OUTDOORS: BAIT: WHEN A DOVE FIELD IS TOO GOOD

It's not just fishermen who need to know a thing or two about bait. For their own protection, dove hunters do, too.

Bait is fitting and proper for anglers, but when dove season opens bait is about the last thing with which hunters want to be associated. Several items that are commonly identified as dove bait do, indeed, attract birds -- but it's illegal to hunt over or near a field that's been baited.

Wildlife enforcement officers don't have to be concerned with who baits fields that are deemed illegal. Law puts the burden of responsibility on the hunter himself. If you or I show up and hunt at a baited field, we can be busted. We can be fined, and it doesn't matter in the least if we may have been unalert to the presence of what is considered bait.

In this business of baited fields, one can be innocent, relatively speaking, but guilty in the eyes of the law. And fines are levied according to the latter.

Typical bait is grain, most of which appeals to the seed-eating mourning doves. Corn, wheat sunflower seeds, milo and soybeans are all agricultural crops which fall into the category.

However, it can be perfectly legal to hunt over a prepared field of perhaps sunflowers or wheat -- even one which was strategically planned to attract doves.

Confusing? Yes, but there is some logic upon which regulations are based.

The key to any legal dove shooting field is that it has been prepared using a "bonafide agricultural practice." In other words, if what's out there is a result of a standard, genuine farming operation, it's going to be legal over which to hunt doves. The doves may be attracted to feed in that field, but it's acceptable to shoot there if a conventional farming practice made it that way.

For instance, a field can be disked and sown with wheat, as is sometimes done around the first of September opening of dove hunting. Doves may flock to the field, but hunting there is quite legal as long as the sewing was done in a conventional method with an appropriate amount of wheat.

Where that can go wrong is if the amount of seed sewn is larger than the normal planting rate or if there are unusual concentration of seed. If that's the case, the field can be deemed as baited.

A corn crop can be harvested and inevitably a small amount of grain will be spilled in the process. This can attract doves. Here, too, it's legal to hunt over the field as long as legitimate methods were used.

Any time grain that isn't planted is brought into the field, legal problems arise. It's clearly illegal to haul in and scatter any grain for the purpose of attracting doves. Rather, it isn't illegal to bring in the grain, but it's a certain violation to shoot over the field.

Perhaps the hottest dove magnet is a sunflowers field that has been cut a short while before the opening of dove season. While not many people are in the sunflower business, it's still accepted as a bonafide agricultural practice, thus hunting over these fields are legal. Wildlife management agencies commonly prepare sunflower fields on state-owned properties to provide dove hunting areas for the public.

Along with seed grains, salt is another material that is considered a bait. In a recent federal court case, the status of salt as a dove attractant, hence, a bait, was being contested. Unless you plan to bring a lawyer along on your hunt, however, don't shoot over any field where any form of salt is present. Rest assured, federal and/or state wildlife enforcement officers would consider it bait and could cite you accordingly.

Salt isn't part of any bonafide agricultural practice. Therefore, avoid it like the plague if you wish to remain legal as you should.

The tough part of remaining an upstanding dove shooter is that the burden rests on the individual, not the landowner, the farmer or anyone else. The onus is on the man with the shotgun.

That being the case, a dove hunter owes it to himself to be alert to any situation at a place where he intends to hunt. It doesn't hurt to inquire with the landowner about the method of field preparation.

When one receives an invitation to hunt, one doesn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth -- but one doesn't want to be fined either. It's not rude to be sure something "extra" wasn't done in an attempt to assure a good hunt.

History counts too. Regulations state that a field is considered baited a full 10 days after any bait that might have been present was removed. That's because it takes a while for the attraction on birds to stop working. It's also another reason a hunter should be wary about whose place he hunts and that he knows there are and were no irregularities about the field.

When the preparation of any particular field seems on the shady side, shying away is the best tactic. When in doubt about what's appropriate and what's not, consult a conservation officer in advance of the hunt to know for sure.

A hot dove shoot is a pleasure to the typical upland hunter. Yet, it's not worth the price of a citation or the potential loss of a hunting license if it's because of a bogus baited field.

Steve Vantreese is outdoors editor of The Paudcah Sun.