I find that in my area, large bait piles kind of work against you until the late season post rut time frame. A known steady supply of good food seems to keep the deer movement later in the evening or before daylight. I've had my best luck with about 10 lbs spread over a 10X10 area so the deer have to kind of pick around a bit. They compete somewhat for the goodies and it seems to me that they come in earlier like they are trying to one up each other. That's just what I've noticed.
