HOW
TO PICK A STAND SITE
Water Stands
EDITOR’S NOTE: You can’t bag a buck if
you don’t see the animal. The key to seeing more
bucks on every hunt is knowing how to choose the most-productive
stand sites. Many hunters choose their stand sites using
too little information.
To bag a big buck, you must be in a place where the
deer least expect to see you at a time of day when the
buck doesn’t anticipate encountering a hunter.
Most of us don’t hunt out in the water because
we’re more interested in keeping our feet dry
and hunting deer with the least possible amount of hassle.
However, to take an older, bigger buck, you must be
willing to work for him. To determine where an exceptional
tree stand site is, study the area you hunt. Search
for spots where no one will want to put a tree stand.
Learn how to reach that place without being seen and
how to leave without disturbing any evidence to let
others know you’ve been in the region. I particularly
like a tree stand site over water in river-bottom drainages.
Two different methods will aid you in getting to a water
stand - you can buddy-hunt with a small boat, or you
can wear waders. If an oxbow lake, a beaver pond or
a backwater slough is close to where you are hunting,
use some type of portable boat or canoe to get you and
your partner’s tree stands to the places to set
them up. Paddle to a tree standing out in the water.
Have your hunting friend lock on his tree stand, climb
the tree and attach his safety belt once he is up the
tree. Then, you paddle to the second stand site, pull
the boat onshore, hide the boat under brush or bushes
and wade out to your tree stand site wearing either
hip or thigh-high waders and carrying your tree stand.
After the hunt is over and you come out of your stand,
retrieve the boat, and pick up the other hunter.
By using this strategy, you . . .
· leave no scent in the area you plan to hunt,
· can watch the water’s edge, which most
often is a natural deer migration route - especially
if acorns are floating on the edge of the water,
· will surprise the deer, since they don’t
expect to see hunters in trees over water,
· will find other hunters coming to hunt that
region often will drive deer to you if they come by
land,
· can unload any deer you bag into the boat or
canoe and transport it out easily to your vehicle.
Even if you don’t have access to a portable boat
or a small canoe, you can wear hip or chest waders to
move out into the water well away from the bank and
place your tree stand to hunt. One of my favorite stands
to hunt in a beaver swamp late in the season is in flooded
timer. These regions will be full of white oak and red
oak acorns. When
the rains come in late December and the beaver ponds
overflow their banks, the acorns that have been on the
forest floor float to the surface. On one morning, I
had reached my stand before first light and was in my
tree stand about an hour before there was enough light
to shoot. In the stillness of the morning, I could hear
wood ducks whistling through the trees and splashing
in the beaver slough as they landed. I also heard the
noisy quacking of mallard ducks dropping into the standing
timber and feeding on the floating acorns. As the light
increased, dripping water and popping nuts were the
loudest sounds in the area. Using my binoculars, I looked
for the deer. Searching through the mist rising from
the swamp, I spotted four does knee-deep in the water
feeding on the acorns. Behind the does, I saw another
deer with his head behind a big cypress tree.
Then when a wood duck flew into the swamp like a World
War II fighter pilot and splashed not 20 yards from
the deer standing near the cypress, the animal jerked
its head back. I saw a flash of ivory. I studied the
buck through my binoculars. Although he only was a 6-point,
his antlers were wide and heavy. Because a breeze blew
from the shore out across the beaver pond, I knew the
deer couldn’t smell me. I waited for a better
shot. When the second wood duck flew in and landed in
the same area as the first wood duck, the 6-point backed
away from the cypress tree and fed down the slough toward
me. The buck stopped between two sweet gum trees and
presented a front shoulder shot. As the crosshairs found
the spot I was searching for, I squeezed the trigger.
At the explosion of the rifle, ducks took to the air,
and does splashed down the slough. However, the 6-point
was lying in the water where he last had stood. That
same water stand
produced bucks for me six out of the eight years I hunted
that property. I never saw another hunter in that part
of the woods.
Tree stand placement is critical to whitetail success.
Once you learn to carefully scout after studying topo
maps and aerial photos, discard the obvious, quit thinking
like other hunters and determine what a deer will do
before he does it, you will be much more consistent
in placing your stand at a spot where you can see and
take a buck.
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