Baiting is an excellent management tool in areas where its allowed.
Its also a matter of terrain, Spot and stalk hunting bears would be awesome, but you will spend a lifetime doing that in the thick eastern woods and never spot a single bear.
If you want any reasonable level of success in Ontario, baiting is your only real option. Its not a personal preference thing, its a do you want to bear hunt or not thing. Sure there are the odd exceptions that guys deer hunting get a random chance at a bear, but the harvest numbers would be 100x less if bait wasn't an option here.
Since then the bear populations would skyrocket and the problem bear issues would skyrocket, the MNR realizes that baiting in the thick woods is the only viable management tool.
Baiting is a tremendous amount of work. But its also fun and exciting. But its far from the sure thing people make it out to be.
Spot and stalk bear hunting out west is on my wish list, but for those of you who have that opportunity, you should put baiting bears in the east on your list. You truly wouldn't regret it, despite what your current impression of what bear baiting is about.
Whatever way you choose to hunt, if its legal, all the power to you. If you enjoy it all the power to you. I won't judge others based on what I see on TV, as we all know that isn't reality.
