Baiting regulation reform is sweeping throughout the U.S., and Kentucky is the most recent state to hitch in. The Kentucky Division of Fish and Wildlife Sources is updating its CWD response plan with the repeal of baiting bans and a brand new September rifle season for antlerless deer in CWD Surveillance Zones.
Baiting Ban Lifted in CWD Surveillance Zones
Baiting is now allowed in all counties in CWD Surveillance Zones, which now embrace Henderson, Union, Webster, Ballard, Breckinridge, Calloway, Carlisle, Fulton, Graves, Hardin, Hickman, Marshall, Meade and McCracken counties. Nevertheless, bait should not be distributed by way of contact feeders corresponding to troughs, funnels and gravity feeders. Deer harvests considerably dropped within the first surveillance zone counties after a baiting ban was applied in 2021. The KDFWR hopes that lifting the baiting ban will improve deer harvests and decrease deer densities. Baiting remains to be prohibited statewide March 1 by way of July 31. Feeding and baiting can be unlawful on all Wildlife Administration Areas.
New Two-Day Antlerless-Solely Gun Season
The division additionally accepted a brand new two-day antlerless-only gun season held Sept. 27-28, 2025, in all CWD Surveillance Zone counties. Throughout this time, hunters are required to drop off the pinnacle of their deer at a CWD Pattern Drop-Off Web site. Hunters are permitted to shoot any deer with out seen antlers, together with button bucks. Harvesting an antlered deer in a CWD Surveillance Zone county — whether or not utilizing firearms, bows or crossbows — is off-limits through the two-day interval. Hunter orange will likely be required.
What’s Staying the Similar
Elements of the KDFWR CWD response plan stay unchanged, together with obligatory testing through the first three days of contemporary gun season Nov. 8-10, 2025, at a staffed examine station or CWD Pattern Drop-Off Web site. Restrictions additionally stay in place for carcass transportation. Complete carcasses or high-risk elements, corresponding to spinal columns, can not go away a CWD Surveillance Zone county. Permitted objects for transport embrace de-boned meat, clear skulls and tooth, antlers (with or with no clear cranium cap), hides and completed taxidermy mounts. Carcasses of deer harvested outdoors the zone could also be introduced in.
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