Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 755: Foundations - Wet and Wild Whitetail Access

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Ep. 755: Foundations - Wet and Wild Whitetail Access · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: First Light Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Hey, everybody, welcome to the wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast,
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: which is brought to you by First Light. I'm your host,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about water access
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: and why it can be a white tail hunter's best friend.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: One of the main themes of deer hunting content, you know,
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: at least content that is supposed to teach you something,
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: is you know, centered on finding the best spots out
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: there wherever you hunt. If you can't find the ridges, benches, swamps, crossings,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: or whatever that bucks are most likely to use, you're
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: in trouble. Truth is find you good spots, Nanda. Isn't
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: that hard. Sometimes whitetails don't leave as much sign as
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: a herd at elk, but deer do leave plenty of
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: breadcrumbs out there for us to follow. Where those clues
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: lead are the good spots. But a spot is really
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: only good if you can get there relatively undetected and
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: get out without making too big of an impression on
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: the local deer. That's what this episode is all about,
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: because it's something you can figure out right now. Way
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: way back in two thousand and four, I finished a
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: shift at a restaurant I worked at and drove to
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: pick up my dad. We pointed my truck west at midnight,
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: and by mid morning we started seeing antelope out in
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: the wide expanses of South Dakota and then Wyoming, which
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: was our final destination. We'd never traveled out of state
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: to hunt anything other than turkey's or pheasants, but a
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: good buddy of mine was obsessed with rifle hunting Western
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: big game. He'd given us some units to look into,
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: with quite a bit to public land, and he helped
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: us figure out how to navigate the application process. So
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: we ended up drawing our tags and I went to
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Cabella's to buy a rifle, since I'd only ever bow
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: hunted at that point in my life. I picked up
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: a used two forty three for like four hundred bucks,
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: which was a lot of money to me. Then it
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: shot flat and accurate and seemed like it would be
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: good medicine for speed goats. When we arrived in the
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Red Hills to pick out a campsite on public land,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: we found a turnaround on a dirt road that had
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: an old, gnarled tree that will probably someday be a
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: piece of petrified wood that Spencer Newhart's great great great
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: great great great great grandkids will puzzle over at some point.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: It was a good enough spot, so we shot our
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: rifles to make sure all was copascetic there, and then
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: we started hunting. This was back when driving all night
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: and hunting all of the next day didn't bother me
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: in the least. That has changed, and if I started
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: a hunt with an all nighter it ruins the whole
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: experience for me, But back then I didn't care, especially
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: because we were finally hunting a western critter in a
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: setting that could have been damn near straight out of Mars.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: So we climbed a weathered plateau for a better view
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: of that flat country around us, and glassed up a
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: whole lot of rocks and dust and weigh way off
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: in the distance a herd of elk that looked totally
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: out of place. It took about ten seconds of glassing
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: to realize why every other hunter we had seen was
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: road hunting. When we hiked back to the truck, we
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: decided we needed to go out and look at a
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: few more chunks of public to see if we could
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: even find an antelope. Well we did, and all it
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: took was one short stock and my dad was on
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: the board. His antelope had wide horns and by all accounts,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: was just a pretty cool bronghorn. It was also anti
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: climatic because it was so easy. The next morning, I
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: set out to see what I could do about filling
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: my tag, and as we were hiking across the dusty
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: landscape under the early October sun, a lone antelope so
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: far away that I couldn't tell from the distance if
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: it was a legal mail or not. But it was alone,
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: and that's usually a pretty good sign, so I figured
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: I better try to get closer. The problem was that
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: there was nothing between us, you know, that would have
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: really even hidden a coyote pup let, alone a full
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: sized human. As I scanned the landscape, which always seems
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: pool table, flat and totally featureless, I spotted a washout.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: You know, some might call it a drainage, I suppose,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: but you know, it was more of a ravine or
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: a gully in my definition, it doesn't really matter what
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: you call it, because it was about ten feet deep
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: and looked to more or less lead close to the antelope.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: So I told my dad to sit back and observe
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: while I dropped in and started hiking along the bottom
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: of that dry gully. It took me back and forth,
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: back and forth, but I always more or less in
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: the right direction, kind of like how the stock market
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: goes up and down, but in its history has always
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: eventually just gone up in a slow, steady march toward
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: higher gains. Even if you don't feel like it. It'll
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: get you where you want to go if you give
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: it enough time. That's kind of what I'm saying. Anyway,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: I missed that goat on the first shot, hit him
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: pretty good on the second one on a dead run,
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: missed him when he stopped to figure out where the
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: asshole was that was shooting at him, and then with
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: my last bullet put him down, And it was pretty exciting.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: The entire sequence of me getting into range of that
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: antelope was made possible by lucky access that kept me hidden.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: That's it, and it's something that is all over out
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: there in the white tail world if you know how
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: to use it. Now, of course, you might not be
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: so lucky as to find a dry run that will
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: take you right where you need to go. But then again,
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: you might. When I took Steve Rannella down to Oklahoma
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: last fall to teach him how to bowhunt white tails
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: as well as you know, many other things about life
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: that he just kind of needs to learn, we discovered
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: that the rivers in the area were no longer really rivers.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: They were mostly dry runs, pock marked with pockets of
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: water that not only held random wood ducks, which made
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: sneaking through not as quiet as it could have been,
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: but they were also full of dying carp and gar
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: that drew in all kinds of critters looking for a
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: little rough fish sushi. The access those dried up rivers
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: gave us played into nearly every single setup I had,
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: you know what scratch that they played into nearly every
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: single spot I found where we either killed bucks or
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: had close encounters. I sat other spots and put Steve
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: in other spots where we didn't have the same kind
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: of access, and none of those setups worked out very well.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: The spots I found that had a mix of acorns
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: and per simmons, but were also featured some kind of
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: sneaky ravine type access or dry river access produced all
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: the deer for us. Every spot I found that offered everything,
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: but that access didn't work out very well. Maybe on
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: private ground with a little to no pressure, the difference
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: wouldn't be as stark. But those deer were public land dwellers,
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: and they were well acquainted with bow hunters at that point,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: especially cross bow hunters looking to shoot one while sneaking
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: around at first and last light. I know I've talked
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: about water a lot on this podcast, but this struck
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: me as I was shed hunting with my daughter the
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: other day. Water is great for killing deer and I
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: use it a lot, but water ways are the key
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: to unlocking the best spots in the woods, like I
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: had reaffirmed to me in Oklahoma last year. I know
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: this isn't an option for everyone, depending on where you
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: live and hunt, but it's worth understanding. In any case.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: Very few things will help you consistently get on bucks
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: more than understanding how waterways work in your favor access wise. Now,
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: this is a broad topic because we could be talking
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: about a brook, trout stream that is basically a souped
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: up trickle, one that you can hop across or walk
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: along without getting your ankles wet in most spots. Now,
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: the other end of the spectrum could be the Missouri
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: or the Mighty Mississippi, or any lake or reservoir take
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: your pick. One thing about this country that's pretty sweet
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: is we have a hell of a lot of freshwater
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  Speaker 2: to work with. As I've talked about before, you can
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: use water as a general barrier to keep your competition out,
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: or at least a confunction that way. A lot of
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: hunters don't want to crosswater to get to the deer
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: that they think they can get to by not crossing water.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: This is always worth investigating, especially if you're on pressured ground.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: But the truth is waterways should be viewed as two things.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: Areas where deer will congregate and areas where you might
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: be able to get into and out of their world undetected.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: I know you're thinking something like, yeah, well, if there
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: is a stream that starts by the road and goes
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: right to the spot I want to hunt, then sure
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: that makes sense. But I like hunting way up the
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: ridge and out of the vat where the water flows
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: great use the water to cover eighty five percent of
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: your entrance and exit. There are times where you might
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: enter a property way far away from where you want
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  Speaker 2: to hunt, so that you have to hike to the
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: water and then follow it through the property in a
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: long and winding route to get where you really want
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  Speaker 2: to hunt. This is where so many hunters fail. It's
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: easier to just go from point A to B. That's
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: what your competition is going to do. But if that
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: means you park and walk through an area that will
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: spook the deer, is it worth the shortcut. I find
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: this type of access a lot in the Midwest where
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: I know I can park on the far end of
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: a section and drop into a creek bed. Now, it
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: might take me forty five minutes to get where I
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: want to go, when I could have taken a direct
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: route and cut it down to ten. But I don't
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: care about that. I want to get to where I
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: want to go without the deer knowing, and that's always
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: worth a longer walk. You obviously might get some noise
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: from the moving water to cover your own noise, and
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: your scent is going to be low and not likely
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: to blow across the bedding areas as well. You might
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: get nice sand to walk across, or you might have
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: to slowly wade the water. The key is to understand
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: where waterway will allow you to go and what it
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: will allow you to do, and then you know you
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: need to figure out how to execute on that plan.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: You can figure a lot of this stuff out now
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: in the late winter and early spring, and you should.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: But what if the water isn't walkable or waitable. What
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: if it's too deep for you to safely cross or
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: to hike through in the dark on your way to
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: a morning setup. There's other options. You've all seen the
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: photos of someone with a big buck lane in the
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: bottom of a canoe or a caped out deer strapped
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: the front of a kayak. A portable water craft in
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: some ways is a pain in the ass, but the
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: trade off is that you can hunt where almost no
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: one will hunt. If you like shooting big bucks, that's important.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: I'm currently obsessed with an old town kayak I got
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: a couple of years ago that is built for sportsmen. Look,
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: that's a shameless plug, but it's a great product, so
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: I don't care. It's built to help you catch fish. Obviously,
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: but also just to allow for easy access to a
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: whole world of hunting ground that is not easy to
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: access for most folks. Instead of walking through the water
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: or along the bank to get somewhere, it's like hunting
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: on easy mode. It's also really quiet if you're careful.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: I find myself looking for public land on on X
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: that shows quality river access, because having that kayak means
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: it's always an option instead of parking where everyone parks
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: and walking in the same way that everyone walks in,
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: a kayak or a canoe allows you to slip in
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: from a totally unexpected route. That element of surprise will
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: work in your favor when it comes to white tails
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: and turkeys and in some situations western game or whatever else. Now,
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: both types of watercraft allow you to cross bigger water too,
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: but you better pay attention to the conditions and take
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: your safety seriously. I spent way too much time in
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: my youth toying with drowning while paddling canoes around to
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: take that for granted. Now, tip a canoe in icy
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: water and you just get a good appreciation for how
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: quickly a quiet paddle can turn into something else. But
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: if the conditions are right, and you have the means.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Paddling your way into deer is a really, really good option,
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: so is just being able to paddle in the first place.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: If you have a canoe or a kayak, it'll change
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: your style of scouting. It changes how you look at
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: satellite imagery because you don't need to write off bodies
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: of water. They become a part of the process. Instead
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: of going around or not being able to get to
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: certain places, you can go straight to them. No, you
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: can also do this with bigger boats and a little
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: two or four stroke horsepower. Obviously, the required watercraft is
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: commensurate to the size of the water. You're not going
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: to take a stand up paddle board across a three
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: mile wide stretch of the Mighty Mississippi in the dark
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: to bow hunt an island during a cold front in November,
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: or if you do, at least have your affairs in
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: order and make sure you leave your hunting gear to
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: somebody who will appreciate it. Bigger boats are nice for
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: a lot of reasons, but are also a pain in
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: the ass for a lot of reasons. The key to
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: all of this is to take a look at what
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: you have access to where you might hunt or where
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: you want to hunt and how that all comes together.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: But then you want to tryal run the whole thing.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: I can't stress this enough. Whether you're wet waiting a
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: small stream, or firing up the outboard to go ten
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: miles down the Missouri to bowhunt a chunk of public land.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Not only do you want to know what you're going
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: to get into when you do try this, but how
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: long it's going to take, if there are any dangerous
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: parts to the journey, and basically you just want to
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: familiarize yourself with the route. Keep in mind that when
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: you do walk these routes while winter scouting or paddle
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: them this spring, they could probably be out there in
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: the headspace where it'll seem easy because you're not going
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: to be, you know, trying to be quiet, and you'll
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: probably have good light to work with. You probably don't
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: have a bunch of extra gear. Waterway access is a
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: whole different thing in the dark when you're trying to
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: be stealthy. Understand that drop waypoints on the entrance and
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: exit spots where dangerous stuff might be, and actually, you know,
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: just plan out the route if you can then understand
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: one thing water changes where Steve and I were hiking
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: through you know, mud and rock in October this year.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: Five years earlier, Buddy and I couldn't even wade that
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: same river when we showed up to salvage a hunt
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: down there. Many of the places I've hunted in hike
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: this year were dry and walkable, when a few years
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: ago they would have required a boat some September or October.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: Rain can change things in a hurry. Now. A downpour
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: isn't going to affect the level of a reservoir too much, probably,
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: but it might make a waitable stream a hell of
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: a lot less waitable. A frozen swamp that you look
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: at in March and think would be one hell of
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: a good spot to ambush a big buck in November
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: will probably be a totally different thing in November. The
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: goal is to get comfortable with whatever level of water
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: access you can muster up, and then to start to
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: understand that spots and routes where it'll really come into play. Now,
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: if I'm being honest, I'd say probably at least a
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: third of the bucks I've killed on public land have
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: died partially because of some kind of water based access.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: Quite a few others died because of their first but
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: a lot of them just happen to live in places
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: where using a waterway to get to them was the
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: best approach. This is partially because it's a good method,
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: and partially because a lot of public lands tend to
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: have a lot of water, because if it was dry,
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: it would be farmed. For this reason alone, if you
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: tend to hunt public land, there should be something you
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: at least think about. It'll come into play in so
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: many scenarios from Canada on down to the Southern States
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: where there's no shortage of H two O out there
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: where the deer live. If this at all sounds like
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: something that would or could affect your hunting strategy this fall,
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: get on on X now, get out there in the
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: next few weeks and start to look at the ground.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Figure this stuff out. The goal of winter scouting is
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: always to find the best spots to set up in,
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: but those mean nothing if you don't have a good
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: way to get to them. Access is as important as
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: finding a banging staging area or a generational buck bed
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: tucked you know, into the bluff side bench or a
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: high spot in the cattail slough. So go channel your Introduckling,
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: my friends, and get your feet wet and come back
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: next week because I'm going to talk about how the
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: best hunters out there often have a few traits more
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: closely associated with goblins. That's it. I'm Tony Peterson. This
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: has been the Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which is
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: brought to you by First Light. As always, I just
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: want to thank you so much for your support, you know,
• 17:28
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• 17:31
  Speaker 2: articles that we've written, watching series, checking out somebody else's podcast, whatever,
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: your support means the world to us. We really really
• 17:39
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• 17:41
  Speaker 2: more white tail content, you know where to find it.
• 17:43
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• 17:45
  Speaker 2: will have more than enough stuff to distract you until
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: it's time to hunt some turkeys.