RE: Best learned lessons from 2006
Mine was to adapt more throughout the season and to hunt the deer not the sign. I spent the beginning of archery season hunting stands that were surrounded in sign. I would regularly see bucks (no the bucks I was after) passing by at a distance. I kept being stubborn and telling myself that I was in the good spot (how couldn't I be? I was surrounded in trails/scrapes/rubs) but after awhile I said to heck with it and moved my stand towards where I was seeing the bucks move. The area didn't look as good on paper, the trails weren't run down and there weren't any scrapes/rubs in that general area but as season went on I had buck after buck in range. It just showed me that it doesn't matter how much sign or how good a spot looks if the deer aren't walking there while your hunting. Overall it ended up that the first couple weeks of season were more of scouting trips than hunts, and I know believe thats the way it has to be.