Baiting Bill

[mike243]

Is this going to pass?. Im not for it as it will start a corn war, I am to poor to engage and it really doesn’t help the general health of the herd, mix in some cwd and it just doesn’t sound like a good idea to slow it down.

[RED333]

Do you have link to a story?

[Alleycat72]

I like the $149 spotlighting deer tag.

[mike243]

HB938 | Tennessee 2025-2026 | Licenses - As introduced, creates a bait privilege license to allow hunting or taking of whitetail deer and wild-appearing swine using bait on privately owned or privately leased land. - Amends TCA Title 70. | TrackBill

[gregintenn]

I'm about the only deer hunter I know around here who doesn't bait. It's been years since I've field dressed a deer that didn't have a belly full of corn.

I doubt it'll change much of anything if passed.

[DraxTheDad]

I have my license, and as of yesterday passed my hunters safety course.  Have never been hunting.  But I do put out corn for the deer on my land; there aren't a lot of deer and I would like to have more on the land (have 100+ acres).  Previous owner hunted them to near extinction.   So just because there is corn in their bellies doesn't mean they are being hunted over the bait.   

[gregintenn]

3 hours ago, DraxTheDad said:

I have my license, and as of yesterday passed my hunters safety course.  Have never been hunting.  But I do put out corn for the deer on my land; there aren't a lot of deer and I would like to have more on the land (have 100+ acres).  Previous owner hunted them to near extinction.   So just because there is corn in their bellies doesn't mean they are being hunted over the bait.   

Where I live, it pretty much does.

[10-Ring]

At first I was in favor of this, reason being is that most of this state is over run with deer. I figured that it isn't going to hurt anything to bait them in and take more deer out of the population. 

Then a friend of mine changed my thinking, reason being is that it takes challenge out of hunting big bucks and turns that challenge into a shooting fish in a barrel scenario. 

My proposed solution that makes way too much sense for the Tennessee Wasting Resources Agency to ever consider? Bring back the week long anterless season in January and allow baiting during that season. Also propose a one week pause between the end of the regular season and opening of antlerless. I feed deer in the off season and they will find corn piles typically in 1-3 days. Deer in heavily pressured areas may be more skittish, but I'm not really sure what else can reasonably be done to get them in front of a gun during daylight hours? Maybe that's where the spotlight permit comes in?

 

[Alleycat72]

Baiting has gone through the roof since the issue with TWRA getting their pee pee smacked. Just ask the guy behind the counter at your local feed store. TWRA can't just walk all over property for no reason anymore. This will give them inspection rights and extra cash. 

Edited 22 hours ago by Alleycat72

[10-Ring]

1 hour ago, Alleycat72 said:

Baiting has gone through the roof since the issue with TWRA getting there pee pee smacked. Just ask the guy behind the counter at your local feed store. TWRA can't just walk all over property for no reason anymore. This will give them inspection rights and extra cash. 

Can you elaborate on how it will give TWRA inspection rights? I didn't see anything that eluded to that in the bill. 

With the recent changes in the wild of regulations TWRA now has to visit the property and establish that there is damage before issuing a permit to shoot wild hogs on private property. It is believed in the hog hunting community that this is T-Dubs backdoor method to gain access to poke around on private property. 

As a landowner they can pound sand as I will not ask permission to eradicate an invasive species on my own property. 

[Alleycat72]

1 hour ago, 10-Ring said:

Can you elaborate on how it will give TWRA inspection rights? I didn't see anything that eluded to that in the bill. 

With the recent changes in the wild of regulations TWRA now has to visit the property and establish that there is damage before issuing a permit to shoot wild hogs on private property. It is believed in the hog hunting community that this is T-Dubs backdoor method to gain access to poke around on private property. 

As a landowner they can pound sand as I will not ask permission to eradicate an invasive species on my own property. 

The original idea for baiting was for you to purchase a permit per bait sight. The fine print gave the TWRA the right to " inspect " the bait sight and verify that you only had the correct number of bait sights. This inspection can happen any time and for the duration of the permit. This may have changed as it's moved through the process, but it's what they want. 

[10-Ring]

1 hour ago, Alleycat72 said:

The original idea for baiting was for you to purchase a permit per bait sight. The fine print gave the TWRA the right to " inspect " the bait sight and verify that you only had the correct number of bait sights. This inspection can happen any time and for the duration of the permit. This may have changed as it's moved through the process, but it's what they want. 

Ah, that sounds about right, just another way for them to weasel their way onto private land. Thank you for the explanation. 

[peejman]

I guess they figure they can't police it anymore, so may as well try to make money off it. 

Here in the east, deer are tiny. They need all the help they can get. Shooting a 95lb deer just isn't worth the trouble. If it's legal to fatten them up and encourage more to be culled, and end up with fewer, bigger deer... I'm fine with that. 

My parents have had trouble with deer eating all the plants around their house. All the ones I remember culling had corn in their stomach, in season or out of season (nuisance permit).  Clearly they're being fed.