"After cutting the first crop he does NOT flood the fields for his second crop."
If this is the case, any rice that comes up is voluntary, therefore, there was not 2nd crop. I was born and raised on rice farm. This is the standard practice: plant your 1st crop in the March, cut your 1st crop in August, if the 1st crop is cut early enough and was a good enough crop, you fertilize the stubble (vegetation left after the 1st crop), flood it again, then cut the 2nd crop in October.
In this case, the farmer never flooded the stubble after he cut the 1st crop, in probably August, therefore, any rice that comes up is strictly voluntary and there was no 2nd crop. This is no different if you had a field that was never planted in grain, grew up in weeds, seeded out and flood it and hunted it.
IMO, this is not even close to baiting. If so, we have been hunting under baited fields for 4 decades, because this was our standard procedure, i.e. cut the rice in August, disk or buffalo pot holes in our cuts that contained blinds in the early month on November and hunt during duck season. Also, IMO, it is better to just go with pot poles, this way the duck see the open water, land, then migrate and feed in flooded stubble, also the geese seem to like the stubble as well.
In conclusion, I don't think it is bating, as long as the, the farmer did not flood for 2nd crop, the 2nd crop came up voluntary and then the farmer decided not harvest it. Even if this was the case, I am not sure if this would be illegal, but the 1st scenario, I am almost 100% positive, it is defiantly not baiting.
Happy Hunting
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