Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,
Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.
Speaker 1: First Light Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.
Speaker 2: Hey, everybody, welcome to the wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast,
Speaker 2: which is brought to you by First Light. I'm your host,
Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about water access
Speaker 2: and why it can be a white tail hunter's best friend.
Speaker 2: One of the main themes of deer hunting content, you know,
Speaker 2: at least content that is supposed to teach you something,
Speaker 2: is you know, centered on finding the best spots out
Speaker 2: there wherever you hunt. If you can't find the ridges, benches, swamps, crossings,
Speaker 2: or whatever that bucks are most likely to use, you're
Speaker 2: in trouble. Truth is find you good spots, Nanda. Isn't
Speaker 2: that hard. Sometimes whitetails don't leave as much sign as
Speaker 2: a herd at elk, but deer do leave plenty of
Speaker 2: breadcrumbs out there for us to follow. Where those clues
Speaker 2: lead are the good spots. But a spot is really
Speaker 2: only good if you can get there relatively undetected and
Speaker 2: get out without making too big of an impression on
Speaker 2: the local deer. That's what this episode is all about,
Speaker 2: because it's something you can figure out right now. Way
Speaker 2: way back in two thousand and four, I finished a
Speaker 2: shift at a restaurant I worked at and drove to
Speaker 2: pick up my dad. We pointed my truck west at midnight,
Speaker 2: and by mid morning we started seeing antelope out in
Speaker 2: the wide expanses of South Dakota and then Wyoming, which
Speaker 2: was our final destination. We'd never traveled out of state
Speaker 2: to hunt anything other than turkey's or pheasants, but a
Speaker 2: good buddy of mine was obsessed with rifle hunting Western
Speaker 2: big game. He'd given us some units to look into,
Speaker 2: with quite a bit to public land, and he helped
Speaker 2: us figure out how to navigate the application process. So
Speaker 2: we ended up drawing our tags and I went to
Speaker 2: Cabella's to buy a rifle, since I'd only ever bow
Speaker 2: hunted at that point in my life. I picked up
Speaker 2: a used two forty three for like four hundred bucks,
Speaker 2: which was a lot of money to me. Then it
Speaker 2: shot flat and accurate and seemed like it would be
Speaker 2: good medicine for speed goats. When we arrived in the
Speaker 2: Red Hills to pick out a campsite on public land,
Speaker 2: we found a turnaround on a dirt road that had
Speaker 2: an old, gnarled tree that will probably someday be a
Speaker 2: piece of petrified wood that Spencer Newhart's great great great
Speaker 2: great great great great grandkids will puzzle over at some point.
Speaker 2: It was a good enough spot, so we shot our
Speaker 2: rifles to make sure all was copascetic there, and then
Speaker 2: we started hunting. This was back when driving all night
Speaker 2: and hunting all of the next day didn't bother me
Speaker 2: in the least. That has changed, and if I started
Speaker 2: a hunt with an all nighter it ruins the whole
Speaker 2: experience for me, But back then I didn't care, especially
Speaker 2: because we were finally hunting a western critter in a
Speaker 2: setting that could have been damn near straight out of Mars.
Speaker 2: So we climbed a weathered plateau for a better view
Speaker 2: of that flat country around us, and glassed up a
Speaker 2: whole lot of rocks and dust and weigh way off
Speaker 2: in the distance a herd of elk that looked totally
Speaker 2: out of place. It took about ten seconds of glassing
Speaker 2: to realize why every other hunter we had seen was
Speaker 2: road hunting. When we hiked back to the truck, we
Speaker 2: decided we needed to go out and look at a
Speaker 2: few more chunks of public to see if we could
Speaker 2: even find an antelope. Well we did, and all it
Speaker 2: took was one short stock and my dad was on
Speaker 2: the board. His antelope had wide horns and by all accounts,
Speaker 2: was just a pretty cool bronghorn. It was also anti
Speaker 2: climatic because it was so easy. The next morning, I
Speaker 2: set out to see what I could do about filling
Speaker 2: my tag, and as we were hiking across the dusty
Speaker 2: landscape under the early October sun, a lone antelope so
Speaker 2: far away that I couldn't tell from the distance if
Speaker 2: it was a legal mail or not. But it was alone,
Speaker 2: and that's usually a pretty good sign, so I figured
Speaker 2: I better try to get closer. The problem was that
Speaker 2: there was nothing between us, you know, that would have
Speaker 2: really even hidden a coyote pup let, alone a full
Speaker 2: sized human. As I scanned the landscape, which always seems
Speaker 2: pool table, flat and totally featureless, I spotted a washout.
Speaker 2: You know, some might call it a drainage, I suppose,
Speaker 2: but you know, it was more of a ravine or
Speaker 2: a gully in my definition, it doesn't really matter what
Speaker 2: you call it, because it was about ten feet deep
Speaker 2: and looked to more or less lead close to the antelope.
Speaker 2: So I told my dad to sit back and observe
Speaker 2: while I dropped in and started hiking along the bottom
Speaker 2: of that dry gully. It took me back and forth,
Speaker 2: back and forth, but I always more or less in
Speaker 2: the right direction, kind of like how the stock market
Speaker 2: goes up and down, but in its history has always
Speaker 2: eventually just gone up in a slow, steady march toward
Speaker 2: higher gains. Even if you don't feel like it. It'll
Speaker 2: get you where you want to go if you give
Speaker 2: it enough time. That's kind of what I'm saying. Anyway,
Speaker 2: I missed that goat on the first shot, hit him
Speaker 2: pretty good on the second one on a dead run,
Speaker 2: missed him when he stopped to figure out where the
Speaker 2: asshole was that was shooting at him, and then with
Speaker 2: my last bullet put him down, And it was pretty exciting.
Speaker 2: The entire sequence of me getting into range of that
Speaker 2: antelope was made possible by lucky access that kept me hidden.
Speaker 2: That's it, and it's something that is all over out
Speaker 2: there in the white tail world if you know how
Speaker 2: to use it. Now, of course, you might not be
Speaker 2: so lucky as to find a dry run that will
Speaker 2: take you right where you need to go. But then again,
Speaker 2: you might. When I took Steve Rannella down to Oklahoma
Speaker 2: last fall to teach him how to bowhunt white tails
Speaker 2: as well as you know, many other things about life
Speaker 2: that he just kind of needs to learn, we discovered
Speaker 2: that the rivers in the area were no longer really rivers.
Speaker 2: They were mostly dry runs, pock marked with pockets of
Speaker 2: water that not only held random wood ducks, which made
Speaker 2: sneaking through not as quiet as it could have been,
Speaker 2: but they were also full of dying carp and gar
Speaker 2: that drew in all kinds of critters looking for a
Speaker 2: little rough fish sushi. The access those dried up rivers
Speaker 2: gave us played into nearly every single setup I had,
Speaker 2: you know what scratch that they played into nearly every
Speaker 2: single spot I found where we either killed bucks or
Speaker 2: had close encounters. I sat other spots and put Steve
Speaker 2: in other spots where we didn't have the same kind
Speaker 2: of access, and none of those setups worked out very well.
Speaker 2: The spots I found that had a mix of acorns
Speaker 2: and per simmons, but were also featured some kind of
Speaker 2: sneaky ravine type access or dry river access produced all
Speaker 2: the deer for us. Every spot I found that offered everything,
Speaker 2: but that access didn't work out very well. Maybe on
Speaker 2: private ground with a little to no pressure, the difference
Speaker 2: wouldn't be as stark. But those deer were public land dwellers,
Speaker 2: and they were well acquainted with bow hunters at that point,
Speaker 2: especially cross bow hunters looking to shoot one while sneaking
Speaker 2: around at first and last light. I know I've talked
Speaker 2: about water a lot on this podcast, but this struck
Speaker 2: me as I was shed hunting with my daughter the
Speaker 2: other day. Water is great for killing deer and I
Speaker 2: use it a lot, but water ways are the key
Speaker 2: to unlocking the best spots in the woods, like I
Speaker 2: had reaffirmed to me in Oklahoma last year. I know
Speaker 2: this isn't an option for everyone, depending on where you
Speaker 2: live and hunt, but it's worth understanding. In any case.
Speaker 2: Very few things will help you consistently get on bucks
Speaker 2: more than understanding how waterways work in your favor access wise. Now,
Speaker 2: this is a broad topic because we could be talking
Speaker 2: about a brook, trout stream that is basically a souped
Speaker 2: up trickle, one that you can hop across or walk
Speaker 2: along without getting your ankles wet in most spots. Now,
Speaker 2: the other end of the spectrum could be the Missouri
Speaker 2: or the Mighty Mississippi, or any lake or reservoir take
Speaker 2: your pick. One thing about this country that's pretty sweet
Speaker 2: is we have a hell of a lot of freshwater
Speaker 2: to work with. As I've talked about before, you can
Speaker 2: use water as a general barrier to keep your competition out,
Speaker 2: or at least a confunction that way. A lot of
Speaker 2: hunters don't want to crosswater to get to the deer
Speaker 2: that they think they can get to by not crossing water.
Speaker 2: This is always worth investigating, especially if you're on pressured ground.
Speaker 2: But the truth is waterways should be viewed as two things.
Speaker 2: Areas where deer will congregate and areas where you might
Speaker 2: be able to get into and out of their world undetected.
Speaker 2: I know you're thinking something like, yeah, well, if there
Speaker 2: is a stream that starts by the road and goes
Speaker 2: right to the spot I want to hunt, then sure
Speaker 2: that makes sense. But I like hunting way up the
Speaker 2: ridge and out of the vat where the water flows
Speaker 2: great use the water to cover eighty five percent of
Speaker 2: your entrance and exit. There are times where you might
Speaker 2: enter a property way far away from where you want
Speaker 2: to hunt, so that you have to hike to the
Speaker 2: water and then follow it through the property in a
Speaker 2: long and winding route to get where you really want
Speaker 2: to hunt. This is where so many hunters fail. It's
Speaker 2: easier to just go from point A to B. That's
Speaker 2: what your competition is going to do. But if that
Speaker 2: means you park and walk through an area that will
Speaker 2: spook the deer, is it worth the shortcut. I find
Speaker 2: this type of access a lot in the Midwest where
Speaker 2: I know I can park on the far end of
Speaker 2: a section and drop into a creek bed. Now, it
Speaker 2: might take me forty five minutes to get where I
Speaker 2: want to go, when I could have taken a direct
Speaker 2: route and cut it down to ten. But I don't
Speaker 2: care about that. I want to get to where I
Speaker 2: want to go without the deer knowing, and that's always
Speaker 2: worth a longer walk. You obviously might get some noise
Speaker 2: from the moving water to cover your own noise, and
Speaker 2: your scent is going to be low and not likely
Speaker 2: to blow across the bedding areas as well. You might
Speaker 2: get nice sand to walk across, or you might have
Speaker 2: to slowly wade the water. The key is to understand
Speaker 2: where waterway will allow you to go and what it
Speaker 2: will allow you to do, and then you know you
Speaker 2: need to figure out how to execute on that plan.
Speaker 2: You can figure a lot of this stuff out now
Speaker 2: in the late winter and early spring, and you should.
Speaker 2: But what if the water isn't walkable or waitable. What
Speaker 2: if it's too deep for you to safely cross or
Speaker 2: to hike through in the dark on your way to
Speaker 2: a morning setup. There's other options. You've all seen the
Speaker 2: photos of someone with a big buck lane in the
Speaker 2: bottom of a canoe or a caped out deer strapped
Speaker 2: the front of a kayak. A portable water craft in
Speaker 2: some ways is a pain in the ass, but the
Speaker 2: trade off is that you can hunt where almost no
Speaker 2: one will hunt. If you like shooting big bucks, that's important.
Speaker 2: I'm currently obsessed with an old town kayak I got
Speaker 2: a couple of years ago that is built for sportsmen. Look,
Speaker 2: that's a shameless plug, but it's a great product, so
Speaker 2: I don't care. It's built to help you catch fish. Obviously,
Speaker 2: but also just to allow for easy access to a
Speaker 2: whole world of hunting ground that is not easy to
Speaker 2: access for most folks. Instead of walking through the water
Speaker 2: or along the bank to get somewhere, it's like hunting
Speaker 2: on easy mode. It's also really quiet if you're careful.
Speaker 2: I find myself looking for public land on on X
Speaker 2: that shows quality river access, because having that kayak means
Speaker 2: it's always an option instead of parking where everyone parks
Speaker 2: and walking in the same way that everyone walks in,
Speaker 2: a kayak or a canoe allows you to slip in
Speaker 2: from a totally unexpected route. That element of surprise will
Speaker 2: work in your favor when it comes to white tails
Speaker 2: and turkeys and in some situations western game or whatever else. Now,
Speaker 2: both types of watercraft allow you to cross bigger water too,
Speaker 2: but you better pay attention to the conditions and take
Speaker 2: your safety seriously. I spent way too much time in
Speaker 2: my youth toying with drowning while paddling canoes around to
Speaker 2: take that for granted. Now, tip a canoe in icy
Speaker 2: water and you just get a good appreciation for how
Speaker 2: quickly a quiet paddle can turn into something else. But
Speaker 2: if the conditions are right, and you have the means.
Speaker 2: Paddling your way into deer is a really, really good option,
Speaker 2: so is just being able to paddle in the first place.
Speaker 2: If you have a canoe or a kayak, it'll change
Speaker 2: your style of scouting. It changes how you look at
Speaker 2: satellite imagery because you don't need to write off bodies
Speaker 2: of water. They become a part of the process. Instead
Speaker 2: of going around or not being able to get to
Speaker 2: certain places, you can go straight to them. No, you
Speaker 2: can also do this with bigger boats and a little
Speaker 2: two or four stroke horsepower. Obviously, the required watercraft is
Speaker 2: commensurate to the size of the water. You're not going
Speaker 2: to take a stand up paddle board across a three
Speaker 2: mile wide stretch of the Mighty Mississippi in the dark
Speaker 2: to bow hunt an island during a cold front in November,
Speaker 2: or if you do, at least have your affairs in
Speaker 2: order and make sure you leave your hunting gear to
Speaker 2: somebody who will appreciate it. Bigger boats are nice for
Speaker 2: a lot of reasons, but are also a pain in
Speaker 2: the ass for a lot of reasons. The key to
Speaker 2: all of this is to take a look at what
Speaker 2: you have access to where you might hunt or where
Speaker 2: you want to hunt and how that all comes together.
Speaker 2: But then you want to tryal run the whole thing.
Speaker 2: I can't stress this enough. Whether you're wet waiting a
Speaker 2: small stream, or firing up the outboard to go ten
Speaker 2: miles down the Missouri to bowhunt a chunk of public land.
Speaker 2: Not only do you want to know what you're going
Speaker 2: to get into when you do try this, but how
Speaker 2: long it's going to take, if there are any dangerous
Speaker 2: parts to the journey, and basically you just want to
Speaker 2: familiarize yourself with the route. Keep in mind that when
Speaker 2: you do walk these routes while winter scouting or paddle
Speaker 2: them this spring, they could probably be out there in
Speaker 2: the headspace where it'll seem easy because you're not going
Speaker 2: to be, you know, trying to be quiet, and you'll
Speaker 2: probably have good light to work with. You probably don't
Speaker 2: have a bunch of extra gear. Waterway access is a
Speaker 2: whole different thing in the dark when you're trying to
Speaker 2: be stealthy. Understand that drop waypoints on the entrance and
Speaker 2: exit spots where dangerous stuff might be, and actually, you know,
Speaker 2: just plan out the route if you can then understand
Speaker 2: one thing water changes where Steve and I were hiking
Speaker 2: through you know, mud and rock in October this year.
Speaker 2: Five years earlier, Buddy and I couldn't even wade that
Speaker 2: same river when we showed up to salvage a hunt
Speaker 2: down there. Many of the places I've hunted in hike
Speaker 2: this year were dry and walkable, when a few years
Speaker 2: ago they would have required a boat some September or October.
Speaker 2: Rain can change things in a hurry. Now. A downpour
Speaker 2: isn't going to affect the level of a reservoir too much, probably,
Speaker 2: but it might make a waitable stream a hell of
Speaker 2: a lot less waitable. A frozen swamp that you look
Speaker 2: at in March and think would be one hell of
Speaker 2: a good spot to ambush a big buck in November
Speaker 2: will probably be a totally different thing in November. The
Speaker 2: goal is to get comfortable with whatever level of water
Speaker 2: access you can muster up, and then to start to
Speaker 2: understand that spots and routes where it'll really come into play. Now,
Speaker 2: if I'm being honest, I'd say probably at least a
Speaker 2: third of the bucks I've killed on public land have
Speaker 2: died partially because of some kind of water based access.
Speaker 2: Quite a few others died because of their first but
Speaker 2: a lot of them just happen to live in places
Speaker 2: where using a waterway to get to them was the
Speaker 2: best approach. This is partially because it's a good method,
Speaker 2: and partially because a lot of public lands tend to
Speaker 2: have a lot of water, because if it was dry,
Speaker 2: it would be farmed. For this reason alone, if you
Speaker 2: tend to hunt public land, there should be something you
Speaker 2: at least think about. It'll come into play in so
Speaker 2: many scenarios from Canada on down to the Southern States
Speaker 2: where there's no shortage of H two O out there
Speaker 2: where the deer live. If this at all sounds like
Speaker 2: something that would or could affect your hunting strategy this fall,
Speaker 2: get on on X now, get out there in the
Speaker 2: next few weeks and start to look at the ground.
Speaker 2: Figure this stuff out. The goal of winter scouting is
Speaker 2: always to find the best spots to set up in,
Speaker 2: but those mean nothing if you don't have a good
Speaker 2: way to get to them. Access is as important as
Speaker 2: finding a banging staging area or a generational buck bed
Speaker 2: tucked you know, into the bluff side bench or a
Speaker 2: high spot in the cattail slough. So go channel your Introduckling,
Speaker 2: my friends, and get your feet wet and come back
Speaker 2: next week because I'm going to talk about how the
Speaker 2: best hunters out there often have a few traits more
Speaker 2: closely associated with goblins. That's it. I'm Tony Peterson. This
Speaker 2: has been the Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which is
Speaker 2: brought to you by First Light. As always, I just
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