My apologies for offending you. Ramblings are all that I have and my intention was just to participate in the discussion. I will suspend myself from the forum for 12 hours as punishment. I hope you and are ok, as I have always valued your opinions.[/quote]

No worries. Sorry if my comments came across as crass. We’re good, as far as I’m concerned.

Keep on trucking and happy hunting!

There are a lot of differences in the actual practices, but as I already said, they can indeed be used for the same purposes. The biggest difference is that one is legal and one isn't. Now that difference can be erased by buying a license, but the very fact that a separate license is required should be evidence that they are different practices. Don't you agree with that?

I agree that there is no ethical difference. And I agree that there is no more skill involved in any sort of deer hunting from a stand, whether woods or field. Actually, I don't think there is much skill in deer hunting at all, and that's the reason I've lost interest in it.

I plant a lot of land that never gets hunted at all, so my purpose in that has to be different than what you described above. I don't wanna see the definition of baiting be changed to include planted fields, or the state will decide to tax them too.

I've never answered the OP's original question - I don't plan to quit planting crops and switch to bait. Bait could not accomplish my goals. I don't care at all if others want to switch.

I think it’s ridiculous that they require a permit. Both are used to attract game, whether it’s hunted over or not.

There's something we can agree on. I would have much rather them just legalized it and have a system like FL. But that wouldn't produce extra money. And the ridiculous interpretation that children with a hunter must buy a permit makes it worse.

I prefer plots

This is a silly debate. Food plots do not meet any definition of bait.
The baiters always try to insult our intelligence, with this argument, because they are trying to justify their unethical behavior, bottom line.

So you just plant food plots without any intention of attracting deer? Whatever.

It was believed that corn was more attractive to deer, and somewhere down the road the state realized they could make more tax dollars off of fertilizer, lime and seed then they could a $5 bag of corn. Therefore they outlawed it because of money. The whole ethics thing is a wash. Now that both are legal they are hoping people will still pay for food plots and buy corn and feeders and charge $15 for the permit. The whole hundred yards out of sight law was a guinea pig to see how much tax sales in that category increased and allowed game wardens to write tickets.

That's a clever argument as well. Reminds me of the people who interpret the Bible to include gay ministers.

No. All that proves is that people in government will never pass up an opportunity to bleed a little more money out of the people under their control.

For example, we have to buy one Alabama license to fish in fresh water and another one to fish in salt water. Only difference in those two activities is the damn salt content of the water and yet two separate licenses are required.

bait
/bāt/

noun

1. food used to entice fish or other animals as prey.

2. anything used as a lure; enticement

Sure seems to describe clover, oats, minerals, peas, and other planted crops as well as corn feeders.

I never saw the difference before, and I don't see it now. Unless you don't hunt over your "food plots placed to entice other animals (deer)" so that you can prey on them (shoot, stab, etc) then they are also bait.

As I said before, what the State of Alabama says you need a permit to do has nothing to do with the definition of the word bait, and any non-natural food is bait, plain and simple.

I have killed deer and other critters in many states and by many methods. Food plots and co, soybeans and corn/protein feeders are just two of those methods.



The baiters (food plotters) always try to insult our intelligence, with this argument, because they are trying to justify their (same as corn) behavior, bottom line. Both are food, both are placed/planted/whatever to attract deer so they can be shot.

Whether you planted it or trucked it in, by the purest definition of bait, both are bait.

Anything used to lure or entice..... That's a might broad brush to paint with.
According to that definition an oak tree is bait

If you planted or fertilized it to increase acorn yield and attract deer, then sure it is. Same with apple trees that you planted or manipulated in some way to increase the yield and attract deer.

By some definitions here corn isn't bait if it's planted and bush hogged instead of trucked in or slung from a feeder. That's the biggest bunch of crap I ever heard.

I'm saying it's all bait, whether it's corn, mineral licks, food plots, etc. If you are hunting over something not 100% natural, then it's food used as an enticement, and it's bait.

Psst...it's not just Alabama that calls corn from a feeder or piled up "bait"....it's nearly every other state too, legal or illegal.

Zero states call food plots "bait".

You're working way to hard to convince everyone, or maybe yourself, that it's the same.

I didn't write the dictionary, just posted the definition.

Naaa, just dragging some green patch hunters (kicking and screaming) into the bright light of reality. The same people that have deluded themselves for years into believing that they weren't hunting over bait because their particular type of bait was green and had a root attached to it.

If people who bream fished with earth worms looked down their nose and berated people who used crickets for the same purpose that would be about equally as stupid as this green patch vs corn feeder bull$#*t. Same activity, same effort and same skill level involved. Just slightly different bait.

I'm with Todd and several others on this.

If you didn't believe that your food plot would attract deer so you can shoot them, then why would you plant a food plot? What does every food plot seed mix advertise?

Here's a few quotes I found while researching what to plant this fall -

Deer love the taste and will travel long distances to feed on Imperial Whitetail Clover.
We have combined some of our most attractive early and late season forages with sweet lupines and Sugar Beets to keep deer in your plots from germination time, until the end of hunting season.
Fall annual designed to attract deer to small, remote food plots for bow hunting
Broad range of 11 forages specially selected and combined to provide maximum attraction through hunting season
Whitetail Oats Plus – the PREMIUM oat planting for deer that establishes and grows quickly and contains high levels of sugar for maximum attraction
Have you ever needed a blend that would be attractive early in archery season but also still providing food in the latest part of the gun season? BioLogic’s Final Forage was designed to do just that.

How is that anything but bait?

I'll simplify it: food plotting IS a form of baiting, whether other states explicitly say this or not.

Yep, it is that simple. But only for those who are honest and use common sense.

I have a large plot , always planted with a quality mix, strategically located and surrounded by hardwood clear cut. It has a nice shooting house. It's legal bait. I don't need the government telling me how to use common sense.

I have three fall food plots I never hunt over or even near. Are they still bait?