Looks like I am a little late to the show but I think that there are some very good arguments for both sides. I also think that the answer of whether or not to bait is circumstantial.

I used to be avidly opposed to baiting deer when I lived in an area in which I had the family farm to hunt many acres with oak trees and full flowing streams. I loved patterning, tracking, and what many refer to as legitimately "hunting" deer. I would have never thought of baiting under any circumstances.

Now I live in an area where I have thousands of acres of CRP land to hunt and the deer are very seldom seen during daylight. What trees we have are cottonwood trees, not much mast produced from that. No trees to put stands in, mostly stalk hunting which is more difficult than calling in with a call or sitting in a stand by a well used trail waiting for a deer to walk by. No way would I belittle people who don't stalk hunt it is just a matter of what the area provides opportunity for.

Back to the baiting issue. I set up several feeders on the land I have permission to hunt. I check the feeders regularly and put cameras out so that I know deer are in the area. My rule of thumb is that I won't hunt within 250 yards of my feeders unless I stalk a deer into that area. In other words I don't set up a blind a hundred yards from the bait and wit and wait at dusk and dawn to see if they come in. Fact of the matter is, in my area bait doesn't increase the chances of seeing a deer during daylight hours very much. 95% of my trail cam pics are taken outside of shooting light. If you do happen to see one during the day it is usually half mile away or more. You can see forever on the golden plains and so can the deer.

I guess what I am saying is sometimes we have to adapt our methods to the circumstances we are given. Don't criticize too soon until you have hunted someplace like Western Kansas or Eastern Colorado where the land is flat and treeless and when getting permission to hunt along the rivers that occaisionally have water in them is very rare and very expensive.