Buckman18
Senior Member
I agree, Possum.
I’d be in favor of allowing baiting for bears because I think if the bears were greatly reduced along with hogs and coyotes, our mountain deer would multiply quickly.
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Baiting clarification
- Thread starter Triton Mike
- Start date
I’d be in favor of allowing baiting for bears because I think if the bears were greatly reduced along with hogs and coyotes, our mountain deer would multiply quickly.
General Sherman
Member
Dont know the man
Joe Brandon
Senior Member
I can see your not too happy about the "deer baiting" law. I can understand your concern. Please read the regs and realize that LAWS PARTAINING TO HUNTING BEARS OVER BAIT HAS NOT CHANGED. Please refer to some of our previous " southern zone" friends way down in Clinch to see how this miraculous process actually takes place. Geez.
General Sherman
Member
Ive hunted all over this country. Never have seen so many violators as I see in GA. Ive called DNR more times than I can count and have never received any interest in investigating the things Ive called about. Three times alone have been about bear baiting on wma's. If the dnr doesnt care about baiting on wma's when it was illegal, do you really think it will warrant investigation when everyone and their brother starts killing bears this September? Ga doesnt have game management. It is all run by a bunch of people with no business making decisions about anything except their shareholders.
Buckman18
Senior Member
Wow, sounds like you’ve had quite the negative experience hunting in Georgia? I hate to hear that! You say you’ve called DNR ‘more times than you can count?’ Specifically, regarding bear baiting on WMA’s, would you be kind enough to enlighten all of us which WMA or WMA’s you’ve found this happening? What kind of bait was it? What type of terrain did you find it in? Did you see anyone hunting over the bait? Did you talk to them and what did they say? Did you get a tag number? What year or years? Who did you talk to at the DNR? Who didn’t take your claim seriously? Did he or she give you an explanation?
Your description was very vague, and your description of DNRs response is not characteristic of the experience I’ve had with our DNR in the past. Furthermore, I’m 38, and have hunted on WMAs in bear country since I was 12, and have never found a bait station. I kind of need to know where to avoid. I appreciate your input. And I’m sure other forum members are looking forward to a better, more specific account of your experiences on GA WMAs. Again, the more details the better!
matt79brown
Senior Member
Hard to tell the intent of a man. I'm guessing that those who would shoot bear over ''deer bait'' have already been doing it. Buck I killed last year was full of corn on Thanksgiving day! These North Georgia boys been baiting deer anyway. Wal-Mart couldn't keep it on the shelves last September. They was selling 40# bags at the grocery store here in town last year! I don't like it, but it is what it is.
Killer Kyle
Senior Member
I'll chime in on this one. I disagree with The General about DNR not taking interest in their shareholders. Nearly every single decision made is for the shareholders alone. If shareholders weren't a concern, well, there'd be no DNR correct? DNR collects data from check in hunts, hunter and fishermen surveys, and DNR surveys. This data allows them to see upward or downward trends in things like population growth or decline, herd health, food abundance ect. Those things influence hunter opportunity, and regulations are often a product of data trends. I spoke out about using buckshot on WMA's at two different regs meetings in the past, and guess what?....buckshot is now legal. People in the state wanted longer deer seasons, and they got them. People wanted year-round trout fishing, and they got it. Everything DNR does is funded by the people, by tax payers which are the shareholders. They manage timber not only for the game, but the shareholders. They plant food plots with taxpayer money for the game, and the shareholders. The WMA system is exists for only two reasons. The game, and the shareholders who use it.
Let me ask you this. Why would the state endeavor in the expense and effort to even have WMA's if it were only to manage wildlife? You know there has to be another reason for WMA's other than just making a place for animals to live, right? Would the state spend millions just to have woods? What are the other reasons for WMA's besides making a place for wildlife? There have to be other reasons, correct? Well, those reasons would be so that others could access the land. Others like hunters, fishermen, foragers, hikers, campers, leaf lookers, sight seers, swimmers, cavers, photographers, cyclists, naturalists, historians, joy riders, educators, and organizations all use our WMA's for their own intended purposes. Are those all not...shareholders?
You are beyond incorrect in assuming the DNR is not for the people. It exists for two reasons and two reasons alone. To manage natural resources, and it's shareholders, the people.
I don't know where you have lived and what woods you have roamed, but could the fact that you have seen and encountered the most wildlife infractions be that you live here and have spent the far and vast majority of your life here? If you spend 95% of your life in one place, then you will see 95% more infractions in that one place than you saw in the other collective 5% of places you have recreated. Is that not correct?
I agree with you in that your reported cases of baiting, there should have been interest from DNR personnel. Myself and JBoggs found a bait site last year way back in off the grid in the mountains of NE GA. We didn't report it because it was probably a couple years old at that time. We just carried the garbage out like food stewards should. I'd wager to say that in my experience here in Region 2, the majority of DNR folks would be quite interested in working a good bear baiting case. I don't know where you're from, where you hunt, or who you've spoken to inside DNR, but you must remember that the few don't represent the whole. You might have found a few bad apples, but they don't spoil the whole bunch. Every now and then, a bad apple LE officer shoots an innocent person, it makes the news, and suddenly millions believe that all cops are racist, cold blooded killers. Kind of the same thing.
Sorry you have a shotty crew in your neck of the woods, but I've never met anything but fine DNR folks where I live, roam, and hunt. I wish you had the same experience that I have had with the DNR up here. Say, you ever hunt Chattahoochee WMA per chance?
Let me ask you this. Why would the state endeavor in the expense and effort to even have WMA's if it were only to manage wildlife? You know there has to be another reason for WMA's other than just making a place for animals to live, right? Would the state spend millions just to have woods? What are the other reasons for WMA's besides making a place for wildlife? There have to be other reasons, correct? Well, those reasons would be so that others could access the land. Others like hunters, fishermen, foragers, hikers, campers, leaf lookers, sight seers, swimmers, cavers, photographers, cyclists, naturalists, historians, joy riders, educators, and organizations all use our WMA's for their own intended purposes. Are those all not...shareholders?
You are beyond incorrect in assuming the DNR is not for the people. It exists for two reasons and two reasons alone. To manage natural resources, and it's shareholders, the people.
I don't know where you have lived and what woods you have roamed, but could the fact that you have seen and encountered the most wildlife infractions be that you live here and have spent the far and vast majority of your life here? If you spend 95% of your life in one place, then you will see 95% more infractions in that one place than you saw in the other collective 5% of places you have recreated. Is that not correct?
I agree with you in that your reported cases of baiting, there should have been interest from DNR personnel. Myself and JBoggs found a bait site last year way back in off the grid in the mountains of NE GA. We didn't report it because it was probably a couple years old at that time. We just carried the garbage out like food stewards should. I'd wager to say that in my experience here in Region 2, the majority of DNR folks would be quite interested in working a good bear baiting case. I don't know where you're from, where you hunt, or who you've spoken to inside DNR, but you must remember that the few don't represent the whole. You might have found a few bad apples, but they don't spoil the whole bunch. Every now and then, a bad apple LE officer shoots an innocent person, it makes the news, and suddenly millions believe that all cops are racist, cold blooded killers. Kind of the same thing.
Sorry you have a shotty crew in your neck of the woods, but I've never met anything but fine DNR folks where I live, roam, and hunt. I wish you had the same experience that I have had with the DNR up here. Say, you ever hunt Chattahoochee WMA per chance?
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Killer Kyle
Senior Member
An afterthought just occurred to me. I don't mean to make this any kind of plug for DNR because that's exactly what it sounds like. I get that. But if you say DNR doesn't make decisions for the shareholders, then who are all these rules and regulations for? They directly pertain to hunters as is explicitly stated in above posts. But General Sherman believes that the DNR's decisions aren't for the stakeholders I'm interested in who he thinks they're for?!?!
livinoutdoors
Goatherding Non-socialist Bohemian Luddite
Maybe he should march from atlanta to the sea to protest the bad dnr response, just sayin
gobbleinwoods
Keeper of the Magic Word
I have on occasion GON to a site to hunt in the Chattahoochee and found that DNR had it posted as a baiting site Do NOT enter area. Not the way to start a hunt at an hour before dawn trying to think where is the nearest second best place to go.
PappyHoel
Senior Member
If anyone has hunted the hills and mountains of north ga knows. If you leave corn out for deer you will only get bears. The bears will tear your feeder down and stay on the feed until it’s all gone. Deer will have nothing to do with the area forever more. Been there done that and got the tshirt.
Triton Mike
Senior Member
that is fact!!! I'm pretty much stuck with salt type stuff. I still get bears but not as bad.
Triton Mike
Senior Member
I agree 100%!! I just wonder how much our deer suffer because of all the bears?? I bet it plays a bigger part than the coyotes? I would support baiting for bear more than I would baiting for deer and take as many people as I could to get the bear numbers under control. I literally have more bears than deer? I can't remember the last time I saw a fawn or young deer on camera and I run them often.
livinoutdoors
Goatherding Non-socialist Bohemian Luddite
Man, yall done started the corn wars back up already! Haha
PappyHoel
Senior Member
thumper523
Senior Member
I hunted in Central Ga and we had 1 bear day and they come to inspect where you shot it. Just about 2/3 rds of our members baited and all they ever saw were bears. No one could shoot one for all the feeders. And, a discarded candy wrapper by your stand is considered baiting.
Triton Mike
Senior Member
It wouldn't take much to convince me of that. We just don't have the deer up in the mountains like we should.. Lots of cover plenty of bedding areas and acorns. All we have is the same ole 2 deer visiting a salt block every evening.
bowbuck
Senior Member
Maybe they really don't care. The limit went to 2 and that doesn't really affect the numbers. There will be no way to bait in Northeast Georgia Mountains and not have bears. I understand that in Central Georgia you may be asked to show them where you killed it but I can't see how you would be made to. I also don't see DNR checking every bear killed in North Georgia. I mean it takes a couple of days to get one to come by and tag it now. There is no reason to believe they will ever check a bear off private land that doesn't have yellow corn falling out of his mouth when you take him to the processor. If you have a hide and head in your freezer 48 hours later, how is that ever enforceable?
I can see the enforcement of no baiting on the CNF, but you would have to be a moron to get caught and some will be. I have found several locations on NF in the past that were active baits with trail cams. Passed that info along and have no idea what happened. For the record I am LEO and this just isn't very enforceable at all. So I guess a side affect of killing off what deer we have left over bait in no acorn years will be killing the bear population down some as well.
I can see the enforcement of no baiting on the CNF, but you would have to be a moron to get caught and some will be. I have found several locations on NF in the past that were active baits with trail cams. Passed that info along and have no idea what happened. For the record I am LEO and this just isn't very enforceable at all. So I guess a side affect of killing off what deer we have left over bait in no acorn years will be killing the bear population down some as well.
Triton Mike
Senior Member
all good points bowbuck I agree 100%. For the sake of the deer heard I'd like to see them allow bear baiting on private land anyway. If they are concerned for the bears reduce the bag limit to 1 bear instead of 2.. Maybe then that will help our deer heard some..
