Possible changes to bear baiting in Idaho

[sdkidaho]

Send comments to F&G now on your thoughts on this. I think it's a bad idea. If you let them get a foothold in these two areas, it will set a precedent to change baiting practices in other ares as well. That and who knows what other things they will change if we allow this.

Basically it's never been an issue with black bears, at least not that I've heard of. Maybe if they'd open up a controlled hunt on grizzlies they would learn to fear man and this wouldn't be an issue either.

Idaho Fish and Game - News Release

http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/public/docs/negotiatedRules/backgroundBearBaiting.pdf

Send comments to [email protected]

 

[sdkidaho]

What I sent:

I am writing to comment on the proposed changes to bear baiting.

I strongly oppose these changes. Making these changes opens the door to changes being made to all hunting zones that have the potential to have grizzlies within them.

I would rather see efforts being put towards the delisting of grizzlies so that a controlled hunting season could be had on them. As it stands now, grizzlies have no fear of man, and no reason to fear man. Changing baiting practices would be a bandaid fix at best, and has the potential to spread to all hunting zones and cause far more damage to hunting via further restrictions.

I do not support any changes to bear baiting practices in Idaho.


Sincerely,

Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxx

 

[Speedo]

In relation to grizzly bears, the use of natural bait creates a problem from my experience. While there is no way to keep grizzlies out of a bait site they tend to come once and not return to a site that uses non-natural baits (day old donuts, bread and other sweets), use of legal animal parts tends to keep the grizzlies coming back. At least that is what I've found here in Alaska. Possible short sighted solutions to undefined problems can often create unwanted consequences. Changes to a system that doesn't have a specific problem is usually a bad thing to consider.

Gus

 

[Catahoula]

I wish Idaho would only allow spot & stalk for black bears like Montana does. Hound hunters are always running bears off of other peoples baits. Do away with hounds & baits. All good.
Kirk

 

[sdkidaho]

That is the type of thinking that gets our rights and privileges taken away.

• What if they made your proposed change and then limited it to archery only? Because rifle hunters are noisy and run game off for everyone else, right?
  
• And then what if they changed it to only traditional bows, because compound are too much of an advantage, right?
  
• And then what if they changed it to only certain broadheads, because the newer ones are just far too inhumane in the damage they do, and the pain they inflict, right?
  
• And then we just close it down altogether because it's just outright inhumane to make an animal die a slow death, drowning in its own blood from an arrow wound, right?

Let's not service our own wants and or preferences at the expense of other sportsman.

 

[Speedo]

I wish Idaho would only allow spot & stalk for black bears like Montana does. Hound hunters are always running bears off of other peoples baits. Do away with hounds & baits. All good.
Kirk

That is the kind of attitude that anti hunters like to see, pitting one group of hunters against another. The same kind of things happen when hunters are only concerned about guns for hunting purposes and ignore 2a rights. We need to stand together for all of our rights.

Gus

 

[HARPERC]

I wish Idaho would only allow spot & stalk for black bears like Montana does. Hound hunters are always running bears off of other peoples baits. Do away with hounds & baits. All good.
Kirk

Well you made me think about it.

We all share the same woods, and finding ways to do it without bumping into someone else's hunt gets more difficult with time.

My first bear hunt we hiked in to a berry patch, the sun came up, and there must have been more than a dozen of us glassing the same spot.

Bait close to roads, and your bear will get run by hounds, no doubt.

One thing I've discovered watching over the years is taking away someone else's time in the field yields, no more time in the field, tags, or season for the rest of us.

I've taken bear every way, but predator calling. Hounds are an exciting way to hunt. Usually they'll take you someplace most folks won't go. A good adrenaline rush, and every young person should take on the challenge of keeping up with the dogs. It's a tradition that we'll all be worse off to lose. A great group hunt that a novice can come along with, and learn from the veterans.

Bear bait is the perfect first hunt for kids in my opinion, a controlled situation, by no means a guarantee, and in some of the jungles in Idaho the most realistic way to take a bear.

We lost our bait, and hounds a long time ago, there has been no benefit to the spot and stalk hunters. Which we also do. The thing that makes bear hunting so interesting is the number of ways it can be done.

All this becomes is divide and conquer. Using the grizzly the same way the wolf has been used, an excuse to keep folks out of the woods,

 

[rooster740]

Ya do away with the baiting. That way more little bears and sows with cubs get shot by antsy stalking hunters. Atta boy CAT guy! Every bear I see looks big without anything to compare it to. I think there are more pros to baiting then not.
Montana sucks to hunt bears in, around my area at least! Not only that but people shoot some tiny bears here, thinking they are big! Guilty!
The only way you really get to sit and watch a bear for any amount of time around here is to find one eating on a winter kill.
And moderator flag me but, O'l Cat guy called B.S. on some of my wolf location reporting here late spring of last year, so I will say I do not like his style! I do have to admit that his statement here, was the most ignorant piece I have read for some time.

 

[John-Pure Precision]

Not to hijack this thread but I'm wanting to head to idaho this year to do some spring bear hunting. It's banned here in colorado in the spring as well as hound hunting them and baits.

I'm thinking units 10/12, I'm only going to be able to hunt for 6-9 days so I think bait is not an option. I'm really wanting to do some cross canyon spot and stock on feeding bears.

Thanks for any info

 

[dogdinger]

Not to hijack this thread but I'm wanting to head to idaho this year to do some spring bear hunting. It's banned here in colorado in the spring as well as hound hunting them and baits.


And this is exactly what you will have in ID if you guys don't all hang together.....we haven't had baiting or hounds in Co for 20 or so yrs now, and you know what? the same amount of bears are being killed as when we did have baiting, only they are being killed by cf&g wardens because they are a problem.

Work with the DOW and keep emotion out of it.....AJ

 

[Catahoula]

Hey Rooster,
Sorry I have'nt answered your reply sooner. Been in Oakland, CA for 10 days on a tile floor job.
Anyway, I don't like your response. You DO NOT know me and the way I hunt. Therefore I think we should meet up in person & chat about this. My little wife & I are always in Montana. You come up with a meeting place between here & where ever you live. We can have hot coffee or cold beer. Your choice & I will buy.
Crawl out from behind your keyboard & let me know. Look forward to meeting you.
Kirk

 

[rooster740]

Hey Rooster,
Sorry I have'nt answered your reply sooner. Been in Oakland, CA for 10 days on a tile floor job.
Anyway, I don't like your response. You DO NOT know me and the way I hunt. Therefore I think we should meet up in person & chat about this. My little wife & I are always in Montana. You come up with a meeting place between here & where ever you live. We can have hot coffee or cold beer. Your choice & I will buy.
Crawl out from behind your keyboard & let me know. Look forward to meeting you.
Kirk

Sorry everyone to get off topic butt.
Dearest Kirk
You are right I do not know you, and I do not have to agree with your style of hunting. I feel that bear baiting needs to remain the way it is, because not everyone is a super stealthy Boone and Crockett bear killer. I find it odd that you can call B.S. on my reporting of wolf locations in my desperate attempt to try and get all of these vermin killed. Yet when I state my opinion on bear baiting, now you want to meet at the bike rack?
Oh, and your behind the keyboard statement was cute! I bet that made you feel good to get that off your chest. Not to create a bit of jealousy but of the 10 days that you were in CA, I spent 7 of them hunting. I get a little board sitting there glassing all day, so I do crawl behind the Iphone and bang away. 30 miles north of Gardiner on 89 south is where I live and I am always looking for a free sandwich.
And I also feel that the newly proposed Idaho wolf baiting should be made legal.

 

[The Guide]

I think bear baiting sure would be nice here in Montana and so would running them with hounds. Maybe we can get a year round wolf season and bait them too. gun)gun)gun) Kill them dogs!

Jay

 

[idelkslayer]

I find that when a hunter suggests that a certain method of hunting should be banned it is because he has a superiority complex.

In this example someone who has killed a bear by spot and stalk puts themselves on a higher tier than the guy that kille dhis bear over bait. He reasons that the only real way to kill a bear is the way that he did it.

Having done both I will go so far as to say that hunting bears by spot and stalk is more fun than over bait only because it doesn't involve any of the work of running a bait site. When running baits I have to carry a lot of bait on my back to my site at least every other day, and sometimes it is more work than fun. When doing spot and stalk, I can just go out and hunt. Either way, killing a bear is difficult, while the difficulties of one method are different than the difficulties of another I do not believe that either is better than the other.

That said, I commented to IDFG that I do not support the proposal to change the baiting requirements because I think it would set a bad precedent. Besides where is someone supposed to come up with enough "natural" foods to run a successful baitsite?