I can't help but put in my 2 cents on this one. I guided in Saskatchewan for Whitetails and yes we DID use bait. Our hunters harvested lots of great Whitetails from the middle of forest country. If you have never baited, then you do not realize the amount of work that goes into using bait to harvest a quality Whitetail. Throwing out a bale and some grain in the middle of nowhere will harvest you nothing. It may get you some pictures, but that will be about it. I laugh at a few folks I work with that figured they'd shoot 180's every year if they used bait....one guy is on his forth season using bait (in Saskatchewan) and is yet to harvest a single animal (even though BIG deer are in the area). If you don't have things set up in the right spot, the big boys will not come out until darkness falls. Trust me on that one. As far as Alberta goes, I think they should adopt the baiting laws for Whitetails. I now live in Alberta and refuse to hunt Alberta due to 95% of "so called" hunters driving in their trucks and lobbing bullets at whatever they see no matter where they are at the time. Road hunters should be the ones getting put up on charges, not baiters. Alberta would be a lot safer if they would allow baits. It would cut down on road hunters blasting bullets first and looking for farm houses, oil wells, farm equipment, cows, etc. second. Besides, if you are willing to put the time and money in to keep up your stand, then by all means, you should be able to. What's the worst that happens? A pile of deer get free meals and you "might" get to harvest one? You're only allowed X amount of tags so why should you not have the option of how you'd like to go about filling it? Oh and IMO save your money on buying fancy bags of miracle mix and go with an old fashioned alfalfa square bale with a pale of oats dumped on top of it.
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