Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 318: Rut Fresh Radio 11/20/19

Transcript

Ep. 318: Rut Fresh Radio 11/20/19 · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast, your home for
0:06
Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
0:11
Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast. I'm
0:17
Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number three
0:20
Speaker 1: eighteen and we're back for another Rut Fresh radio episode
0:23
Speaker 1: in which we are getting the latest intel from across
0:26
Speaker 1: the country on the progress of the RUT, current deer activity,
0:30
Speaker 1: and how you as a hunter can have success. Right now,
0:43
Speaker 1: welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast, brought to you
0:46
Speaker 1: by on X. We are back here Spencer and myself
0:50
Speaker 1: for another Rut Fresh radio episode. That means we're talking
0:53
Speaker 1: about the latest updates and intel from across the country,
0:58
Speaker 1: as far as the progress of the RUT, as far
1:01
Speaker 1: as deer activity, as fair as current conditions, and what
1:05
Speaker 1: all this means for us as hunters when this comes out.
1:08
Speaker 1: We're entering heck it, what is the third week of
1:11
Speaker 1: November somewhere in there, give or take. So if if
1:15
Speaker 1: you guys are like me, you might be worn down.
1:18
Speaker 1: You might be a little bit exhausted from the marathon
1:22
Speaker 1: that is the first couple of weeks of November and
1:24
Speaker 1: all that crazy rut hunting. Hopefully you have to spend
1:26
Speaker 1: a lot of time in the woods. Um. But I'm
1:29
Speaker 1: here to tell you Spencer that there's still some good
1:32
Speaker 1: stuff to come, right, There's there's still reasons to listen. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
1:36
Speaker 1: I think for sure. Um. And And recently, Mark, in
1:38
Speaker 1: our white Tail weekly newsletter that comes out every Monday
1:41
Speaker 1: from Meat Eater, you had written in there that the
1:45
Speaker 1: end of October for some hunters is the preferred time
1:49
Speaker 1: to kill a mature buck. Can you go into a
1:51
Speaker 1: little bit more details as to why that would be?
1:54
Speaker 1: And you mean November not October, I'm sorry, the end
1:57
Speaker 1: of the end of November. Yes. And the basic gist, um,
2:02
Speaker 1: is that you know, many of us think about the
2:05
Speaker 1: first two weeks of November being that most exciting period
2:09
Speaker 1: because that's the build up to peak breeding. But if
2:13
Speaker 1: you live or hunt in an area where you don't
2:16
Speaker 1: have the middle of November fire arm opener, if you've
2:19
Speaker 1: got a spot where you can keep on bow hunting
2:22
Speaker 1: without that added gun pressure right through the month of November,
2:25
Speaker 1: that third week can sometimes be the very best when
2:27
Speaker 1: it comes to that really old, big, old giant buck.
2:31
Speaker 1: Because those old guys, they're experienced enough to know that
2:34
Speaker 1: there will still be some does coming into heat. So
2:37
Speaker 1: I've heard from folks. I remember reading from Don Higgins
2:40
Speaker 1: talking about this a while back, and a number of
2:42
Speaker 1: other people too that hunt in some states like that,
2:45
Speaker 1: that right around Thanksgiving, give or take, is a dynamite
2:49
Speaker 1: dynamite time. And I remember thinking this to myself maybe
2:53
Speaker 1: seven eight years ago. I was hunting down in Ohio
2:57
Speaker 1: and they don't have that gun season until December, so
2:59
Speaker 1: I remember being down there excited to finally be able
3:02
Speaker 1: to hunt in that like November twenty five period and
3:06
Speaker 1: and not have it all be a bunch of hunters
3:08
Speaker 1: and orange and was hoping for some of that late
3:11
Speaker 1: November activity And as sure as ship got it when
3:13
Speaker 1: in the middle of the day a buck I've been after,
3:16
Speaker 1: I was calling him Glenn at the time he can
3:19
Speaker 1: cruising through even And then an hour and a half later,
3:22
Speaker 1: the other buck I was after, I called him Jawbreaker.
3:25
Speaker 1: He came through a one thirty, just cruising right in
3:27
Speaker 1: the middle of the day looking for does still and
3:30
Speaker 1: it was November, I think. Um, And that's something that
3:33
Speaker 1: you hear from, you know, time and time again, from
3:35
Speaker 1: guys that are pretty experienced and stick it out. It's
3:38
Speaker 1: something you can you can count on, So I don't
3:41
Speaker 1: get that luxury. In Michigan, our firearms season opened on
3:44
Speaker 1: the fifteenth and and everything kind of goes out the
3:46
Speaker 1: window after that. Um. Not to say you can't still
3:49
Speaker 1: have success, but it's just different behavior. Um. But if
3:53
Speaker 1: you're able to keep going, if you have the time,
3:56
Speaker 1: if you can kind of summon the energy to keep
3:59
Speaker 1: after it, good things can happen. Yeah. And this is
4:04
Speaker 1: kind of an awkward time as a bow hunter to
4:07
Speaker 1: decide where to be because we're coming between peak rut
4:10
Speaker 1: and post rut. And so if if I were picking
4:13
Speaker 1: a place to hunt during this time of year, I'm
4:16
Speaker 1: thinking that I would still be looking for the same
4:18
Speaker 1: stuff that you were looking for like a week ago,
4:20
Speaker 1: dough betting and buck betting, pinch points funnels, those kinds
4:25
Speaker 1: of places. But if I was gun hunting, I think
4:27
Speaker 1: right now I would look more to field edges where
4:29
Speaker 1: you can take advantage that extended um you know, shooting
4:32
Speaker 1: distance of two yards whatever that is, and try to
4:36
Speaker 1: catch those doughs coming out in the evenings and hopefully
4:40
Speaker 1: there's a buck following. What what would your set up
4:42
Speaker 1: look like if you were bow hunting or god hunting
4:45
Speaker 1: right now, Mark, Yeah, well, I would say I would
4:46
Speaker 1: echo what you just said, that being the fact that
4:49
Speaker 1: does are still the ticket at this time of year.
4:52
Speaker 1: If you're looking for that old cruiser, he's still going
4:54
Speaker 1: to be checking those dough hotspots. So the dough betting areas,
4:57
Speaker 1: dope feeding areas, um so, so plant yourself right there.
5:01
Speaker 1: I would tell you, though, if you hunt in a
5:03
Speaker 1: state with heavy gun hunting pressure, and if you're in
5:07
Speaker 1: an area where there's a lot of other hunters around you,
5:09
Speaker 1: you're probably going to see a change in behavior as
5:11
Speaker 1: far as how deer relate to openings in fields. Because
5:16
Speaker 1: you know, if you're in Michigan and six hundred or
5:19
Speaker 1: seven hundred thousand hundreds have just been blasting at you
5:22
Speaker 1: for the last three days, you might be avoiding a
5:25
Speaker 1: wide open field. You might now want to stick to
5:27
Speaker 1: the cover. And that's not always the case. There's if
5:29
Speaker 1: there's pockets of pressure or pockets of unpressured land, those
5:33
Speaker 1: deer can still behave normally, but if you know that
5:35
Speaker 1: your ground has just been pounded, you might want to
5:38
Speaker 1: start thinking about that security cover. Try to find those
5:41
Speaker 1: escape zones, those little sanctuaries where bucks are going to
5:44
Speaker 1: get away from all the other hunters. It's a very
5:46
Speaker 1: different approach than targeting your typical rut areas. Um. But
5:51
Speaker 1: that is one thing you can do is take advantage
5:53
Speaker 1: of that gun hunting pressure, because you know that they
5:55
Speaker 1: pushed them out of all the normal spots. Find that
5:59
Speaker 1: safe zone where they escaped to, and if you can
6:01
Speaker 1: slip in there and detected, you might be able to
6:03
Speaker 1: catch a buck that thinks he's got all figured out.
6:06
Speaker 1: But but I'm benknownst to him. He'll be there. Um.
6:09
Speaker 1: So that's one other thing to think about. Yeah, and
6:12
Speaker 1: this is like a tough time of year to stay
6:15
Speaker 1: optimistic if you still have a tag and you're still
6:18
Speaker 1: bow hunting. But um, I think you've said a lot
6:21
Speaker 1: of things that they made sense, Mark, and I think
6:23
Speaker 1: that listeners will get a lot of good intel from
6:25
Speaker 1: the people that we talked to this week as well.
6:27
Speaker 1: I want to hear who those people are. But before
6:30
Speaker 1: we do, can I give you a special hot piece
6:34
Speaker 1: of intel. Absolutely, this is no one gets well. I
6:38
Speaker 1: guess the people follow me on social media they'll know
6:40
Speaker 1: this beforehand. But for podcast listeners, you're gonna get an
6:44
Speaker 1: update before anywhere else about some news related to my hunts.
6:48
Speaker 1: I got a sighting of Tran last night. He made
6:52
Speaker 1: it through the opening weekend of gun hunting season. So
6:56
Speaker 1: the buck up and after all year is still alive
6:59
Speaker 1: and on that property can hunt. They just start picking
7:02
Speaker 1: the corn last night too, So the standing corns coming down,
7:06
Speaker 1: my target buck is still alive, and I'm going out
7:09
Speaker 1: there right now to try to get a shot at them.
7:11
Speaker 1: So I've got a very You spoke about how it's
7:13
Speaker 1: hard to have optimism sometimes. Well, I just got a
7:16
Speaker 1: huge boost of optimism because when you get that corn
7:19
Speaker 1: coming down, there's nothing that's gonna pull dear, and like
7:22
Speaker 1: that it's in a little secluded spot, and uh man,
7:26
Speaker 1: I all of a sudden feel really good about my
7:28
Speaker 1: chances at this buck again. And are you carrying a
7:31
Speaker 1: gun with you? I am. I'm gonna go in there,
7:34
Speaker 1: and and I am an equal opportunity when it comes
7:36
Speaker 1: to weapons, So whatever is legal at the time, I'm
7:39
Speaker 1: gonna use. So try and better watch out and something
7:43
Speaker 1: that I'd like to take advantage of. When you do
7:45
Speaker 1: have that harvest, harvest springs with it a lot of chaos.
7:48
Speaker 1: There's combines in the fields. There's pickups in the field,
7:50
Speaker 1: there's grand cards in the field. UM, take advantage of that.
7:54
Speaker 1: And if you have a gun tag um, or if
7:57
Speaker 1: you want to hang another tree scene, like drive an
8:01
Speaker 1: a TV into the field with tree stands on and
8:03
Speaker 1: set that up. Or drive your pick up into the
8:05
Speaker 1: field and drop your ground blind off there and set
8:07
Speaker 1: up a ground blind. That's not going to look that
8:10
Speaker 1: out of the place following a harvest when there was
8:13
Speaker 1: all this chaos of machinery and noise and foreign objects
8:17
Speaker 1: and farm implements there. So a ground blind really isn't
8:20
Speaker 1: going to look that out of the ordinary. UM. I
8:22
Speaker 1: love to take advantage of those fresh harvests like this. Yeah,
8:26
Speaker 1: that's a really good point. And I'm planning on doing
8:28
Speaker 1: exactly that. I'm gonna hunt heading there and hunt tonight.
8:31
Speaker 1: If it doesn't work out tonight, uh, the next day,
8:33
Speaker 1: I'm gonna use I'm gonna finally be able to drive
8:35
Speaker 1: my truck back there. I'm gonna go and set up
8:37
Speaker 1: a couple more cameras to be able to observe some
8:39
Speaker 1: spots I haven't been able to get too easily without
8:41
Speaker 1: making an impact. I might rearrange a tree stand might
8:44
Speaker 1: throw up a ground blind a few of the different
8:46
Speaker 1: things you talked about. I've got a one day window
8:48
Speaker 1: or whatever. It might be a one or two day
8:50
Speaker 1: window while this is all happening, to take advantage of
8:53
Speaker 1: that cast. Like you said, so, I'm gonna swing for
8:56
Speaker 1: the fences. See if we can't make some late season
8:59
Speaker 1: or all late action happened. Alright, Mark, Well, besides your
9:02
Speaker 1: report in Michigan, we're also gonna hear from Keith Thompson
9:06
Speaker 1: in Montana from Montana White Tails, and then Kelsey Young
9:09
Speaker 1: from Knee Deep Outdoors in Kentucky, and then we go
9:12
Speaker 1: to Florida and from the Florida Outdoor Experience, we talked
9:15
Speaker 1: to Ryan Knitts, and then we go to Derek Nelson
9:17
Speaker 1: in Wisconsin from Matthews Archery. Good luck on your haunt
9:20
Speaker 1: with trand Mark, and we will talk to you next week, alright,
9:23
Speaker 1: and enjoining us online next is Keith Thompson in Montana
9:27
Speaker 1: from Montana White Tails. Keith in Montana, what would you
9:30
Speaker 1: say the buck activity has been lately? On a scale
9:32
Speaker 1: of one to ten, I'd give it a nine. It's
9:36
Speaker 1: really popped off here the last few days, surprisingly because
9:40
Speaker 1: it's been getting into the mid fifties during the day,
9:43
Speaker 1: but it hasn't seemed to slow it down at all. Um.
9:47
Speaker 1: Definitely bucks on their feet cruising for sure. So it's
9:51
Speaker 1: a good sign for us coming for the next two
9:53
Speaker 1: weeks of the season. So what phase of the route
9:56
Speaker 1: would you say that most of Montana is in for
9:58
Speaker 1: white tails? Definitely Here where we're at in southwest Montana,
10:03
Speaker 1: they're they're definitely seeking. Um. I've been glass in some
10:08
Speaker 1: fields here the last three or four nights and there
10:11
Speaker 1: has not been a single dough in the field that
10:12
Speaker 1: has not got her asked by every single buff that
10:15
Speaker 1: came through. I mean, it's it's the time to be
10:17
Speaker 1: in the woods around here, that's for sure. What kind
10:20
Speaker 1: of fields are you glassing? I'm staying food source out
10:24
Speaker 1: here is gonna be out out fields. Um, there's you know,
10:28
Speaker 1: it's just it's basically the only food there is around here.
10:30
Speaker 1: And you've got some brows, but that's kind of weak
10:33
Speaker 1: this year. So the out fassil fields has just been
10:35
Speaker 1: getting hammered and it's just it's been a dough frenzy,
10:40
Speaker 1: so the bucks have been really keying in on that.
10:42
Speaker 1: Would anything change for you with the food sources. If
10:45
Speaker 1: we've got some snow in that area, would it stay
10:47
Speaker 1: the same. It'll basically stay the same. Like I said,
10:50
Speaker 1: there's there's really not much else for them here. So
10:53
Speaker 1: as long as we don't get a super hard iced
10:56
Speaker 1: over snow here we can, we'll still target pretty much
10:59
Speaker 1: the same fields. If we're in that seeking and chasing
11:02
Speaker 1: phase in Montana that are you seeing some midday movement
11:06
Speaker 1: right now? Yeah, definitely. Um. I had a bow hunter
11:10
Speaker 1: this week kill one at Bunk was by himself said,
11:15
Speaker 1: his noses in the ground the whole time. He walked
11:17
Speaker 1: right to the base of the tree, hunting some Western
11:20
Speaker 1: open country like that. How do your set ups change
11:23
Speaker 1: with gun hunters versus bow hunters during this phase of
11:25
Speaker 1: the rock Obviously the a little bit easier. Well, we
11:32
Speaker 1: with our bow hunters, we we target the river bottoms,
11:35
Speaker 1: will hunt a lot of neck down points where the
11:37
Speaker 1: river might bend and it pinches him down to you know,
11:40
Speaker 1: maybe a forty to sixty wide yard gap, um, compared
11:44
Speaker 1: to like you said, with the rifle, we can we
11:47
Speaker 1: can cover a lot more ground. And you know, there's
11:50
Speaker 1: different fingers that branch off some of the creeks that
11:53
Speaker 1: I'll generally walk with the gun hunter and we'll kind
11:56
Speaker 1: of do some spot and stalks for the white tails
11:57
Speaker 1: for that. Are your hunters seeing any fresh signing camp? Definitely? Yeah.
12:02
Speaker 1: I had, Uh one of my hunters came in. He
12:05
Speaker 1: haunted to stand yesterday and I took him in this morning.
12:08
Speaker 1: He hunted it all day to day. Here at dinner
12:10
Speaker 1: we were talking about he said that there was two
12:12
Speaker 1: new scrapes in there, but then forty of the tree
12:16
Speaker 1: that definitely weren't there yesterday. So are you concerned with
12:19
Speaker 1: the moon phase at all when you're hunting white tails
12:21
Speaker 1: in Montana? I mean everybody has their own theory, but
12:25
Speaker 1: basically at this time of the year, and I think
12:27
Speaker 1: if you can get some decent weather and just be
12:29
Speaker 1: in the woods, I think it's going to happen eventually
12:30
Speaker 1: for you. So where are you running your trail cameras
12:33
Speaker 1: right now? Um? I have a theme set up on
12:36
Speaker 1: scrapes still, they're they're super active. I just want to
12:38
Speaker 1: pull two cards tonight and I had three new bucks
12:42
Speaker 1: show up that I haven't had a year long. And
12:45
Speaker 1: I mean these the deer have been pretty much homebodies
12:47
Speaker 1: all season, and these are three new ones this to
12:49
Speaker 1: the first. I've got new deer in probably a month,
12:52
Speaker 1: so that's encouraging to see. If we got quite a
12:54
Speaker 1: bit of snow, you'd expect that to drive some elk
12:57
Speaker 1: out of the mountains and change up where they're hanging out.
13:00
Speaker 1: We got quite a bit of snow. Would that change
13:01
Speaker 1: anything for the white tails though? Or do you think
13:03
Speaker 1: they'd still be doing the same stuff. I think it'll
13:07
Speaker 1: probably stay the same way because they're they're kind of
13:09
Speaker 1: isolated into the river bottom here where we're at, so
13:12
Speaker 1: I know it would definitely help though if we got
13:14
Speaker 1: some because it's going to push some of them dear
13:16
Speaker 1: out sooner into the outbat field little be a little
13:19
Speaker 1: bit easier to target them that way, I think going forward. Then,
13:22
Speaker 1: in the sixt week or so, what do you think
13:24
Speaker 1: that bucket activity is going to be on a scale
13:26
Speaker 1: of one to ten in Montana? I would I would
13:29
Speaker 1: have to say, I hope it goes up. I mean,
13:30
Speaker 1: it's it's been so productive with mid fifty degree temperatures.
13:35
Speaker 1: If we can get it down in the twenties and thirties,
13:37
Speaker 1: I think it's really going to be good. I mean, no,
13:41
Speaker 1: nine and a half to ten, I would have to
13:42
Speaker 1: hope anyways. Alright, Keith, with good luck to your hunters
13:45
Speaker 1: in camp. Thanks for joining me, Thank you alright and
13:49
Speaker 1: joining us on the line. Next is Kelsey Young in
13:51
Speaker 1: Kentucky from Knee Deep Outdoors. Now, Kelsey in Kentucky, what
13:55
Speaker 1: would you say the bucket activity has been lately on
13:57
Speaker 1: a scale of one to ten um to say, in
14:00
Speaker 1: the past couple of days, it's heated up quite a bit,
14:02
Speaker 1: So for Big Bucks, I'd probably say it's about it,
14:04
Speaker 1: really close to nine or even maybe a pm. Um,
14:07
Speaker 1: we've got a very odd year with the heat and weather,
14:10
Speaker 1: so it's thrown the rough back really probably a week
14:14
Speaker 1: or two. And in the past couple of days, um,
14:16
Speaker 1: the Big Bucks have really been up to daylight chasing
14:18
Speaker 1: the dose quite aggressively. So what phase of the road
14:21
Speaker 1: do you think most of Kentucky is in right now?
14:24
Speaker 1: For the most part, I'd say they're really in the
14:26
Speaker 1: chasing properly, almost peak rout phase. I mean, we're in
14:29
Speaker 1: central Kentucky, so things maybe a little bit different more
14:32
Speaker 1: towards the western part of the state or northern part
14:34
Speaker 1: of the state. But for the most part, the deer
14:36
Speaker 1: is really the dose are starting to come and heat,
14:38
Speaker 1: and the deer's really starting to chase and get on
14:40
Speaker 1: the tails a lot. So what is your preferred set
14:42
Speaker 1: up at this phase of the rout Um I've had
14:44
Speaker 1: to go to set up, it's probably really just in
14:46
Speaker 1: a natural travel corridor for dose because they're really starting
14:50
Speaker 1: to come to heat. At any minute, a big buck
14:52
Speaker 1: could be right behind them, So I would probably have
14:54
Speaker 1: to say I would set up just in a natural
14:57
Speaker 1: corridor travel travel area where you know does come through frequently.
15:00
Speaker 1: If you think that that part of the country is
15:03
Speaker 1: a little bit behind with the rut right now, are
15:04
Speaker 1: you still seeing some relevant signmaking then oh yeah, they've been.
15:08
Speaker 1: The bucks have been wanting to rut for a couple
15:10
Speaker 1: of weeks now. They've been making a lot of scrapes. Um.
15:12
Speaker 1: I've actually been up to call a few small bucks
15:14
Speaker 1: in by rattling and grunting, So they've been ready for
15:17
Speaker 1: a little while. Was that they was kind of waiting
15:18
Speaker 1: on the doors to get kicked into gear. So here, um,
15:22
Speaker 1: probably these next coming days. I mean, if you can
15:25
Speaker 1: get in the woods, you really need to because it's
15:27
Speaker 1: gonna get good. So where are your trail cam is
15:29
Speaker 1: that right now, I try to possess my trail cams
15:32
Speaker 1: this side like where I really when I'm hunting on
15:35
Speaker 1: the natural travel ways, where does come through frequently? Because
15:38
Speaker 1: I mean, if you've got a hot dough and they're
15:40
Speaker 1: walking through that pathway, a bucks won't be behind them
15:42
Speaker 1: any minute. So it's just a good way to kind
15:43
Speaker 1: of get an inventory of what bucks you still have alive.
15:46
Speaker 1: And new bucks show up any day, so it's a
15:48
Speaker 1: good way to figure out what new bucks have came through.
15:51
Speaker 1: Gun season has been open for about two weeks now
15:53
Speaker 1: in Kentucky. How do your setups change when de you're
15:56
Speaker 1: responding to that pressure. Yeah, then for at first we
16:00
Speaker 1: again even second weekend, there's a lot of hunters out
16:02
Speaker 1: that's normally not out there, so the deer kind of
16:04
Speaker 1: go nocturnal on us. So we try to just stick
16:07
Speaker 1: it out. I mean, you never when they're rutting, you
16:09
Speaker 1: never know what's going to happen. But for the most part,
16:12
Speaker 1: um which I get as close as we can to
16:14
Speaker 1: bed and areas without bump them out because they try
16:16
Speaker 1: to hunker down and stand there, and every once I
16:19
Speaker 1: want to slip out and mess up force. As we
16:22
Speaker 1: get into the later part of the month and we
16:23
Speaker 1: get into post what food sources are you going to
16:26
Speaker 1: be focused on in Kentucky the real bad dry weather
16:30
Speaker 1: and heat. Um, most of our big kind of act
16:33
Speaker 1: fields have been cut already, so deer's kind of um
16:36
Speaker 1: going to natural brows. I mean, if there's still acrons
16:39
Speaker 1: on the ground or some kind of nut on the
16:40
Speaker 1: ground that you can see that deer's coming to and
16:44
Speaker 1: feed on. That's gonna be the best case scenario for
16:47
Speaker 1: where your um. That's really with the agg fields cut
16:51
Speaker 1: and everything else, that's if you can get to a
16:53
Speaker 1: natural browser, you know, dear is gonna be that's part
16:55
Speaker 1: of your best option. Right now, you've mentioned the heat
16:57
Speaker 1: and the drought a few times. Does that mean that
16:59
Speaker 1: you at a premium on water sources this time of
17:02
Speaker 1: year or is that still not something you're really concerned
17:04
Speaker 1: with during the rout. No, water is a very important
17:07
Speaker 1: thing during the rut um. I mean the big buck
17:09
Speaker 1: turk who's also they got miles at the time. So water,
17:12
Speaker 1: if you can find water in an area they're using,
17:14
Speaker 1: that's a key place to set in on. Luckily, where
17:17
Speaker 1: we where we hunt, um, there's a creek that runs
17:20
Speaker 1: right to the middle of it, so it's kind of
17:22
Speaker 1: water always there for them. But if you can find
17:24
Speaker 1: a water source that they are frequently a lot, then
17:28
Speaker 1: that's the place you need to be too. Going forward. Then,
17:30
Speaker 1: in the sex week or so, what do you think
17:32
Speaker 1: that buck activity is going to be on a scale
17:34
Speaker 1: of one to ten in Kentucky by this weekend? I'm
17:38
Speaker 1: gonna say it's still gonna be about a nine or
17:40
Speaker 1: tena but I've give it probably if you give five
17:44
Speaker 1: more days, the bucks are gonna start walking down with
17:46
Speaker 1: the does, and it's gonna get a lot tougher. Um.
17:48
Speaker 1: The younger bucks call still be trying to chase and
17:50
Speaker 1: find some dose so and may tamper off about a
17:52
Speaker 1: six or something about five or so days. All right, Kelsey,
17:55
Speaker 1: good luck to you and everyone else from Knee Deep Outdoors.
17:57
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me. Thank you have a good alright
18:01
Speaker 1: and joining us online. Next is Ryan Knits from Florida
18:05
Speaker 1: from the Florida Outdoor Experience Narayan in Florida. What would
18:08
Speaker 1: you say the bucket activity has been lately on a
18:10
Speaker 1: scale of one to ten. Right now this time of year,
18:13
Speaker 1: we're looking out about an eight um and that's mostly
18:17
Speaker 1: because it's not degrees anymore. We're starting to feel the
18:21
Speaker 1: cold weather. And I mean with a flip of a switch,
18:25
Speaker 1: the bucks are out on their feet. What phase of
18:28
Speaker 1: the road would you say that different parts of Florida
18:30
Speaker 1: are in right now? Well, I'll start. I'll start in
18:33
Speaker 1: the bottom where I am, um, South Florida, and that's
18:36
Speaker 1: typically I would say Orlando at South Um. As far
18:40
Speaker 1: as the rut goes, I would say the main part
18:43
Speaker 1: of it is over um. You know that that part
18:46
Speaker 1: is usually the beginning of bow season in September. That's
18:48
Speaker 1: when we see are really good rut here um. And
18:52
Speaker 1: like I always tell everybody that the Florida should be
18:55
Speaker 1: broken up into two parts. South Florida is a totally
18:59
Speaker 1: different part. In the North Florida. It's a lot warmer
19:01
Speaker 1: down here. Are temperatures stay a lot warmer down here
19:05
Speaker 1: than that than it does up in the Panhandle in
19:07
Speaker 1: North Florida. So are right here, um can be anywhere
19:11
Speaker 1: from September, which I think is the best part, till January,
19:15
Speaker 1: and it could be any time at any point in
19:18
Speaker 1: time in between. You could catch a dough and heat
19:21
Speaker 1: getting chased by a buck. Um as you move your
19:24
Speaker 1: way north central Florida, and in northern central Florida, I
19:28
Speaker 1: think right now until Thanksgiving is going to be the
19:31
Speaker 1: time to be Um. The cold fronts are heating up there,
19:35
Speaker 1: and um, you know, the oaks are dropping. Um, not
19:39
Speaker 1: many people. You know a lot of people who use
19:41
Speaker 1: corn to bait and deer. They're not seeing them on
19:43
Speaker 1: their corn piles. That's very typical this time of year
19:45
Speaker 1: because the acorns are dropping. Once those acorns dropped, you're
19:49
Speaker 1: not going to get them on the corn. It's just
19:50
Speaker 1: not what happens. And then you got the panhandle of Florida, Um,
19:56
Speaker 1: your talahasty and that is not gonna get good. I
20:01
Speaker 1: think until December and January. It's very consistent with Alabama.
20:05
Speaker 1: So that whole part of the state that touches Alabama,
20:08
Speaker 1: you're not gonna see much activity. I mean, you know
20:10
Speaker 1: you might start seeing it right now. Um, I'm not
20:13
Speaker 1: sure as a sign up there. But down here in
20:16
Speaker 1: the South, all our rugs are old. You know, they're
20:19
Speaker 1: not bright orange anymore. You can see they're about a
20:21
Speaker 1: month old. And so that's pretty much where we are
20:24
Speaker 1: with the phase of the rut. You mentioned acorns briefly, there.
20:28
Speaker 1: What other food sources should Florida hunters keyed in on
20:31
Speaker 1: right now? Well, if you're a private land hunter, um,
20:35
Speaker 1: like I said, even if if you have protein in there.
20:38
Speaker 1: The deer now that it's starting to get colder, so
20:40
Speaker 1: they're gonna start thinking about food again. A lot of
20:42
Speaker 1: stuff down here in Florida is starting to die. It's
20:45
Speaker 1: not green anymore. So whatever is green, the deer down
20:50
Speaker 1: here will eat it. Does not matter what it is.
20:51
Speaker 1: There's nothing you know down here in the South. If
20:54
Speaker 1: you're a public land hunter, Um, there's not much to
20:57
Speaker 1: work with, and the deer don't really have much to
21:00
Speaker 1: work with either. So if you can find anything green,
21:02
Speaker 1: and most of the times that's gonna be flag ponds, canals,
21:05
Speaker 1: anything like that, Um, the deer will eat it. I've
21:08
Speaker 1: seen him eat twigs. So whatever you can find that
21:11
Speaker 1: is green and looks lush, those deer are gonna be
21:14
Speaker 1: hitting it. What does a typical post rut set up
21:16
Speaker 1: look like for you in your part of the state, Well,
21:20
Speaker 1: post rut. So where I'm at in the South, we
21:23
Speaker 1: do get a second rut, and is it's just as good,
21:27
Speaker 1: if not better than the first one? I think, Um, January,
21:31
Speaker 1: early January. Down here in the South, we always get
21:34
Speaker 1: a good rut. I've seen bucks fighting to the death
21:37
Speaker 1: the first week of January. UM. So down here in
21:41
Speaker 1: the South it's wild, wild West. You can be hunting
21:43
Speaker 1: rutting bucks up until January. But I do think that
21:47
Speaker 1: post right, you're gonna maybe start um hitting the food sources.
21:51
Speaker 1: It's nothing but food source, food source, food source, food source.
21:55
Speaker 1: UM and those cold temperatures you can catch I catch
21:58
Speaker 1: a lot of deer working bag ponds. And if you
22:00
Speaker 1: don't know what flag pon is, it's just an open
22:02
Speaker 1: area and a pine flat that's filled with water. And
22:06
Speaker 1: you'll catch those deer in a cold winter morning, just
22:10
Speaker 1: sitting in those flag ponds. Whether they're just maybe the
22:13
Speaker 1: water is a little warmer, but they're also eating the
22:16
Speaker 1: little bit of what, whether it's an algae or whatever
22:19
Speaker 1: kind of greener he's coming from that water. You'll catch
22:21
Speaker 1: them a lot of times in those flag ponds. Do
22:23
Speaker 1: you plan for the moon at all this time of year?
22:26
Speaker 1: I don't. UM. I've never really been a moon guy. Um.
22:30
Speaker 1: If you know I'm out there, I don't care if
22:32
Speaker 1: it's overhead, underhead, how big it is, I'm out there. Um,
22:36
Speaker 1: of course, you know the full moon. You know, I
22:40
Speaker 1: sit all day and I do see a lot of
22:42
Speaker 1: big deer on their feet midday on a full moon,
22:45
Speaker 1: I see it a lot. So, Um, you know, a
22:48
Speaker 1: couple of days after a full moon I think can
22:50
Speaker 1: be really good if you can sit all day. Um,
22:54
Speaker 1: that's just how it is. But I've never really been
22:57
Speaker 1: wanting to pay attention to the moon too much going
22:59
Speaker 1: full were then in the sext week or so, what
23:01
Speaker 1: do you think that bucket activity is going to be
23:03
Speaker 1: on a scale of one to ten in Florida. I
23:06
Speaker 1: think it's gonna get even better. I'm gonna say and
23:08
Speaker 1: give it a nine next week. Um. The temperatures are
23:11
Speaker 1: staying pretty consistent, which is good. You know Florida, the
23:14
Speaker 1: winter can be very hit or miss here. You get
23:16
Speaker 1: a cold front for three days and then it's back
23:18
Speaker 1: to ninety. And that hasn't been the case yet. It's
23:21
Speaker 1: been cold. It's staying, you know cold. And when I
23:23
Speaker 1: stay cold, fifty degrees to seven degrees instead of seventy
23:28
Speaker 1: to ninety. Um. So if it stays consistent as far
23:31
Speaker 1: as temperature wise, which it has, it's just gonna keep
23:33
Speaker 1: getting better. Um, you know those big bucks, now, I
23:37
Speaker 1: don't I don't think you're gonna be killing them necessarily,
23:39
Speaker 1: maybe so much of the right, it's just mostly the
23:41
Speaker 1: temperatures and the days are getting shorter. Um, so if
23:45
Speaker 1: you get a nice cold morning, good chances are that
23:48
Speaker 1: buck is going to be out there. All right, Ryan,
23:50
Speaker 1: good luck with that cold front. Thanks for joining me,
23:53
Speaker 1: all right, thanks alright and joining us on the line.
23:56
Speaker 1: Next is Derrek Nelson in Wisconsin for Matthews a tree Now,
24:00
Speaker 1: Derek in Wisconsin. What would you say the bucket activity
24:03
Speaker 1: is Ben Lanley? On a scale of one to ten,
24:06
Speaker 1: I put it right right around a seven probably. Um.
24:10
Speaker 1: You know, I think a lot of people have been
24:13
Speaker 1: experiencing this last week. Um, you know kind of what's
24:17
Speaker 1: known as you know lockdown. Um, a lot of these
24:19
Speaker 1: a lot of the bucks that blea bensie and you
24:22
Speaker 1: know they haven't been seeing they have been getting photos
24:24
Speaker 1: kind of you know, like a lot more nocturnal stuff, um,
24:29
Speaker 1: you know with those so um, you know, it was
24:32
Speaker 1: kind of it was going pretty heavy kind of from
24:34
Speaker 1: you know, probably the fourth through about the tenth and
24:37
Speaker 1: then you know we have we've had a a few
24:40
Speaker 1: days where it seems like it's been slowing down a
24:42
Speaker 1: little bit, but um, it's kind of starting to break
24:44
Speaker 1: loose again from you know what I've seen, what a
24:47
Speaker 1: lot of my coworkers have been seeing in these last
24:49
Speaker 1: few days, especially this last weekend. What's your strategies for
24:53
Speaker 1: setups during the lockdown phase and then coming out of
24:55
Speaker 1: that lockdown phase going into post rud Um. Well, I'm
25:00
Speaker 1: mean what I've been trying to do, and um, what
25:03
Speaker 1: a few of my friends you have been trying to
25:05
Speaker 1: do is is you know, hunting a lot closer to
25:07
Speaker 1: betting than food and doe betting in particular. Um, it's
25:11
Speaker 1: something you know, I've been hunting a lot of public
25:13
Speaker 1: up here. Um, and you know, when we don't really
25:17
Speaker 1: have you know, unpressured food sources to hunt, you kind
25:20
Speaker 1: of gotta figure out where deer betting and try to
25:23
Speaker 1: get as close as you can safely to those and um,
25:26
Speaker 1: you know, so if you can get in where you know,
25:28
Speaker 1: traditionally there's been a lot of dope betting, there's been
25:30
Speaker 1: a lot of buck activity on you know at the
25:33
Speaker 1: edges of that, and um that's been you know, turning
25:36
Speaker 1: up decent results for a lot of people recently. So
25:39
Speaker 1: are you still seeing any signmaking in Wisconsin? So? Um,
25:43
Speaker 1: on my pieces that haven't been it's actually funny. I'm
25:46
Speaker 1: I'm sitting in the truck right now. We're on our
25:48
Speaker 1: way back. We just pulled one of my buddies just
25:50
Speaker 1: pulled the camera off of one of his pieces, and um,
25:53
Speaker 1: it was funny because his camera was set up on
25:56
Speaker 1: um like a big community scrape that he was he
25:59
Speaker 1: was pulling his his camera down because there's actually other
26:03
Speaker 1: guys are gonna come in and gun hunt that piece.
26:05
Speaker 1: Doesn't want to get his stuff getting stolen, but he's
26:07
Speaker 1: who and grabbed it and got back in the truck.
26:09
Speaker 1: He's like, man, that scrape is still wide open. Um.
26:12
Speaker 1: Which I've had a you know, a few cameras on
26:14
Speaker 1: scrapes on a couple of my pieces and they kind
26:16
Speaker 1: of you know, um, they hadn't been hit you know,
26:21
Speaker 1: recently at all, but apparently they're still getting hit in
26:24
Speaker 1: some spots. So with that gun opener coming up this weekend,
26:28
Speaker 1: what's your strategy. He's a public land bowl hunter. When
26:30
Speaker 1: you're trying to account for that extra hunting pressure, Um,
26:35
Speaker 1: that's a tough one, you know. I Um. I've hunted
26:39
Speaker 1: on public um during the gun opener a couple of
26:42
Speaker 1: times and thought, you know what, I'm just gonna get
26:45
Speaker 1: as deep as I can and um, you know, try
26:48
Speaker 1: to hit some overlook spots. And I haven't had a
26:50
Speaker 1: ton of a ton of luck with um getting away
26:54
Speaker 1: from people. UM. I mean there's more hunters in the
26:57
Speaker 1: in the woods you know, this week again than like
27:00
Speaker 1: anywhere else in the country ever. So UM, it can
27:04
Speaker 1: be a little tricky. UM so UM. You know, I'm
27:08
Speaker 1: not sure I really have an awesome answer for that yet,
27:10
Speaker 1: but I'll let you know if I find one. Are
27:13
Speaker 1: you doing any calling or decoying during that lockdown phase
27:16
Speaker 1: at the rut? Um? Yeah? Calling actually, UM kind of
27:21
Speaker 1: this um the tail end of the rout when you know,
27:25
Speaker 1: kind of this like desperately seeking phase. I know a
27:28
Speaker 1: few of the guys that work we're just talking about
27:30
Speaker 1: how rattling can be. UM. Like. Some of the most
27:33
Speaker 1: effective rattling you can have is right now. And you
27:36
Speaker 1: know my boss actually two days ago, UM like rattled
27:39
Speaker 1: in a good buck right to the base of his tree. Um.
27:42
Speaker 1: On Friday. Um before this past weekend, I rattled in
27:45
Speaker 1: a buck UM and so it's been it's been decently
27:49
Speaker 1: effective um right now, just kind of got to be
27:52
Speaker 1: in the right place at the right time. You talked
27:54
Speaker 1: about when you're hunting public land, how it's a challenge
27:57
Speaker 1: to find those destination food sources, but what is the
28:00
Speaker 1: food that you are focused on when you are hunting
28:02
Speaker 1: those pieces been kind of um primarily focusing on on
28:08
Speaker 1: you know, corn as it's getting cut um has been
28:12
Speaker 1: I guess the most effective um for me um actually
28:17
Speaker 1: on you know, I hunt a lot of public um,
28:20
Speaker 1: but I've also got you know, one little private piece
28:23
Speaker 1: that you know, I've had access to as well, and
28:25
Speaker 1: it was mainly all corn um this year, and it
28:28
Speaker 1: could there's actually this one little this little kind of
28:31
Speaker 1: secluded corn field just probably like four acres up on
28:35
Speaker 1: the top of this ridge that just got cut um
28:38
Speaker 1: last week. And I was in there like two days
28:40
Speaker 1: after it got cut and I saw a lot of
28:43
Speaker 1: activity up on that cut corn and you know, in
28:46
Speaker 1: the kind of the fields um surrounding my piece. It
28:50
Speaker 1: all kind of came out probably a week before that,
28:52
Speaker 1: and you could tell there's a lot of like nighttime
28:55
Speaker 1: movement out in the in the corn. But on my
28:57
Speaker 1: cameras that were on the edge of that. I was
28:58
Speaker 1: getting a lot of activity right dark and after dark,
29:01
Speaker 1: just um dear pouring into that stuff. So, um, that's
29:06
Speaker 1: kind of been what I've been keeting on going forward.
29:08
Speaker 1: Then in the next week or so, what do you
29:10
Speaker 1: think that bucket activity is going to be on a
29:12
Speaker 1: scale of one to ten in Wisconsin only think? Um,
29:16
Speaker 1: I think the gun season is gonna have a little
29:19
Speaker 1: bit of an effect on it. Um, But I think
29:21
Speaker 1: kind of here they're coming out of out of lockdown
29:24
Speaker 1: a little bit, and you're those bucks are looking for
29:26
Speaker 1: the last few days that are that are coming in. Um.
29:29
Speaker 1: I think I think it's gonna spike a little bit,
29:31
Speaker 1: but I probably put it, you know, around a seven
29:33
Speaker 1: or and eight against all Right, Derek, I hope you
29:35
Speaker 1: get a chance to use that new VX are good
29:37
Speaker 1: luck and thanks for joining me. Appreciate it man. And
29:41
Speaker 1: that concludes this week's episode of rut Fresh Radio. Thanks
29:45
Speaker 1: to Keith, Kelsey, Ryan and Derek for joining me, and
29:48
Speaker 1: thank you guys for listening. If you want more great
29:50
Speaker 1: intel like this, make sure you're checking out The Meat
29:52
Speaker 1: Eater dot com and subscribe to our White Tail weekly
29:55
Speaker 1: newsletter where you're gonna hear a bunch more on the
29:57
Speaker 1: rut from people like me Mark and Tony Peterson. Good
30:01
Speaker 1: luck with what is left of your rut hunting, and
30:04
Speaker 1: we will talk to you next week, But until then,
30:06
Speaker 1: stay wired to hunt.