well I don't bait, here its illegal
but I do do food plots, and I have tons of sparring in them all the time

as for grunting to help lure him in
this time of yr, that can work both ways I would think
as any buck now knows people are out to kill him, and he will be on edge as is from that, they are almost always iffy about bait stations unless you have a LOT of land to keep pressure off in my experience
meaning odds are he is coming into a bait site on high allert as is
if you do a grunt , to me that will make him be on the look out for what made that call
and not seeing it might keep him away??
now if he was an agressive buck, chasing others off a bait pile
I would maybe suggest a decoy buck

but thats a rare deal I think and can back fire too
BUT then again, some bucks are agressive about there home terf, and even just reply to calls a lot better than others

ME, if he was coming out on his own , say a pattern now
I would use that as is