunting regulation.

So you think that it takes the same amount of work and investment of time and money to dump a bag of corn out as it does to plant a food plot that yields greater benefits to all wildlife? For some of us the actual shooting is the anti-climatic part of hunting. It is the overall experience that matters.

So, yes, I think that is a lazy ass way to hunt, but if that is your way, when it becomes illegal, knock yourself out, but I will never consider you a true sportsman.

Y'all are all guilty of debating rhetorical points on the extreme ends of both spectrums.

What about the guy that wants to do all he can for the wildlife? But, he also wants to hunt! Many are limited to 1/2 to 3/4 acre food plots on the properties they hunt. They place a good mineral lick on the edge of the plot and a gravity feeder full of a high-quality deer feed by it. Under the current Regulations, a simple matter of a matter of feet and inches, or Seasonal foliage could make the difference between this guy being a good deer manager or a lowly poacher. But, he is the same guy doing the same thing either way!

We plant patches on our land. About 14 a year. We also feed the deer with feeders. It takes more time, effort, and money to keep the feeders working and full year round than it does to plant the patches. I don't know where this perception comes from that it's some legendary herculean task to plant a friggin green patch. Simplest most low maintenance thing in the world. But hey knock yourself out. Whatever you need to bulls##t and delude yourself with to feel like you are a superior hunter. I mean it truly takes a master hunter to work the latch on a shooting house door in a green patch. And don't even get me started on the woodsmanship and skill required to deal with those plexiglass shooting house windows. LOL!

I love this topic ! Yall keep up there good debate.

I don't have anything to add , just helping push it to 20 pages.

yep

Let me help you Fred

I think we should outlaw those deer crossing signs. Its dangerous to encourage deer to cross a busy road.

I like a food plot with a feed trough in the middle of it.

Chewbacca is a wooki dat lives on the planet indo. Why in the hell do Chewbacca want to live with a bunch of 3 foot tall wookis?

You would have to combine all four of my plots just to get more than a quarter acre.

Jawbone, you might as well try to reason with a rock. As Ron White says "you can't fix stupid"

and you just insulted a rock....

I just hope it is legalized so as many people as can will start feeding corn around my lease and pull every dang bear off my property

Translation: We cannot answer his questions. We cannot explain how hunting a green patch requires any more skill than hunting a feeder. So lets just hurl a baseless insult and act like we won the debate.

Why? Cause you ain't got s##t else you can say. There is no case to be made that one of those activities requires any more knowledge or skill than the other. If there was you would make it.

You got that part right but just aimed in the wrong direction. I'm starting to think there were some short buses involved in a few of yalls high school years.

Baiting is for lazy hunters. That is for certain!!! Also, most hunters ARE lazy. I firmly believe that hunting should be as difficult as possible. Scopes are for sissies. Firearms, who needs them? I'll tell you who uses a gun, only lazy hunters who can't get themselves close enough to a deer to kill it with a stick and string. Any skilled outdoorsman doesn't need "cams" or training wheels on a bow to kill a deer. Many many deer have been killed by true sportsmen by just using a hand made long bow and hand made arrows with pointy rocks tied on the end. Actually, a bow may be too much of an advantage for the true outdoorsman, and maybe he should be limited to hunting with spears, knives and rocks.

Lazy hunters use treestands. That's way too much of an advantage. We should hunt on the ground and use our woodsman's skills, abilities and knowledge to track down and kill a deer.

Hunting any food source is also lame and the lazy hunter's approach. Why sit and wait for a deer to come to you when you can go after the deer on foot? I don't care if it is a man made food source or natural, it's still a lazy way to hunt. That is no more sporting than shooting bison on the plains or fish in a barrel.

Don't get me started on shooting houses, especially those with heaters and windows. That's no way to hunt. Talk about lazy and requiring no skill. You go sit in a comfortable shooting house with comfortable chairs, eat snacks all morning while drinking coffee, all while trying to decide which deer to shoot. There should be a box attached to the ladder so you can drop your man card in before climbing up.

Hunters are only true sportsman if I declare them to be so. But hey, if you want to be lazy and use a scoped rifle, a treestand, compound or crossbow, a shooting house, or even bait, as long as it is legal, then go for it, you lazy bums.

My point is that however we choose to hunt, it won't fit everyone at every point along their hunting journey. Some people chose to limit themselves more than others. If you don't want to use a gun, don't. If you choose not to use a treestand, good for you. If you don't want to use food sources (natural, manmade, or store bought), don't. If you choose not to use binoculars, grunt calls, rattling antlers, rangefinders, camo, scents, scent blocker clothing, ozonics, or whatever else that "may" improve your odds, then don't.

IMHO, baiting will not be an effective way to consistently kill mature bucks for many people. The same can be said of food plots. Deer are smart and adapt. Killing mature deer will never be consistently easy in most places.

Here are some canned responses in case you can't think of anything intelligent to say:

1) You're dumber than a rock
2) You're an idiot
3) Your Mama



(Sorry - Just trying to add to the page count).

When will they vote on this to make it final or not? Is there a specific date that this will become law or be dropped?

Exactly mman. Anybody that isn't running deer down barefooted with a spear wearing nothing but a loin cloth needs to seriously climb doubt off their high horse.

Can't use no horse, climber or loin cloth, just a rock.

Good article:


http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/stor...-bill/99376976/

Actually, that is a poor attempt at an editorial whereby the writer is attempting to back up his own personal opinion with some weak generalizations and assumptions.

But, hey......more power to yall!

Actually it is a well written, well reasoned article with a lot of good and valid points.

I suppose if the criteria is 'Does it agree with my OPINION?', that argument could be made.

I am against it for hunting. I am for it for killing pigs. Notice I said killing and not hunting on the pigs. Hog control is not a sport. It is all about reducing numbers as hard and as fast as you can.

Valid points??? It is very illogical according to my logic machine.

CWD - Not found in Alabama or any southeastern state that I am aware of. It's a wonder there is a deer left in Texas since they have found CWD there and baiting is the norm. They also have anthrax. Wait, Texas has a LOT of deer. Why haven't the predators and disease including CWD decimated the Texas population of deer????

If you believe this article, you have to be against any and all supplemental feeding because, CWD and predators don't know the difference in a bait pile and supplemental feed. You can pour out all the corn/feed you want now as long as you don't hunt over it or hunt within the current regulations yet if baiting is allowed, somehow CWD and predators will become a major problem. That makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE!!!

Also the statement, "It’d just be a massacre with no true fair chase" is just delusional. I guarantee you that if you start killing everything you see, if on a food plot, bait pile, white oak flat, or any other place, the deer will stop using it during daylight hours and maybe all together.

It either ought to be totally legal and let people choose whether want to do it or not or it should be illegal with consequences so sever that nobody will do it.

The way it is now, with ambiguous language, is ridiculous.

And Clem, sometimes it's fun to beat a dead horse

An acquaintance of mine that leases a big ranch in West Texas lost 95% of his deer herd to Anthrax one year. it didn't affect the whole state, but that doesn't make Edward feel any better. Oh, BTW, they hunt over corn feeders on that ranch almost exclusively.

I'll admit I don't know very much about anthrax, but I Googled it and one thing stood out to me, "The bacterium normally rest in endospore form in the soil, and can survive for decades in this state. Herbivores are often infected whilst grazing." Did the anthrax come from the corn or was it in the soil and the deer grazed something and got the spores?

What I know about it comes from studying, in very general terms, possible bioterrorism weapons. The spores are inhaled into an animal when it has its nose close to the ground. The spores multiply in the animal and then are exhaled onto the ground where the animal is feeding. From what I understand, the closer the animal's nose is to the ground, and the more animals that are in a certain small area, the more likely the disease will spread. Apparently it has to be in a pretty concentrated area to spread in epidemic form. This is why it is more likely to be spread at a feeder or corn pile than deer eating browse or in a food plot.

If people want corn. Plant corn.

Anthrax occurs naturally in the soil in some areas. That is a problem usually associated with Texas. Even so, Texas still has a huge population of deer. As you pointed out, it can be devastating in local populations.

Alabama does not have that problem. So, we don't have CWD or Anthrax.

My point is that even if we (Alabama) are trying to protect our deer herd from CWD or Anthrax (both of which are not an issue here - It is like trying to protect our deer herd from Bengal tigers), then ALL supplemental feeding MUST stop.

Why would a supplemental feeding station be any more susceptible to CWD or predators that a baiting station? It wouldn't.

The things listed in the article are non-issues for Alabama, therefore irrelevant.

If it passes, I would rather someone just say, I am not going to hunt over food that I put out for deer because I don't like to hunt that way, and just leave it at that, rather than point to things like CWD and predators as a "reason" or say, anybody that doesn't hunt like I do is stupid.

Seems like that is dang hard to figure out!!

What do you plant to grow protein pellets ?

I've said over and over and will say one more time, I don't care if it becomes legal or not. I don't hunt over bait now or will in the future but if someone else does, it just didn't bother me. But I am realistic. If made legal, what percent of feeders do people think will have other than corn?? My guess is 2%. That's 98% corn. What percent of these feeders will continue to be filled from Feb 10 thru say Oct 1? My guess is 2% again....the same 2% with other than corn.

count me in that 2% and NODAMNSTICKER.

Yep, becuse everybody leasing timber company land is free to come in and push out a food plot or three big enough to get a viable stand of corn, and they all have a tractor and the implements to get the job done too.

Heck, just bait 'em then.

Pony up and buy their own land then. Or better yet learn how to hunt, but that's too hard. I do understand the do it the easy way concept though!

OK. Let's get one thing straight. According to Merriam-Webster, a widely accepted dictionary, the word "hunt" means:
To pursue for food or in sport.
To manage in the search for game.
To pursue with intent to capture.
To drive or chase, especially by harrying.
To traverse in the search of prey.

So, if someone tries to kill a deer over corn, wheat, white oaks, waterhole, cutover, or in front of a pack of hounds,IT IS HUNTING!! No individual is going to change that definition for the masses. Therefore, telling someone to "learn to hunt" doesn't reach the goal of holier than thou but only shows you really don't know what hunting is.

Now, I'll go back to not giving a $+&% about the subject of baiting.

I felt the same way the first time I climbed into a shooting house. I didn't have to scout, someone else built it and determined where to put it, someone else planted the field it was sitting on. How is that hunting, I thought??? It was the lazy man's way. Yet I don't hear others disparaging that method, at least too often.

I have since learned to enjoy a shooting house. I even built one and with great difficulty, moved it to a hardwood bottom that I knew they were going to clear cut part of. It has windows, is rock solid and tight. I've even killed a couple nice bucks from it.

Don't tell me I'm lazy or don't know how to hunt. I've put in 1000's and 1000's of hours learning about deer, either through reading, talking to others, and through scouting and personal observation. I wish I knew how many miles I've put in scouting. I spent many years hunting public land. I used to only bow hunt. I know how to kill deer without the aid of bait. If the baiting bill passes, I will put out bait, but I'm sure my approach will be different than most folks. Anyway, it won't make me forget how to hunt, I promise you that.

Well, it is those damn deplorable, free-loading landowners fault that the DCNrhas financial issues and cannot adequately manage the wildlife in AL. Landowners have no role in Managing land. Regulations do that, right???

Oh, my.....what to do, what to do???

Well we already burn food (corn) to fuel our cars. We might as well throw it on the ground for wild animals to eat.

Burning it in our engines is not good either. At least it gets some good use on the ground.