Opinions on Land
 

Hi everyone, I've been lurking around here for a while, but this is my first post.

A little background... This is only my third year hunting, first year=nothing, second year=doe and button buck, this year=nothing so far. This year is the first I've tried bow hunting, and I saw a lot of deer for this area (3-6 per sitting), but could never get them in close enough for a shot. Since rifle season opened, I've not seen a single deer, or fresh sign of deer.

So, that leads me into wanting to improve my land a bit for next year to both attract and hold deer. Please give me any input on the marked up aerial below or what else I could do.

The land in the picture is about 20 acres, border to the east by a low traffic road and to the north west by a family member's cow pasture who does not allow hunting, but he also doesn't hunt. The fields on my property are strictly hay. No surrounding neighbors hunt, but we do have the occasional road hunter (1 caught each of last two years).

Thanks for your help.

Dk. Blue = Property Border
Lt. Blue = Creek
Yellow = Early season trails, with rubs, droppings, etc. (gone now)
Red = Proposed food plot location
Yellow Dots = Proposed stand locations
Black X's = Thick briers/underbrush (potential cover)
Black Box = My House

Couple thingss stand out,
They are making a straight line for the food source early season then stop?
I would try to plant a winter food source for them,
How is water? Does that creek dry up?
Also the food plot location, I would consider moving deeper within your property,
Get them to travel throughout your property to reach it.
Where it is you risk them coming to the edge and not needing to go furth,
Also if they bed in your property you risk crossing through their bedding area to reach your stand.

Thanks Terasec,

Yes it does seem as though they were using these trails heavy from about mid September until early November, but since rifle opened Nov. 22 I have not seen anything and no fresh signs, trails have covered over with leaves, etc.; it's like a whitetail ghost town.

The creek is small, average 2-3 feet wide, it almost dried up during summer of '08, but normally maintains itself well.

I understand what you're saying about the plot location, I'll look into a better location when season's over and I can scout it out some more. Do you have a recommendation for a good winter crop?

I'm not too concerned about crossing bedding areas as it is pretty open other than the area I marked with the black x's. I believe they are/were bedding off to the southwest where the trail leads out of the pic, it gets progressively thicker going that direction. So thick you physically cannot walk through in parts.

First thing id do is change that hay to corn. (unless of course that isnt possible?) That provides them winter food. Best thing to do in my opinion is leave some standing also, along the woods edge (i Love that strategy) Secondly, it looks like that creek ends there in the woods. If its me, I would dig out the end there and have the creek flow naturally into a pond/dam. A larger water source is also a plus.

Thanks TeamWiscoUNIT61,

Changing from hay to corn is not really an option, but I may look at doing a section along the woods in corn. Also, the "watering hole" idea is something I'd never thought of before, but it may be a bit more than I want to get into.

could you kinda dam up the creek and that way it would fill up on it's own instead of trying to dig.

That's exactly what I was thinking, and what I'm going to look at the possibility of doing.

Thanks.