Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 654: Foundations - Creating A Whitetail Thirst Trap
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
- 0:05Speaker 1: to the fundamentals better dear hunting. Present it by First Light,
- 0:08Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.
- 0:13Speaker 1: First Light, Go farther, stay longer, and now your host
- 0:17Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.
- 0:21Speaker 2: Everybody, welcome to the Warre to Hunt Foundations podcast, which
- 0:24Speaker 2: is brought to you by First Light. I'm your host,
- 0:26Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today I'm going to talk about how
- 0:28Speaker 2: to make your own little white tailed watering hole. It's
- 0:43Speaker 2: better than calling, better than decoys, better than the best
- 0:48Speaker 2: damn fresh out of a doze butt sent that you
- 0:50Speaker 2: could buy water. You know I love hunting over water,
- 0:54Speaker 2: and you know that bucks drink pretty much every day.
- 0:57Speaker 2: Did you also know that you don't really need a
- 0:59Speaker 2: ton of land, or a bulldozer or a backo to
- 1:02Speaker 2: create a watering hole? And did you know that this month,
- 1:05Speaker 2: when turkey season is still going strong, is the perfect
- 1:09Speaker 2: time to get outside and accomplish this little chore. Listen up,
- 1:12Speaker 2: because I'm going to tell you why and of course
- 1:15Speaker 2: how to make this happen. But before I get into it,
- 1:19Speaker 2: I have to let you know about that meat eater
- 1:21Speaker 2: giveaway that I talked about last week still going on.
- 1:24Speaker 2: You have until May twenty first to get signed up,
- 1:29Speaker 2: but only only if you want a chance to win
- 1:32Speaker 2: three thousand dollars worth of sweet hunting gear along with
- 1:35Speaker 2: a personalized outfitting session from Yanni the old Latvian Eagle himself.
- 1:40Speaker 2: All you gotta do is head on over to the
- 1:42Speaker 2: medeater dot com slash giveaway again. That's thumbmeadeater dot com
- 1:49Speaker 2: slash giveaway at enter takes like thirty seconds, It's free,
- 1:53Speaker 2: and you could end up with a ton of kickass gear,
- 2:08Speaker 2: at least as far as we know, because our sample
- 2:12Speaker 2: size so far is limited to Earth. Water is the
- 2:15Speaker 2: medium upon which life is built. Without it, there ain't
- 2:20Speaker 2: no life to positively charge hydrogen atoms that bind to
- 2:25Speaker 2: one negatively charged oxygen atom form water here on Carl
- 2:30Speaker 2: Sagan's Pale Blue dot. Water is a polar molecule, meaning
- 2:36Speaker 2: that opposite charges attract one another, which allows water to
- 2:39Speaker 2: form strong bonds and as a result, gives us the
- 2:43Speaker 2: oceans and rivers and lakes, and even the glass of
- 2:45Speaker 2: the good stuff on your nightstand after you've had I
- 2:48Speaker 2: don't know a few too many post Gulf beers with
- 2:50Speaker 2: the buddies, and your head is pounding. The cohesion of
- 2:54Speaker 2: the water molecule also makes it possible for plants to
- 2:57Speaker 2: take up water via their roots and allow animals to
- 3:01Speaker 2: regulate their body temperature. Most biological molecules, including those that
- 3:07Speaker 2: make us up as well as I don't know white tails,
- 3:11Speaker 2: have some electrical asymmetry which allows water to weasel its
- 3:16Speaker 2: way into every little nook and cranny, not unlike dissolving
- 3:20Speaker 2: a spoonful of sugar in your Starbucks in the morning.
- 3:24Speaker 2: This is a roundabout way of saying that water is
- 3:27Speaker 2: a universal solvent. Life needs it to carry around all
- 3:32Speaker 2: the things that make us us. This is one of
- 3:35Speaker 2: the reasons that scientists who are looking for possible life
- 3:37Speaker 2: on other planets and moons and asteroids often start by
- 3:41Speaker 2: looking for water, which they didn't think existed in great
- 3:45Speaker 2: abundance in space, but we now know it's insanely common
- 3:49Speaker 2: and comes in quantities that are going to blow your
- 3:52Speaker 2: freaking minds. Take a couple of recent discoveries. One is
- 3:56Speaker 2: that the moon seems to be chalk full of water,
- 3:59Speaker 2: making a long term habitat project. They're much more viable.
- 4:04Speaker 2: Water's pretty heavy and getting weight out of Earth's gravity. Well,
- 4:08Speaker 2: that's a big problem. If you don't have to shoot
- 4:11Speaker 2: a bunch of H two O into space because your
- 4:13Speaker 2: astronauts can find it right on the Moon. That's a
- 4:15Speaker 2: big wind. Far crazier than that is a discovery that
- 4:20Speaker 2: an international team of astronomers made recently, which is a
- 4:23Speaker 2: cloud of water vapor that is located thirty billion miles
- 4:27Speaker 2: from Earth. So a big deal, you think, right, after all,
- 4:32Speaker 2: isn't that what clouds are right here? Well, consider this.
- 4:37Speaker 2: We don't quite know where our Earth's water came from,
- 4:40Speaker 2: and there are a few competing theories, ranging from asteroids
- 4:43Speaker 2: and commets hitting early Earth and delivering payloads of water
- 4:46Speaker 2: to it being present when the material of the Earth
- 4:48Speaker 2: is made of coalesced roughly four and a half billion
- 4:51Speaker 2: years ago. Where our water came from is an important
- 4:54Speaker 2: question to answer, and the researchers who found that water
- 4:57Speaker 2: vapor cloud they might be getting there. The thing is
- 5:01Speaker 2: this cloud, which is located in a quasar, which is
- 5:04Speaker 2: an insanely bright galactic nucleus. This cloud, it's no normal cloud,
- 5:09Speaker 2: mind you. It is estimated to contain about one hundred
- 5:12Speaker 2: and forty trillion times the water that's on Earth, all
- 5:16Speaker 2: of the water on Earth. Think about that for a second. Water.
- 5:21Speaker 2: It seems it's pretty damn common out there in the
- 5:24Speaker 2: observable universe. It's also pretty wild stuff. You've probably seen
- 5:29Speaker 2: people walk outside in the dead of winter in places
- 5:31Speaker 2: like Alaska with a pot of super hot water to
- 5:34Speaker 2: throw in the air to show that it turns instantly
- 5:37Speaker 2: into snow. But you can't do that with cold water.
- 5:40Speaker 2: Only hot water forms hanging icicles, which if you're not
- 5:45Speaker 2: careful when shooting your brand new red Rider BB gun
- 5:48Speaker 2: outside and might accidentally catch a ricochete of the eye,
- 5:51Speaker 2: you can blame that icicle for falling on your face,
- 5:53Speaker 2: so your mom doesn't know she was right about you
- 5:55Speaker 2: being too young and irresponsible to own an air gun, right, Ralphie.
- 6:01Speaker 2: But water also forms icicles that freeze up these ice spikes,
- 6:06Speaker 2: seemingly defy gravity. Water can also be cooled well below
- 6:10Speaker 2: its freezing point and yet still remain liquid until you
- 6:14Speaker 2: move it, then it freezes instantly. Water in a glass
- 6:18Speaker 2: is clear, Water falling from the sky is clear. But
- 6:22Speaker 2: water is actually blue, which you can see in some
- 6:25Speaker 2: glaciers and icebergs. Unlike most substances. Water becomes less dense
- 6:31Speaker 2: when you freeze it. You can bend water with static electricity.
- 6:36Speaker 2: Water is weird in so many ways, but also one
- 6:41Speaker 2: hell of an important part of a deer's life. See, guys,
- 6:44Speaker 2: I got there. It just took me a while. I
- 6:47Speaker 2: have sort of a reputation for killing bucks, you know,
- 6:51Speaker 2: around water for good reason. I can think back to
- 6:54Speaker 2: quite a few of the deer that I've arrowed, many
- 6:57Speaker 2: of which were public land bucks, and some type of
- 6:59Speaker 2: wa water source played an important role in that hunt,
- 7:03Speaker 2: usually the most important role. Deer need water, and if
- 7:07Speaker 2: you find limited water, then you're onto something. But you
- 7:11Speaker 2: can also create a water hole, which is what this
- 7:13Speaker 2: episode is all about. It's a hell of a lot
- 7:16Speaker 2: easier than putting in a food plot, even a tiny
- 7:19Speaker 2: kill plot. And provided you do it right, you can
- 7:22Speaker 2: position deer for a shot in a way that is
- 7:24Speaker 2: almost unreal. Now that may or may not be your thing.
- 7:30Speaker 2: I learned this when I was a young bowhunter at
- 7:32Speaker 2: the tender innocent age of twenty four. I don't know
- 7:35Speaker 2: why I said that, so creepy, so anyway, forgive me. Anyways,
- 7:39Speaker 2: that was the year my dad and I decided to
- 7:41Speaker 2: get back to our roots and hunt with traditional bows.
- 7:44Speaker 2: It was also the year where I said, I'm going
- 7:47Speaker 2: to buy one of those ornamental ponds and put it
- 7:49Speaker 2: by our best stand. I figured we needed all the
- 7:52Speaker 2: help we could get, because well we did. So I
- 7:56Speaker 2: took a shovel in that little pond and I dug
- 7:57Speaker 2: a spot for it eighteen yards from a stay, and
- 8:00Speaker 2: we hung. Every year, it's just located in a hub
- 8:04Speaker 2: this season long deer activity. The first morning I climbed
- 8:08Speaker 2: in there with my re curve in hand, I watched
- 8:10Speaker 2: a dough in a fond brought their way through the woods.
- 8:13Speaker 2: You know where they ended up right at that pond.
- 8:16Speaker 2: And you know what, I didn't do. Shoot. It felt weird,
- 8:21Speaker 2: It felt too contrived to me. I didn't want a
- 8:23Speaker 2: killer at that point in my life. I wanted pretty
- 8:26Speaker 2: much any deer pretty badly. But I also didn't feel
- 8:29Speaker 2: great about creating an artificial situation that would put a
- 8:32Speaker 2: deer right into my lap like that. I don't really
- 8:34Speaker 2: know how to explain it. I've obviously also changed my
- 8:37Speaker 2: tune on some of this stuff, because I greatly enjoy
- 8:40Speaker 2: putting in little water holes and making kill plots, although again,
- 8:43Speaker 2: if I'm being brutally honest, I rarely hunt those things
- 8:46Speaker 2: for myself. It just doesn't do it for me for
- 8:49Speaker 2: some reason. But I have a hell of a lot
- 8:52Speaker 2: of fun watching my daughters shoot deer on them and
- 8:54Speaker 2: letting my buddies go in there and shoot them. You
- 8:57Speaker 2: know what, else doesn't really matter because I'm on my
- 9:01Speaker 2: course and you're on your course. And if your course
- 9:03Speaker 2: is one where you're like, hell, yes, I want an
- 9:06Speaker 2: edge over the deer and I have the opportunity to
- 9:08Speaker 2: put in some water, then I say donuts for donuts,
- 9:11Speaker 2: my friend. Before you buy that plastic pond or tote
- 9:15Speaker 2: or big tarp or however you're going to do this, though,
- 9:17Speaker 2: stop pump those breaks, buddy. You need to figure out
- 9:21Speaker 2: where to put water. This is more important than how
- 9:24Speaker 2: you get a water source out there. Trust me, And
- 9:28Speaker 2: that example I just told you about, the little pond
- 9:30Speaker 2: I put out is located in a valley. The deer
- 9:33Speaker 2: stage in morning and evening, so at the beginning, right
- 9:37Speaker 2: off the bat, I knew I was in a good spot.
- 9:40Speaker 2: This isn't like putting an automatic deer feeder out in
- 9:43Speaker 2: the mesquite flats of Texas and just creating a deer
- 9:46Speaker 2: heavy spot simply because that's where the food ends up
- 9:48Speaker 2: on the ground every morning and evening. This is a
- 9:52Speaker 2: strategy to play off existing deer concentrations and make one
- 9:55Speaker 2: spot better. But it's not enough to think, well, deer here,
- 10:00Speaker 2: so that's good enough. Having hunted a ton of water
- 10:04Speaker 2: sources in my life, I'll say this in the cover
- 10:07Speaker 2: is better than not in the cover. How's that for
- 10:10Speaker 2: a dumb revelation. But the truth is you might think, well, shoot,
- 10:15Speaker 2: the deer always come out to the field where I hunt,
- 10:17Speaker 2: so I'm going to put a pond in right there.
- 10:20Speaker 2: That's great, But do the deer always come to the field?
- 10:23Speaker 2: Do they come out after you've hunted there seven times
- 10:26Speaker 2: in a row? Maybe a better bet would be to
- 10:29Speaker 2: tuck that pond into the cover twenty yards deep, so
- 10:32Speaker 2: that before they have to decide to go into the
- 10:34Speaker 2: open or not, they can slake their thirst there in
- 10:37Speaker 2: the cover. Maybe you can get the best of both
- 10:40Speaker 2: worlds with the right wind, so you can shoot them
- 10:42Speaker 2: on the water where you know they're drinking in the woods,
- 10:45Speaker 2: or shoot them when they get out to the beans
- 10:47Speaker 2: in front of your stand, or maybe it's better to
- 10:50Speaker 2: figure out one of those deer heavy spots you have
- 10:53Speaker 2: back in the cover where you have dynamite access, and
- 10:56Speaker 2: then consider where to put the water source. I think
- 10:59Speaker 2: that's the best strategy, especially if you're the kind of
- 11:02Speaker 2: hunter who likes to shoot big bucks. A mature deer
- 11:06Speaker 2: is so much more likely to water in the cover
- 11:08Speaker 2: during shooting hours than to go anywhere near the open
- 11:11Speaker 2: stuff to drink. It's simple, and it's true. Do you
- 11:16Speaker 2: have a spot like that? If that's the case, can
- 11:19Speaker 2: you dig in a small ornamental type pond or something
- 11:21Speaker 2: else like a tote? It might be that simple, Or
- 11:25Speaker 2: maybe you already have a seasonal ish type of water
- 11:28Speaker 2: source that you can spruce up with a little pond
- 11:31Speaker 2: or tarp. I have a spot like this on a
- 11:33Speaker 2: farm I hunt in southeastern Minnesota. That driftless region is
- 11:37Speaker 2: known for a few things, one of which is the limestone,
- 11:41Speaker 2: which isn't the hardest rock you're likely to find. It's
- 11:43Speaker 2: soft at least for rock, which means that it erodes quickly.
- 11:47Speaker 2: At least for rock. This leads to caves, and caves
- 11:50Speaker 2: lead to sinkholes. If you drive around that area, you'll
- 11:53Speaker 2: see plenty of ag fields with little islands of trees
- 11:56Speaker 2: out there which are just sinkholes, the kinds of spots
- 12:00Speaker 2: you don't want to go over with a tractor that
- 12:02Speaker 2: weighs like fifteen tons and costs as much as it
- 12:05Speaker 2: would to put a couple kids through an Ivy League
- 12:07Speaker 2: school for four years. This spot on the farm I
- 12:11Speaker 2: hunt it has just a mini sinkhole in the woods.
- 12:14Speaker 2: That sinkhole, being a hole in all fills up with
- 12:18Speaker 2: water and it's unbelievable for deer activity at certain points
- 12:21Speaker 2: of the year. I recently looked at it after my
- 12:24Speaker 2: buddy and I doubled up on a couple of unlucky longbeards,
- 12:27Speaker 2: and not only was it pounded with tracks, it was
- 12:30Speaker 2: also the most obvious spot in the world due to
- 12:32Speaker 2: the muddy, spoked out deer trails leading to it. Back
- 12:36Speaker 2: when I found it, I thought my deer prayers had
- 12:39Speaker 2: been answered, But when I hunted it, I realized that
- 12:43Speaker 2: August often did a good number on the actual water
- 12:46Speaker 2: that was there, and instead of hunting a drinking fountain,
- 12:49Speaker 2: I was hunting a patch of dry dirt, which, in
- 12:51Speaker 2: case you don't know, is a lot less appealing to
- 12:53Speaker 2: thirsty deer. So I put a small pond in the bottom,
- 12:57Speaker 2: one that would collect and hold the water a little better,
- 13:00Speaker 2: and it worked a little better. But it also showed
- 13:04Speaker 2: me that if I wanted to keep the deer coming
- 13:06Speaker 2: in there, I better haul some water in, which I
- 13:09Speaker 2: did with a backpack a few times. It was mostly
- 13:12Speaker 2: an exercise and futility, but it was a good workout
- 13:15Speaker 2: when I had an olktag in my pocket. I have
- 13:17Speaker 2: yet to kill a deer on that pond, but I will.
- 13:20Speaker 2: Maybe you have a spot like that where you could
- 13:22Speaker 2: use a pond or a tarp and help collect and
- 13:25Speaker 2: keep the water in a specific spot. It's a great
- 13:29Speaker 2: option if you have it, But the downside is you
- 13:31Speaker 2: then have to hunt it the best way it allows.
- 13:34Speaker 2: It's not like putting in a little pond on a
- 13:36Speaker 2: tried and true spot that you know already produces will
- 13:41Speaker 2: just always provide good hunts. You instead have to adapt
- 13:44Speaker 2: to the location. This has been my biggest problem with
- 13:47Speaker 2: my sinkhole spot, because it's terrible to hunt in a
- 13:50Speaker 2: west or south wind, which is kind of the wind
- 13:53Speaker 2: you get when the weather's pretty warm. You know that
- 13:57Speaker 2: has some quality trees right on top of the pond,
- 13:59Speaker 2: but nothing that allows you to get like twenty yards
- 14:01Speaker 2: away and have some cover and still use the wind correctly.
- 14:05Speaker 2: In fact, I'm thinking after my little scouting session back
- 14:08Speaker 2: in April that it might be a better ground blind spot.
- 14:11Speaker 2: I don't know. Ask yourself what you're working with in
- 14:14Speaker 2: this capacity. Do you have a place where you could
- 14:16Speaker 2: bring a little sweat equity into the equation and have
- 14:18Speaker 2: some water it on over? Do you have a way
- 14:20Speaker 2: to get some water in there if it dries out.
- 14:23Speaker 2: That's a big problem with small water sources, but it's
- 14:26Speaker 2: solvable in most situations. It's also important to note that
- 14:29Speaker 2: you should provide a way for little critters who happen
- 14:32Speaker 2: to fall in to be able to climb out. A
- 14:34Speaker 2: dead mouse floating around in your deer's water is a
- 14:37Speaker 2: bad scenario, so I usually just lay a log or
- 14:40Speaker 2: something in it in such a way that it allows
- 14:41Speaker 2: for an easy climb out. This is simple, but it's
- 14:44Speaker 2: pretty important. It's also worth mentioning. Like I said in
- 14:47Speaker 2: the beginning, this might not be for everyone, but if
- 14:50Speaker 2: it doesn't bother you, and it's legal as far as
- 14:52Speaker 2: I know, this is legal just about everywhere you can
- 14:54Speaker 2: find deer provided you have the private ground to do
- 14:56Speaker 2: it on, it's worth a shot. It's also something that
- 14:59Speaker 2: can really to liven up a small property. This is
- 15:02Speaker 2: one of the things that I learned when I started
- 15:04Speaker 2: having to find places in the suburbs to hunt. I
- 15:07Speaker 2: don't need to create food plots and tiny ponds on
- 15:09Speaker 2: properties where I have half of a section or maybe
- 15:12Speaker 2: more to roam. A big enough property will give you
- 15:15Speaker 2: pretty much everything you need, so it's kind of unnecessary.
- 15:18Speaker 2: But if you're stuck on a ten or twenty or
- 15:20Speaker 2: even forty acre parcel, it might be a different story.
- 15:24Speaker 2: You might only have a handful of deer a week
- 15:26Speaker 2: to pass through, and the odds of you being there
- 15:28Speaker 2: when they are super low. Increasing the odds of an
- 15:32Speaker 2: encounter going your way is not a bad idea if
- 15:35Speaker 2: this is the world you live in. It's also worth
- 15:38Speaker 2: mentioning that this will be a waste of time and
- 15:40Speaker 2: money if you hunt in an area where water is abundant.
- 15:43Speaker 2: I learned this in northern Wisconsin after my little girls
- 15:45Speaker 2: started hunting deer. I had a kill plot in one
- 15:48Speaker 2: of my properties that was pretty good, but also fairly inconsistent,
- 15:52Speaker 2: largely due to the low deer density. I figured it's
- 15:55Speaker 2: not going to hurt to sink upon into that plot
- 15:57Speaker 2: and refill it if I need to. After all, even
- 16:00Speaker 2: if the deer weren't hungry enough to come in, maybe
- 16:02Speaker 2: the promise of some room temperature water there's full of
- 16:05Speaker 2: bugs and frog poop might convince them. But it really didn't.
- 16:09Speaker 2: As you can imagine, I run cameras over that plot,
- 16:12Speaker 2: and after I sunk that little pond in, I started
- 16:15Speaker 2: running my cameras so I could see how many deer
- 16:17Speaker 2: drank out of it. The answer was almost none of them.
- 16:21Speaker 2: It was truly rare to get images of deer feeding
- 16:24Speaker 2: in the plot, even in July and August, and then
- 16:27Speaker 2: drinking in the pond. A few did, but it wasn't
- 16:30Speaker 2: the deer magnet I assumed it would be. Do you
- 16:33Speaker 2: know why, because there's water everywhere up there. Even on
- 16:37Speaker 2: the driest years I've hunted there, it's not a problem
- 16:39Speaker 2: to find standing water. It's everywhere. And you have to
- 16:42Speaker 2: imagine that if a deer lives on I don't know,
- 16:44Speaker 2: six or seven hundred acres, they might have hundreds of
- 16:48Speaker 2: spots to drink in, and just that amount of land
- 16:51Speaker 2: in that region a little pond in one spot isn't
- 16:55Speaker 2: going to be a game changer there. It's kind of
- 16:57Speaker 2: like buying land in parts of egg dominated, you know,
- 17:01Speaker 2: Iowa or Kansas or whoever, and then thinking all I
- 17:04Speaker 2: need is a food plot and it'll be booner city,
- 17:06Speaker 2: except that the deer there have food everywhere, literally just
- 17:10Speaker 2: about everywhere. What they don't have is cover, So planning
- 17:14Speaker 2: some trees would probably be a better bet than planning
- 17:16Speaker 2: a food plot. Now, limited water is always good, but
- 17:21Speaker 2: there's another benefit to water that we don't talk about much,
- 17:24Speaker 2: hunting when it's hot. I've written about this, and I
- 17:26Speaker 2: talked about it a lot, because I like hunting when
- 17:28Speaker 2: other people won't. If you're the kind of hunter who
- 17:30Speaker 2: won't hunt because it's hot, maybe putting in a little
- 17:33Speaker 2: pond would change your opinion. After all, if it's eighty
- 17:37Speaker 2: degrees in September and you think it's not worth it
- 17:39Speaker 2: to go, you might change your mind knowing you have
- 17:41Speaker 2: a little water source by one of your best stands,
- 17:44Speaker 2: and if the bucks are going to go anywhere in
- 17:46Speaker 2: that beechy weather, it's probably going to be there. So
- 17:49Speaker 2: think about it and think about listening next week because
- 17:52Speaker 2: I'm going to talk about how to figure out if
- 17:54Speaker 2: you're a pioneer or a settler when it comes to
- 17:57Speaker 2: deer hunting. That's it. That's it for this week. I'm
- 18:02Speaker 2: your host, Tony Peterson, and this has been the Wired
- 18:04Speaker 2: to Hunt Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by
- 18:06Speaker 2: First Light. As always, thank you so much for tuning in.
- 18:09Speaker 2: If you want more white tail wisdom, you can head
- 18:12Speaker 2: on over to the mediat dot com slash wired and
- 18:16Speaker 2: see all kinds of articles by me, Mark, Alex Gilstrombomartonic,
- 18:19Speaker 2: a whole bunch of killer white tail hunters. Tons of
- 18:23Speaker 2: good information there, and while you're there, you can register
- 18:26Speaker 2: for that Mediator giveaway that I told you about in
- 18:28Speaker 2: the beginning of this podcast, so you can have three
- 18:30Speaker 2: thousand dollars more worth of hunting gear to go hunting
- 18:33Speaker 2: this ball with. So go do both of those things.