I am closely paying attention to where the red oaks are, and the amount of acorns individual trees are producing, because the way my season is going I will be climbing a tree during the late bow season trying to fill my buck tag.
Saturday was a good day: I saw five does, and walked up on two otters sleeping in the tall grass along the river bank. I almost stepped on them before they busted out from beneath my feet like a covey of quail -- nearly giving me a heart attack. During the afternoon Kevin and I placed a ladder stand on the hillside where he killed his big buck last year. We used Kevin's deer cart to get the ladder stand in location, and considering the terrain we went through, the whole thing was pretty easy, even nestling the stand into the lower branches of a nice mature cedar tree, where a hunter should be able to blend right in. The stand overlooks the only opening in an overgrown, wooded thicket about twenty acres in size where does like to bed. We're hopping to pull another buck out of there this year.
Today I made my way to Stonehenge, a remote river crossing that is always good to hunt this time of year. I brought in a small six pointer, by aggressively rubbing my rattling antlers against the tree I was in. Later in the morning I called him back in with a hard, loud, series of clashing, grinding antlers, but I am waiting for something a little better.
Year after year, in this spot, bucks open a large scrape under a small dogwood tree. This year is no exception, the scrape is about the size of a pickup truck bed. The main trail it is located on runs for miles and miles down the overgrown, brushy, river corridor. The place is made better by being on a shallow, narrow, water crossing, and by a saddle that drops off a tall wooded ridge where deer travel. I have never killed a deer here, but I have had plenty of close encounters. Two years ago, a true trophy buck began crossing the river straight for me. Unfortunately, I carelessly placed my paddle in a shallow pool of water in the river and the buck walked right to it, sniffed, and slunk back into the thicket he had came out of. Some of the trail camera pictures I get from this area always keep me excited about hunting here, too.
Here's a public land tip: Look over the topographic maps of a large tract of public land and try to locate a spot where multiple terrain features converge and you may find your own, out of the way, hidden little hot spot.
