Corn is the most-widely used bait for deer in North Carolina but in some areas of the state, the golden kernals may not be No. 1.
Nearly every wild creature will eat scattered or ear corn, and at $6 to $8 per 50-pound bag — or more — keeping enough kernels on the ground to interest whitetails can get expensive.
Some hunters in the eastern third of the state scatter sweet potatoes on the ground, and coastal deer apparently love them.
Many states ban sweet potatoes as bait to prevent the spread of sweet potato weevils. Also, moldy potatoes may cause serious heart problems for deer.
Another problem for eastern deer hunters is sweet potatoes — at $30 to $60 per 1,000 pounds — draw black bears. Some bear-dog clubs put sweet potatoes in 50-gallon drums near trail cameras and check at dawn to see what kinds of bruins have knocked over the barrels and eaten potatoes during the night. If a barrell has been overturned by a large bear without cubs, they release hounds to catch the bear’s scent.
Scattered bears live in the Piedmont, but yams aren’t raised on a large scale in the region, and deer that haven’t grown up near sweet-potato farms apparently haven’t learned to eat them.
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