How many of you have had food plots and not run bait.....?
- Thread starter gjs4
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Not sure any of the choices really fit my experience, but I'll weigh in nonetheless. I do not bait on our farm, but have 8 food plots on 80 acres. If you're curious as to what works best, the answer is obviously corn, but corn piles are not as much fun as food plots. I plant plots because I love the process, but I don't think it makes much of a difference in my hunting. Corn piles can drastically increase your odds of seeing deer, but they're no guarantee that you'll kill a big buck.
Technically food plots are forms of bait...just like acorns...mineral licks...and scents. Its odd you don't view them with the same pejorative you do corn.
Ive hunted over corn and over food plots. I generally see more deer over large, unmolested food plots than I do at spots where corn is spread out and lots of human/vehicle scent is in the area. At least thats true early in the season. Later, corn is king.
I don't think corn will help you kill a big buck, but it will help you kill a deer. I hunt to fill the freezer, so it makes little difference to me.
Ive hunted over corn and over food plots. I generally see more deer over large, unmolested food plots than I do at spots where corn is spread out and lots of human/vehicle scent is in the area. At least thats true early in the season. Later, corn is king.
I don't think corn will help you kill a big buck, but it will help you kill a deer. I hunt to fill the freezer, so it makes little difference to me.
The last couple of years crops were my food plots and I ran no bait and no cameras. Natural and unpredictable movement resulted. It was fun.
I've hunted the same family property for nearly 50 years. All deer seasons. All deer weapons. Over that time, I've tried it all from various year-round food plots to bags of corn, drip bags, mineral holes and so on. I almost always kill deer... 15 or 20 years ago I stopped letting "camo clothing" be a big deal. Just mix an match to break up my fat ass human form... I just hunt the wind. I believe the best thing I do is try to provide and improve habitat. Bedding and social areas, natural food ground browse not mowed over with select forestry program that encourages nut trees. I try to make my land the place they hang out or go to when pressured in neighboring blocks. I do what I think will be best for my little herd year-round. Fawns, buttons, does, scrappy 2 an 4 pointers and the absentee father ball-dragger buck.
I just like to see em around.
(and ya. they do taste good.)
I just like to see em around.
(and ya. they do taste good.)
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Bigcountry40
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I my children and I pick up wind fall apples from various tree (including our own) throughout our area, I use the apples and sometimes corn to inventory deer from Late July-whenever the apple crop dries up. I have killed a handful of deer over apples but never a mature whitetail. One observation I have made in properties I hunt (July and August ), sometimes mature whitetails will avoid apple piles, but when I stick out some sort of mineral bucks show up shortly after and will hit it for a few days.
at1010
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As long as baiting is legal - food plots will be hard-pressed to outcompete corn dumped on the ground.
Especially on smaller properties.
My situation is unique, and I can run plots without corn and still have some GREAT hunts. On small permission spots I hunt, there might be 10 corn piles in a 600-acre area - a food plot alone won't be consistent. A good quality food plot, and a little corn - seem to be a good match for those locales.
Especially on smaller properties.
My situation is unique, and I can run plots without corn and still have some GREAT hunts. On small permission spots I hunt, there might be 10 corn piles in a 600-acre area - a food plot alone won't be consistent. A good quality food plot, and a little corn - seem to be a good match for those locales.
Stressless
Active Member
Can't wait 'till OH prohibits baiting... 
.. but what I and my buds have witnessed over many years in Ohio, not located around big AG, is with food plots you can get good patterns hold and improve the local heard health etc... but about mid Oct, the folks that bait, big parcels, small parcels, doesn't matter, will pile corn out and totally change the buck patterns. Pre-baiting, pre-rut, with food plots the bigger boys can be kinda predictable. If you have plots and don't bait they will change when neighbors pile it out, i.e. get pulled off, maybe nocturnal maybe just partially, but if you food plot and also bait to "keep up with the Jones's" you have a better chance to keep bucks in the area and not be pulled off to corn. Either way, putting bait out alters the patterns. I try to minimize the effect, putting it out on the edge of established plots where they were going anyway so its there and = to that guy with 4 acres and 500# corn pile.
So, rereading this, I'm reinforcing what Albert said above... plots with a little corn on your place with those neighbors.
Best of luck on your new land bud.
.. but what I and my buds have witnessed over many years in Ohio, not located around big AG, is with food plots you can get good patterns hold and improve the local heard health etc... but about mid Oct, the folks that bait, big parcels, small parcels, doesn't matter, will pile corn out and totally change the buck patterns. Pre-baiting, pre-rut, with food plots the bigger boys can be kinda predictable. If you have plots and don't bait they will change when neighbors pile it out, i.e. get pulled off, maybe nocturnal maybe just partially, but if you food plot and also bait to "keep up with the Jones's" you have a better chance to keep bucks in the area and not be pulled off to corn. Either way, putting bait out alters the patterns. I try to minimize the effect, putting it out on the edge of established plots where they were going anyway so its there and = to that guy with 4 acres and 500# corn pile.So, rereading this, I'm reinforcing what Albert said above... plots with a little corn on your place with those neighbors.
Best of luck on your new land bud.
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Bait to me - is something placed for direct and immediate consumption. Lure is an attractant whether an item or a design. A food plot, mast tree or corn field aren’t bait though harvest of their spoils for relocation/consolidation is baiting. Mowing a corn field with a brush hog is a gray deal for people with more green than I.
no debate on bait and plots raising the population. I also love watching animals (game and otherwise) and really enjoy venison to the tune of 5ish deer a year consumed in this household.
just stating again- the focus of the question would be poured out, or feeder provided, deer treats specifically for mature bucks.
no debate on bait and plots raising the population. I also love watching animals (game and otherwise) and really enjoy venison to the tune of 5ish deer a year consumed in this household.
just stating again- the focus of the question would be poured out, or feeder provided, deer treats specifically for mature bucks.
Very good point about bait VS lure. No disagreement here.
Generally, in my limited experience, corn doesn't help much on big bucks except during rut/pre-rut when the does are the lure. If you get a field of does, eventually the bucks will follow.
Only when bitter cold post-gun season. On a couple occasions in 20 years, opening weekend was more exciting with corn than without. Otherwise, it's only helpful for inventory and killing "a" deer, not "the" buck.
YES; doubled the opportunity in my area, but corn wasn't the only change. Corn for me makes them more patternable for our woods, ridges and CRP fields, otherwise it's back to being absolutely lucky in a area where they have thousands of acres to roam, graze and bed. Our herd has a big roaming circle pattern generally where they cover approximately 500-700 acres in a weeks time (4-7 days) and then repeats each week, generally speaking.
I've made a slew of habitat changes on and/or near our property since I moved to the area the autumn of 2015. I know we've talked, so you know what I'm trying to get my place to, which is much or exactly like what Jim ( @CJD3 ) has done or described for his place.
Next year, I will not purchase a single bag of corn at all. That's my plan and you can bank on it!