To the person or people that messed with my bait site!

[maros91]

A call has been put to the CO and the hunt is on. Your pile of garbage was a great site to see. Quit being so lazy and find your own spot to hunt.

The person or people dumped a bunch of gummy bears and marshmallows on my logs and left all their plastic bags laying on the ground and on the logs. The site is clearly marked with my bait station sign. It's people like you that give hunters a bad name.

[FishonTom]

Sounds like a PETA prank to me. Hope you catch them Biff.

[RumRiverRat]

Other than littering what laws were broken?

[Dave S]

Other than littering what laws were broken?

If a person considers baiting part of the hunt (I do), there are laws against "Interfering with a hunt".

[maros91]

I don't mind people baiting within 100 yards (which is the rule) but when you come in to my site and dump your bait and leave your garbage I have a problem. Go 100 yards away and establish your own site.

[maros91]

Other than littering what laws were broken?

The CO said it is hunter harrassment when someone else messes with your bait.

So I do all the work of gathering logs and baiting the last 2 weeks and it's all right for a guy just to walz in and start hunting. I am not a guide.

[RumRiverRat]

So what are you going to do to the guy if you catch him?

[picksbigwagon]

Biff, it sounds to me like you have handled this correctly. You notified the authorities and they are aware of the situation. I have seen posts similar to this and you are one of the few who took the correct steps.

I am sorry this happened to your site, I have accidentally stumbled onto bait sites when out grouse hunting and the first few times I had no idea what was going on and why the old food and logs were stacked that way. I am better now at identifying bait sites and will walk away from them as best I can.

Obviously they were hoping to get a free hunt out of your work. Were you hunting on private or public land? I am unfamiliar with how bait sites and bear hunting works. If you are on public land, does your bait site tag allow you to be the only one to hunt that site?

Hopefully this is a one time deal. If you do catch them, call the CO directly and allow them to handle it.

[maros91]

Obviously they were hoping to get a free hunt out of your work. Were you hunting on private or public land? I am unfamiliar with how bait sites and bear hunting works. If you are on public land, does your bait site tag allow you to be the only one to hunt that site?

This is on public land. Since I registered this site with the DNR it makes the site mine and anyone who wants to bait has to be 100 yards from me.

[maros91]

So what are you going to do to the guy if you catch him?

Since I haved calm down a little I will just call the CO.

[Boar]

really sorry to hearthat biff, calm rational is best, but yes you did the right thing an notify the proper authorities, hope iut gets better for ya buddy. Boar

[FishonTom]

Hey Rumriverrat, in your opinion, how many laws have to be broken for it to be wrong?

[eric29]

I dont think gummy bears and marshmellows are a bad thing. Im pretty sure the garbage wont bother the bears either. You should thank the the person for giving you the extra bait.

[Gofishleech]

some of you guys dont get it!! Just leave another hunters bait site alone,,,I really do not understand some of the comments I see,,,its all about ethics,,,,I guess im not supprized.

[RumRiverRat]

Hey Rumriverrat, in your opinion, how many laws have to be broken for it to be wrong?

Better question, where did I say it was right what the guy did to the bait site?

Also are the veiled threats made in the first post right?

[Boar]

exactly, you dont mess with a bait site, another persons scent cant turn the site dry in a heart beat, it dosent matter if this person threw candy into the site or not, you come across a bait site you back out an leave, grouse hunting or whatever, A person put in an unimaginable amount of time, effort an $$$$$$ for this sport an it should like other hunting an fishin sports be respected an if harrassed, those in question should be held accountable, there are those that have no clue,"Hey whats this, never seen this before, I know it's a bait site for bear, here lets help out, I'm getting freaked out man, there might be a bear around, let get outa here." Thus leaving garbage behind. But who knows it just su cks on the recieving end. boar

[Boar]

CAN turn the site dry

[picksbigwagon]

whoa, this is being taken way to personal by too many people.

Biff took the appropriate steps by contacting the CO. I encourage anyone who encounters incidents of hunter harassment to contact the DNR immediately.

[Northlander]

Originally Posted By: RumRiverRat

So what are you going to do to the guy if you catch him?

Since I haved calm down a little I will just call the CO.

Ya making threats to people on here, wich I doubt they are on here, is not the thing to do. Plus its against FM rules.

[Shack]

Keep your chin up Biff. It may suck, but part of the game where you are hunting

I tell ya I came close this year to doing what you are doing. Maybe next year. Even read the reg.'s about 2-3 times. You seen any on trail cam's or have any of your stations hit yet?

Maybe a $40 investment/sacrifice on one of those cheap wal-fart or Menard's cams might help the CO in locating who is doing this.

Sad part about it, I think it may be a fellow outdoors-man doing this. If not another bear hunter benefiting their selves, maybe someone small game hunting? Could be a nature lover out on a hike also! But in the end what can you do? Nothing but contact the CO like you did and vent on FM

Good luck on the rest of the season. If things drag on, give me an e-mail. If you have a station that is seeing any action, I have heard of something that helps get those pesky bears to show up! Just wild!

[certified jumbo]

Sorry about the intruders, that sucks.

This whole thread is a weird one. First off, i don't know much about bear hunting. I'm guessing you are on state land?? Regardless it was wrong for them to go to your bait. But did these people think they were helping you?? Why were they in the woods with bags of gummy bears and bear bait??

This whole thing doesn't make much sense to me??!! I think its just a strange deal that probably wasn't meant to cause the issues it did. My guess would be inexperienced hunters making a poor decision. But who knows.

[Shack]

I guess more thinking has me thinking?

You have your name legal as in the regs on a bait station and have registered, someone does what happened as they did to Biff, a CO happens to be checking local bait stations, checks it out to see if it is all legal, sees any trash (check the regs), who gets the high dollar fine? When you get the ticket/fine in the mail, how do you prove it then?

I guess luck O the draw when hunting bear.

[maros91]

It is a WMA. This is the last time I will be bear hunting on public property. You just never know what your going to get and I knew that going in and I just didn't think it would happen to me and it did. Time to move on and hope the jerkbait doesn't come back. We hunted this site Friday night, did not hunt it on Sat. and checked it Sun. morning at thats when we found what we did. I think the person went in there late in the afternoon Sat. around 5-6pm. Found our site and dumped his bait to give it a smell and hunted it for a couple of hours, left his garbage and got outta there. Just hope he doesn't come back.

[maros91]

Keep your chin up Biff. It may suck, but part of the game where you are hunting

I tell ya I came close this year to doing what you are doing. Maybe next year. Even read the reg.'s about 2-3 times. You seen any on trail cam's or have any of your stations hit yet?

Maybe a $40 investment/sacrifice on one of those cheap wal-fart or Menard's cams might help the CO in locating who is doing this.

Sad part about it, I think it may be a fellow outdoors-man doing this. If not another bear hunter benefiting their selves, maybe someone small game hunting? Could be a nature lover out on a hike also! But in the end what can you do? Nothing but contact the CO like you did and vent on FM

Good luck on the rest of the season. If things drag on, give me an e-mail. If you have a station that is seeing any action, I have heard of something that helps get those pesky bears to show up! Just wild!

Thanks for the encouragement Shack. I asked the CO if there were any problems in the area and he was quick to say that cameras and tree stands being stolen are the No. 1 thing that he has to deal with right now and when Pheasant season rolls around there are a lot of trespass complaints. Next year my buddy and I will be purchasing cameras but only put them on private land.

[BeezeHound]

Our group had a similar incident on opener. When we got back into one of our baits we found a couple 4 wheelers sitting there and we were like what the heck. We walk back into our bait to find a a group of guys standing there. They told us they were just checking to see where our bait was to make sure they were 100 yards away. It turned out that they had just came up 1 day before hunting to start baiting and didn't have any spots so what did they do? They walked 100 yards down the trail the bear had been using for 2 and a half weeks coming to our bait and they made another one. What a bunch of S@#T. We were so [PoorWordUsage], but what could we do, they were within the law, very very unethical, but within the law. We all had a pretty heated conversation, but no threats or anything like that were made, I just don't get how someone could have the stones to actually do something like that.