In response to the now quite lengthy thread regarding the apparent AZGFD recommendation to prohibit baiting, I have decided to come out of my cave and offer comment. As a disclaimer, I am a retired AZGFD wildlife manager so some of you may automatically disregard anything I write as propaganda. So be it. For those of you with open minds, read on.
Firstly let me concede that baiting, even if correctly done, is not an absolute guarantee of a successful hunt. But I hope you will also agree that baiting is a darn sight more effective than just slinking through the piney woods in hopes of stalking up within bow range of a deer. In fact, I think we can all agree that baiting is arguably one of the most effective tactics to take a whitetail buck. If it wasn’t, I don’t think so many of you would be riled up at the thought of losing baiting as a lawful hunting method.
Now for those who seem believe the bait ban consideration is all part of a greater conspiracy to legislate hunters out of the means to be successful, I believe you are wrong. Trail cameras, sitting water, tree stands, ground blinds and the like are not the next logical next step beyond this recommendation. This is a stand-alone issue that is about two things; disease transmission and archery hunter success (especially as it applies to Coues whitetail deer). That’s it. Yes there are many people that would gladly take away your and my privilege to hunt. But those kinds of people don’t write rules for AZGFD. Trust me on this. The Department is far from perfect, but the last thing they want to do is regulate you into another leisure time pursuit. If you all quit buying licenses and tags, they are out of funding and out of jobs.
Many serious wildlife diseases including Chronic Wasting Disease, Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease, Blue Tongue and the like are transmissible through contact with infected body fluids, including saliva. Therefore, any human activity that congregates animals and increases the likelihood that they will swap spit is generally a bad idea. I know the nay-Sayers among you have claimed that if disease transmission is really behind this, then why isn’t salt also being considered for prohibition under the current recommendation? Quite simply salt and salt derivatives are naturally antibiotic and antiviral. The nasty bugs that cause these diseases simply can’t persist on a salt block or in a salt lick. Therefore salt does not present a serious threat of disease transmission. Not so for edible grain baits. Germs transferred through saliva will persist for quite some time on bait and in the soil where the bait was placed, providing a ready source of transmission to future animals visiting the site. I agree with most of you that CWD, if it ever enters this state, will not be the result of a bait site. But the widespread use of edible baits could significantly increase the spread of the disease if it ever got here. Are you willing to risk the health of our deer and elk herds for the sake of increasing your ability to be successful?
The other real issue with baiting is its’ effect on archery hunter success. Everyone who reads this post that has actually used bait knows full well that the primary baiting target is Coues whitetail deer. While baiting also works for turkey, javelina and other species, the vast majority of hard-core baiters are after whitetail bucks. And the vast majority of those are archery hunters. So what’s the problem? Loss of seasons and/or over-the-counter tags is what. Quite simply, we archery deer hunters have enjoyed over-the-counter tags and multiple open seasons in units south of the Colorado River for one simple reason - we haven’t killed enough deer to matter. Even with compound bows, range finders, ground blinds, and hunting on water we haven’t killed enough deer to matter. With the widespread use of bait, however, we do kill enough whitetail bucks to matter. That’s where the rubber meets the road for this issue. When we get too successful at killing deer with archery tackle, we either have to give up opportunity or we have to give up the methods that make us so successful. That’s the deal with using a “primitive” weapon. You get unparalleled opportunity as long as you aren’t too successful. You get too successful, you lose the opportunity.
Taking a quick look at some statewide numbers, the number of archery deer hunters has remained relatively stable at about 17,000 from 1990 to the present. Over that same time period, the whitetail buck archery harvest has increased five-fold. What do you think makes today’s archer so much more successful than those of just 20 years ago at killing whitetail bucks? In comparison, the mule deer archery harvest over the same time period has remained essentially unchanged or even dropped a bit.
I happen to be very familiar with Units 22 and 23 and have hunted whitetails on and off there for over 35 years. Back in the day, nobody I knew of used bait. Over the last decade bait sites started showing up more and more. Today, bait sites are everywhere. As I still hunt and explore new areas to hunt, I feel like I am trespassing through private hunting “claims” where each baiter defends his or her territory. One hunter I ran into last January told me he had been baiting a particular location for seven or eight years, implying I should respect his claim to those national forest lands and stay out. This sentiment is quite understandable given the effort in dollars and hours that were expended backpacking in quantities of corn, numerous times, to keep the site active in preparation for the hunt. The comments I have read in this forum regarding baiting that allude to a “handful” of bait here and there are disingenuous. We all know that to be effective, bait must be laid in quantity and must be regularly refreshed. Just ask the feed store in Payson how much grain they sell to hunters. I guarantee you the amount is measured in tons, and not in handfuls.
Let’s take a look at some recent harvest numbers for Units 22 and 23. Archery hunter success has increased in both units from 2007 to 2011, 3% to 7% in Unit 22 and 4% to 7% in Unit 23. Of special note, the annual whitetail buck harvest in Unit 23 has more than doubled from the mid-thirties to over 70 during the same time period. Not only are hunters getting more successful in this unit, but more hunters are showing up. Those numerical increases may seem insignificant on face value, but if one realizes that in a stable population, each additional 10 bucks harvested by archers equals about 50 less rifle hunters that can take to the field the next year, this increased harvest is quite significant to wildlife managers planning their hunt recommendations. In order to properly manage the whitetail buck harvest, these managers are forced to either cut rifle tags, or reduce the opportunity or effectiveness of archery hunters. Which option do you think will be chosen?
So for those of you who are in favor of baiting and are preparing to fight to keep that privilege, I ask you one simple question. Are you willing to give up your over-the-counter archery tag and your liberal season dates to keep baiting? Because I believe that will be the end result in some units if baiting is allowed to remain. Baiting, while not a sure-fire technique, is still effective enough to raise archery hunter success rates to levels where archery hunter numbers need to be controlled. I would much rather buy my tag over-the-counter, have the ability to hunt August-September, December and January, and forfeit the use of bait. In my book, that’s a dang good trade. For those of you who think you can have your apple (or cob) and eat it too, you have another thing coming. Units 22 and 23 have already lost their December archery seasons in response to increased whitetail harvests. How much opportunity are you willing to sacrifice in order to maintain your use of bait? How big a fan of baiting would you be if you had to put in the draw for an archery deer tag and were limited to a single 14 day season?
Think about it before you decide on this issue. If you decide you still want to defend the use bait, remember what you are likely giving up. Will it be worth it?
