Clem, you are spot on. From my back window I can get a glimpse of one of the nation's premier steelhead streams (the Umpqua River), and I don't even buy a fishing license. They change the season dates, and place some sections off limits, to correct for the current water conditions in the river. It's not enough to have a license and tags, you have to check their website for the latest closings. Once you catch a steelhead, you must release it unless it is a hatchery fish (clipped adipose fin). If you do keep one you have to use one of your tags on it. On my property I have deer, California quail, mourning doves, band-tailed pigeons, and western grey squirrels. I only hunt the deer because the other seasons, regulations, licenses, tags and bag limits are just too much to deal with.

Only if the area(s) are over hunted. Feeding corn or other items to the deer will not make them any harder to hunt or cause them to be more nocturnal.

Baiting is a bad idea. I grew up in Alabama with no baiting and have lived in Michigan for the past 15 years. Michigan has always been a legal baiting state and has now outlawed baiting beginning this season due to Bovine Tuberculosis, EHD and CWD being found. Passing the baiting bill in Alabama is a bad idea. Will cheapen the experience and tradition and invite diseases which are costly to control. Instead of dads teaching their kids to scout, plant greenfields, etc. they will now teach them how to throw corn on the ground.

Think your deer are nocturnal now, wait until you start baiting!

Myth! Hunting in S.C. and Georgia with baiting for years and “feeding” the deer is the least of what causes deer to be nocturnal.

People make deer nocturnal. Hunting a corn feeder is no different than a food plot. The more you hunt it the less you see.

We're already there IMO. License numbers continue to fall, and dipchits like Chuck continue to make it harder and harder to just go out and hunt and enjoy yourself. We really need to get PCP to replace Chuck, Chris Blankenship, and all the other IDOTs who are coming up with these game laws

Hunters numbers is not falling due to regulations that is BS. Hunter numbers are falling due to the mismanagement of the State's deer herd and the steady decline in the number of deer and quality hunting experience. You can thank the liberal does season for that.
As far as the baiting topic....it is legal so it will be allowed and everyone will pony up the $15 or not bitch when they get a ticket.

Yep. The 10-15% of hunters who hunt land that has an abundance of deer don't want to hear that, but it's the absolute truth. I know people, other than on aldeer, who hunt in every corner of the state and they all say the same thing. Seeing deer is what gave me the passion when I started deer hunting. Not seeing deer is what made my teenage son grow to dislike deer hunting. It's not hard to figure out, the state folks are just too headstrong to admit it.

Our Club is enrolled in the State’s DMAP System.
Our biologist recommendations are pretty conservative on antlerless harvest.

While I agree that the extremely liberal Season long antlerless season really allowed the herds to be decimated in places, it was hunters themselves who killed them, not the State.

We lease a good-sized chunk of property. And, Mike and I are constantly working behind the scenes on how to ensure that we accept members who share the same Vision and Principles as we do. And, we also have group texts, emails and a private FB page and share information with each other all of the time, year-round. To me, that is a key component; surround yourself with quality, like-minded individuals. We are also lucky to be part of (actually, right in the center of) a huge Co-Op of Clubs that share these same strategies!!
Just because something is allowed does NOT mean that it has to be done. And, with everything, moderation is usually the best answer.

Also, on the issue of corn making deer go nocturnal. That is just untrue. We ran 10 feeders in pre-determined and ‘off-limits’ locations this past Fall. We used them to provide supplemental food and to run cameras on to monitor the deer herd for census info. We got lots of mature buck pics at these unhunted feeders all Winter long. It is NOT the feeders or the feed that causes the change, it is hunting pressure that does that. We work really hard to be sure our deer have MORE quality food than they can utilize through habitat management, year-round food plots and the feeders. The abundance of food, in all of it’s forms, does ensure hat our deer are not malnourished to the point that they are up and moving 24hrs a day to be able to survive on low-quality browse. But, let a good cold front hit.....they will get up and move as well as any. I personally do not want to hunt starving deer. I prefer to hunt healthy deer.

Just my take on all of these issues that people keep bringing up as reasons why this new Law is such a bad idea and their creation of ‘what-if’ scenarios while running around in Chicken Little fashion screaming that the sky is falling. Don’t like it, don’t do it. Don’t like your Club or your Club Rules, get out and join another that is more in alignment with your own ideals. Or, just lease your own and set it up as you wish. Heck, hunt Public Land! Either way, nobody is FORCING anybody to do anything!

And anytime people do see more than 1-2 does, they’ve been convinced for 30 years now that those does need to die, for the good of the herd. That’s what has made hunting stink in a lot of the state. It’s hilarious circular logic.

This thread is just like a train wreck, I try not to look but I just can't help myself. I'm pretty sure there are people on here that could find fault with someone giving away free money

It may work for you because have a fairly ideal situation, though. You cannot deny that.

Not everyone in the state has neighbors who are on the same page they are. Not every club in the state has high acreage:member ratios. I would say that you are in the vast minority in that you do.

High dollar clubs with low member:acreage ratio that already had good hunting probably won't be affected nearly as much as others. Not really even sure it will benefit them all that much. Pressure is the biggest key, and if feeders even at clubs like yours begin to get pressured, sightings will go down. Human nature is to take the easiest path...and the easiest path is to sit and watch a feeder.

In other words, just because you're convinced that it works great for your club doesn't mean it's a great thing for many others.

The state's job is to do what's best for the state's deer herd...not what will benefit a handful of clubs who don't need that much help already. i honestly think they have failed in doing what's best for the state's deer herd.

{Caveat} I'm fortunate enough that I also belong to a high acreage:low member club. We have not supplemental fed in the past, and we will not put out feeders now. We have bears, and we have no desire to have even more bears. Food plots do not attract bears...feeders do, though.

May I ask a question on the not seeing deer? What is that definition and time line? Is that not seeing any for 1 hunt, 5 hunts, 1 season? The reason I ask, and I don't think it's just kids. The society and mental state we are now is just move to the next thing. I can show you with stats that viewership time spent on videos on FB and Youtube are lower, Why? Because of the adds put in that we have no control over. When the add pops up it's clicked to the next video. I do it. I know everyone else does it. Is it the same with hunting? I don't know that answer, but I would guess yes.

I agree. Kids (and even most adults) have no attention span anymore. No patience. It's no surprise that kids nowadays lose interest if they're not constantly seeing deer. It's the society norm now. Many parents do anything they can to appease the kids, instead of teaching them about patience. Instant and constant gratification is a necessity.

Upwards sports has come to hunting. Everybody gets a trophy, everybody gets to see deer when they hunt. It has to be that way.

Yes. There's an attitude of and need for immediate gratification and when it doesn't happen, it's someone else's fault.

"I planted all this! I bought (or leased) this land! I paid all this money! I want to see an ungodly amount of deer like "the good old days" and big bucks and they're not here!"

And then it's one of several things, often including:

THE STATE HAS SCREWED ME.

MAH NABORS SHOOT-BAIT E'RRYTHING.

THE DEER ARE NOCTURNAL!


Upward Deer Hunting ... lol. True for a lot of people, though.

Quick poll of our club resulted in all agreeing to buy bait licence, but we will not put out bait during season. We are doing it to support return of fed funds to help the LEO's we call to help us with problems on our property.

We were told by the Department during the GameCheck deal that there was no "neutral" when it came to a decision of for or against.

We were told that "neutral" was counted as being "for" it.

So, going by their own words publicly made just a couple of years ago, the Department was in favor of this.

Maybe it's not the "baiting" per say, but all of the traffic in and out of the bait sites refilling the buckets, checking cameras, etc. That's what will turn the mature bucks even more nocturnal. A food plot is a little different. You plant, it rains and the plot grows. It continues to grow all season no matter how hard it gets pounded. Rarely is there a need to be walking around a plot during season, so it stands to reason a plot will have much less traffic than a bait site. My 2 cents.

Totally agree. Because now that this door has opened up, the hunting menu is about to become a reality. In Florida you have to buy a hunting license (basically the cover charge just to get into the restaurant), and then an extra permit for deer, an extra permit for turkey, an extra permit for bow hunting, and an extra permit for crossbow. You guys are naive if you don't think this is coming to Alabama. They took something the citizens badly wanted and should have already had (baiting), and used it as a way to open up a new revenue stream that won't stop at just corn.