Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 638: Foundations - Now Is The Time To Fine-Tune Your Ambush Sites

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Ep. 638: Foundations - Now Is The Time To Fine-Tune Your Ambush Sites · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
0:05
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better dear hunting, presented by First Light,
0:08
Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel through the stands, saddler blind
0:13
Speaker 1: First Light, Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host
0:17
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Hey everyone, welcome to the Wire to Hunt
0:20
Speaker 1: Foundations podcast was brought to you by First Light. I'm
0:22
Speaker 1: your host, Tony Peterson, and today I'm going to ask
0:25
Speaker 1: you to take a fresh look at your old stand sites.
0:43
Speaker 1: But there are certain things that separate the dear killers
0:46
Speaker 1: from like the deer watchers, and a big one is
0:49
Speaker 1: not settling for just any old stand sites. Now, this
0:53
Speaker 1: may sound kind of dumb, I guess when we talk
0:55
Speaker 1: all the time about mobile approaches and saddling up, But
0:59
Speaker 1: the truth is an awful lot of us hunt some
1:01
Speaker 1: spots where we can just put up and leave stands
1:04
Speaker 1: and blinds, and we're just kind of hoping the deer
1:06
Speaker 1: will work with us, and often they kind of don't. Now,
1:09
Speaker 1: instead of getting complacent here, you should go out now
1:13
Speaker 1: and look at your best spots and if possible, make
1:17
Speaker 1: them better. I've talked about this a lot, but back
1:30
Speaker 1: in a past life. When I was eight, up with
1:33
Speaker 1: a tournament fishing scene but still a poor college student,
1:37
Speaker 1: I fished a tour in Minnesota for a few years.
1:40
Speaker 1: This was like a ProAm format, which meant that every
1:43
Speaker 1: pro would get paired up with an amateur and they'd
1:45
Speaker 1: fish as a team for the day. It was an
1:48
Speaker 1: amazing circuit that it ended up going belly up due
1:51
Speaker 1: to some embezzlement issues. And don't quote me on this,
1:54
Speaker 1: but I think probably some fraud. But before the whole
1:57
Speaker 1: thing came crashing down, I fished at tour for three
2:00
Speaker 1: years on the amateur side, and what I learned was incredible.
2:04
Speaker 1: Arguably the biggest lesson I got was fishing with a
2:07
Speaker 1: guy named Brad Kleine during our Tournament of Champions on
2:10
Speaker 1: Lake Minnetonka here in the Twin Cities. I drew Brad
2:14
Speaker 1: on Day two, and while I had an okay Day
2:17
Speaker 1: one with somebody else, I didn't think I was in
2:19
Speaker 1: the running to win. I did know that he was
2:22
Speaker 1: a hell of a good angler, and I was excited
2:24
Speaker 1: to fish with him. Plus I figured if we had
2:27
Speaker 1: a good day, I'd probably get paid. When we set
2:30
Speaker 1: out in a weird September Thunderstorm against thirty nine other teams.
2:33
Speaker 1: The first spot we hit was a sunken rock pile.
2:37
Speaker 1: The rockpile produced one monster muskie follow but that was it.
2:41
Speaker 1: And it's always a little concerning when you don't put
2:43
Speaker 1: a single bass in then live well on your starting spot,
2:45
Speaker 1: which theoretically should be your best place to go. But
2:49
Speaker 1: Brad wasn't worried, so I tried not to be worried.
2:52
Speaker 1: He told me that we were going to leave that
2:53
Speaker 1: rock pile and go work some docks, and that can
2:56
Speaker 1: mean a lot of things, depending on the kind of
2:58
Speaker 1: angler you are. Working docks could be as simple as
3:01
Speaker 1: burning a I don't know, a swim bait or a
3:03
Speaker 1: spinner bait, swimming jig something along the side, and then
3:06
Speaker 1: moving on to the next one. Or it could be
3:08
Speaker 1: about flipping jigs up to the posts and ladders and
3:11
Speaker 1: assorted parts of the dock that bass might like to
3:14
Speaker 1: hide under or next to. Or it could mean using
3:18
Speaker 1: something to skip way under the docks, which of course
3:21
Speaker 1: you can do with jigs, but some other lures too,
3:23
Speaker 1: and this is a real valuable skill if you fish
3:26
Speaker 1: bass for money. The last one you know that's skipping
3:29
Speaker 1: under the docks thing is what Brad meant, and as
3:31
Speaker 1: the guy on the back of the boat, it meant
3:34
Speaker 1: I wasn't going to get a fish a whole lot
3:35
Speaker 1: of fresh water, you know. He was going to cast everything,
3:39
Speaker 1: and that's always kind of a bummer. But we're fishing
3:41
Speaker 1: as a team, and watching a guy like that set
3:44
Speaker 1: up and then work docks didn't make me feel too
3:47
Speaker 1: bad about being in the back of the boat. It
3:49
Speaker 1: was worth it. And I'll tell you, I thought I
3:51
Speaker 1: knew how to fish that style, and I was pretty
3:54
Speaker 1: proficient at skipping with both spinning rods and bait casters.
3:58
Speaker 1: But he was a wizard. He also knew the exact
4:01
Speaker 1: fall rate of the soft plastics he used when paired
4:04
Speaker 1: with various sizes of wide gap hooks. He knew the
4:07
Speaker 1: exact fall rate of the tiny jigs we used, and
4:10
Speaker 1: he knew when a brown one would probably work better
4:12
Speaker 1: than a white one. It was a master class on
4:15
Speaker 1: how to catch big largemouth on docks, and I loved it.
4:19
Speaker 1: I loved netting his fish and eventually catching one good
4:23
Speaker 1: one on my own to add to the live well,
4:25
Speaker 1: to see how he targeted every pole and tire and
4:28
Speaker 1: ladder and back corner and front corner and every other
4:31
Speaker 1: part of every dock we fished. Was like watching a
4:34
Speaker 1: surgeon work. He didn't leave much for the guy in
4:38
Speaker 1: the back of the boat, but it was incredible to see.
4:41
Speaker 1: And I honestly didn't even know that level of fishing
4:44
Speaker 1: was possible, And believe me, it set me on a
4:47
Speaker 1: course to get way better, to understand what to use
4:51
Speaker 1: and when, and to realize that I was largely underworking
4:54
Speaker 1: the available structure on so many of the lakes I fished.
4:58
Speaker 1: And it was also pretty umbling. When you think you
5:01
Speaker 1: know something and then you learn that there are way
5:04
Speaker 1: better ways to do that thing. It's a little shot
5:07
Speaker 1: to the old ego, but that's okay. That's kind of
5:11
Speaker 1: how we get better. And you know where most of
5:14
Speaker 1: us probably need to get better. That's right, Gulf. I'm
5:19
Speaker 1: so sorry. I swear I'm done with those jokes when
5:22
Speaker 1: you get better with our tree stands. While it seems
5:24
Speaker 1: like the whitetail world is full of only people using
5:27
Speaker 1: tree saddles to hunt public land, often for their YouTube channel,
5:31
Speaker 1: the truth is most white tail hunters are pretty heavily
5:34
Speaker 1: dependent on tree stands, hang ons, ladder stands, and I
5:39
Speaker 1: guess in some situations still climbing stands. For this podcast,
5:43
Speaker 1: I kind of just want to focus on hang ons
5:45
Speaker 1: and ladder stands. Mostly. The reason for this is because
5:48
Speaker 1: right now is the time to just fine tune those
5:51
Speaker 1: spots so you really get them right now. Just like
5:55
Speaker 1: when I was fishing that tournament and thought I knew
5:57
Speaker 1: how to fish docks, most of you probably think you
6:00
Speaker 1: know how to hang stands. After all, how hard is it?
6:04
Speaker 1: You know, you go to the field corner and you
6:06
Speaker 1: look around until you spy a straight tree without too
6:08
Speaker 1: many branches, get your stand up about sixteen feet and
6:11
Speaker 1: you call that shit good enough? And it certainly might be,
6:16
Speaker 1: but you have to ask yourself is it, or maybe
6:20
Speaker 1: more importantly, was it. A lot of us hunt the
6:23
Speaker 1: same stands or the same stand sites from year to year,
6:28
Speaker 1: but things change, cover changes, deer movement changes, and sometimes
6:34
Speaker 1: our rock solid stands start to be less fun to sit.
6:38
Speaker 1: Those are where I want to start. This requires each
6:42
Speaker 1: of us to think about our favorite stand sites from
6:44
Speaker 1: last season, or hell, the last several seasons. So do
6:48
Speaker 1: that now, think how did your hunts go? And this
6:53
Speaker 1: is the part that requires real honesty. Did you see
6:56
Speaker 1: deer probably otherwise you suck at picking your favorite stand sites.
7:01
Speaker 1: But also, did any of the deer see you or
7:05
Speaker 1: did you experience a real quick site burnout when you
7:08
Speaker 1: hunt it there? Did you get winded? If so, how
7:12
Speaker 1: often and in what conditions? What happened in September when
7:17
Speaker 1: you sat there? How about November during the rut? Did
7:21
Speaker 1: you have a great early season hunts but not so
7:23
Speaker 1: great hunts when it was closer to Halloween. Let's take
7:27
Speaker 1: the deer seeing you angle first. If you got spott
7:30
Speaker 1: at a fair amount or just by the wrong deer,
7:34
Speaker 1: what can you do to make that sight a little
7:35
Speaker 1: bit better? Can you move the stand to the far
7:38
Speaker 1: side of the tree, That's a simple solution that works
7:42
Speaker 1: quite a bit. Instead of facing the deer face away
7:44
Speaker 1: from where you expect the deer to be, shoot around
7:46
Speaker 1: the tree. Or can you move it a bit higher
7:49
Speaker 1: and take advantage of different cover? Sometimes you move it
7:52
Speaker 1: lower to take advantage of cover. Were the deer too
7:55
Speaker 1: close sometimes or were they just barely arrange. One of
7:59
Speaker 1: the things that's a real pain in the ass about
8:01
Speaker 1: white tail hunting is how often we get close but
8:05
Speaker 1: not right on the X. This happens to me all
8:08
Speaker 1: the time, and I think it's just a part of
8:10
Speaker 1: the whole thing. But how you react to it usually
8:13
Speaker 1: isn't It's pretty easy to hang a stand and call
8:16
Speaker 1: it good enough, especially if you use ladder stands. But
8:19
Speaker 1: in bow hunting, if you're off by I don't know,
8:22
Speaker 1: twenty yards, that's a lot. In gun hunting, you can
8:25
Speaker 1: get away with that, although you can just supersize that
8:28
Speaker 1: number and the same rules apply. You know, instead of
8:31
Speaker 1: being off by twenty yards, if you're off by one
8:33
Speaker 1: hundred yards or one hundred and fifty kind of the
8:35
Speaker 1: same thing. It's time to move now. When I'm on
8:38
Speaker 1: the fence about something like this, I like to walk
8:41
Speaker 1: in there and just look at my stand sites right,
8:44
Speaker 1: I don't know. In the middle of March, when there
8:46
Speaker 1: isn't a whole hell of aladd else to do, and
8:49
Speaker 1: the woods are laid bare and you can see trails,
8:51
Speaker 1: usually you can see your stand if it's still up,
8:54
Speaker 1: or see the tree you usually use. Look around. Is
8:57
Speaker 1: there a better option closer to where that deer like
8:59
Speaker 1: to travel? Is there a way to use your chosen
9:02
Speaker 1: tree but make the stand less obvious When you look
9:06
Speaker 1: up to where you usually have your setup. Are you
9:08
Speaker 1: skyline from the deer's perspective? What about when they are
9:12
Speaker 1: walking in or when they are leaving. The reason this
9:16
Speaker 1: is important now is because it won't feel important in
9:19
Speaker 1: the summer, when the leaves are out and it's as
9:22
Speaker 1: thick as it's going to be all season. It's pretty
9:24
Speaker 1: easy to get overconfident in your setups. If you're in
9:28
Speaker 1: a red oak or a pine tree of some sort,
9:30
Speaker 1: you might have good season long cover. If you're not,
9:33
Speaker 1: you probably won't look at your go to spots now
9:37
Speaker 1: for a strip down view of things. It'll change your perspective. Now,
9:42
Speaker 1: addressing the visual aspect of getting busted, it's pretty easy.
9:46
Speaker 1: What if you consistently get winded from one of your favorites?
9:50
Speaker 1: This one means you might just have to be more
9:52
Speaker 1: careful when you hunt it. Or again, maybe it has
9:55
Speaker 1: something to do with a microclimate at your exact spot,
9:58
Speaker 1: maybe thermals or the way of specific valley curls to
10:02
Speaker 1: the north or south or whatever. Maybe it's a matter
10:05
Speaker 1: of setting up a little farther uphill, or maybe it's
10:08
Speaker 1: a matter of looking for a secondary setup that is
10:10
Speaker 1: close but allows you to hunt different winds. Good spots
10:14
Speaker 1: are worth figuring out, my friends, and a lot of
10:17
Speaker 1: the mind grinding for figuring those spots out should happen
10:20
Speaker 1: right now. Maybe when you think back to last season,
10:24
Speaker 1: you remember that when you walked in during October for
10:26
Speaker 1: an afternoon hunt, the climbing sticks on your stand almost
10:29
Speaker 1: glowed in the afternoon sunlight. You think the deer don't
10:33
Speaker 1: notice that they do. Or maybe you use ladder sections
10:37
Speaker 1: that creaked or squeaked or clunked or whatever. Perhaps just
10:41
Speaker 1: an upgrade to some other option will be all you
10:43
Speaker 1: need to make your favorite spot really hum. Now ask
10:47
Speaker 1: yourself about shot opportunities from your spots too. Can you
10:51
Speaker 1: shoot all over? Do you have to wait for them
10:53
Speaker 1: to hit a specific lane or window? Is it worth
10:56
Speaker 1: trimming a little now to give yourself a few more options?
11:00
Speaker 1: Was a really good time to do that stuff? And
11:02
Speaker 1: the same goes for entrance and exit routes. Now, I've
11:06
Speaker 1: beaten this dead horse enough so I won't keep swinging
11:08
Speaker 1: the old baseball bat at the recently deceased pony too much.
11:12
Speaker 1: But I'll say this, maybe the most valuable thing you
11:15
Speaker 1: can do right now, besides real winter scouting, is to
11:18
Speaker 1: work on your entrance and exit routes. With the woods
11:22
Speaker 1: laid bare, you can see where you need to cut,
11:25
Speaker 1: and by the time spring rolls around, all your work
11:27
Speaker 1: will start to become just another feature of the woods.
11:31
Speaker 1: I have a spot on a little property own in
11:33
Speaker 1: Wisconsin where this is a huge priority of mine. I
11:37
Speaker 1: can get to the corner of that land right now,
11:39
Speaker 1: but it's kind of noisy and a little nerve racking
11:41
Speaker 1: in the dark. But I want to hunt it. Actually,
11:45
Speaker 1: I want to set it up for my daughters to hunt,
11:47
Speaker 1: because when there's a remotely decent buck on that property,
11:51
Speaker 1: he almost always cuts that corner and we rarely hunt it,
11:56
Speaker 1: which probably is why they're there. But as soon as
11:59
Speaker 1: the snow melts at least a little bit more, that's
12:02
Speaker 1: priority number one for that property. It doesn't matter to
12:06
Speaker 1: me whether I slip in with a saddle to hunt
12:08
Speaker 1: it or I put up a blind for the girls
12:10
Speaker 1: in August, because what that spot needs first is a
12:13
Speaker 1: way to get in there super quietly, where I'll leave
12:16
Speaker 1: as little ground scent as possible. That won't be the
12:19
Speaker 1: end of the work for that spot, though. This is
12:22
Speaker 1: a point that I think is way underappreciated in the
12:25
Speaker 1: white tail crowd. Things change. In fact, look at how
12:30
Speaker 1: much money is spent to make sure things don't change.
12:32
Speaker 1: For some hunters, you know, the food plots and the
12:35
Speaker 1: box blinds, the ponds whatever. It's all done to make
12:39
Speaker 1: the hunting easier by producing a higher level of consistent
12:43
Speaker 1: deer usage. But for most of us, things are just
12:47
Speaker 1: gonna change. It might be as simple as the neighbor
12:50
Speaker 1: planning alfalfa as set of corner beans, but that changes
12:54
Speaker 1: when or how the deer go by your favorite stand.
12:57
Speaker 1: It might just be that the deer and your property
12:59
Speaker 1: get hunted more from tree stands now than they ever
13:02
Speaker 1: have in your neighborhood, and that makes them look up more.
13:05
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what causes the changes, as long as
13:08
Speaker 1: you're trying to adapt to them. This is one of
13:11
Speaker 1: the reasons why I have a love hate relationship with
13:14
Speaker 1: ladder stands. I love them for the obvious reasons, and
13:18
Speaker 1: in some situations they are such a good choice, but
13:22
Speaker 1: they are also big, heavy, and a royal pain in
13:25
Speaker 1: the old arts to move. This means one thing, we
13:29
Speaker 1: tend to put them up, and we tend to leave
13:31
Speaker 1: them up. This in and of itself isn't really good
13:35
Speaker 1: or bad, it's just an acknowledgement of reality. Now, if
13:39
Speaker 1: this sounds like you do the same mental exercise I
13:43
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier with a hang on stands, How did your
13:46
Speaker 1: sits go in your ladder stands last year or the
13:49
Speaker 1: last couple years? If the deer wise to them, it's
13:53
Speaker 1: time for a plan B. Maybe you just need to
13:55
Speaker 1: zip tie some cover around the stand platform to break
13:58
Speaker 1: up your outline. Maybe you need to move the ladder
14:01
Speaker 1: stand to a better clump of trees ten yards away.
14:04
Speaker 1: Maybe you just need to face the platform mostly away
14:07
Speaker 1: from where the deer usually walk and then shoot around
14:09
Speaker 1: the tree, if that's possible with your ladder stand. But
14:13
Speaker 1: what you don't want to do is settle just because
14:16
Speaker 1: it's a lot easier. Now, what if you don't have
14:20
Speaker 1: stands up or aren't married to any specific spots, but
14:23
Speaker 1: are winner scouting and doing the work you should be
14:26
Speaker 1: doing right now? If you find a spot you want
14:28
Speaker 1: to hunt, now, it's a pretty good time to figure
14:31
Speaker 1: out how to hunt it. Think about it. Think about
14:34
Speaker 1: it just like you would with a go to spot
14:37
Speaker 1: that has produced on a private property for a few seasons.
14:40
Speaker 1: Where is your absolute best tree to set up in.
14:43
Speaker 1: Don't just stand there and quickly glance at it call
14:46
Speaker 1: it good enough either, really look, is there a stretch
14:50
Speaker 1: of its trunk at your desired height that will allow
14:53
Speaker 1: you to hang a stand or saddle up. This is
14:56
Speaker 1: a mistake I make a lot, and it always makes
14:59
Speaker 1: me feel like a total dumbass. I winter scout and
15:02
Speaker 1: I find the motherload of sweet rubs. Then I look
15:04
Speaker 1: at a tree twenty yards away and I go, that's
15:07
Speaker 1: the one. And then I walk out of the woods
15:08
Speaker 1: and I feel all good about myself. But then you
15:11
Speaker 1: fast forward seven months and I walk up to that
15:13
Speaker 1: tree during hunting season, and I look at it, and
15:15
Speaker 1: it's almost instantly a realization that it won't work for
15:20
Speaker 1: some reason. And that reason is because I was too
15:23
Speaker 1: lazy way back in March to really figure the whole
15:26
Speaker 1: thing out. How and where will you set up exactly?
15:32
Speaker 1: How will you get in there? During which conditions will
15:35
Speaker 1: you be calling in sick to work so you can
15:37
Speaker 1: hunt it? During what conditions should you just avoid it?
15:41
Speaker 1: Once you get up there, will you be able to
15:43
Speaker 1: shoot where the deer should be? Will it hunt just
15:46
Speaker 1: as well in September as it does in December? Or
15:49
Speaker 1: should that specific tree and that specific spot be only
15:53
Speaker 1: like a late October setup. And also, even though I've
15:57
Speaker 1: said this a lot, I'm going to say it again.
16:00
Speaker 1: If you do this work, don't forget about setting up
16:03
Speaker 1: on the ground. Natural ground blinds are a great backup
16:07
Speaker 1: when your best spots aren't worth hunting for some reason.
16:10
Speaker 1: You know, slipping back seventy five yards and tucking into
16:13
Speaker 1: a deadfall can just be the ticket. But it's a
16:16
Speaker 1: hell of a lot easier if that deadfall has been
16:18
Speaker 1: carved out and made somewhat ready to hunt well before
16:21
Speaker 1: the season, which is something you can do now. This
16:24
Speaker 1: stuff matters, my friends, even though I know it seems
16:27
Speaker 1: like a low priority now it's not. This is sort
16:31
Speaker 1: of like what I tell my eleven year olds about
16:33
Speaker 1: basketball practice when they complain that they don't want to
16:36
Speaker 1: run killers or do a box out drill. You won't
16:39
Speaker 1: get good if you only play games, or if every
16:42
Speaker 1: practice is just an hour and a half scrimmage. The
16:45
Speaker 1: wins are built when the games aren't being played, because
16:49
Speaker 1: they hinge upon foundational skills. In our world, this world
16:53
Speaker 1: of white tails, we focus on some of those aspects,
16:56
Speaker 1: like I don't know, offseason target practice, but because less
17:00
Speaker 1: on these abstract concepts like fine tuning ambush sites to
17:04
Speaker 1: a level that offers the highest odds of avoiding detection
17:07
Speaker 1: and getting off a quality shot. So I guess that's
17:11
Speaker 1: my call to action here. At the very least, go
17:15
Speaker 1: into the woods and look at your setups, think about
17:18
Speaker 1: how they could be better, and then make them better.
17:22
Speaker 1: If you find spots you want to hunt but you
17:24
Speaker 1: haven't yet, think about how you'll set up there and
17:27
Speaker 1: what could go wrong if the wind is from the east,
17:30
Speaker 1: or the thermals are rising at a good clip or whatever.
17:34
Speaker 1: Envision the scenarios that could cost you a deer instead
17:37
Speaker 1: of focusing solely on finding good spots and fantasizing about
17:40
Speaker 1: how fun they'll be to hunt, then do something about it.
17:45
Speaker 1: And of course listening next week because I'm going to
17:48
Speaker 1: talk about some aspects of planning hunts that I haven't
17:50
Speaker 1: already covered, because it's time to start thinking about those
17:53
Speaker 1: over the road trips that we all want to take.
17:57
Speaker 1: That's it for this week, folks, I'm Tony Peterson. This
17:59
Speaker 1: has been the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast. As always,
18:02
Speaker 1: thank you so much for tuning in. Really appreciate it.
18:07
Speaker 1: If you want some more white tail advice, or you
18:09
Speaker 1: just haven't quite scratched the itch with these podcasts, feel
18:12
Speaker 1: free to head to the meat eater dot com slash
18:14
Speaker 1: wired and you'll see articles about deer hunting by myself,
18:18
Speaker 1: mark guys like Andy May, Alex Gillstroum Beaumartonic, Dylan Tramp,
18:24
Speaker 1: whole bunch of white tail killers. Great information there, but again,
18:27
Speaker 1: thank you so much