I had all of last week off to bowhunt the rut in Minnesota. The gun season opened up on the 8th so it was the last chance to get in the woods before it got disturbed too much. One of the properties I hunt, my father and I have exclusive access to for archery but then the land is leased by some out of state hunters from Wisconsin for the gun season.
On this property, I had left a stand unhunted all year long waiting for this week because its in a classic funnel used intentsley for the rut. I got into my stand last Saturday morning in the dark, and as it started to get light I noticed what looked like a pile of sawdust on a logging road 20 yards below me. I continued my morning hunt without seeing a deer, and at the end, I climbed down and went over to the pile of "sawdust" which was not sawdust but rather a commercial bait product. Baiting for deer is 100% completely illegal in Minnesota. I was immediatly enraged!!! Not only was someone planning on using my stand for the gun season opener, but they had also placed bait 20 yards below my stand site. This stand had now become illegal for me to hunt. In Minnesota you cannot use bait and if you do put bait out to try and get trail cam pics etc, the bait must be removed completely for 10 days before you can hunt in that vicinity.
So now, one of my favorite stands ever had just become illegal for me to hunt out of for my entire vacation. Figuring the boys from Wisconsin had done this I was going to pull my stand and get out of there when the anger took over. I left the stand up and called my local Conservation Officer. Not wanting to alarm the land owners, I met the Conservation Officer the next day a couple miles from the farm, he threw on a camo coat and he drove to the back of the property with me posing as a hunting buddy. We took pictures of bait, collected a sample and he made note of how to get to the stand when gun season was to open on Saturday.
I just received an email from him today. Yesterday, gun opener, he walked way to the back of the property, checking other hunters from Wisconsin on his way, and got to the bait site to find another Wisconsin hunter sitting 15 yards from a newly freshened pile of Buck Grub with an empty bag of the stuff sitting right next to him
. Got him!!! Although not major, he was given a $350 citation for this first offense, had he had a deer laying there, he would be walking home and shooting things with a slingshot.
I feel good today, justice was served.