What’s up with the Maine bear-baiting ban prop? It was positioned on the radio as if either it’s simply an effort to prevent habituating bears to eating “people food”, or if the motivation is more wide-spread and it just happens that the most common type of bait used is jelly doughnuts. Or maybe that IS what people use, just for a different kind of bear? (OK, too easy…)

But it sounds like baits, traps and hounds would all be eliminated (does anybody actually still TRAP for bears????)

Very interesting, though, that both sides were talking about preventing bears from attacking humans. You don’t expect the Antis to ever acknowledge that a large predator might actually pose a threat to a human…

Now, just because I’ve never heard of it doesn’t mean it never happened, but sitting over bait never struck me as a “traditional” way to hunt – not for bear or anything else. But in most of the country, it has proven to be a far more effective way to hunt (the bears) than spot & stalk, still-hunting, or just taking a stand alongside a trail. I’ll likely never care try it, but if the state wants to maintain a controlled population, I’m not going to say that nobody else should hunt that way…

Its not hunting its baiting and shooting no hunt involved, I really don't think any animal should be baited. feeder or food plots, mineral likes etc. they all are design to lure a animal in so you can shoot it and not half to hunt it. but when people are lazy or don't know how to hunt this is what the do.

It's bad news because the anti's are trying to elevate bears to a higher status then what they are.... big game predators. The HSU sees easy targets since bears aren't as popular to hunt as other big game, and they try to make inroads. Stop them in their tracks MAINE and oppose this initiative.

Boy, bigdog21, it is great to see experts like yourself ready to condemn the rest of us. Thanks for your righteous comments. Jim :(

Dog – I’m not a fan, either, but when the reproductive output exceeds the rate of removal, the state’s gotta do what they’ve gotta do to keep everything in check, no? And FWIW, how many folks do you know who’ve shot a hardwoods-dwelling bear any way other than bait?

But it’s all a lot bigger than bait alone, and Stix is right on it, IMO… CO banned a lot of traps and baiting for bears and hounds for bears and cats, IIRC, and it seems that human-predator conflicts are rising right along with the population. But it sure sounded like a good idea at the time…

call it as I see it

not condemn anyone just not hunting to me.

Those that want to stop Bear baiting in Maine are actually trying to STOP HUNTING in all ways. They have decided that if they can be successful in this venture, they can then take another "Baby Step" to achieve their goal. Their final "goal" is to eliminate ALL HUNTING in ALL STATES!!!!!

I personally do not Bear hunt because I do not like bear meat, however I see NO PROBLEM using baiting as a method to kill a bear. You will not be very successful hunting Bears like you do Deer because their habits are entirely different. It should be noted that the Bear populations in Maine, New Hampshire & Vermont have increased sustantially in the past few years so that now they can be a problem. It should also be noted that in the Spring of each year, both Bears & Coyotes feed HEAVY on DEER FAWNS.

You will notice that the state of Maine did not start this issue of eliminating bear baiting because they are aware that this is one of the ways to keep bear populations under control.

I think maybe when you go on one of these trips you usally think of it as a shoot. I am going so I can shoot a bear. I want to hunt him but he has to come to me after it was figured out where to get him to come so in essence he was hunted and set up to shoot. I want to shoot him so I say this myself.

All your doing is using a differant methoud the animnal will likley come to you on.LOL Try to reason with some who might be narrow minded is frutless as well.LOL

Opinions are just that I'd love to see someone hunt a MT Lion without a dog it might be hunting you. Also if you think its just that easy to shoot a bear if its on bait then tell us of your experiances.

Guys love to talk negativly and make excuses and just plain say things about baiting. Yes they still trap bears and you can go on those trips to follow a trap line as well. If thats discontinued it will be a real shame. They run bears with dogs so that the shooter can get into a possition to corner the Bear for the shot. They still hunt them and call them in as well as bait them with whatever it takes to get them in front of you.LOL

This is all a war all the time and theres always someone talkig smack and BS and some thinking and beating their chest look at me I wouldn't do this or that's to easy.LOL

Who cares why you won't go on these types of trips when others want to and do it. Is it about being macho or something else?

A bear is a very interesting animal in so many ways and any way you can use to get them close to you for a shot should more than be exceptable.LOL

Each individual can make that choice what he or she thinks they would try to get an animal.LOL

If this ME ban goes through its worse than ever because it gives another foot hold on us all against anything we pursue.

Well, Fred Bear and Howard Hill were not "traditional" I guess--along with lots of others from the past.

Bigdog, the only "fair" hunt is catching your critter bare-assed and killing it with your hands. Bet you think God intended it that way because that's how both you and the bear popped out the birth canal, huh?

Fishing is awfully unethical too, come to think of it. Man, those dang fisherman bait the HELL out of some fish haha!

I'm not even interested in hunting bear just because they don't taste too great to me. I don't care who kills em how so long as they don't hunt them to extinction.

Baiting any animal is not a sure bet you are going to get your animal. The key word is baiting, fishing is baiting as any kind of food plot that an animal eats.

Don't think for a minute they will stop at that, their goal is NO HUNTING.

I've been on 7 baited hunts and have yet to kill a bear. I've only seen 2 at the bait.

Big dog, the F&G in Maine will tell you that only 7% of the bears killed are "incidental" kills, that is not using bait or dogs.

I take it you have never hunted in Maine. If you had you would know that it is the only practical way to do it up there the woods are so thick. It also helps the hunters to see if the bear is a sow with cubs and not shoot them.

If you don't want to do it, that's fine. Go hunt where you can spot and stalk. But please don't hammer on those of us who don't have that alternative. We need to stick together.

heck I have friends who shoot crossbows!

TBB

I'm a lifelong Mainer and hunter. I wish this vote was just about baiting, because then I could happily vote for it. But I grew up rabbit hunting, with a dog of course... and I wonder what the difference is between using a dog to help you get a rabbit, or grouse, or duck... and a bear? Hmmm... one difference is that nowadays dogs are tracked electronically and hunters are jumping in trucks and driving forty miles an hour to head the bear off (or the coyote, or the bobcat)-- that's cheating in my book. Man has been hunting with the help of dogs for millennia-- it's the GPS and walkie-talkies and ozonics and four-wheelers and ten thousand other kinds of techno-crap that non-hunters really hate, and I can't say I blame them.

Every departmental Commissioner in Maine, including the Commissioner of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, serves "at the pleasure of the Governor"-- it says so right in the statutes. In other words, he says whatever the Governor tells him to, and the guys under him say-- or don't say-- whatever he tells them to. So have no illusions, the DIF&W is more about politics than biology.

Okay, pardon the rant... and I'll end it by saying them's just my rules. I don't especially care what others do... but then again don't bother showing me any trophy pictures of a buck that you grew the antlers on either. Happy hunting.

Big Dog , Does your rant cover beaver , mink and other fur bearers ? I'm just curious .

As one who has trapped and moved problem bears in Northern NH, I can quarantee that as many bears will die after this referendum passes as died before. Problem bear will be tagged, moved, and return back within days to be trapped and tagged again. Third time they are killed. I know, I helped do it. You may not like baiting bear but they are very hard to control population wise by not allowing baiting. This referendum passes and the biologists and wardens are going to be doing a lot of killing. We are not talking Yogi here, weare talking about an apex predator. Maybe we should move them to Boston or NYC.

The anti-hunting movement is nationwide, well-funded and well-organized with detailed plans to accomplish their strategic goals. They count on us to argue with one another, knowing that we will rarely accomplish anything inb defense of our hunting.

As we have been saying in another thread about Colorado, the anti-hunting movement was successful in stopping bear hunting over bait and running them with dogs and spring hunting for bears over 20 years ago. Their advertised reasons were lies and the city people bought into it. Now there are too many bear in Colorado. Worse yet the antis are now trying to eliminate lead ammunition in hunting.

Chip, chip, chip away in an organized manner here and over there and down in that state and up there in Maine.

If we want to keep hunting rights for ourselves and future generations, we better stop arguing amongst ourselve and start working actively with clubs and organizations that can go on the offense.

Hunters who decry baiting bears have never tried it. At least the hunters i know. This is a big economic problem for people in rural towns where, in some cases, rely a great deal in their community on hunters coming to spend money, rent cabins, etc. The large city populations in Maine are far removed from wildlife and don't seem to care about their own State's F&G biologists, what wildlife really needs in this day and age, and most who will probably vote against the bear hunt have never set foot in the woods. It's a matter of a smaller number of voters who thrive on the economy that bear hunting brings them and city folks who are ignorant, don't care or have an agenda.

Bill C, if this referendum passes, the big city people won't be living away from the bear. They will go where the free food (garbage) is. I teach and coach in Berlin. We see bear while running the streets and a couple of times a summer F+G has to get one out of a backyard tree.

That may be true, Robert. But that probably won't change anything except to make the evening news cycles. I may be wrong but in California they still don't allow lion hunting despite the problems they have. Closer to home is NJ. Simple solutions are often politically difficult unless someone is making money off of it…and I'm not referring to the common man or woman.

what about baiting for deer ?

Baiting deer in Maine is illegal. In NH there are times you can and times you can't. In NH, unless you are doing it on your own property there is a lot of paperwork and landowner permission to go through…same for bears in NH…lot of paperwork.

Baiting bear allows the shooter to make sure that if a sow comes in, that she doesn't have cubs with her. It also allows the hunter to decide whether this is the size of bear they want to shoot. Baiting IS NOT a guarantee kill when hunting as some would like you to believe. DANNY

So how did the vote come out on this one??

It was defeated, 54% against

Well, there's our Good News for the day, eh?

Yep, you bet it was defeated and I already sent my deposit in for the 2015 season! Jim :)

It was defeated but you can bet that the out of state preservationists will be back. As a biologist and Christian it blows my mind how much money goes into anti conservationist causes while people die of cancer each day. Just imagine what that money could do for research. Priorities. Sorry for the rant.

Lawdy: My sentiments exactly!

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