Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 1073: Rut Fresh Radio - Acorns Are Changing Everything: Where Bucks Are Bedding Now

Transcript

Ep. 1073: Rut Fresh Radio - Acorns Are Changing Everything: Where Bucks Are Bedding Now · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: What is going on? Welcome to another year of Rut Fresh.
0:04
Speaker 1: This is Jake Hofer, and we are back. It is
0:07
Speaker 1: hunting season, and if you're not familiar with Rut Fresh,
0:10
Speaker 1: this is where we give weekly updates and insight across
0:14
Speaker 1: the country, bringing in three or four guests a week
0:17
Speaker 1: to hear what they're focusing on for deer movement, what
0:19
Speaker 1: are their strategies, and hopefully provide some key intel for
0:23
Speaker 1: the upcoming weekend, the remainder of the week, and leading
0:26
Speaker 1: all the way into the following Wednesday. Refresh is brought
0:29
Speaker 1: to you by Moultrie, and this week we're going to
0:32
Speaker 1: have Cameron Durr, who successfully tagged a buck in North
0:34
Speaker 1: Dakota and now is getting ready for the Ohio archery opener.
0:38
Speaker 1: We have Kevin Latham from Maryland, who tagged a great
0:41
Speaker 1: buck early, and we're also having Clay Merver from North Carolina,
0:46
Speaker 1: who tagged a buck, and Jake Bushman, who is hunting
0:49
Speaker 1: in the Driftless region of Wisconsin, so we have a
0:51
Speaker 1: lot of variety here this week, and Something that we're
0:54
Speaker 1: going to do here is I'm going to give a
0:56
Speaker 1: little whitetail weather report forecast. And so here for September
1:02
Speaker 1: 23rd across the Midwest, cooler air has settled into much
1:05
Speaker 1: of the region to start the week from the upper
1:07
Speaker 1: Midwest through portions of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Temperatures are
1:12
Speaker 1: generally running cooler with overnight lows reaching the 40s and
1:16
Speaker 1: 50s in a number of areas. So some very unseasonably
1:19
Speaker 1: cooler temperature here for a lot of the openers and
1:21
Speaker 1: leading up to the opening days. October 1st seasons for
1:24
Speaker 1: many of the states. Wind direction is also very interesting.
1:28
Speaker 1: Mainly northeast and easterly winds are showing up across portions
1:31
Speaker 1: of the Midwest behind the early week weather system, which
1:34
Speaker 1: is a little bit different than what we're typically planning
1:36
Speaker 1: for west, northwest, or potentially southwest for this time of year.
1:40
Speaker 1: And so we have a lot of east winds, you know,
1:42
Speaker 1: following behind this front. As these systems move through, barometric
1:46
Speaker 1: pressure will fall ahead of the approaching weather and rise
1:48
Speaker 1: again behind it. As conditions clear, rain chances remain in
1:51
Speaker 1: the forecast across portions of the Midwest this week with
1:54
Speaker 1: additional unsettled weather extending east through the Ohio Valley Appalachians.
1:59
Speaker 1: And overhead, we're approaching the harvest moon. And the moon
2:02
Speaker 1: is more than 90% illuminated here today on Wednesday and
2:05
Speaker 1: building toward the full moon on Saturday, September 26th. And
2:09
Speaker 1: so that's your whitetail weather report for this week. We're
2:12
Speaker 1: going to kick things off with Cameron Durr. Here we go.
2:20
Speaker 1: All right, kicking off this year's season of Rut Fresh,
2:24
Speaker 1: I have Cameron Durr with Hawk Optics. We get a
2:27
Speaker 1: two-fold with you because you shot a buck in North Dakota.
2:30
Speaker 1: Do you still have any cameras out there?
2:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have one camera left out there.
2:33
Speaker 1: Okay, so we can get a snippet of what's going
2:35
Speaker 1: on in North Dakota, and then obviously Ohio opens up
2:38
Speaker 1: this Saturday. So we're going to start in North Dakota,
2:41
Speaker 1: how it came together, which that's an annual trip, and
2:44
Speaker 1: it seems like every year you guys find success, or
2:46
Speaker 1: you in particular. So you have something figured out, and...
2:50
Speaker 1: You know, how did it work? And do you think
2:52
Speaker 1: that same strategy would work for someone in the Plains
2:54
Speaker 1: States for the next seven days?
2:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, this was a season opener type hunt. I was
3:01
Speaker 3: targeting the first week of the season, which came in
3:03
Speaker 3: a little bit later this year for North Dakota. But
3:06
Speaker 3: our strategy out there is just kind of like a
3:09
Speaker 3: diversity of edge cover. Look for food sources and bedding cover.
3:15
Speaker 3: So I targeted an area that specifically had cattails as
3:19
Speaker 3: the bedding. Standing corn and soybeans it's like the trifecta
3:24
Speaker 3: of what to look for in those areas but just
3:27
Speaker 3: basically is three edges converging and you're always going to
3:31
Speaker 3: find traffic in that it's almost like an inside corner
3:34
Speaker 3: of a field but. the standing corn and the beans are,
3:37
Speaker 3: are the two edges, but the cattails, uh, the bedding cover, um,
3:41
Speaker 3: all week, man, we had South winds, Southeast winds, and
3:46
Speaker 3: I just particularly needed a North wind to have the
3:49
Speaker 3: cleanest access into this spot. Um, backing up, I, I
3:53
Speaker 3: put cameras out there in July or August. So we
3:56
Speaker 3: kind of had some deer pinned down, um, where they
4:00
Speaker 3: were feeding and what they were liking to do. And
4:02
Speaker 3: it's an area we funded before, right? So we had
4:04
Speaker 3: some betting figured out like if they're if they're feeding
4:08
Speaker 3: in this field this is where they're betting anyway um
4:11
Speaker 3: two cattail slews one really works better with a north
4:15
Speaker 3: wind one works better with a south wind if they
4:17
Speaker 3: are in the one that works better with the south
4:19
Speaker 3: wind it's not very huntable um from where the food
4:23
Speaker 3: is like you might be able to cut it but
4:26
Speaker 3: just depends on where they're in those cattails if they
4:29
Speaker 3: approach from the field side you're good but if not
4:32
Speaker 3: you're kind of screwed So I needed a north wind,
4:35
Speaker 3: and again, this cattail slew where they were bedded with
4:39
Speaker 3: a north wind.
4:40
Speaker 1: There's a lake.
4:41
Speaker 3: There's a big lake, and then there's a finger of
4:44
Speaker 3: cattails that go out from the lake, and I was
4:48
Speaker 3: able to cut my wind to blow my wind over
4:50
Speaker 3: the lake, and the deer was just in the cattail.
4:53
Speaker 3: So if I had northeast in me, he would probably
4:57
Speaker 3: peg me, but it was like a north-northwest, and it
5:00
Speaker 3: just worked out perfectly.
5:02
Speaker 4: It was.
5:03
Speaker 3: those open country settings, like just on the ground, there's
5:07
Speaker 3: just a buffer zone between the beans and the cattails.
5:10
Speaker 3: And I sat up against a fence is a private land,
5:14
Speaker 3: a farm ranch set up against the fence with a
5:17
Speaker 3: fence post and just put a couple more fence posts
5:19
Speaker 3: around me, made some brush and cover. And I'm actually
5:23
Speaker 3: in a scenario where I'm below the deer, where they
5:25
Speaker 3: enter the top of the field. So like you're, you
5:27
Speaker 3: just see that frame walking up and you, it's, it's
5:30
Speaker 3: kind of freaky, but, um, he read the script. He
5:33
Speaker 3: walked right out of the cattail slew, um, walked straight
5:38
Speaker 3: into the corner of the field and presented a 29
5:40
Speaker 3: yard shot.
5:41
Speaker 2: He never knew I was there and watched him tip over.
5:43
Speaker 1: Do you think you have any sort of scent advantage
5:45
Speaker 1: by being actually lower than where you anticipate the deer
5:47
Speaker 1: to come through?
5:48
Speaker 2: A hundred percent.
5:49
Speaker 3: And those, and those areas, um, the, especially in early season,
5:53
Speaker 3: the sunset, right at sunset, your thermals and, Your wind
5:57
Speaker 3: just dies and your thermals just kind of hang out.
6:00
Speaker 3: But the way I was set up, my thermals are
6:02
Speaker 3: pulling down further down into the field and into the
6:06
Speaker 3: water towards the water than where he was at. So
6:09
Speaker 3: it was kind of a bulletproof setup. The only way
6:10
Speaker 3: he could have caught me is if he did a
6:12
Speaker 3: giant J hook along the edge of the lake to
6:15
Speaker 3: come up into the field. And I glassed him three
6:18
Speaker 3: nights in a row and he never did that. But
6:21
Speaker 3: he wasn't coming from that cattail slough, right? He was
6:24
Speaker 3: approaching from the other cattail slough. We just had a
6:26
Speaker 3: shifting wind. So I just didn't anticipate a huge J-hook
6:30
Speaker 3: in there. I set up 35 yards off of where
6:34
Speaker 3: I thought he would enter and.
6:35
Speaker 2: It worked out perfect.
6:36
Speaker 1: Do you think, you know, I know you still have
6:39
Speaker 1: one camera out there right now, but for someone listening
6:43
Speaker 1: to this right now and they're in North Dakota, South Dakota,
6:46
Speaker 1: similar terrain, maybe Nebraska, do you think that same intersection
6:52
Speaker 1: of two food sources and cover nearby and a good
6:56
Speaker 1: ambush point? Do you think that could still be a
6:58
Speaker 1: very viable strategy? And ironically, at least here in the Midwest,
7:02
Speaker 1: it seems like we're still going to have a lot
7:03
Speaker 1: of east winds here coming up and southeast winds and
7:05
Speaker 1: some northeast winds. If you were still in North Dakota
7:09
Speaker 1: with a tag in your pocket, do you think your
7:10
Speaker 1: strategy would have changed much?
7:12
Speaker 3: No, I don't think so. I think they're going to
7:15
Speaker 3: be on the bed-to-food pattern for a while. The food
7:17
Speaker 3: sources are going to be changing, right? The beans are
7:21
Speaker 3: they were already pretty yellow when we were out there. Um,
7:25
Speaker 3: but the standing corn is going to become more of
7:27
Speaker 3: a draw and there's alfalfa out there. I would definitely
7:31
Speaker 3: target those diversity cover and edge. So I think it
7:36
Speaker 3: would still be, that's what I would be doing.
7:38
Speaker 2: Yeah.
7:39
Speaker 1: And so now transitioning to another opening day, Ohio, your
7:43
Speaker 1: home state, um, what does it look like? Whether, whether
7:48
Speaker 1: considered scouting considered, like what is the next, you know,
7:51
Speaker 1: Wednesday to opening day, what, what are you going to
7:54
Speaker 1: be doing?
7:55
Speaker 3: Dude, I think this is the best weather leading up
7:59
Speaker 3: to an Ohio opening bow season that I can remember. Um,
8:03
Speaker 3: a couple of years ago we had a storm land
8:05
Speaker 3: on opening day and that, that provided a really great day. Uh,
8:09
Speaker 3: Stacy Bay has shot that 188, 187 inch deer. They
8:12
Speaker 3: called shank on that day. But since then, that was
8:15
Speaker 3: probably 2021 or 2020 or something. Since then, I don't
8:20
Speaker 3: think we've had an opening week that's looked this way,
8:23
Speaker 3: so I'm super fired up. I just spent this past
8:26
Speaker 3: weekend kind of shifting some cameras around, moving them to
8:30
Speaker 3: white oak trees, and I actually found a standing green
8:35
Speaker 3: bean field on a piece that I picked up in
8:37
Speaker 3: turkey season. I just did a little John Eberhardt speed
8:40
Speaker 3: scout session over there, and there's a ton of acorns dropping.
8:45
Speaker 3: I haven't seen an acorn crop like that in my
8:47
Speaker 3: area as well. So I'm super fired up about that.
8:50
Speaker 3: Scrapes are opening up. Um, I'm going to spend the
8:53
Speaker 3: next three or four days behind the glass every night.
8:56
Speaker 3: I mean, it's going to be in the forties at
8:58
Speaker 3: night here in Northeast Ohio. So I'm super fired up
9:02
Speaker 3: for what's to come.
9:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's, that's very exciting. And, um, you know, throughout
9:07
Speaker 1: this route fresh episode, you'll really kind of get an
9:09
Speaker 1: acorn scout across, uh, North Carolina, Maryland, Wisconsin, and Ohio, obviously.
9:15
Speaker 1: And so, uh, it's been a mixed bag to tell
9:17
Speaker 1: you the truth of what the acorn crop is. So
9:20
Speaker 1: I think that's something important that people can, you know,
9:22
Speaker 1: check off here, um, leading up to whenever their opening
9:25
Speaker 1: day is, or, you know, ongoing, but how aggressive do
9:28
Speaker 1: you plan on being with the weather being right speed scout,
9:31
Speaker 1: identifying some scrapes where they're at. And I mean, do you,
9:35
Speaker 1: do you feel like this weekend it could happen?
9:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the next couple days, if I'm sitting
9:43
Speaker 3: behind the glass, and if they do what they did
9:46
Speaker 3: last night, and even just when I was scouting, there
9:51
Speaker 3: was a puddle in the ground under one particular oak
9:54
Speaker 3: tree that they're spending a lot of time on. The
9:56
Speaker 3: quote unquote feed tree I feel like that's it and
9:59
Speaker 3: last night I just watched them from two different directions
10:02
Speaker 3: come into that feed tree my ambush point would probably
10:07
Speaker 3: be from the bean field like sitting in the bean
10:09
Speaker 3: field and letting them come out as long as I
10:11
Speaker 3: have the right wind but yeah if they do something
10:15
Speaker 3: similar the next two nights or so I'm definitely going
10:19
Speaker 3: to take.
10:19
Speaker 2: A big swing.
10:20
Speaker 1: So just to make sure everyone understands, so you're actually
10:23
Speaker 1: going to sit in the standing beans?
10:25
Speaker 2: Correct. Okay.
10:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know the bedding. This is a new piece.
10:32
Speaker 3: I don't know the bedding situation in there and how
10:34
Speaker 3: they're moving through the woods. And the beans are like
10:37
Speaker 3: waist high. They're pretty tall. So using the North Dakota
10:42
Speaker 3: strategy of like getting creative with your setups, that's a really–
10:47
Speaker 3: dynamite they don't ever expect danger to be there you
10:50
Speaker 3: know what i mean and they come out they have
10:52
Speaker 3: the visual they have the wind to their advantage in
10:55
Speaker 3: most scenarios and if i can just be off of
10:58
Speaker 3: that out in the bean field and set up for
11:00
Speaker 3: 25 30 yard shot to below that feed tree to
11:02
Speaker 3: the edge of the field i think it's dynamite plus
11:06
Speaker 3: um the farmer that i'm hunting on like he owns
11:11
Speaker 3: like the first set of trees and beyond that he
11:13
Speaker 3: doesn't own anything so that's also the safest route by
11:17
Speaker 3: permission as well.
11:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes sense. Well, so the bigger question here
11:21
Speaker 1: now is on a scale of 1 to 10, 10
11:24
Speaker 1: being the best week of the entire year, 1 being
11:27
Speaker 1: one of the worst. Where do you rank this with weather,
11:30
Speaker 1: your scouting report? Where does it fall?
11:33
Speaker 3: Man, I think like an 8.
11:36
Speaker 1: I love it.
11:37
Speaker 3: The, the first week of the season, they're still on
11:41
Speaker 3: a pattern. They haven't had that pressure hit them. And
11:43
Speaker 3: the weather is just looking primo. I think opening morning
11:46
Speaker 3: in my area, it's going to be 44 degrees. So, um,
11:50
Speaker 3: it's like we're in late October. Like you look for
11:53
Speaker 3: that type of weather in late October. So if you
11:55
Speaker 3: have a deer on a pattern and kind of figured
11:58
Speaker 3: out and you've watched do some things like you can
12:01
Speaker 3: be really, really dangerous this weekend.
12:03
Speaker 1: I love it. Uh, Cameron, with Hawk Optics, and then
12:06
Speaker 1: where else can people follow along with what you have
12:08
Speaker 1: going this season as we kick things off?
12:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can find me on Instagram, Cam the Cameraman,
12:16
Speaker 3: or a new platform that I'm working on called Modern Whitetail.
12:20
Speaker 3: You can find those podcast episodes on the Whitetail podcast channel. Yeah,
12:25
Speaker 3: that's where things are going down.
12:26
Speaker 1: All right. Thank you so much, Cameron. Congratulations in North Dakota,
12:29
Speaker 1: and good luck the rest of the season.
12:31
Speaker 2: Thank you.
12:32
Speaker 5: All right.
12:32
Speaker 1: Next up, we have Kevin Walsh. from Maryland, who recently
12:36
Speaker 1: tagged a really, really awesome eight-pointer. How's it going?
12:40
Speaker 2: Pretty good, man.
12:41
Speaker 1: How you been? I'm doing really good. This is the
12:44
Speaker 1: first episode of Rough Fresh. We're all working out the kinks.
12:47
Speaker 1: But some folks, especially for this first episode, have already
12:50
Speaker 1: found success. And so the fun part of that is
12:52
Speaker 1: we get to recap how did it come together. But
12:56
Speaker 1: then additionally, you're in Maryland. A lot of states allow
13:00
Speaker 1: multiple buck tags. And so more so, How do you
13:03
Speaker 1: keep building momentum? So we're going to get into all
13:05
Speaker 1: of that, but Kevin, where roughly are you in Maryland?
13:10
Speaker 1: You don't have to say the county or anything like that,
13:11
Speaker 1: but roughly, just so people can get a frame of reference.
13:15
Speaker 2: So it's like right outside of like Baltimore City. I
13:19
Speaker 2: live in Carroll. I hunt like all around Carroll, you know,
13:21
Speaker 2: Baltimore County and all that. That's really the only place
13:26
Speaker 2: I go. A little bit of Lake Howard, but that's
13:28
Speaker 2: about it. Okay.
13:30
Speaker 1: And so about a week ago. you smoked a giant
13:34
Speaker 1: how did that come together.
13:37
Speaker 2: Um so i've had him on camera for about two
13:40
Speaker 2: months now and uh he was being really consistent um
13:46
Speaker 2: i have another big deer that i was hunting that
13:47
Speaker 2: actually hunted uh the day after opening day didn't see
13:51
Speaker 2: him his running buddy came in he was a big
13:53
Speaker 2: 10 um but the big nine that i was i
13:57
Speaker 2: was going after he actually shed his velvet and i
13:59
Speaker 2: don't know I mean, acorns started dropping too. So I'm
14:02
Speaker 2: sure that part of it, but once he shed him
14:05
Speaker 2: and that 10 stopped running together, like I did not
14:07
Speaker 2: see him together at all. And, um, like I said,
14:09
Speaker 2: I hunted that day. The 10 came in. He actually
14:12
Speaker 2: came in a couple of times. He left. He was
14:13
Speaker 2: coming back. He was going back into thicket. I guess
14:15
Speaker 2: he bedded. Cause he came in early and I had
14:17
Speaker 2: probably 35 deer around me like all night. There's like
14:21
Speaker 2: a big, like grown up field next to me. They're
14:23
Speaker 2: going out in that bed and coming back. Um, so
14:26
Speaker 2: that didn't, nothing happened that day. I went out on
14:30
Speaker 2: Wednesday and hunted for his big eight. He actually has
14:33
Speaker 2: like a kicker coming off his, it's not even a kicker.
14:35
Speaker 2: It's like, it's coming out of his skull. Like he's
14:36
Speaker 2: got hair in between like his base and this point. And, um,
14:42
Speaker 2: so I was like, I'm going to go and hunt him.
14:44
Speaker 2: The wind was perfect. I go in, had deer around
14:47
Speaker 2: me all evening and I ended up shooting him at
14:50
Speaker 2: five 58, but I had two does better underneath me,
14:54
Speaker 2: a little six underneath me. And I heard something crack
14:57
Speaker 2: behind me and I, uh, I like, I couldn't even
15:01
Speaker 2: move much. It was just kind of like, you know,
15:02
Speaker 2: you turn your head a little bit with your eyes
15:04
Speaker 2: to see what it is. And I just saw the
15:05
Speaker 2: big frame coming in and I was like, oh, that's him. And, uh,
15:09
Speaker 2: I was hoping he was going to come like right
15:11
Speaker 2: in front of me. Cause I was in, I was
15:12
Speaker 2: in like a pine tree. I saw like branches all
15:15
Speaker 2: around me. It was all trimmed and everything. So I
15:16
Speaker 2: get a good shot. And I like, when I reached
15:20
Speaker 2: around to grab my bow. And like, he's, I mean,
15:24
Speaker 2: at this point he's like 30 yards and I'm hoping
15:25
Speaker 2: he walks in front of me and I'm looking down
15:30
Speaker 2: and there's a doe underneath me and she's just staring
15:31
Speaker 2: at me. I'm like, this is not how this is
15:33
Speaker 2: going to go. You know, it's like, it's one of theirs.
15:36
Speaker 2: So I'm hoping he comes in front of me. He doesn't,
15:38
Speaker 2: he comes behind me. So I can't even see him
15:40
Speaker 2: right now. My hand's still in the air because the
15:41
Speaker 2: doe's looking at me and I'm looking down and he
15:45
Speaker 2: comes up behind her and like nudges her to like
15:48
Speaker 2: move her out of the way. Well, she spun. That's
15:50
Speaker 2: when I grabbed my bow. I brought it up. Clip
15:52
Speaker 2: my release, and he came out, and he came out to, like,
15:54
Speaker 2: 25 yards, and I drew a shot him quartering away.
15:56
Speaker 2: And he went, like, 60 yards, and I heard him
15:59
Speaker 2: crash and, like, do a thick stuff.
16:01
Speaker 1: Was that more of, like, a transition area where they're
16:03
Speaker 1: getting up out of bed and going to feed somewhere?
16:05
Speaker 1: Or why do you think he was— obviously, he had to
16:08
Speaker 1: be bedded somewhat close by is what I'm guessing.
16:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, like, the property is, like— it' s only, like, a
16:12
Speaker 2: 15-acre property. But it's, like, a river bottom down to
16:16
Speaker 2: one side and the other side. It's all, like, secluded.
16:18
Speaker 2: They have, like, a big yard's ton of clover in
16:20
Speaker 2: the yard. so they go out there and feed and
16:23
Speaker 2: like you know do their thing there's honestly it's like
16:25
Speaker 2: an overpopulated area so there's tons of deer but yeah
16:29
Speaker 2: he like i mean he was coming off like like
16:31
Speaker 2: the hill up by the house it's really thick back
16:33
Speaker 2: there he bed and he was coming down from there
16:35
Speaker 2: and uh yeah it came right in i mean i
16:40
Speaker 2: ended up shooting him at 558 So I remember right
16:43
Speaker 2: when I shot, cause I always like, right when I shoot,
16:45
Speaker 2: I always call my dad. Like that's the first thing
16:46
Speaker 2: I do.
16:47
Speaker 4: Yeah.
16:47
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
16:47
Speaker 2: And like, after I shot him, like I'm sitting there,
16:49
Speaker 2: I couldn't even see after I shot, he went like,
16:51
Speaker 2: like I said, like real thick stuff. And I could
16:54
Speaker 2: hear him crash. And I pulled my phone out. It's
16:56
Speaker 2: at five 58. And I was like trying to call dad.
16:58
Speaker 2: I was like, good. And I was like, Hey, I
16:59
Speaker 2: was like, I was like, what are you doing? He
17:01
Speaker 2: was like, let me guess. You shot him. I was like, yep.
17:05
Speaker 1: That's awesome. That's super cool. So, um, for the next week,
17:11
Speaker 1: Wednesday to Wednesday, um, you know, for someone that did
17:14
Speaker 1: not find that initial success, what, what would you tell them?
17:17
Speaker 1: What would they, what, what should they be potentially keying
17:20
Speaker 1: in on? What should they be paying attention to? Uh, whether,
17:23
Speaker 1: you know, considering weather time of year conditions, all those
17:26
Speaker 1: different things. And, um, you know, people all across the
17:28
Speaker 1: country will tune in, but, um, you know, some of
17:31
Speaker 1: our States here in Illinois, I'm still waiting for October 1st.
17:33
Speaker 1: So I'm, I'm in a holding pattern here as I,
17:35
Speaker 1: as I hear this advice.
17:38
Speaker 2: Um, look, for here, it's supposed to rain for like
17:41
Speaker 2: the next week. So, I mean, I'm going to lay low.
17:44
Speaker 2: I'm always watching cameras and like, that's one thing too.
17:46
Speaker 2: Like you can't get caught up with the cameras. You
17:48
Speaker 2: know what I mean? You got to go hunt. I'm
17:50
Speaker 2: always looking for white Oaks. Like last year was like
17:51
Speaker 2: a really good year for white Oaks for us. So
17:53
Speaker 2: I expected this year not to be, but I mean,
17:56
Speaker 2: they're dropping everywhere right now, which is a great thing.
18:00
Speaker 2: But I mean, I'd always look for white Oaks. And then,
18:02
Speaker 2: like I said, don't just stare at the cameras. Like,
18:05
Speaker 2: you know, if there's a big deer in the area,
18:07
Speaker 2: go hunt them. Always hunt the right wind. I'm, Y'all
18:09
Speaker 2: got to hunt the right wind.
18:11
Speaker 1: So give us a quick, to you, what is hunting
18:14
Speaker 1: the right wind? Cause for some people that's some, for everyone,
18:18
Speaker 1: it's interesting because some people say, well, you know, like
18:21
Speaker 1: the deer has to be, the wind has to be
18:22
Speaker 1: somewhat okay for the mature buck and you're kind of
18:24
Speaker 1: flirting with disaster or cheating the wind. Is that your
18:27
Speaker 1: strategy or is it more so like, Hey, it's such
18:30
Speaker 1: a high deer population area. I have to kind of
18:31
Speaker 1: give that up and just have it blowing into an
18:34
Speaker 1: area where deer are very unlikely to be. Yeah.
18:37
Speaker 2: So, I'm very big on like access to like, I'm
18:42
Speaker 2: not just going to go hang and stand right in
18:44
Speaker 2: the middle of like where I think, Oh, this is
18:45
Speaker 2: the best spot. You know what I mean? I'm always
18:47
Speaker 2: going to stay back and have the wind in my
18:49
Speaker 2: favor when I get on it. You know, like, and
18:51
Speaker 2: like newer hunters that I talked to about it, I'm like,
18:55
Speaker 2: you know, the biggest things are wind access. And when
18:59
Speaker 2: you first start hunting, like go and shoot deer and
19:02
Speaker 2: have fun. Don't always worry about the big bucks. Like that's,
19:04
Speaker 2: that's like the thing everybody's watching videos. I got to
19:06
Speaker 2: shoot a big buck. Like, growing up i i shot
19:10
Speaker 2: so many deer when i was younger like does anything
19:13
Speaker 2: like you know what i mean so and i feel
19:15
Speaker 2: like that made me a better hunter like there's people
19:17
Speaker 2: that started hunting 10 years ago that maybe shot five
19:19
Speaker 2: deer and they they've killed a couple deer but like
19:25
Speaker 2: i feel like the best thing you could do is
19:27
Speaker 2: hunt and just shoot deer and learn how to kill
19:29
Speaker 2: deer do you know what i mean yeah 100 but
19:31
Speaker 2: like yeah when it comes to wind i mean i
19:34
Speaker 2: I won't hunt on the wrong wind. I have before,
19:36
Speaker 2: and I've learned my lesson. You know what I mean?
19:38
Speaker 2: You're like, Oh, I think I can, I think I
19:39
Speaker 2: can get him. A big deer is always going to
19:41
Speaker 2: try to circle downwind to you no matter what, unless
19:44
Speaker 2: it's the rod he's chasing a doe, you know, but
19:47
Speaker 2: like early season, September, like I always hunt the wind,
19:50
Speaker 2: watch the weather, watch the moon. And you can watch
19:53
Speaker 2: it on cameras if you want. Like, you know what
19:54
Speaker 2: I mean? Like a good moon day, all the big
19:56
Speaker 2: deer showing up in your cameras and you're like, okay.
19:59
Speaker 1: So what's a good moon day for you? Is it,
20:02
Speaker 1: is it in relation to the red moon or is
20:04
Speaker 1: it more of the major minor times of the moon?
20:07
Speaker 2: Um, I mean, obviously the red moon, but like, like
20:10
Speaker 2: a full moon, that's always, that's always a good time
20:12
Speaker 2: to hunt it. Okay.
20:14
Speaker 1: So I like it. I like it. So, you know,
20:17
Speaker 1: over the next seven days, a lot of rain. Um,
20:20
Speaker 1: what's your strategy?
20:23
Speaker 2: Um, I'm going to be watching the cameras, see what's
20:27
Speaker 2: going on. Um, if it's pouring down rain, I'm probably
20:30
Speaker 2: not going out. If it's like a light rain, I'll
20:32
Speaker 2: definitely hunt a light rain. Um, And it really just
20:37
Speaker 2: depends with like work when I can get off of work,
20:38
Speaker 2: you know? Um, but I'm like right now I've just like, I'm,
20:44
Speaker 2: I've been like going to all my spots that I
20:45
Speaker 2: don't have cameras or something and just looking for white eggs.
20:48
Speaker 2: I actually just went and put a camera out, uh,
20:51
Speaker 2: on Friday. I went into my one spot and like
20:55
Speaker 2: another thing, it's like, it's another five acre spot, but
20:57
Speaker 2: there's huge white eggs in there that are just, they're
20:59
Speaker 2: dropping like crazy. I just threw a camera up and, um,
21:03
Speaker 2: I just got like four or five bucks on camera
21:05
Speaker 2: last night. None of them are shooters. One's like 125
21:07
Speaker 2: inch nine point. But like, it's like, it's just stuff
21:10
Speaker 2: like that. Like I'm always scouting, like, you know, I'm
21:13
Speaker 2: not going to the bedding area. I'm just going to
21:15
Speaker 2: where they normally like to feed and do all that.
21:17
Speaker 2: But yeah, like the next week I'm probably, I mean,
21:21
Speaker 2: I'm going to try to hunt a day or two,
21:23
Speaker 2: but I got to see what's coming in. And yeah,
21:29
Speaker 2: I mean, that's.
21:30
Speaker 1: Do you, do you think hunting these smaller pieces with,
21:33
Speaker 1: you know, possibly a cluster of, you know, I'm just
21:35
Speaker 1: making this up, a cluster of five oaks, white oaks
21:37
Speaker 1: that are dropping, you know, it keeps it somewhat focused,
21:41
Speaker 1: but on the inverse, let's say someone was hunting a
21:43
Speaker 1: larger track with white oaks all over and, and your
21:45
Speaker 1: region of Maryland. Um, do you think it's kind of
21:48
Speaker 1: like throwing a dart of what, what tree they're going
21:49
Speaker 1: to be feeding under that evening? Or is it, or
21:51
Speaker 1: is it more so find the good access, find out
21:55
Speaker 1: where you can have a good wind and focus on
21:57
Speaker 1: those white oaks and kind of hope for the best.
22:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I'd be on ridges. Like, that's another thing.
22:03
Speaker 2: I don't hunt bottoms because the wind's constantly swirling in
22:05
Speaker 2: the bottom. Find ridges, find the big white oaks. I mean,
22:08
Speaker 2: just look for sign, too. Look for rubs, scrapes, you know.
22:11
Speaker 2: I mean, and throughout the night, bucks are going to
22:13
Speaker 2: make rubs and scrapes everywhere. They're constantly moving. But like
22:18
Speaker 2: I said, I'm usually up on ridges. I never get
22:21
Speaker 2: down the bottom because I've learned my lesson with that.
22:23
Speaker 2: The wind's swirling when you're down there, and it's like,
22:26
Speaker 2: then it's a disaster, you know?
22:29
Speaker 1: So.
22:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I'll usually be up on a ridge. And, like,
22:34
Speaker 2: if I'm hunting a new area that I'm not exactly
22:36
Speaker 2: sure about, I've scouted it, did all that, my first one's, like,
22:39
Speaker 2: an observation hunt. You know what I mean? I kind
22:40
Speaker 2: of stay back where I can see a lot and
22:43
Speaker 2: then see how the deer move. And then if I
22:46
Speaker 2: see a big deer, then I'll move in on him.
22:47
Speaker 2: You know what I mean? Something like that.
22:49
Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.
23:00
Speaker 1: All right, two last questions here. What's the weirdest approach,
23:04
Speaker 1: the strangest approach that you would take in this next
23:06
Speaker 1: week to potentially notch a tag? Unconventional.
23:12
Speaker 2: The strangest approach.
23:20
Speaker 1: And if there isn't a strange one, that's okay, too.
23:21
Speaker 1: That also provides clarity.
23:23
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't really have like a strange or
23:25
Speaker 2: crazy approach I would take. If I'm hunting a big deer,
23:27
Speaker 2: I want to do it right. You know what I mean?
23:28
Speaker 2: I'm not, especially this early in the season, I don't
23:30
Speaker 2: want to go in and booger him trying to do
23:32
Speaker 2: something crazy to kill him when I got all season.
23:35
Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
23:36
Speaker 3: Yeah.
23:36
Speaker 1: Yeah.
23:37
Speaker 2: That's fair. I mean, September is like my favorite time
23:39
Speaker 2: to hunt. Like out of all the months, like I
23:42
Speaker 2: love September. You can pattern the deer. They're switching from
23:45
Speaker 2: you know, their summer pattern or their fall pattern, they're,
23:48
Speaker 2: they're getting on white Oaks and then like Maryland and Maryland,
23:51
Speaker 2: you can feed. So like, I, I do put corn
23:53
Speaker 2: out some places just to like get inventory of the
23:55
Speaker 2: box and see what's going on. But, um, yeah, I mean,
24:00
Speaker 2: I love September, like patterning them is like the best
24:03
Speaker 2: thing to me, like figure out what they're doing and
24:05
Speaker 2: then trying to outsmart a big giant box is like,
24:07
Speaker 2: I mean, it's like what I live for, man. I
24:09
Speaker 2: love it.
24:09
Speaker 4: All right.
24:09
Speaker 1: Last question here for you. Scale one to 10. 10
24:13
Speaker 1: being the absolute best of the week, week of the year,
24:16
Speaker 1: one being one of the worst weeks of the year.
24:20
Speaker 1: So Wednesday to Wednesday, 23rd to the 30th, where do
24:24
Speaker 1: you put it?
24:26
Speaker 2: For September?
24:28
Speaker 1: For the rest of the season. Just like, do you
24:31
Speaker 1: think this next week is going to be a 10
24:32
Speaker 1: out of 10? There's going to be a lot of
24:34
Speaker 1: big deer in your area die, would be like a
24:37
Speaker 1: 10 with high opportunity, or one would be, man, there's
24:42
Speaker 1: not going to be much cooking.
24:44
Speaker 2: Uh, I don't think there'll be a lot going on.
24:45
Speaker 2: People are obviously going to kill big deer.
24:47
Speaker 1: Like that.
24:48
Speaker 2: It's still September. I love hunting all of September, but
24:51
Speaker 2: I think like the first week of the season, cause
24:52
Speaker 2: like it always changes for us. It can start on
24:54
Speaker 2: the 5th, the 7th, the 11th, the 12th. Um, I
24:58
Speaker 2: think that's the best time to kill like a big
25:00
Speaker 2: deer all season is the first week of the season.
25:03
Speaker 2: But like, like I said, I like all of September
25:05
Speaker 2: acorns have dropped and you can get on them with
25:07
Speaker 2: the weather fronts coming in. I mean, it's going to
25:09
Speaker 2: be hard. You're not going to be, you don't want
25:11
Speaker 2: to be sitting in a tree pouring down rain. You
25:12
Speaker 2: know what I mean? So I think the next week
25:17
Speaker 2: it'll be a little slow for people killing big deer.
25:19
Speaker 2: I mean, like I said, some will get killed. People
25:22
Speaker 2: that want to brave the rain and whatever's coming. Yeah.
25:25
Speaker 1: Well, Kevin, congratulations on kicking off your season with an
25:30
Speaker 1: awesome buck. And I appreciate you hopping on here for
25:32
Speaker 1: the first episode of Rough Fresh for this year. New
25:35
Speaker 1: episodes every single Wednesday. If people want to track you
25:37
Speaker 1: down and ask you a question or something like that,
25:40
Speaker 1: is there a good place for people to do that?
25:42
Speaker 2: Um, I have Facebook, I have Instagram. They're both just
25:45
Speaker 2: like at Kevin lathe. Okay. Um, that's about it. Awesome.
25:49
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much for hopping on here. Congratulations again.
25:52
Speaker 2: Thank you, man. Appreciate it.
25:54
Speaker 4: All right.
25:54
Speaker 1: Next up we have clay and clay. You recently shot
25:58
Speaker 1: a buck. Congratulations. I want to hear all about it,
26:00
Speaker 1: but before we get into that, uh, what state are
26:03
Speaker 1: we getting, getting into here today?
26:05
Speaker 6: We're in North Carolina, Piedmont region.
26:07
Speaker 4: A lot of my counties that I'm hunting, their border
26:09
Speaker 4: in the Virginia line. And one of the biggest things
26:13
Speaker 4: around here is just the drought. It's been unseasonably dry
26:18
Speaker 4: food plots or dust. I mean, there, there's no germination
26:20
Speaker 4: and we seeded those a month ago now. So we're
26:23
Speaker 4: going to have to reseed and redo everything.
26:26
Speaker 6: It's nineties and dry as can be.
26:30
Speaker 1: But you still connected with a, with a really interesting
26:34
Speaker 1: buck with a crazy long dagger time. So how did
26:36
Speaker 1: that come together? Just, uh, what was the, Morning, evening,
26:40
Speaker 1: what was your setup, and kind of take us from there.
26:43
Speaker 4: It was opening morning, and I know morning hunts kind
26:46
Speaker 4: of get a stigma around here, but it didn't matter.
26:49
Speaker 4: The deer was on such a pattern that he was
26:51
Speaker 4: coming in off of... There were ag fields surrounding where
26:55
Speaker 4: we were, and I was in a two-year-old clear cut
26:58
Speaker 4: that's about as thick as it can get with perfect access,
27:02
Speaker 4: maybe 100 yards from where I could park the truck, and...
27:06
Speaker 4: in the stand at 5.30, an hour and a half
27:09
Speaker 4: before he was coming back, and he was hitting just
27:12
Speaker 4: a little opening. I'd call it a food plot, but
27:14
Speaker 4: it's not.
27:15
Speaker 6: There's no germination in there.
27:17
Speaker 4: We are a bait state, so I did have corn
27:19
Speaker 4: out because there's nothing else right now growing, and he
27:25
Speaker 4: was hitting that at about 7 a.m. and then bedding
27:27
Speaker 4: down by a pond, and we were in very tight
27:30
Speaker 4: to where the buck was bedding, I'd say within 100 yards,
27:33
Speaker 4: and at about 7 a.m. he came walking by, broadside
27:37
Speaker 4: perfect and like i said normal mornings if it wasn't
27:40
Speaker 4: perfect we'd stay out but it was one of those
27:43
Speaker 4: situations where it was pretty cut and dry just had
27:45
Speaker 4: to make a good.
27:46
Speaker 1: Shot yeah so do you think he got up out
27:49
Speaker 1: of his bed and came and ate on your corner
27:51
Speaker 1: do you think he ate the corn on the way
27:52
Speaker 1: back to his bed at you know seven o'clock in
27:53
Speaker 1: the morning if he had a guess.
27:55
Speaker 4: He was on his way back yeah he was leaving
27:57
Speaker 4: those fields and i mean it's probably probably 300 yard
28:01
Speaker 4: walk from the nearest fields through the cut over where
28:04
Speaker 4: he was coming in and then uh, the pond where
28:07
Speaker 4: we knew he was bedding and he was in there
28:09
Speaker 4: like clockwork. So, and, and just an older buck had
28:12
Speaker 4: an injury, had a really cool, yeah, we called him dagger,
28:15
Speaker 4: cool dagger point.
28:16
Speaker 1: And yeah. Yeah. So, um, do you think that's, you know, let's, um,
28:24
Speaker 1: let's say you did not have such a bead on
28:26
Speaker 1: or a pattern on this specific buck. What would you
28:29
Speaker 1: tell yourself or how would you have hunted differently for
28:32
Speaker 1: that opening day? Cause I, We're getting close to opening
28:34
Speaker 1: day for many, many other states as this goes live.
28:37
Speaker 1: And so, you know, I think it's pretty cut and dry. Hey,
28:39
Speaker 1: if you have one kind of pinned down and you
28:41
Speaker 1: have a pattern and you have good access, go take
28:43
Speaker 1: a swing and hopefully it works out. But for those
28:45
Speaker 1: folks that don't have that, what do you say to them?
28:48
Speaker 6: It's a little bit more difficult. Our deer are moving
28:51
Speaker 6: super late.
28:51
Speaker 4: I think your traditional spots sitting over a field or
28:54
Speaker 4: sitting over a food plot aren't as good, at least
28:56
Speaker 4: down here. I've been seeing a lot more daylight movement
29:02
Speaker 4: closer in towards the bedding if you have a good
29:05
Speaker 4: creek crossing or if there's a pond or any type
29:07
Speaker 4: of water source that these deer are hitting that's where
29:10
Speaker 4: i'd be i'd also find those acorns down by us
29:12
Speaker 4: did the acorns it's not a huge mass crop like
29:16
Speaker 4: it was last year but the trees that are produced
29:19
Speaker 4: and they're absolutely loaded and they are raining out of
29:21
Speaker 4: the sky um i'd find one of those trees and
29:26
Speaker 4: eventually those deer are going to come so if you
29:27
Speaker 4: can find that spot Before they get out to the fields,
29:31
Speaker 4: like I said, I'd be on my farms, either a
29:35
Speaker 4: creek crossing bottom or finding some of these uh mass
29:38
Speaker 4: producing trees.
29:40
Speaker 1: Yeah okay so for the next week you can still
29:42
Speaker 1: uh you still have a buck tag in your pocket
29:44
Speaker 1: what's your what's your strategy over the next week here
29:47
Speaker 1: um with it still being hot and obviously it's a
29:51
Speaker 1: long season it's still september but i think we're all
29:53
Speaker 1: excited so what's your plan for the next seven days
29:54
Speaker 1: or so uh you know wednesday to wednesday There's.
29:57
Speaker 6: A couple good bucks still out there.
29:59
Speaker 4: We actually went in after a really nice 10 point
30:01
Speaker 4: from my son yesterday. Didn't have any luck, but we're
30:03
Speaker 4: still hunting.
30:05
Speaker 6: We love to hunt. We love to get out there.
30:06
Speaker 6: It doesn't matter what the weather's doing.
30:07
Speaker 4: If we can find a spot, we're lucky enough to
30:10
Speaker 4: have enough places to go.
30:11
Speaker 6: We're going to get out in the woods when we're available.
30:15
Speaker 4: I think for me, there's a good front pushing through
30:20
Speaker 4: Tuesday and Wednesday, and then that sets up pretty good.
30:23
Speaker 4: I mean, we've been It's been nineties and sunny and dry,
30:27
Speaker 4: and we're going to have some rain Tuesday and Wednesday,
30:29
Speaker 4: and it's going to drop down. Lows are going to
30:31
Speaker 4: be in the fifties. Highs are going to be in
30:33
Speaker 4: the low seventies. So there's a big, uh, temp drop there.
30:37
Speaker 4: So I think the end.
30:38
Speaker 6: Of the week should be pretty good hunting. I mean,
30:40
Speaker 6: it's still September.
30:41
Speaker 4: It's not even October yet. So we're down here. I'd
30:44
Speaker 4: look towards the end of the week and, and one
30:46
Speaker 4: of those bucks that have been coming out a half
30:49
Speaker 4: hour after shooting light might come out a little bit earlier.
30:52
Speaker 1: That buck you shot, you mentioned he was on a pattern.
30:55
Speaker 1: Was that almost on– and you mentioned a pond, so
30:58
Speaker 1: I'm guessing he was bedding around the pond depending on
31:01
Speaker 1: which way the wind was coming in the morning. How
31:05
Speaker 1: consistent was he? Was it like almost truly an everyday
31:08
Speaker 1: thing he was going in there? Was he that patterned
31:10
Speaker 1: or was it like two or three days?
31:11
Speaker 6: It was that consistent.
31:13
Speaker 1: Wow.
31:13
Speaker 6: And it was.
31:16
Speaker 4: One of those that I knew I was going to
31:19
Speaker 4: get an opportunity, whether it was in the morning or
31:21
Speaker 4: the afternoon. And he was in there almost daily, which
31:26
Speaker 4: there were several deer that were like that. This one
31:30
Speaker 4: was the easiest spot to be able to get in
31:33
Speaker 4: there in the morning without feeling like I was really
31:35
Speaker 4: going to ruin my chances for the afternoon.
31:36
Speaker 1: Because if you would have struck out, you would have
31:40
Speaker 1: went back out that evening?
31:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, the game plan going into it, in
31:45
Speaker 4: my mind, it was go in there in the morning,
31:47
Speaker 4: have an opportunity at this buck, and then try to
31:50
Speaker 4: get out there that afternoon with my son, which actually
31:53
Speaker 4: is exactly how it worked out. We were able to
31:55
Speaker 4: kill one in the morning and then I took my
31:57
Speaker 4: son that afternoon and he shot a good buck.
32:00
Speaker 1: That's super cool. So you had mentioned, um, Not a
32:04
Speaker 1: huge acorn crop in your part of North Carolina, but
32:07
Speaker 1: the trees that did produce, produce very well. Would you
32:10
Speaker 1: say that is a key thing for anyone that does
32:12
Speaker 1: not have the super pattern buck right now to go
32:15
Speaker 1: maybe and search for some of those mash trees that
32:18
Speaker 1: are dropped? You know, you're walking on marbles. Do you
32:21
Speaker 1: think that's one of the best things they could do?
32:22
Speaker 4: If you could find those trees, that and persimmons, persimmons
32:25
Speaker 4: are already dropping right now.
32:26
Speaker 6: I think it's due to the drought.
32:28
Speaker 4: So if you can find those persimmon trees that are
32:30
Speaker 4: dropping or if you can find those acorns, I've moved
32:32
Speaker 4: a lot of my cameras around from where they'd typically
32:35
Speaker 4: be sitting on a food plot or these field edge scrapes.
32:38
Speaker 4: They're just not producing right now. A, there's no food plots.
32:42
Speaker 4: The ag fields aren't really good. The beans have already
32:45
Speaker 4: defoliated in most places around here. So I think those
32:49
Speaker 4: Creek crossings. If you could find a couple of scrapes, um,
32:52
Speaker 4: back in between bedding and food. And yeah, if you
32:55
Speaker 4: could set up over some of those acorns that are raining,
32:58
Speaker 4: I think that's a good plan.
32:59
Speaker 1: What would be the weirdest strategy you would take over
33:02
Speaker 1: the next week? We're the weirdest way, the weirdest strategy.
33:06
Speaker 4: Well, yesterday was kind of like that. We parked on
33:09
Speaker 4: the side of a highway on a property. We're able
33:11
Speaker 4: to hunt and just dropped into a little drainage bottom.
33:15
Speaker 4: And yeah, sitting down there. Our bottoms are tough to hunt.
33:18
Speaker 4: We had deer come in, not the deer we were
33:19
Speaker 4: looking for, but we're not taking any big time swings yet.
33:24
Speaker 4: There's nothing that I think we have a really good
33:27
Speaker 4: chance on. Over the next coming weeks, we'll get a
33:30
Speaker 4: little bit more aggressive, but it's still early here.
33:34
Speaker 6: Usually on our spots, we have.
33:36
Speaker 4: A chance on opening day or the first three days
33:39
Speaker 4: of the season when these deer are still on that
33:42
Speaker 4: consistent pattern. And then as that pressure picks up there,
33:45
Speaker 4: they're all, all our deer down here are shed out
33:47
Speaker 4: of velvet. Um, and scrapes are just starting to pop up.
33:51
Speaker 4: I mean, not many, I mean, we're not in the
33:55
Speaker 4: Midwest where you guys probably have scrapes all over the place.
33:58
Speaker 4: Ours were a little bit behind that. I'm starting to
34:00
Speaker 4: see them in your common spots, but it's not, it's
34:04
Speaker 4: not really taken off yet. So if you've got a
34:05
Speaker 4: deer on pattern, that's a different story, but if not
34:08
Speaker 4: kind of sitting back and waiting until you could go
34:10
Speaker 4: in and get it done.
34:12
Speaker 2: I love it.
34:13
Speaker 1: Clay, all right, on a scale of 1 to 10,
34:15
Speaker 1: next seven days, Wednesday to Wednesday, 10 being the best
34:18
Speaker 1: week of the entire year, 1 being might be a
34:22
Speaker 1: good time to keep shooting your bow and practice and scouting.
34:25
Speaker 1: Where do you put this next seven-day stretch at?
34:28
Speaker 6: Yeah, I don't think I'm going to be here.
34:30
Speaker 4: I think I'm going to leave and go to Ohio,
34:31
Speaker 4: so it's not going to be really good down here.
34:33
Speaker 6: I'll try to get up there for the opener.
34:35
Speaker 4: Down here, like I said, that weather front coming in
34:38
Speaker 4: near the end of the week is going to be good.
34:40
Speaker 4: But I still don't think it's going to be anything special.
34:43
Speaker 4: I'll put it right there in the middle at a five.
34:46
Speaker 2: Okay.
34:46
Speaker 1: All right. Well, Clay, with Whitetail Properties, I appreciate you
34:49
Speaker 1: hopping on the first episode of Rough Rush this season. Congratulations.
34:53
Speaker 1: And where can people track you down if they want
34:56
Speaker 1: to get more insight, more intel throughout the year, and
34:59
Speaker 1: they're maybe in the same region as you?
35:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, Clay at Whitetail Properties on Facebook and on Instagram.
35:07
Speaker 6: But I'm down here. It's... I'm an Ohio boy.
35:10
Speaker 2: I love Ohio.
35:12
Speaker 4: I spend more time up there during the deer season,
35:14
Speaker 4: it seems like.
35:14
Speaker 6: But North Carolina is kind of a sleeper. I've been
35:18
Speaker 6: looking at a lot of the stuff. We had a special.
35:19
Speaker 4: CWD hunt this year for a few counties. And I mean,
35:23
Speaker 4: there's already been a 190 killed down here this year.
35:26
Speaker 4: A couple other really high scoring deer. I've got a
35:29
Speaker 4: buddy that's killed, I mean, some heavy eights. We've got
35:33
Speaker 4: pretty decent deer if you can find the right spot.
35:35
Speaker 4: So it's pretty fun.
35:37
Speaker 2: Awesome.
35:37
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much, Clay.
35:39
Speaker 4: All right.
35:39
Speaker 6: I appreciate it, Jake.
35:40
Speaker 1: Thanks again.
35:41
Speaker 5: All right.
35:41
Speaker 1: Next up, we have Jake from Wisconsin. How's it going?
35:47
Speaker 2: Good. How about you?
35:48
Speaker 1: It's going good. This is the first episode of Rut
35:51
Speaker 1: Fresh for the year, so it's good to get all
35:55
Speaker 1: the intel, all the insights, what is happening now in
35:59
Speaker 1: a variety of folks' neck of the woods. And so
36:01
Speaker 1: for you being in Wisconsin, roughly what neck of the
36:04
Speaker 1: woods are you and then what has been cooking here?
36:09
Speaker 2: Um, I'm roughly in the Southwest, like the driftless region.
36:14
Speaker 5: Um, and I kind of make my way all over
36:17
Speaker 5: the West, South, Southwest, you know, within a couple hours
36:21
Speaker 5: of me here. So, um, you know, along the Mississippi river,
36:24
Speaker 5: got a lot of terrain to work with a lot
36:27
Speaker 5: of hills, a lot of ag, um, there's not as much,
36:31
Speaker 5: you know, bottoms or swampy stuff like you would get
36:34
Speaker 5: your Eastern part of the state or other places are
36:37
Speaker 5: up North.
36:38
Speaker 1: So, Have you had any reports of EHD in that
36:44
Speaker 1: general region? We have not.
36:47
Speaker 2: Okay.
36:48
Speaker 1: So I remember seeing somewhere that there was some EHD
36:51
Speaker 1: popping up, but not where you're at.
36:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, that very south central, southeastern part of the state,
36:57
Speaker 2: it's getting hit pretty hard. Okay.
37:01
Speaker 1: So glad it's not in your area. And so really
37:06
Speaker 1: this time of year, Wisconsin opens relatively early for a
37:11
Speaker 1: Midwest state. Much of the neighboring states are still waiting
37:15
Speaker 1: until October 1st. What have you been seeing? Have deer
37:20
Speaker 1: transitioned to acorns? Are they on still a summer pattern?
37:23
Speaker 1: Are they shifting around or scrapes starting to pop up?
37:26
Speaker 1: What have you noticed?
37:27
Speaker 5: I think the last few things you said there are
37:30
Speaker 5: definitely really prevalent right now. I hunted for the first
37:34
Speaker 5: time here this last week. and my main focus was
37:38
Speaker 5: finding an acorn flat that I knew about, kind of
37:41
Speaker 5: just checking them, kind of feeling it out a little bit.
37:43
Speaker 5: And the two that I did kind of scout and
37:47
Speaker 5: then hunt one of them, there was a lot of
37:50
Speaker 5: really good rubs. We went along transitions on the edges
37:54
Speaker 5: of those flats, and you could tell they were hitting them.
37:56
Speaker 5: I mean, it was raining acorns the entire time.
37:59
Speaker 2: So they're falling. It's just.
38:01
Speaker 5: finding that area with maybe a pocket of them versus
38:04
Speaker 5: them being everywhere. I think a lot of people struggle
38:07
Speaker 5: with because where there's oaks, there's always, you know, oceans
38:11
Speaker 5: of oaks and they're everywhere. So it's kind of hard
38:13
Speaker 5: to narrow that down. You kind of, it's a hard
38:16
Speaker 5: thing to not blow a spot up and find that
38:19
Speaker 5: one and be able to, you know, find it and
38:23
Speaker 5: monitor and keep your finger on that pulse of where
38:26
Speaker 5: that one is without kind of ruining the spot and
38:30
Speaker 5: overhunting it. So, I guess right now I feel like
38:34
Speaker 5: in Wisconsin, like you said, they open early, but it's
38:38
Speaker 5: not early enough to really, in my opinion, catch a
38:41
Speaker 5: lot of that summer pattern. It starts in that kind
38:44
Speaker 5: of transitional period for the most part it opens, you know,
38:47
Speaker 5: like mid-September. They're kind of, a lot of the beans,
38:50
Speaker 5: they're kind of getting off the green beans. They're kind
38:52
Speaker 5: of all, you know, yellowing. They're transitioning to that natural
38:56
Speaker 5: browse or those oaks. So you kind of have to
38:59
Speaker 5: be ahead of that shift in a way. You might
39:02
Speaker 5: get lucky some years and it'd be slow. Things might
39:05
Speaker 5: stay green longer, but it seems like at least in
39:07
Speaker 5: this region and when I hunt northern Wisconsin too even,
39:11
Speaker 5: look where my parents' property is. I mean, we don't
39:15
Speaker 5: even think about really beans opening weekend. It's more acorns
39:19
Speaker 5: and natural browse and if we have food plots or something.
39:23
Speaker 5: So it's kind of a transitional period right now and
39:26
Speaker 5: I think for me anyways, if I'm out hunting right now, it's,
39:30
Speaker 5: going to try to be finding those oaks or white oaks.
39:33
Speaker 1: What would you say the acorn crop is in the
39:35
Speaker 1: regions you've been so far? Is it above average, average,
39:38
Speaker 1: below average, dependent on the piece? What's your forecast for
39:44
Speaker 1: acorn production in Wisconsin?
39:47
Speaker 5: I don't keep up on it as much as I
39:49
Speaker 5: probably should you know, I, I don't really, it's more
39:53
Speaker 5: of a newer thing for me to be really focusing
39:55
Speaker 5: on those oaks. But, um, from what I've heard from people,
39:58
Speaker 5: reds are loaded this year. And then like the piece
40:02
Speaker 5: I was on the other night and hunted, I mean,
40:04
Speaker 5: pretty much everything, reds, whites, everything was dropping. Um, so
40:09
Speaker 5: it was one of those situations where I think there's
40:11
Speaker 5: just so many that it's hard to kind of pinpoint.
40:14
Speaker 5: You kind of got to sift through it and, and,
40:18
Speaker 5: And just play the wind and find those flats that have,
40:21
Speaker 5: you know, got that fresh buck sign. That's the name
40:25
Speaker 5: of the game early season right now is you got
40:27
Speaker 5: to be where the bucks are. And usually they let
40:30
Speaker 5: you know, you know, focusing on rubs. I think if
40:33
Speaker 5: you find rubs now, odds are, I mean, they're not far.
40:36
Speaker 2: You're pretty close.
40:38
Speaker 1: Yeah.
40:38
Speaker 5: So that's kind of what I'm keying in on is
40:40
Speaker 5: that natural browse with fresh rubs.
40:44
Speaker 2: Yeah.
40:45
Speaker 3: Yeah.
40:45
Speaker 1: No, I think that's, that's great advice. And I feel
40:49
Speaker 1: already the scrape activity is starting to pick up a
40:51
Speaker 1: little bit. Um, we've had a little bit of a
40:53
Speaker 1: cold front. It's starting to feel a little bit more
40:54
Speaker 1: like fall. I know, uh, the day before this episode
40:58
Speaker 1: goes live, it'll be the first day of fall. So, um,
41:02
Speaker 1: things are getting more exciting by the day I feel
41:04
Speaker 1: right now, but looking at the weather for you and
41:08
Speaker 1: your region, what are you seeing from like the 23rd
41:11
Speaker 1: to the 30th and how will that impact your strategy?
41:16
Speaker 5: Right now, I feel like I'm getting a lot of
41:19
Speaker 5: buck movement. There's a lot of east winds, a lot
41:21
Speaker 5: of southeast winds, which is abnormal. It's not like your
41:26
Speaker 5: typical westerly wind right now, but I've gotten a lot
41:30
Speaker 5: of buck activity in daylight in the mornings. I've hunted
41:34
Speaker 5: them afternoon, and following my cameras, I'm not getting a
41:37
Speaker 5: lot of really early movement in the afternoons from bucks.
41:41
Speaker 2: Does, yes, on food plots or.
41:45
Speaker 5: Acorn flats wrap cameras um so i know a lot
41:49
Speaker 5: of people don't like hunting mornings this time of year
41:53
Speaker 5: until mid-october i'm quite the opposite in my thinking as
41:56
Speaker 5: i get you know more experienced um i'm a big
42:00
Speaker 5: morning person i just like mornings i've had a lot
42:02
Speaker 5: of buck encounters in the mornings and it's been really
42:05
Speaker 5: really wet here we've gotten like flood weather the last
42:09
Speaker 5: week so with that moisture in the air too, and
42:13
Speaker 5: having all this moisture here lately, I feel like you
42:16
Speaker 5: said it, scraping activities picking up. I've got some bucks
42:20
Speaker 5: on scrapes in the mornings. It just seems like they're
42:23
Speaker 5: getting back to bed really late right now for whatever reason.
42:26
Speaker 5: I don't know if that's going to change here in
42:28
Speaker 5: the next week, but it's going to warm back up.
42:31
Speaker 5: So I would say for someone right now, I feel
42:34
Speaker 5: like hearing this when it comes out, you're going to
42:38
Speaker 5: get a day or two by the looks of the
42:39
Speaker 5: weather that it's still cool with these same winds. If
42:42
Speaker 5: you've got something kind of patterned and then it's going
42:45
Speaker 5: to get warm again. So then maybe it's going to
42:47
Speaker 5: transition more to that normal last hour light afternoon sits
42:52
Speaker 5: being a little bit better during that warmer time.
42:55
Speaker 2: I don't know. Maybe, maybe not.
42:58
Speaker 5: But then I'd be really looking at the back half
43:00
Speaker 5: of that one, you know, the end of September, early October,
43:03
Speaker 5: when those temperatures drop, dive back down and it switches
43:08
Speaker 5: to more of a normal wind that you can predict
43:11
Speaker 5: a little bit more like that Western North wind. I
43:14
Speaker 5: really like those wind switches or those, those drop offs
43:17
Speaker 5: and temps. Um, but I'm more and more, I like the,
43:21
Speaker 5: the moisture too, like hunting the front end or the
43:24
Speaker 5: back end of a front. So, and, and I feel
43:27
Speaker 5: like the front end of this last rain and the
43:30
Speaker 5: back end of it here in between rain has been
43:33
Speaker 5: a lot of good buck activity in the mornings.
43:35
Speaker 2: So for whatever reason, yeah.
43:37
Speaker 1: So with that being said, on a scale of 1
43:40
Speaker 1: to 10, 10 being the best week of the entire
43:42
Speaker 1: year for exciting hunts, deer sightings, buck sightings, 10 being
43:48
Speaker 1: the best, 1 being the worst on this scale. September
43:53
Speaker 1: 23rd to September 30th, 1 to 10, where do you
43:56
Speaker 1: put it with the information we have now?
43:59
Speaker 5: In my area, I would say probably this first week
44:03
Speaker 5: or two would have been better. So it's probably going
44:05
Speaker 5: to be a slow week. if I had to guess,
44:07
Speaker 5: and then I'd be looking at more a week or
44:10
Speaker 5: two from now when it drops back down or we
44:13
Speaker 5: get another front to come through and changes things. That's
44:15
Speaker 5: going to steadily go, not in a bad direction, it
44:19
Speaker 5: is what it is, you know, depending on your area,
44:21
Speaker 5: but it's going to warm up and kind of stabilize
44:23
Speaker 5: a little bit. So I'm always looking for those changes
44:26
Speaker 5: or those oddball weather days or wind switches or things
44:29
Speaker 5: like that. So I would say probably, to answer your question,
44:32
Speaker 5: a little bit slower for the next week to 10
44:34
Speaker 5: days than maybe.
44:36
Speaker 2: After that. So what number here for something to change?
44:39
Speaker 5: Oh, out of 10, I would say maybe like a
44:42
Speaker 5: three or four and three or four. Okay.
44:45
Speaker 1: A three or four. Uh, and then, you know, as
44:49
Speaker 1: far as with it being a three or four in
44:51
Speaker 1: your area, getting Intel, moving cameras around, scouting, is that
44:55
Speaker 1: probably the best use of time for the time being? Yeah.
44:59
Speaker 5: Or if you're really trying to learn something, you know,
45:01
Speaker 5: sit a little bit further back. I'm still observe things.
45:04
Speaker 5: Just don't, Maybe this isn't the time to blow anything
45:07
Speaker 5: up or go for broke, I would say. So maybe
45:11
Speaker 5: just play it safe. If you got a good win
45:14
Speaker 5: for a food plot or something, maybe this is a
45:16
Speaker 5: good week to shoot some does or something.
45:19
Speaker 1: I like it. I think that's a great piece of advice. Jake,
45:21
Speaker 1: where can people follow along with you and your podcast
45:24
Speaker 1: and track you down and stay up to date throughout
45:27
Speaker 1: the year?
45:29
Speaker 5: Instagram or Facebook, I'm pretty active on. Personal pages, just
45:33
Speaker 5: Jake Fleishman on both. And then I do run a
45:36
Speaker 5: podcast on training outdoorsman that me and my buddy Jesse
45:40
Speaker 5: run together. So you can check that out on YouTube,
45:43
Speaker 5: any audio platforms. We just right now during the season,
45:46
Speaker 5: we're just doing like little updates as our seasons go,
45:49
Speaker 5: not to too many long form things. So go check
45:52
Speaker 5: that stuff out if you wish. And good luck out
45:55
Speaker 5: there for the rest of the season for anybody listening.
45:58
Speaker 2: Yeah.
45:59
Speaker 1: Good luck to you, Jake. Thanks for hopping on here.
46:01
Speaker 2: Yep. Not a problem. Thank you.
46:02
Speaker 1: All right, there you guys have it. I hope you
46:04
Speaker 1: guys enjoyed the first week back of Rut Fresh. We'll
46:07
Speaker 1: be here again next Wednesday, September 30th. And if you
46:11
Speaker 1: want to be on Rut Fresh, shoot me a message
46:13
Speaker 1: on Instagram at Jake Hofer. We'd love to have a
46:16
Speaker 1: large variety of guests for this upcoming season. Good luck.
46:19
Speaker 1: And if you have to feverishly wait for October 1st opener,
46:23
Speaker 1: I think there's going to be a lot of deer
46:24
Speaker 1: sign that gets laid down with these cooler temperatures. And
46:27
Speaker 1: a great opportunity to get prepared. And we'll see how
46:30
Speaker 1: the weather looks on October 1. And for everyone that
46:33
Speaker 1: has their seasons open or opening this weekend, good luck.
46:37
Speaker 1: And we'll see you next week.