The Hillside Thicket!

 



If you have been following this blog you are probably familiar with "The Hillside Thicket."  Several years ago Kevin pulled a nice Hoosier National nine-pointer out of the place and it has become a go to spot for us ever since.  When the hunting gets tough and we want to see some deer -- this is the spot we go.

 

Last year, however, the place just didn't work out for us.  Throughout the months of October, November, and December someone would move into the thicket and sit a spell.  Upon return to the camp the conversation would go something like this:

"Man the place looks smokin' hot -- the deer trails crisscrossing across the flat look like deer highways, and there are fresh scrapes and rubs scattered out in front of the stand, and the deer droppings are so thick I can smell em' from twenty feet up, and . . ."

"Well, how many deer did ya' see?"

"I had a fat fox squirrel climb down the cedar tree and nearly sit on my head, then two coyotes worked up out of the bottom and I could've shot either one, but I just knew a buck was going to work down off the hill so I didn't shoot."

"Well, come on now -- out with it -- how many deer did ya' see?

"I can't believe it, but I didn't see a single deer, not even a doe!"

And that's the way it was all season for the hillside thicket.  Maybe it was a case of being in the right spot at the wrong time, or maybe the deer have caught on to us in that spot.  Maybe I went in one too many times with the trail cameras and deer being no fools they just aren't going to let us by with it.

So this year no cameras are going in and the place won't be disturbed until it's time to hunt and maybe this year there will a different story to tell about the hunts at "The Hillside Thicket."