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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide

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Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better dear hunting, presented by First Light,

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Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel through the stands, saddler blind

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Speaker 1: First Light, Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host

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Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Hey everyone, welcome to the Wire to Hunt

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Speaker 1: Foundations podcast was brought to you by First Light. I'm

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Speaker 1: your host, Tony Peterson, and today I'm going to ask

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Speaker 1: you to take a fresh look at your old stand sites.

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Speaker 1: But there are certain things that separate the dear killers

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Speaker 1: from like the deer watchers, and a big one is

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Speaker 1: not settling for just any old stand sites. Now, this

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Speaker 1: may sound kind of dumb, I guess when we talk

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Speaker 1: all the time about mobile approaches and saddling up, But

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Speaker 1: the truth is an awful lot of us hunt some

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Speaker 1: spots where we can just put up and leave stands

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Speaker 1: and blinds, and we're just kind of hoping the deer

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Speaker 1: will work with us, and often they kind of don't. Now,

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Speaker 1: instead of getting complacent here, you should go out now

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Speaker 1: and look at your best spots and if possible, make

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Speaker 1: them better. I've talked about this a lot, but back

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Speaker 1: in a past life. When I was eight, up with

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Speaker 1: a tournament fishing scene but still a poor college student,

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Speaker 1: I fished a tour in Minnesota for a few years.

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Speaker 1: This was like a ProAm format, which meant that every

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Speaker 1: pro would get paired up with an amateur and they'd

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Speaker 1: fish as a team for the day. It was an

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Speaker 1: amazing circuit that it ended up going belly up due

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Speaker 1: to some embezzlement issues. And don't quote me on this,

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Speaker 1: but I think probably some fraud. But before the whole

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Speaker 1: thing came crashing down, I fished at tour for three

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Speaker 1: years on the amateur side, and what I learned was incredible.

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Speaker 1: Arguably the biggest lesson I got was fishing with a

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Speaker 1: guy named Brad Kleine during our Tournament of Champions on

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Speaker 1: Lake Minnetonka here in the Twin Cities. I drew Brad

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Speaker 1: on Day two, and while I had an okay Day

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Speaker 1: one with somebody else, I didn't think I was in

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Speaker 1: the running to win. I did know that he was

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Speaker 1: a hell of a good angler, and I was excited

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Speaker 1: to fish with him. Plus I figured if we had

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Speaker 1: a good day, I'd probably get paid. When we set

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Speaker 1: out in a weird September Thunderstorm against thirty nine other teams.

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Speaker 1: The first spot we hit was a sunken rock pile.

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Speaker 1: The rockpile produced one monster muskie follow but that was it.

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Speaker 1: And it's always a little concerning when you don't put

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Speaker 1: a single bass in then live well on your starting spot,

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Speaker 1: which theoretically should be your best place to go. But

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Speaker 1: Brad wasn't worried, so I tried not to be worried.

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Speaker 1: He told me that we were going to leave that

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Speaker 1: rock pile and go work some docks, and that can

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Speaker 1: mean a lot of things, depending on the kind of

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Speaker 1: angler you are. Working docks could be as simple as

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Speaker 1: burning a I don't know, a swim bait or a

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Speaker 1: spinner bait, swimming jig something along the side, and then

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Speaker 1: moving on to the next one. Or it could be

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Speaker 1: about flipping jigs up to the posts and ladders and

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Speaker 1: assorted parts of the dock that bass might like to

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Speaker 1: hide under or next to. Or it could mean using

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Speaker 1: something to skip way under the docks, which of course

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Speaker 1: you can do with jigs, but some other lures too,

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Speaker 1: and this is a real valuable skill if you fish

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Speaker 1: bass for money. The last one you know that's skipping

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Speaker 1: under the docks thing is what Brad meant, and as

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Speaker 1: the guy on the back of the boat, it meant

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Speaker 1: I wasn't going to get a fish a whole lot

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Speaker 1: of fresh water, you know. He was going to cast everything,

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Speaker 1: and that's always kind of a bummer. But we're fishing

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Speaker 1: as a team, and watching a guy like that set

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Speaker 1: up and then work docks didn't make me feel too

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Speaker 1: bad about being in the back of the boat. It

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Speaker 1: was worth it. And I'll tell you, I thought I

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Speaker 1: knew how to fish that style, and I was pretty

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Speaker 1: proficient at skipping with both spinning rods and bait casters.

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Speaker 1: But he was a wizard. He also knew the exact

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Speaker 1: fall rate of the soft plastics he used when paired

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Speaker 1: with various sizes of wide gap hooks. He knew the

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Speaker 1: exact fall rate of the tiny jigs we used, and

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Speaker 1: he knew when a brown one would probably work better

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Speaker 1: than a white one. It was a master class on

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Speaker 1: how to catch big largemouth on docks, and I loved it.

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Speaker 1: I loved netting his fish and eventually catching one good

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Speaker 1: one on my own to add to the live well,

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Speaker 1: to see how he targeted every pole and tire and

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Speaker 1: ladder and back corner and front corner and every other

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Speaker 1: part of every dock we fished. Was like watching a

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Speaker 1: surgeon work. He didn't leave much for the guy in

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Speaker 1: the back of the boat, but it was incredible to see.

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Speaker 1: And I honestly didn't even know that level of fishing

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Speaker 1: was possible, And believe me, it set me on a

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Speaker 1: course to get way better, to understand what to use

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Speaker 1: and when, and to realize that I was largely underworking

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Speaker 1: the available structure on so many of the lakes I fished.

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Speaker 1: And it was also pretty umbling. When you think you

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Speaker 1: know something and then you learn that there are way

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Speaker 1: better ways to do that thing. It's a little shot

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Speaker 1: to the old ego, but that's okay. That's kind of

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Speaker 1: how we get better. And you know where most of

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Speaker 1: us probably need to get better. That's right, Gulf. I'm

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Speaker 1: so sorry. I swear I'm done with those jokes when

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Speaker 1: you get better with our tree stands. While it seems

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Speaker 1: like the whitetail world is full of only people using

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Speaker 1: tree saddles to hunt public land, often for their YouTube channel,

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Speaker 1: the truth is most white tail hunters are pretty heavily

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Speaker 1: dependent on tree stands, hang ons, ladder stands, and I

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Speaker 1: guess in some situations still climbing stands. For this podcast,

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Speaker 1: I kind of just want to focus on hang ons

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Speaker 1: and ladder stands. Mostly. The reason for this is because

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Speaker 1: right now is the time to just fine tune those

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Speaker 1: spots so you really get them right now. Just like

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Speaker 1: when I was fishing that tournament and thought I knew

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Speaker 1: how to fish docks, most of you probably think you

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Speaker 1: know how to hang stands. After all, how hard is it?

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Speaker 1: You know, you go to the field corner and you

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Speaker 1: look around until you spy a straight tree without too

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Speaker 1: many branches, get your stand up about sixteen feet and

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Speaker 1: you call that shit good enough? And it certainly might be,

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Speaker 1: but you have to ask yourself is it, or maybe

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Speaker 1: more importantly, was it. A lot of us hunt the

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Speaker 1: same stands or the same stand sites from year to year,

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Speaker 1: but things change, cover changes, deer movement changes, and sometimes

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Speaker 1: our rock solid stands start to be less fun to sit.

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Speaker 1: Those are where I want to start. This requires each

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Speaker 1: of us to think about our favorite stand sites from

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Speaker 1: last season, or hell, the last several seasons. So do

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Speaker 1: that now, think how did your hunts go? And this

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Speaker 1: is the part that requires real honesty. Did you see

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Speaker 1: deer probably otherwise you suck at picking your favorite stand sites.

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Speaker 1: But also, did any of the deer see you or

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Speaker 1: did you experience a real quick site burnout when you

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Speaker 1: hunt it there? Did you get winded? If so, how

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Speaker 1: often and in what conditions? What happened in September when

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Speaker 1: you sat there? How about November during the rut? Did

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Speaker 1: you have a great early season hunts but not so

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Speaker 1: great hunts when it was closer to Halloween. Let's take

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Speaker 1: the deer seeing you angle first. If you got spott

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Speaker 1: at a fair amount or just by the wrong deer,

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Speaker 1: what can you do to make that sight a little

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Speaker 1: bit better? Can you move the stand to the far

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Speaker 1: side of the tree, That's a simple solution that works

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Speaker 1: quite a bit. Instead of facing the deer face away

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Speaker 1: from where you expect the deer to be, shoot around

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Speaker 1: the tree. Or can you move it a bit higher

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Speaker 1: and take advantage of different cover? Sometimes you move it

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Speaker 1: lower to take advantage of cover. Were the deer too

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Speaker 1: close sometimes or were they just barely arrange. One of

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Speaker 1: the things that's a real pain in the ass about

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Speaker 1: white tail hunting is how often we get close but

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Speaker 1: not right on the X. This happens to me all

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Speaker 1: the time, and I think it's just a part of

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Speaker 1: the whole thing. But how you react to it usually

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Speaker 1: isn't It's pretty easy to hang a stand and call

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Speaker 1: it good enough, especially if you use ladder stands. But

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Speaker 1: in bow hunting, if you're off by I don't know,

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Speaker 1: twenty yards, that's a lot. In gun hunting, you can

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Speaker 1: get away with that, although you can just supersize that

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Speaker 1: number and the same rules apply. You know, instead of

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Speaker 1: being off by twenty yards, if you're off by one

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Speaker 1: hundred yards or one hundred and fifty kind of the

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Speaker 1: same thing. It's time to move now. When I'm on

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Speaker 1: the fence about something like this, I like to walk

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Speaker 1: in there and just look at my stand sites right,

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Speaker 1: I don't know. In the middle of March, when there

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Speaker 1: isn't a whole hell of aladd else to do, and

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Speaker 1: the woods are laid bare and you can see trails,

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Speaker 1: usually you can see your stand if it's still up,

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Speaker 1: or see the tree you usually use. Look around. Is

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Speaker 1: there a better option closer to where that deer like

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Speaker 1: to travel? Is there a way to use your chosen

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Speaker 1: tree but make the stand less obvious When you look

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Speaker 1: up to where you usually have your setup. Are you

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Speaker 1: skyline from the deer's perspective? What about when they are

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Speaker 1: walking in or when they are leaving. The reason this

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Speaker 1: is important now is because it won't feel important in

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Speaker 1: the summer, when the leaves are out and it's as

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Speaker 1: thick as it's going to be all season. It's pretty

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Speaker 1: easy to get overconfident in your setups. If you're in

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Speaker 1: a red oak or a pine tree of some sort,

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Speaker 1: you might have good season long cover. If you're not,

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Speaker 1: you probably won't look at your go to spots now

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Speaker 1: for a strip down view of things. It'll change your perspective. Now,

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Speaker 1: addressing the visual aspect of getting busted, it's pretty easy.

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Speaker 1: What if you consistently get winded from one of your favorites?

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Speaker 1: This one means you might just have to be more

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Speaker 1: careful when you hunt it. Or again, maybe it has

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Speaker 1: something to do with a microclimate at your exact spot,

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Speaker 1: maybe thermals or the way of specific valley curls to

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Speaker 1: the north or south or whatever. Maybe it's a matter

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Speaker 1: of setting up a little farther uphill, or maybe it's

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Speaker 1: a matter of looking for a secondary setup that is

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Speaker 1: close but allows you to hunt different winds. Good spots

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Speaker 1: are worth figuring out, my friends, and a lot of

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Speaker 1: the mind grinding for figuring those spots out should happen

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Speaker 1: right now. Maybe when you think back to last season,

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Speaker 1: you remember that when you walked in during October for

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Speaker 1: an afternoon hunt, the climbing sticks on your stand almost

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Speaker 1: glowed in the afternoon sunlight. You think the deer don't

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Speaker 1: notice that they do. Or maybe you use ladder sections

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Speaker 1: that creaked or squeaked or clunked or whatever. Perhaps just

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Speaker 1: an upgrade to some other option will be all you

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Speaker 1: need to make your favorite spot really hum. Now ask

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Speaker 1: yourself about shot opportunities from your spots too. Can you

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Speaker 1: shoot all over? Do you have to wait for them

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Speaker 1: to hit a specific lane or window? Is it worth

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Speaker 1: trimming a little now to give yourself a few more options?

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Speaker 1: Was a really good time to do that stuff? And

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Speaker 1: the same goes for entrance and exit routes. Now, I've

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Speaker 1: beaten this dead horse enough so I won't keep swinging

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Speaker 1: the old baseball bat at the recently deceased pony too much.

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Speaker 1: But I'll say this, maybe the most valuable thing you

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Speaker 1: can do right now, besides real winter scouting, is to

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Speaker 1: work on your entrance and exit routes. With the woods

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Speaker 1: laid bare, you can see where you need to cut,

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Speaker 1: and by the time spring rolls around, all your work

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Speaker 1: will start to become just another feature of the woods.

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Speaker 1: I have a spot on a little property own in

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Speaker 1: Wisconsin where this is a huge priority of mine. I

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Speaker 1: can get to the corner of that land right now,

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Speaker 1: but it's kind of noisy and a little nerve racking

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Speaker 1: in the dark. But I want to hunt it. Actually,

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Speaker 1: I want to set it up for my daughters to hunt,

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Speaker 1: because when there's a remotely decent buck on that property,

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Speaker 1: he almost always cuts that corner and we rarely hunt it,

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Speaker 1: which probably is why they're there. But as soon as

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Speaker 1: the snow melts at least a little bit more, that's

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Speaker 1: priority number one for that property. It doesn't matter to

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Speaker 1: me whether I slip in with a saddle to hunt

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Speaker 1: it or I put up a blind for the girls

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Speaker 1: in August, because what that spot needs first is a

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Speaker 1: way to get in there super quietly, where I'll leave

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Speaker 1: as little ground scent as possible. That won't be the

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Speaker 1: end of the work for that spot, though. This is

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Speaker 1: a point that I think is way underappreciated in the

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Speaker 1: white tail crowd. Things change. In fact, look at how

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Speaker 1: much money is spent to make sure things don't change.

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Speaker 1: For some hunters, you know, the food plots and the

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Speaker 1: box blinds, the ponds whatever. It's all done to make

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Speaker 1: the hunting easier by producing a higher level of consistent

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Speaker 1: deer usage. But for most of us, things are just

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Speaker 1: gonna change. It might be as simple as the neighbor

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Speaker 1: planning alfalfa as set of corner beans, but that changes

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Speaker 1: when or how the deer go by your favorite stand.

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Speaker 1: It might just be that the deer and your property

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Speaker 1: get hunted more from tree stands now than they ever

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Speaker 1: have in your neighborhood, and that makes them look up more.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what causes the changes, as long as

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Speaker 1: you're trying to adapt to them. This is one of

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Speaker 1: the reasons why I have a love hate relationship with

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Speaker 1: ladder stands. I love them for the obvious reasons, and

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Speaker 1: in some situations they are such a good choice, but

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Speaker 1: they are also big, heavy, and a royal pain in

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Speaker 1: the old arts to move. This means one thing, we

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Speaker 1: tend to put them up, and we tend to leave

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Speaker 1: them up. This in and of itself isn't really good

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Speaker 1: or bad, it's just an acknowledgement of reality. Now, if

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Speaker 1: this sounds like you do the same mental exercise I

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Speaker 1: mentioned earlier with a hang on stands, How did your

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Speaker 1: sits go in your ladder stands last year or the

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Speaker 1: last couple years? If the deer wise to them, it's

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Speaker 1: time for a plan B. Maybe you just need to

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Speaker 1: zip tie some cover around the stand platform to break

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Speaker 1: up your outline. Maybe you need to move the ladder

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Speaker 1: stand to a better clump of trees ten yards away.

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Speaker 1: Maybe you just need to face the platform mostly away

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Speaker 1: from where the deer usually walk and then shoot around

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Speaker 1: the tree, if that's possible with your ladder stand. But

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Speaker 1: what you don't want to do is settle just because

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Speaker 1: it's a lot easier. Now, what if you don't have

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Speaker 1: stands up or aren't married to any specific spots, but

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Speaker 1: are winner scouting and doing the work you should be

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Speaker 1: doing right now? If you find a spot you want

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Speaker 1: to hunt, now, it's a pretty good time to figure

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Speaker 1: out how to hunt it. Think about it. Think about

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Speaker 1: it just like you would with a go to spot

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Speaker 1: that has produced on a private property for a few seasons.

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Speaker 1: Where is your absolute best tree to set up in.

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Speaker 1: Don't just stand there and quickly glance at it call

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Speaker 1: it good enough either, really look, is there a stretch

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Speaker 1: of its trunk at your desired height that will allow

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Speaker 1: you to hang a stand or saddle up. This is

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Speaker 1: a mistake I make a lot, and it always makes

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Speaker 1: me feel like a total dumbass. I winter scout and

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Speaker 1: I find the motherload of sweet rubs. Then I look

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Speaker 1: at a tree twenty yards away and I go, that's

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Speaker 1: the one. And then I walk out of the woods

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Speaker 1: and I feel all good about myself. But then you

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Speaker 1: fast forward seven months and I walk up to that

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Speaker 1: tree during hunting season, and I look at it, and

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Speaker 1: it's almost instantly a realization that it won't work for

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Speaker 1: some reason. And that reason is because I was too

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Speaker 1: lazy way back in March to really figure the whole

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Speaker 1: thing out. How and where will you set up exactly?

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Speaker 1: How will you get in there? During which conditions will

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Speaker 1: you be calling in sick to work so you can

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Speaker 1: hunt it? During what conditions should you just avoid it?

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Speaker 1: Once you get up there, will you be able to

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Speaker 1: shoot where the deer should be? Will it hunt just

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Speaker 1: as well in September as it does in December? Or

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Speaker 1: should that specific tree and that specific spot be only

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Speaker 1: like a late October setup. And also, even though I've

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Speaker 1: said this a lot, I'm going to say it again.

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Speaker 1: If you do this work, don't forget about setting up

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Speaker 1: on the ground. Natural ground blinds are a great backup

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Speaker 1: when your best spots aren't worth hunting for some reason.

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Speaker 1: You know, slipping back seventy five yards and tucking into

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Speaker 1: a deadfall can just be the ticket. But it's a

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Speaker 1: hell of a lot easier if that deadfall has been

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Speaker 1: carved out and made somewhat ready to hunt well before

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Speaker 1: the season, which is something you can do now. This

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Speaker 1: stuff matters, my friends, even though I know it seems

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Speaker 1: like a low priority now it's not. This is sort

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Speaker 1: of like what I tell my eleven year olds about

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Speaker 1: basketball practice when they complain that they don't want to

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Speaker 1: run killers or do a box out drill. You won't

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Speaker 1: get good if you only play games, or if every

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Speaker 1: practice is just an hour and a half scrimmage. The

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Speaker 1: wins are built when the games aren't being played, because

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Speaker 1: they hinge upon foundational skills. In our world, this world

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Speaker 1: of white tails, we focus on some of those aspects,

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Speaker 1: like I don't know, offseason target practice, but because less

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Speaker 1: on these abstract concepts like fine tuning ambush sites to

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Speaker 1: a level that offers the highest odds of avoiding detection

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Speaker 1: and getting off a quality shot. So I guess that's

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Speaker 1: my call to action here. At the very least, go

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Speaker 1: into the woods and look at your setups, think about

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Speaker 1: how they could be better, and then make them better.

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Speaker 1: If you find spots you want to hunt but you

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Speaker 1: haven't yet, think about how you'll set up there and

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Speaker 1: what could go wrong if the wind is from the east,

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Speaker 1: or the thermals are rising at a good clip or whatever.

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Speaker 1: Envision the scenarios that could cost you a deer instead

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Speaker 1: of focusing solely on finding good spots and fantasizing about

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Speaker 1: how fun they'll be to hunt, then do something about it.

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Speaker 1: And of course listening next week because I'm going to

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Speaker 1: talk about some aspects of planning hunts that I haven't

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Speaker 1: already covered, because it's time to start thinking about those

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Speaker 1: over the road trips that we all want to take.

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Speaker 1: That's it for this week, folks, I'm Tony Peterson. This

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Speaker 1: has been the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast. As always,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much for tuning in. Really appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: If you want some more white tail advice, or you

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Speaker 1: just haven't quite scratched the itch with these podcasts, feel

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Speaker 1: free to head to the meat eater dot com slash

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Speaker 1: wired and you'll see articles about deer hunting by myself,

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Speaker 1: mark guys like Andy May, Alex Gillstroum Beaumartonic, Dylan Tramp,

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Speaker 1: whole bunch of white tail killers. Great information there, but again,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much