Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 1082: Rut Fresh Radio - October Is About to Change: Don’t Miss What’s Coming

Transcript

Ep. 1082: Rut Fresh Radio - October Is About to Change: Don’t Miss What’s Coming · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: What is going on? This is Jake Hofer and welcome
0:04
Speaker 1: to another week of Rut Fresh. It's October 14th and
0:08
Speaker 1: we're halfway. We're basically halfway through October now. And Cold Front,
0:13
Speaker 1: a really good looking Cold Front, is finally working through
0:17
Speaker 1: much of the country this week. And so before we
0:19
Speaker 1: kick off our guest for this week's episode of Rut Fresh,
0:23
Speaker 1: here is your Whitetail Weather Report for Wednesday, October 14th.
0:27
Speaker 1: After an unusually warm start to October across much of
0:30
Speaker 1: the Midwest, we're finally seeing a significant pattern change across
0:34
Speaker 1: the Whitetail Country. Rain and thunderstorms will be moving through
0:37
Speaker 1: portions of the plains and Midwest around midweek with barometric
0:40
Speaker 1: pressure generally falling ahead of these systems. As we get
0:43
Speaker 1: towards Friday and Saturday, a stronger fall system is expected
0:46
Speaker 1: to move through the Great Lakes and eventually further east.
0:49
Speaker 1: Ahead of that front, look for predominantly south and southwest winds,
0:52
Speaker 1: followed by a shift to west and northwest winds as
0:54
Speaker 1: colder and drier air moves in behind it. That system
0:57
Speaker 1: will also bring rain and potentially gusty winds, followed by
1:00
Speaker 1: some of the coolest air we've seen so far this
1:02
Speaker 1: season across portions of the Great Lakes and the northeast.
1:05
Speaker 1: Into Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, conditions look to moderate behind
1:09
Speaker 1: the system as it continues east. And finally, the moon
1:12
Speaker 1: is building this week. We're coming off the October 10th
1:14
Speaker 1: new moon. with a waxing crescent through the middle of
1:17
Speaker 1: the week and the first quarter moon arriving Sunday, October 18th.
1:20
Speaker 1: That's your Whitetail Brother report through next Wednesday. My general
1:25
Speaker 1: take on this is I think there's going to be
1:26
Speaker 1: some really good hunting opportunities on the backside of these fronts.
1:30
Speaker 1: Quite a bit of rain depending on where you're at.
1:32
Speaker 1: Just what we've been waiting for. This is what we've
1:33
Speaker 1: been waiting for so far. up to this point into
1:36
Speaker 1: October and I hope you guys get a chance to
1:38
Speaker 1: get out and enjoy it maybe your earlier October scouting
1:41
Speaker 1: is going to pay off with this next cold front
1:43
Speaker 1: or as we've been talking on back 40 and will
1:45
Speaker 1: continue to do so the shifts of mature bucks and
1:48
Speaker 1: what that may look like there's a lot of exciting
1:50
Speaker 1: things here so this week's episode of rut fresh presented
1:54
Speaker 1: by Moultrie we have Caitlin Moss covering much of the
1:56
Speaker 1: Midwest she's been hunting multiple states and is headed to
1:59
Speaker 1: Wisconsin We have Aaron Hepler from Pennsylvania and we have
2:02
Speaker 1: Dan Tudor who is hunting the ocean front of Maine.
2:06
Speaker 1: And so a lot of variety here this week. Hope
2:07
Speaker 1: you guys enjoy it. We're going to kick things off
2:09
Speaker 1: with Caitlin Moss. Here we go. All right. First up,
2:18
Speaker 1: we have Caitlin Moss. Caitlin, you've been hunting a bunch.
2:21
Speaker 1: Where all have you been hunting recently?
2:23
Speaker 2: Uh, Primarily just in the Midwest, but I've got like
2:28
Speaker 2: three tags that I've kind of been bouncing between. And
2:31
Speaker 2: then I'm also going to be going to Wisconsin this week.
2:34
Speaker 2: So I've got a lot going on, honestly.
2:37
Speaker 3: Okay.
2:38
Speaker 1: So most people are waiting for a cold front, myself
2:42
Speaker 1: included in this category. And I know you've been hunting
2:44
Speaker 1: very hard, which kind of makes me feel bad. Like,
2:47
Speaker 1: what am I missing here? So what have you been seeing?
2:50
Speaker 1: What's been the strategy? And just, I'm just curious. Yeah.
2:54
Speaker 4: Um, I don't know. Early season is like my jam.
2:56
Speaker 4: It's like my favorite. I know it's brutally hot most
2:59
Speaker 4: of the time, but I just love getting out in
3:01
Speaker 4: states that open in September.
3:03
Speaker 2: Um, I just feel like I have more flexibility if
3:06
Speaker 2: I get out sooner than later. Um, but yeah, I, uh,
3:11
Speaker 2: I had some close calls, I guess you could say, uh,
3:15
Speaker 2: kind of towards the end of September.
3:17
Speaker 4: Um, but lately it's been a.
3:23
Speaker 2: I'm not seeing as much activity at the moment, but
3:26
Speaker 2: I think the next couple of weeks, it's really going
3:28
Speaker 2: to ramp up. I'm seeing little bucks like kind of
3:31
Speaker 2: pushing does around, you know, harassing them as they do.
3:34
Speaker 2: So I think we're just kind of in that like
3:36
Speaker 2: transition of like pre-rut is really.
3:39
Speaker 4: Starting to kick off.
3:41
Speaker 1: So do you anticipate things just get incrementally better for
3:44
Speaker 1: the next like two or three weeks?
3:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
3:47
Speaker 2: I'd say they're, they're done with their summer routines and
3:50
Speaker 2: they're now starting. I mean, scrapes are opening up like crazy.
3:53
Speaker 2: I've been seeing a bunch of those. Um, I actually
3:56
Speaker 2: rattled and by rattled, I mean like lightly sparred a
4:00
Speaker 2: buck in over a scrape last week. So they're, they're
4:04
Speaker 2: curious and they're pushing each other around.
4:07
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, uh, every day gets a little better.
4:11
Speaker 1: That's the good news. Like every time like a new
4:13
Speaker 1: buck may show up, there's a lot of excitement. So
4:15
Speaker 1: Packing bags and headed to Wisconsin. Looking at the weather here.
4:19
Speaker 1: Looks like we're going to get a cold front. Like
4:21
Speaker 1: here where I'm at, it's 89 of a high today.
4:23
Speaker 1: And then by Wednesday and Thursday, like upper 60s. And
4:27
Speaker 1: then Friday, upper 50s. Like the big first cold front. Yeah,
4:32
Speaker 1: so what with knowing the weather is going to be cooperating,
4:36
Speaker 1: we have this massive cold front rolling in. And then
4:38
Speaker 1: are you hunting a completely new area of Wisconsin? Or
4:40
Speaker 1: have you pre-scouted this? Or I'm just curious if you're
4:42
Speaker 1: going in blind or if you have somewhat of a
4:43
Speaker 1: game plan.
4:44
Speaker 4: Yeah.
4:45
Speaker 2: So I'm hunting public everywhere except Wisconsin this year. I
4:50
Speaker 2: have a friend who was willing to let me kind
4:53
Speaker 2: of get in on their lease. So I've never deer
4:56
Speaker 2: hunted Wisconsin before. So that aspect is new. It's very hilly,
5:02
Speaker 2: rolling hills terrain. So that part will be interesting. But
5:06
Speaker 2: there are brassica plots in and kind of your standard setup.
5:11
Speaker 2: So I'm just kind of having fun with it. I
5:14
Speaker 2: don't really have like a target buck per se, but
5:16
Speaker 2: there's a few that are mature. So I think that's
5:18
Speaker 2: the goal. But yeah, kind of just going to go
5:21
Speaker 2: see how it is. Because I mean, I love kind
5:23
Speaker 2: of jumping around and trying new states.
5:26
Speaker 4: So we'll just we'll see.
5:28
Speaker 2: But I have a few cameras out and it seems
5:30
Speaker 2: like bucks are kind of moving in again. Like I said,
5:33
Speaker 2: scrapes are opening up. So I have a lot of
5:34
Speaker 2: cameras over scrapes and they're hammering them every night.
5:37
Speaker 4: So we'll see.
5:38
Speaker 1: Are you getting them? are you getting much daylight activity
5:41
Speaker 1: of mature bucks on scrapes yet? Cause I'll project I'm
5:44
Speaker 1: not getting a ton quite yet.
5:46
Speaker 2: Yeah.
5:47
Speaker 4: So most of.
5:48
Speaker 2: The scrapes that I have cameras on are like on
5:50
Speaker 2: a field edge. So no, um, the buck that I
5:54
Speaker 2: kind of rattled in over a scrape was not on
5:57
Speaker 2: a field edge, obviously different state, but like way kind
6:00
Speaker 2: of close to bedding is like where I was. So
6:03
Speaker 2: that was, I mean, he came out, I don't know,
6:05
Speaker 2: 40 minutes before legal light. So like, If you're in
6:08
Speaker 2: the woods and as close to them as you can
6:11
Speaker 2: be for bedding, you can probably get some daylight activity,
6:13
Speaker 2: but field edges, no, not a ton.
6:17
Speaker 1: Okay, so what does the first set look like in
6:20
Speaker 1: Wisconsin in the back of your head already after the
6:23
Speaker 1: first cold front? So I know you're headed up today,
6:25
Speaker 1: but let's say Friday looks really good. It looks like
6:29
Speaker 1: we might even get the first frost of the year.
6:31
Speaker 1: But what does Friday's set look like from the time
6:34
Speaker 1: you wake up to the time– you know, the end
6:36
Speaker 1: of shooting light at the end of the day, like
6:37
Speaker 1: from morning to afternoon hunts?
6:41
Speaker 4: Um, that's a great question.
6:42
Speaker 2: I think like I'm, I'm getting in there today, so
6:46
Speaker 2: I'm gonna mostly use today and maybe even tomorrow as
6:49
Speaker 2: like observation sits.
6:50
Speaker 4: I'm really big on those.
6:51
Speaker 2: Um, so I'm going to kind of like hang back
6:53
Speaker 2: and just get to a point where I can just
6:56
Speaker 2: see as much of the food plot as I can
6:57
Speaker 2: and just see where they're coming out, if they're coming out, um,
7:01
Speaker 2: and then kind of like adjust from there if I
7:03
Speaker 2: have to.
7:04
Speaker 4: So mornings have been like 50-50 for me.
7:07
Speaker 2: I'm not hunting every morning yet. Come Friday, I might be.
7:12
Speaker 2: So if it's that drop in temp, they're probably going
7:15
Speaker 2: to be on their feet. So again, like I said,
7:18
Speaker 2: it's super hilly where we are. So truthfully, I'm not
7:20
Speaker 2: even fully sure where the bedding is. So yeah, that's
7:25
Speaker 2: kind of like my process is like observation set, see
7:27
Speaker 2: where they're coming out or see where like the most
7:30
Speaker 2: activity seems to be and then kind of work my
7:32
Speaker 2: way closer from there.
7:34
Speaker 1: So will these be the most aggressive whitetail thermals you've
7:37
Speaker 1: had a battle like knowing it's really hilly and used
7:39
Speaker 1: to more like rolling terrain?
7:41
Speaker 4: Yes, for sure. So that'll be interesting.
7:46
Speaker 1: Do you have a game plan with that? I mean,
7:47
Speaker 1: everyone talks about thermals and I feel like it's some
7:50
Speaker 1: people understand them really well and it's like their second language.
7:54
Speaker 1: And there's other people that are like, I kind of
7:55
Speaker 1: have an idea what they're doing and I'm going to
7:57
Speaker 1: probably get, you know, busted or screw up. What camp
8:00
Speaker 1: do you, Do you feel like a thermal savant or
8:03
Speaker 1: still like this could be the hard knocks of bluff
8:06
Speaker 1: country of Wisconsin?
8:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, I, I think I kind of fall in the middle.
8:10
Speaker 2: Like I definitely understand them, but there's some locations like, um,
8:16
Speaker 2: there's a spot that I just have in mind from
8:18
Speaker 2: a place that I hunted before. And it did not
8:20
Speaker 2: matter what wind direction you had in there. It was
8:22
Speaker 2: just enough of a bowl that it always pulled East.
8:25
Speaker 2: I mean, like without fail. So like, it was interesting
8:29
Speaker 2: hunting that because it's like, well, that's not really the
8:32
Speaker 2: wind direction I want.
8:33
Speaker 4: And the thermals are just stuck in that way.
8:35
Speaker 2: So, um, those types of like, like specific scenarios are
8:40
Speaker 2: interesting to me. And I'm always like trying to like
8:42
Speaker 2: pay attention to those. I don't know if I necessarily
8:45
Speaker 2: have them fully figured out. I guess we'll find out,
8:47
Speaker 2: but yeah, I do pay attention pretty heavy though.
8:51
Speaker 1: So for someone listening to this on Wednesday, there, there
8:53
Speaker 1: may be, they can get out of work early on,
8:56
Speaker 1: you know, Thursday afternoon, Friday afternoon, and then have the
8:58
Speaker 1: ability to hunt a little bit over the weekend. What is,
9:01
Speaker 1: as a generalized approach, what is your advice for anyone
9:04
Speaker 1: that is excited for this first cold front, like major
9:08
Speaker 1: cold front of October? They want to capitalize on it.
9:12
Speaker 1: What type of terrain should they be paying attention to?
9:14
Speaker 1: What type of food sources? Like any sort of loose
9:17
Speaker 1: game plan, you can just jot down on a sticky
9:18
Speaker 1: note and pass it off to them and say, good luck.
9:21
Speaker 1: This should be a fun couple days. What would you
9:23
Speaker 1: say to them?
9:25
Speaker 4: Oh, um, truthfully, I am in the camp of like
9:28
Speaker 4: early rattling.
9:29
Speaker 2: Like that is like my, if, if you have like
9:32
Speaker 2: the right setup, I would say like where I'm going
9:34
Speaker 2: to be hunting is like, at least to start, I'm
9:37
Speaker 2: going to be over a field.
9:38
Speaker 4: So it might not be.
9:38
Speaker 2: As effective for me because obviously they kind of want
9:41
Speaker 2: that visual. Um, but if you can get into some thick,
9:44
Speaker 2: nasty stuff and find a scrape, like that's hot, I
9:48
Speaker 2: would not be scared to do some rattling because I
9:50
Speaker 2: was raking the trees, just making some.
9:54
Speaker 1: Fuss, really.
9:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think they're just frisky right now, and they're one.
10:00
Speaker 2: to kind of push each other around. And if you
10:02
Speaker 2: can find a hot scrape, that's where.
10:04
Speaker 4: I would focus.
10:05
Speaker 3: Okay.
10:06
Speaker 1: And so primarily a scrape outside of thick bedding. Don't
10:10
Speaker 1: be afraid to make a little bit of noise to
10:12
Speaker 1: try to get them to come in and check out
10:13
Speaker 1: what's going on. And then on a scale of aggression,
10:17
Speaker 1: like 1 to 10, like how big of a swing–
10:20
Speaker 1: would you suggest someone to take over this first cold front?
10:22
Speaker 1: 10 being like, this is do or die. This could
10:27
Speaker 1: be one of the best opportunities of the year.
10:30
Speaker 4: Gosh, I don't know. I would say I really do
10:34
Speaker 4: love early October.
10:35
Speaker 2: I think that's when mature bucks are still not heavily
10:38
Speaker 2: pressured and they're kind.
10:39
Speaker 4: Of cocky because they're like, well, I rule this area.
10:43
Speaker 2: So I wouldn't be afraid to be like, aggressive so
10:46
Speaker 2: i would say maybe like a five or six i
10:48
Speaker 2: wouldn't say it's like knock down drag out rut action
10:51
Speaker 2: but like the big ones are pretty cocky right now so.
10:55
Speaker 1: Don't be scared okay and then last question here um
10:58
Speaker 1: it'll feel a little bit redundant but on um the
11:02
Speaker 1: activity level scale one to ten this ten being this
11:04
Speaker 1: is the best week of the entire year given the
11:06
Speaker 1: conditions that are getting laid out right now and one
11:09
Speaker 1: being one of the worst weeks of the year one
11:10
Speaker 1: to ten where do you put it.
11:12
Speaker 4: Um I'll say a five. We're in the middle. Good week,
11:21
Speaker 4: first cold front.
11:22
Speaker 2: It's always a good thing, but it's not going to
11:25
Speaker 2: be like, oh my gosh, best week of my life.
11:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fair.
11:30
Speaker 4: It could be. If you get one, it could be.
11:32
Speaker 1: It definitely could be if you're in the right spot. Well, Caitlin,
11:36
Speaker 1: where can people follow along with the rest of your
11:38
Speaker 1: season and everything else that you have going on?
11:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, so my YouTube channel is like the main platform
11:45
Speaker 2: thing that I kind of focus on and I've been
11:47
Speaker 2: trying to do like weekly updates like even if I'm
11:50
Speaker 2: not shooting something it's like this is how my season's
11:52
Speaker 2: going so if you want to follow along it's just
11:55
Speaker 2: my name Caitlin Moss Outdoors and then I have a
11:59
Speaker 2: Facebook and an Instagram again just my name Caitlin Moss
12:03
Speaker 2: so those are the main.
12:04
Speaker 1: One yeah well good luck in Wisconsin and good luck
12:07
Speaker 1: the rest of the year and I hope Um, this
12:10
Speaker 1: first cold front is great for everyone. Cause we've been,
12:13
Speaker 1: we've been waiting for a long time for this.
12:14
Speaker 4: Yeah. Are you going out?
12:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, I will be. I'll be going out Wednesday, Thursday.
12:18
Speaker 1: I have not hunted much this year. I'm embarrassed to
12:21
Speaker 1: say so far I've been busy working, but it's time.
12:24
Speaker 1: So I, I'm ready to go.
12:26
Speaker 4: Yep. Well, good luck to you.
12:29
Speaker 1: Thank you. All right. Next up we have Aaron Hepler
12:31
Speaker 1: with the in-camp podcast. How you doing?
12:34
Speaker 3: Good, buddy.
12:35
Speaker 5: It's good to see your face.
12:36
Speaker 1: Likewise. Likewise. So we're hailing in Aaron from Pennsylvania. You've
12:43
Speaker 1: been doing some hunting here recently, haven't you?
12:45
Speaker 6: Yeah, I've got like seven or eight sits under my
12:48
Speaker 6: belt this week.
12:49
Speaker 5: So it's been a good week.
12:51
Speaker 1: And so what, you know, kind of hot weather, I
12:54
Speaker 1: would assume, more stagnant. But what's the activity been like here,
12:58
Speaker 1: like in the last couple of days specifically?
13:00
Speaker 6: Well, you know, last year we talked about a lot
13:02
Speaker 6: of the drought that was happening and there was no acorns.
13:05
Speaker 6: And like this year is the complete opposite. Like we've
13:07
Speaker 6: had plenty of rain. There's lots of water. Um, there's
13:10
Speaker 6: acorns everywhere. Um, but there is, uh, there's like preferred patches.
13:16
Speaker 6: So the food's a lot better, but this week for
13:18
Speaker 6: the opener NPA, it's act, the weather's actually been pretty fantastic.
13:22
Speaker 6: Like we've had a handful of warm days, but a
13:24
Speaker 6: lot of the, a lot of the ups and downs
13:26
Speaker 6: that we all really like is bow hunters, especially if
13:28
Speaker 6: you're off on the down part, you know?
13:30
Speaker 4: Yeah.
13:31
Speaker 6: So the temperatures have been good. No frost yet, so
13:34
Speaker 6: there's none of that real classic whitetail feel. But some
13:39
Speaker 6: of the mornings have really felt good. And it's kind
13:41
Speaker 6: of strange to say that because the October mornings have
13:44
Speaker 6: been actually pretty good. It seems the deer are kind
13:48
Speaker 6: of like they're out feeding before they're getting back to bed.
13:51
Speaker 6: They're back to bed a little bit later than normal.
13:53
Speaker 7: Yeah.
13:54
Speaker 6: Um, I don't know if that has to do with the,
13:56
Speaker 6: with the better food and the, you know, kind of
13:59
Speaker 6: early cold conditions, but it's been, been pretty good as
14:01
Speaker 6: far as conditions ago.
14:02
Speaker 7: Yeah.
14:03
Speaker 1: Well, I think they're, they're only going to get better
14:05
Speaker 1: here looking at the extended forecast. So, um, you know,
14:08
Speaker 1: like the here in Illinois, like we got some rain
14:11
Speaker 1: coming and then we got a massive from, you know, Tuesday.
14:15
Speaker 1: So the day before this goes live to Tuesday. Friday.
14:17
Speaker 1: So I know that's a little bit drug out, but
14:19
Speaker 1: I mean, it goes from 84 to high of 57, uh,
14:24
Speaker 1: like on the tail end of some rain. And if
14:26
Speaker 1: that doesn't get anyone excited, I don't know what will. What, um,
14:32
Speaker 1: what are you seeing in Pennsylvania as far as weather
14:34
Speaker 1: conditions and, um, and what you think it may or
14:37
Speaker 1: may not mean for, for guys who are ready to
14:39
Speaker 1: go out and do some, some hunting?
14:41
Speaker 6: So I guess we got that hurricane this week, uh,
14:43
Speaker 6: this weekend, like it started raining. It's been raining since yesterday. It's,
14:47
Speaker 6: just kind of slowing down right now um it's monday
14:50
Speaker 6: the 12th and uh looks like we're probably going to
14:53
Speaker 6: get some rain a little bit tomorrow intermittently tomorrow and
14:56
Speaker 6: wednesday two real warm days um today is kind of
15:01
Speaker 6: a warm-up wednesday tuesday and wednesday are going to be
15:03
Speaker 6: pretty hot um almost almost 80 tomorrow but as we
15:08
Speaker 6: get into thursday the temps are going to start falling
15:11
Speaker 6: and friday uh I would say Friday is really the
15:16
Speaker 6: front of that cold front. So this weekend should be
15:19
Speaker 6: really good. Lows in the 40s in the morning and
15:23
Speaker 6: highs of like 60s. So it's happening. It's getting on
15:28
Speaker 6: the colder side. I'm seeing bucks like kind of hitting
15:31
Speaker 6: some scrapes and seeing a lot more scrape activity. Um, not,
15:35
Speaker 6: not your classic like scrape week stuff, but it's, it's
15:38
Speaker 6: kind of ramping up to there. They're creating scrape lines,
15:40
Speaker 6: seeing more rubs popping up, that kind of thing. Um,
15:44
Speaker 6: in the beginning, like right before the season, I, we had,
15:46
Speaker 6: we had talked about this. I was seeing bucks fighting
15:49
Speaker 6: like every day for almost the entire month of September.
15:52
Speaker 6: And that's kind of like tapered off. Um, they're not
15:55
Speaker 6: usually together anymore. They're, uh, you know, one will show
15:59
Speaker 6: up and another one will show up an hour or
16:00
Speaker 6: two later.
16:01
Speaker 1: So.
16:02
Speaker 6: It seems to be like they're kind of splitting up
16:05
Speaker 6: and doing their own searching, so that's kind of cool, too,
16:07
Speaker 6: to see that start happening.
16:09
Speaker 1: Yeah. As far as knowing that everyone's going to look
16:17
Speaker 1: at the weather and everyone's going to just feel it outside, like,
16:21
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, it officially feels like deer season. That's
16:25
Speaker 1: what's likely going to be happening later this week across
16:29
Speaker 1: the bulk of the country. Um, so it's one thing
16:32
Speaker 1: to say, man, it feels like it's deer season. I'm
16:34
Speaker 1: ready to go. But the next, the next phase of
16:36
Speaker 1: that is like, okay, well it's, it's mid October. We
16:39
Speaker 1: have this massive cold front. Um, how are you specifically
16:42
Speaker 1: going to be approaching your hunts? Are you going to
16:44
Speaker 1: be trying to find, you know, where there's still some
16:47
Speaker 1: acorns laying around? Are you going to be setting up
16:49
Speaker 1: on scrapes outside of bedding? Like what is the actual
16:52
Speaker 1: Rubik's cube that you have to solve here for everyone?
16:56
Speaker 3: Yeah.
16:56
Speaker 5: I don't think sitting over a specific scrape is sometimes.
16:59
Speaker 3: All right.
17:00
Speaker 5: But I think the better.
17:01
Speaker 6: The better thing is to find those scrape lines that
17:04
Speaker 6: are popping open and kind of sitting along those roots.
17:07
Speaker 5: And I think it's, you know, it depends on how
17:09
Speaker 5: long that root is.
17:10
Speaker 6: Like if you're, you know, the bucks that I've been
17:15
Speaker 6: hunting aren't, they're not bedding very far from their food,
17:19
Speaker 6: maybe only about 400, 450 yards. So it's, you know,
17:22
Speaker 6: getting in between that is important. But being on the
17:25
Speaker 6: tail end of which side is going to be better
17:27
Speaker 6: for the light and your wind at the same time.
17:29
Speaker 6: So we just talked about, My opener was pretty good.
17:33
Speaker 6: I saw a bunch of bucks and the wind was
17:37
Speaker 6: predicted to be like 10 to 14 miles an hour
17:40
Speaker 6: throughout the evening. And I should have been a little
17:44
Speaker 6: smarter and knew that it was going to die off
17:46
Speaker 6: right before last light. And of course, it was like, well,
17:50
Speaker 6: do I do I pay attention to what I think
17:53
Speaker 6: is going to happen or pay attention to what the
17:55
Speaker 6: weatherman says? And usually if you know what your area does,
17:58
Speaker 6: like you should pay attention to that first.
18:01
Speaker 5: So the wind.
18:01
Speaker 6: Died off like 35, 35 minutes to an hour before
18:06
Speaker 6: last light. And my thermal started to shift downhill and
18:09
Speaker 6: that's where the bucks were traveling. Had they been half
18:12
Speaker 6: hour earlier, I probably would have been okay, but they
18:15
Speaker 6: all kind of like got a sense that something wasn't right.
18:17
Speaker 6: Didn't necessarily, it wasn't the classic wind and bust, right?
18:21
Speaker 6: They just kind of didn't come up to the area
18:23
Speaker 6: that I was hoping they would. And they just kept
18:25
Speaker 6: moving on towards the food, um, in a, in a
18:29
Speaker 6: orderly fashion.
18:30
Speaker 5: So Um, so pay, I think paying attention to.
18:36
Speaker 6: If I, if I had been maybe 50 yards closer
18:39
Speaker 6: to the bedding, they would have been out in the
18:40
Speaker 6: 50 yard zone a little bit faster. Maybe that would
18:43
Speaker 6: have kind of saved me for the, the die off
18:45
Speaker 6: in the wind and the shift. So paying attention to
18:48
Speaker 6: what the timing of your wind and the timing of
18:52
Speaker 6: when they're going to be where you want them to be.
19:06
Speaker 1: For someone that says, you know, hey, okay, Aaron, I
19:09
Speaker 1: hear you loud and clear. I need to find ideally
19:12
Speaker 1: a scrape line and set up, you know, strategically with
19:16
Speaker 1: wind and thermals and all the pillars of, you know,
19:21
Speaker 1: a good hunting strategy. But I don't know where there's
19:24
Speaker 1: a scrape line at right now. Or I don't, you know,
19:27
Speaker 1: like whatever the case may be. So I feel like,
19:29
Speaker 1: you know, there might be a couple days here, literally
19:32
Speaker 1: maybe 24 hours or so, Before this front really hits
19:36
Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania, call it 48 hours. Would it be worthwhile
19:39
Speaker 1: or advantageous for someone listening to this right now to
19:41
Speaker 1: go and do a speed scout and try to get
19:44
Speaker 1: squared away for this front? Or do you kind of
19:46
Speaker 1: go in blind and... hope for not, you know, lack
19:51
Speaker 1: of better words, luck, but like go off instinct of like, no,
19:54
Speaker 1: this is where it's typically been. I haven't been in there.
19:56
Speaker 1: I've been really busy. But in the past, it's been good.
19:59
Speaker 1: I'm just going to ride with that. Like where do
20:00
Speaker 1: you verify or do you go with your intuition in
20:04
Speaker 1: this scenario?
20:05
Speaker 6: Well, last year was so different than this year. So
20:07
Speaker 6: I think it's made like... the vegetation has changed so
20:10
Speaker 6: much compared to last year because there's a lot more
20:12
Speaker 6: growth this year than last year. So the deer are,
20:15
Speaker 6: are different this year than they were in other years.
20:18
Speaker 6: But if you have something that's kind of similar and
20:21
Speaker 6: you don't have time to get out, I'd, I'd say
20:23
Speaker 6: kind of like go off your gut and hunt your history,
20:27
Speaker 6: but it is going to be, it is going to
20:29
Speaker 6: be different whether it's, you know, the problem now is
20:32
Speaker 6: you're hunting with a bow and you're not hunting with
20:33
Speaker 6: a gun. So you can't be, you can't be 50
20:37
Speaker 6: yards off. So I think a speed scout, if you
20:40
Speaker 6: have the time, would be very worth it. And if
20:44
Speaker 6: you know at least an idea of where the budding
20:47
Speaker 6: cover is and where to stay away from it, you
20:48
Speaker 6: could do a speed scout without being too intrusive, especially
20:53
Speaker 6: the next two days because it's going to be hot.
20:54
Speaker 6: So you can kind of guess that probably midday, they're
20:58
Speaker 6: kind of just they're chilling out in their bedding areas.
21:01
Speaker 6: And if you stay far enough away from them with
21:03
Speaker 6: a good wind, you could get away with finding a
21:05
Speaker 6: good scrape area and putting yourself, you know, more on
21:08
Speaker 6: the X than rather than, you know, be too far
21:10
Speaker 6: off to get a real good shot.
21:11
Speaker 1: What, what do you think is gonna be the biggest
21:14
Speaker 1: change when this, whenever the first frost hits, like I, I,
21:18
Speaker 1: parts of the country, their first frost will hit this week. Um,
21:21
Speaker 1: and so like, and, and your experience in the past,
21:24
Speaker 1: like once that first frost hits, um, what changes over
21:28
Speaker 1: the next seven days?
21:31
Speaker 6: So usually on our very first cold front where we
21:33
Speaker 6: get that, that frost, sometimes it's happened already. Like I've
21:37
Speaker 6: had it happen as early as the 9th of October. And, um,
21:41
Speaker 6: then it kind of, it tapers off for a lot
21:44
Speaker 6: longer when it's early like that. But I feel like these, um,
21:48
Speaker 6: when you get that first frost early and it's really cold,
21:51
Speaker 6: you get a real big spurt of, actually we've had
21:54
Speaker 6: some pretty mature bucks show up on camera.
21:56
Speaker 5: On that, on that, even on the ninth.
21:58
Speaker 6: Um, but usually when it's this close to the end
22:01
Speaker 6: of October, you see a lot more intensity. So your
22:05
Speaker 6: buck movement for me, um, and for the people that
22:08
Speaker 6: I hunt with usually is more intense, faster, and doesn't
22:13
Speaker 6: kind of like stagger throughout the entire month. Usually it
22:15
Speaker 6: stays kind of stacked and you get more, um, mature
22:19
Speaker 6: buck sightings, you know, every day to every other day,
22:21
Speaker 6: rather than just like maybe once a week until the
22:24
Speaker 6: end of October. So usually that's what I see happen
22:27
Speaker 6: after that first frost is a little bit more intense and, uh,
22:30
Speaker 6: faster activity. And sometimes that that's led to like harder
22:36
Speaker 6: rut luck down towards that end of the first.
22:38
Speaker 3: Week of November.
22:39
Speaker 6: It's not as good as it usually is through that
22:41
Speaker 6: whole first week, but that's just, that's just from my perspective.
22:45
Speaker 1: So. Yeah. Well, I think, yeah, that's definitely one thing.
22:47
Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of signs going to get
22:49
Speaker 1: laid down. I think, um, a lot of the habitat
22:52
Speaker 1: changes after we start getting some hard frost, where a
22:56
Speaker 1: lot of leaves start falling off the trees, a lot
22:58
Speaker 1: of the grass, and general lower-level habitat just changes so
23:04
Speaker 1: dramatically so quickly, and it's just a reshuffling of the deck,
23:08
Speaker 1: which if you're on the good end of getting a
23:10
Speaker 1: new good hand, it's pretty exciting.
23:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
23:16
Speaker 1: So with all that being said and considered, not a
23:20
Speaker 1: drought this year in Pennsylvania where you're at, looking at
23:23
Speaker 1: the conditions, looking at the calendar on the next seven
23:27
Speaker 1: days on a scale one to 10, 10 being the
23:29
Speaker 1: best week of the year, one being one of the
23:31
Speaker 1: worst weeks of the year, where do you rank the
23:33
Speaker 1: next seven days for anyone listening? Um, you know, in
23:36
Speaker 1: your general neck of the.
23:37
Speaker 6: Woods, if barring the fact that we have this weekend
23:41
Speaker 6: coming up, I would probably put it at a, I
23:44
Speaker 6: would probably put it at about a six just because
23:46
Speaker 6: we have these hot three days in a row. Um,
23:48
Speaker 6: and yeah, I don't think the rain that's going to–
23:52
Speaker 6: it's not going to be like heavy rains, so they'll
23:54
Speaker 6: probably be moving before and after these light rainstorms. They're
23:57
Speaker 6: not the type that kind of hold them up. The
23:59
Speaker 6: earlier rains in October I find kind of like if
24:02
Speaker 6: it's heavy, they kind of just kind of shut off
24:04
Speaker 6: a little bit. If it's later, it's not the same,
24:07
Speaker 6: but right now it's kind of like they shut off
24:10
Speaker 6: a little bit. But I would put it at about
24:12
Speaker 6: a 6. If we had more days like Saturday this week,
24:16
Speaker 6: I'd probably put it at a 7 or an 8.
24:17
Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
24:18
Speaker 5: This weekend going into this weekend is going to be
24:20
Speaker 5: very good.
24:22
Speaker 1: I like it. I like it. Well, good luck to you.
24:24
Speaker 1: Where can people follow along with everything that you have
24:27
Speaker 1: going on? The podcast, you talk about a lot of things.
24:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do.
24:32
Speaker 6: And so where can people find it? So it's InCamp Podcast.
24:36
Speaker 6: You can find it on Instagram. It's on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
24:38
Speaker 6: all those things. But I do kind of like a
24:42
Speaker 6: full-length podcast where I just really get the story of
24:46
Speaker 6: my guests and what they really like. and I really
24:49
Speaker 6: try to draw from their experience and their stories rather
24:51
Speaker 6: than just all strategy-type talk. But if you like the
24:55
Speaker 6: strategy-type talk, I do short episodes for whitetails and for
24:59
Speaker 6: uplands and bird dogs and that kind of thing too.
25:02
Speaker 3: Awesome.
25:02
Speaker 1: They're all there on the same channel. Thank you so much,
25:06
Speaker 1: and good luck this weekend, and good luck the rest
25:08
Speaker 1: of the season.
25:09
Speaker 3: Thanks, buddy.
25:10
Speaker 5: Appreciate it.
25:10
Speaker 1: All right, we got Dan Tudor from Maine. How's it going?
25:15
Speaker 3: Good, good. It's going well.
25:17
Speaker 1: So there was a comment last week on YouTube. I
25:19
Speaker 1: do look at those every now and then. And someone said,
25:20
Speaker 1: we need someone in the Northeast. And we had already
25:23
Speaker 1: scheduled this. And I was like, we got a treat coming.
25:25
Speaker 1: So where about are you in Maine? Because that's obviously
25:29
Speaker 1: a very large state.
25:31
Speaker 3: Yeah.
25:32
Speaker 7: So we're in what's known as the Midcoast. So it's
25:35
Speaker 7: about halfway up the coast. You know, about two hours
25:40
Speaker 7: from Portland.
25:43
Speaker 1: Yeah.
25:45
Speaker 3: It's not quite all the way to Bar Harbor.
25:48
Speaker 1: And what I found really interesting when you reached out
25:50
Speaker 1: was you're, you're hunting a lot of islands. And so
25:53
Speaker 1: when I, when I hear island, I often think of
25:55
Speaker 1: small islands, but I know big islands also exist. So what,
25:57
Speaker 1: what are some of these islands, uh, like in terms
26:00
Speaker 1: of like, are they huge? Are they small? I know
26:03
Speaker 1: that's a relative answer and question there, but what, what
26:06
Speaker 1: are you, what are you hunting out there?
26:09
Speaker 3: Sure. Yeah. Um, the biggest island I hunt.
26:11
Speaker 7: Is about 7,000 acres. Um, but that's, that's a populated Island.
26:18
Speaker 7: And then I hunt a lot of smaller Islands that
26:21
Speaker 7: are in the 20 acre to a hundred acre range.
26:27
Speaker 3: Um, those are fun. Those are sort of more of
26:29
Speaker 3: an adventure.
26:30
Speaker 7: They're usually unpopulated or, or have a, you know, a
26:33
Speaker 7: few seasonal houses.
26:36
Speaker 1: Okay. And so looking at, you know, there's a hurricane, uh,
26:40
Speaker 1: obviously you're hunting Island. So you're surrounded by water, all
26:43
Speaker 1: these different things. What does the weather look like? Um,
26:46
Speaker 1: you know, from Wednesday to Wednesday, the 14th or the
26:49
Speaker 1: 21st in your neck of the woods?
26:51
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's looking, I mean, it's going to be wet
26:53
Speaker 7: and windy, which means I won't be venturing off the
26:56
Speaker 7: island that I live on since I'm doing a lot
26:59
Speaker 7: of my hunting out of a, like a canoe or
27:03
Speaker 7: a dinghy.
27:06
Speaker 3: And yeah, I mean, not great, not great hunting weather.
27:08
Speaker 7: Looks like it's going to be blowing 20 with gusts
27:13
Speaker 7: up to 30. Uh, we are getting some colder temperatures.
27:17
Speaker 1: Yeah.
27:17
Speaker 3: Especially a little bit later in the week, which will
27:20
Speaker 3: be nice.
27:21
Speaker 7: Um, yeah, but, but the, the deer activity has been pretty,
27:25
Speaker 7: pretty good even with, um, more stable temperatures.
27:32
Speaker 1: What, how often are these deer swimming from island to island?
27:35
Speaker 1: Like I picture like a 40 to or 20 to
27:37
Speaker 1: a hundred acre island. Um, I, I would imagine there's
27:40
Speaker 1: not enough habitat to support them. throughout the whole entire
27:44
Speaker 1: season or them not getting adventurous how how challenging is
27:47
Speaker 1: that to factor like is this deer on this island
27:51
Speaker 1: or that island or do they typically stay put.
27:54
Speaker 7: It depends um they definitely swim swim island to island
27:59
Speaker 7: um be hard for me to give you a real
28:02
Speaker 7: definite kind of number on that we we opening day
28:07
Speaker 7: i went out with some buddies to a very small Island. Um,
28:12
Speaker 7: and we hunted it pretty hard, um, shot four deer in, uh,
28:18
Speaker 7: in 24 hours. And then, um, we paddled over to
28:23
Speaker 7: a neighboring Island and, um, I think, I think a
28:29
Speaker 7: lot of the deer from, from the first Island had
28:31
Speaker 7: swam over there. I know that there was an eight
28:33
Speaker 7: pointer we had on camera on the first Island and
28:36
Speaker 7: it ended up on the second Island.
28:37
Speaker 3: So They move.
28:40
Speaker 7: That was about, oh, maybe 300 yards, maybe a quarter
28:46
Speaker 7: mile between islands. So not very far. And there was
28:51
Speaker 7: a smaller island in between that they could have stopped at.
28:54
Speaker 7: But they're really comfortable swimming.
28:57
Speaker 3: You wouldn't really expect it from the way their bodies
28:59
Speaker 3: are shaped, but they do it.
29:02
Speaker 1: It's pretty remarkable that they are able to swim when
29:05
Speaker 1: you look at how small their legs are in proportion
29:08
Speaker 1: to their actual like torso. And I mean, a lot
29:10
Speaker 1: of them are 180, 220, like they're big animals and
29:13
Speaker 1: they don't have, they have not been designed to swim,
29:17
Speaker 1: but they can swim, which is crazy. Yeah.
29:20
Speaker 3: They don't have much in the way of paddles, but, um,
29:23
Speaker 3: they can do it pretty fast.
29:24
Speaker 7: I mean, I watched my dog swim after one, one time. Um,
29:27
Speaker 7: and you know, it was at least as fast as
29:32
Speaker 7: the dog, if not faster.
29:34
Speaker 3: So they can move.
29:36
Speaker 1: What, uh, as far as jumping into the mindset of
29:39
Speaker 1: a deer in your neck of the woods for the
29:41
Speaker 1: next seven days, what, what would you anticipate? And, and
29:44
Speaker 1: you can, you're welcome to overgeneralize for, you know, the
29:46
Speaker 1: general Northeast region, but, um, are they going to be,
29:50
Speaker 1: in your opinion, laying down a bunch of sign? Um,
29:54
Speaker 1: like what, what do you anticipate deer to be doing
29:56
Speaker 1: over the next seven days?
29:58
Speaker 3: Yeah.
29:58
Speaker 7: So the scrapes are, getting hit more and more often
30:01
Speaker 7: right now. Um, more daylight action. Uh, I actually had
30:06
Speaker 7: a spot last year where I caught a full on
30:10
Speaker 7: buck fight, um, on the 13th. Um, so I don't
30:16
Speaker 7: know if there was, you know, I have a little
30:18
Speaker 7: bit of a theory about October, October does October does
30:22
Speaker 7: that go into estrus in October. Um, I don't think it's,
30:28
Speaker 7: it's many, I think it's a, you know, very small,
30:30
Speaker 7: portion of the bell curve but um that i'd never
30:35
Speaker 7: gotten a fight like that on camera.
30:36
Speaker 3: Before and i mean it was two mature bucks.
30:41
Speaker 7: It was i wish i had it on video but
30:43
Speaker 7: uh you can kind of see them start to face off.
30:45
Speaker 2: And then um.
30:47
Speaker 7: You know they came at each other hard um one
30:51
Speaker 7: threw the other one onto the ground and then it
30:53
Speaker 7: got purchased and pushed back um that's that i got
30:58
Speaker 7: you know three three to five frames or something.
31:01
Speaker 3: But, um, yeah, I think it happens.
31:04
Speaker 7: We've had good luck, um, around the, around this time
31:09
Speaker 7: now to.
31:09
Speaker 3: Like the, we, we, uh, we did a little hunting weekend.
31:17
Speaker 7: Two years ago and my brother and a good friend
31:20
Speaker 7: both connected on mature bucks on the 17th.
31:24
Speaker 1: Um, what were they doing? What were they doing two
31:27
Speaker 1: years ago on the 17th? Were they, Cruising around, I'm
31:31
Speaker 1: just curious how they found success at typically a somewhat
31:36
Speaker 1: more challenging time of the year. Obviously, there's big deer
31:38
Speaker 1: that die everywhere across the country every day, but very
31:43
Speaker 1: relevant to people listening right now.
31:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, they were both cruising. I had no food, but
31:49
Speaker 3: heading out early.
31:50
Speaker 7: Yeah, you definitely get some more cruising action.
31:56
Speaker 3: Actually, I shot one on.
32:00
Speaker 7: Friday morning uh returning to bed at about seven um which.
32:05
Speaker 3: Which i was a little surprised about i don't think
32:07
Speaker 3: i've shot a buck.
32:08
Speaker 7: In the in the morning um especially that early in
32:11
Speaker 7: the season and um yeah i i knew i knew
32:16
Speaker 7: there was some good deer in there and i i
32:18
Speaker 7: cut a track the night two nights before it looked
32:21
Speaker 7: like it was going back to bed and um yeah
32:24
Speaker 7: i just got lucky.
32:27
Speaker 1: Luck is always a good thing, whether people want to
32:29
Speaker 1: admit it or not. I wouldn't call it purely luck
32:32
Speaker 1: if you cut the track and made a guess, but
32:34
Speaker 1: there's always an element of luck, whether we want to
32:36
Speaker 1: admit it or not. I wish we could all say
32:38
Speaker 1: we knew, oh, I knew that was going to happen.
32:41
Speaker 1: We hoped that was going to happen. What are deer
32:46
Speaker 1: eating in that type of terrain this time of year?
32:51
Speaker 7: Yeah, we get a lot of apple trees, a lot
32:53
Speaker 7: of oak trees. So they're hitting acorns pretty good right now. Um,
32:57
Speaker 7: they usually, you know, they start the season on apples,
33:00
Speaker 7: early apples, they shift to acorns when they first start
33:05
Speaker 7: to drop and then they'll kind of return back to apples. Um,
33:09
Speaker 7: a little bit later in the year when they've kind
33:11
Speaker 7: of gotten all the easy acorns and there's some late
33:13
Speaker 7: dropping apples.
33:15
Speaker 3: And then there's all the, all the, you know, a million.
33:17
Speaker 7: Different kinds of Forbes, but, um, we're focused mostly on,
33:21
Speaker 7: on acorns right now.
33:24
Speaker 1: Okay. And then. You know, looking at the weather with,
33:28
Speaker 1: you know, some strong winds and then some cooler temperatures
33:33
Speaker 1: on a scale one to 10, 10 being the best
33:35
Speaker 1: week of the year, one being one of the worst
33:37
Speaker 1: weeks of the year. So, you know, the 14th to
33:39
Speaker 1: the 21st, what is Dan's stamp of approval for the
33:45
Speaker 1: next seven days in terms of expectations and anticipation for,
33:48
Speaker 1: you're speaking for all of the Northeast right now, so
33:50
Speaker 1: no pressure.
33:54
Speaker 3: I like this time of year.
33:56
Speaker 7: Um, I, I might prefer this time of year over,
34:00
Speaker 7: over any other, at least, you know, up to, up to, um, Halloween, but, uh, I,
34:06
Speaker 7: I find the rut kind of frustrating and this is
34:10
Speaker 7: a good time. I think the butts of bucks are,
34:12
Speaker 7: you know, out in daylight in the morning and, and
34:14
Speaker 7: often going to food a little earlier. So, oh, I mean,
34:19
Speaker 7: you're not going to get full rut action.
34:21
Speaker 3: I'd give it a seven. I mean, maybe a little
34:24
Speaker 3: less with the weather because the weather's not great. But, yeah,
34:28
Speaker 3: call it a 6-7.
34:30
Speaker 1: 6-7. All righty. I like it. Anything else? Any other
34:33
Speaker 1: words of advice for anyone that is making a game
34:36
Speaker 1: plan for the next seven days that might be helpful
34:39
Speaker 1: other than trying to set up on potentially apple trees, acorns, scrape,
34:47
Speaker 1: a little bit of cruising? What else is top of
34:50
Speaker 1: mind that might be helpful to someone out there?
34:53
Speaker 7: Yeah, I'd say in the morning, travel corridors closer to bedding,
34:58
Speaker 7: as you'd imagine. And then if you have food in
35:02
Speaker 7: the evenings or if you wanted to hit more of
35:04
Speaker 7: a transition zone.
35:06
Speaker 3: And yeah, I believe in.
35:09
Speaker 7: This little theory about trying to find some month early does.
35:13
Speaker 3: It's rare and.
35:21
Speaker 7: It's hard to find and it's really, I think it's
35:25
Speaker 7: just pretty mature bucks who have figured this out. So it's,
35:28
Speaker 7: it's not like the kind of rut action you would expect,
35:31
Speaker 7: but you know, if you can, if you can find a, um,
35:37
Speaker 7: you know, if you can find some early fawns in
35:39
Speaker 7: the spring and, and date those back or, you know,
35:43
Speaker 7: just go off of, off of any Intel you've found,
35:46
Speaker 7: but that, that buck fight especially was an eye opener
35:49
Speaker 7: for me. I'd had a bit of a theory on this,
35:52
Speaker 7: but seeing, seeing them, you know, basically trying to kill
35:56
Speaker 7: each other on the 13th, um, kind of convinced me
36:01
Speaker 7: a little more.
36:02
Speaker 1: I think, I think that's a great piece of advice that, that, uh,
36:06
Speaker 1: had not been brought up here yet for this week's
36:07
Speaker 1: episode of rough fresh. And you're exactly right. I think
36:10
Speaker 1: if you pay attention to it, um, you might key
36:13
Speaker 1: in on that. And, uh, it seems like year over year,
36:16
Speaker 1: there's some, some level of consistency. And if, if you
36:19
Speaker 1: can remember to your point, like, wow, I can't believe
36:21
Speaker 1: there's already been a fawn, uh, you know, this, this
36:24
Speaker 1: past spring, like that is a clear tip. And so
36:27
Speaker 1: I think that's a great, great piece of advice. Dan, where,
36:30
Speaker 1: where's the best place for people to track you down? Uh,
36:33
Speaker 1: if actually I have one other question, uh, out of curiosity,
36:36
Speaker 1: what is the deer density like in your region? I'm
36:39
Speaker 1: just curious.
36:41
Speaker 3: It's high.
36:43
Speaker 1: Really?
36:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, it depends on what island you're on.
36:48
Speaker 7: Some of the islands that I hunt, somewhere between 50
36:52
Speaker 7: and 70 deer per square mile. The smaller islands, a
36:57
Speaker 7: little harder to say, especially if they're moving around. But
37:01
Speaker 7: on the bigger islands around me, it's high. It might
37:04
Speaker 7: be the highest in the state.
37:05
Speaker 3: To be honest.
37:07
Speaker 1: Interesting.
37:07
Speaker 3: Okay.
37:08
Speaker 1: I was dying to ask that. Yeah, they're, they're heavily pressured.
37:14
Speaker 7: Um, especially the, you know, the, the larger inhabited islands.
37:18
Speaker 7: So I think people, I tell that to people and
37:21
Speaker 7: they're like, Oh, I'm going to, I'm going to come
37:23
Speaker 7: out and, you know, shoot all the deer.
37:25
Speaker 3: And it's like, well, they, you know, they know what's up.
37:28
Speaker 7: Um, I've shot two bucks that were, had old wounds
37:33
Speaker 7: on them. I think most bucks have been shot at
37:36
Speaker 7: or wounded, uh, by the time they're, four. So there's,
37:41
Speaker 7: there's some challenge to it, but there's a lot of deer.
37:43
Speaker 1: That's cool. And then, so if people want to track
37:45
Speaker 1: you down, uh, follow along, uh, what, what is the
37:48
Speaker 1: best place to do that? I give everyone this opportunity.
37:51
Speaker 4: Yeah.
37:52
Speaker 3: Thanks. Um, Island bucks on Instagram. That's, that's, that's really it.
37:57
Speaker 7: Um, yeah, I haven't updated that as much as I
38:02
Speaker 7: used to. I have, I had a toddler and a
38:04
Speaker 7: new job and, um, haven't been after it as much,
38:07
Speaker 7: but I, Leading up to this, I tried to get
38:10
Speaker 7: some new photos up there and reconnect with people who
38:14
Speaker 7: were sending me messages.
38:15
Speaker 3: So that's the spot.
38:18
Speaker 1: Well, appreciate it. Good luck to you and the rest
38:21
Speaker 1: of the crew the rest of the year. And I
38:23
Speaker 1: hope everything cooperates with the weather. And this is an
38:28
Speaker 1: exciting time of year. And so we have a game
38:31
Speaker 1: plan to try to capitalize on it.
38:34
Speaker 3: Yep, yep. I'll be out there.
38:36
Speaker 1: All right, folks, there you guys have it. I hope
38:38
Speaker 1: this episode gave you a sense of direction between early
38:42
Speaker 1: fawns dropping, between maximizing this first cold front. And like
38:46
Speaker 1: I said, there's going to be some states that have
38:48
Speaker 1: their first hard frost. Obviously, the weather can change a
38:50
Speaker 1: little bit here throughout all these different fronts and with
38:53
Speaker 1: the hurricane. A lot of variable weather likely to come
38:56
Speaker 1: over the next seven days. So hopefully that helps everyone out.
39:00
Speaker 1: And once again, we're trying to get a lot of
39:02
Speaker 1: different representation here on Rut Fresh this year. So if
39:05
Speaker 1: you'd like to be on the show, shoot me a
39:07
Speaker 1: message at Jake Hofer on Instagram. Would love to try
39:09
Speaker 1: to get you on here. So that is it. Good luck.
39:12
Speaker 1: And we'll see you next week.