Deer baiting, up until a few years ago, was an accepted practice in Wisconsin. When I started hunting back in the early 1980s, about the only thing deemed illegal were salt blocks. Any hunter was allowed to dump whatever type of attractant they felt would help tip the odds in their favor. Usually it was apples or corn, and eventually salt blocks were even used because the state made it legal.
In the north, other baits were used, such as pumpkins, carrots, beets or any other vegetable deer would eat.
In fact, the practice was so common in the northwoods that people were actually dumping pickup loads in one spot. And for years, attitudes developed that these large bait piles would "hoard" the deer, and they wouldn't leave the area, thereby not giving neighboring hunters a fair shot at the animals.
And over the last several years, since CWD was discovered in the Mount Horeb area, those opposed to baiting stepped up their efforts to have it banned, and for the most part successfully in much of the state.
There still are areas where people can bait legally, but with limited amounts. Two gallons of bait per forty acres is all that's allowed in the few remaining parts of the state that it is legal. And even at that, it seems a growing number of hunters look at it as unsportsmanlike.
read more.... http://www.sheboyganpress.com/article/20100103/SHE0204/1030443/1088/SHE02
