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oo many hunters sight in their rifles just before the T season and head straight into the field. Shooting on a regular schedule and practicing in real hunting scenarios
is essential for building a reliable skill set. Training at the range and in the field will make you a better marksman and a more successful hunter. 1. Get Your Setup Dialed Shoot with the same rifle, optics and rests in practice as you will use during the hunt. Shooting on a bench with a rest is great for sighting but it does not represent the shooting scenarios you will encounter in the field. Get your rifle outfitted with a bipod or use a tripod and rear sandbag for long distance shooting. 2. Shoot From Different Positions Hunting rarely puts you in an easy shooting position. Get used to shooting from the ground, setup in prone positions, use shooting sticks and rest on tree limbs. The ability to
set up efficiently and find a stable shooting position in any type of terrain will quickly give you an edge in the field. Simply working through the setups to find stable positions without firing is a useful practice. Focus on finding a stable rest and settling on your target downrange. 3. Shoot At Angles In many hunting scenarios, you’ll find yourself shooting at uphill or downhill angles. Practice shooting at different inclinations or declinations to prepare for hunts that take place in rugged terrain. It’s not uncommon that you must take a shot down into a drainage or slightly uphill. Take the time to work through different scenarios and practice at a variety of angles until your shot placement has confidence on the mountain. 4. Range vs Field Shooting at the range is great but it’s difficult to get angled positions and mimic hunting scenarios. The range is a great asset and is convenient but head out into the field for practice whenever possible. You can combine shooting sessions with physical training by hiking to a remote area where shooting is safe and legal. The range is ideal when you are short on time but hit the mountains for shooting practice whenever possible. 5. Practice Often Frequency makes all the difference when developing marksmanship skills. Set a schedule and shoot as often as possible. Ideally, you will shoot once a week throughout the summer. Consider ramping up the month or two prior to a hunt and really find your groove while building confidence. It will make all the difference when you make a difficult shot in the field. Learn About Hunts with Table Mountain Outfitters If you’d like to learn more about guided hunts with Table Mountain Outfitters, please explore their website at www.tablemountainoutfitters.com. They offer hunts for antelope, deer, elk, mountain lion and spring black bear. Call 307-632-6352 for details.
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Proper summer scouting will put you a giant leap ahead of the rest once your hunt opens in the fall. All photo credits: Brady Miller
Summer Mule Deer Scouting For Late Fall Hunting Success By Brady Miller Originally published at www.goHUNT.com
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hunting days slip by, but you’re also beating up your body and mind. Trying to guess things and learn a unit while you hunt it greatly increases the chance that you will get burned out. If you know the general layout of the unit from your summer scouting efforts—or knew of the locations of a few bucks— you could focus your time and energy there instead of scrambling during the limited number of hunting days that you have to hunt. It doesn’t take a lot of time to effectively scout for fall hunts during the summer; it just takes having the right approach to your summer scouting efforts. Showing up blind and not knowing the trail system, roads and access points will only hurt you during a hunt, burning away precious hunting days while you try to quickly learn about your unit.
November? The answer to that might surprise you. Let’s face it, summer scouting for velvet bucks in the mountains is amazing! High country bucks are lounging around and are very patternable during the lazy days of summer. For the most part, with a little knowledge on habitats, buck behavior and some sweat equity, you sit pretty while glassing up velvet bucks. However, the typical summer scouting for these velvet bucks might not benefit you if you have a late October or early November hunt because those bucks could be miles away when your hunt finally starts—or worse— completely migrated out. That typical summer scouting in the alpine could be worthless…unless you flip your tactics on how you’re actually scouting, which is what this article will dive into.
Here’s where we will return to the original question: can you effectively scout for mule deer in late July or through the end of August when your hunt isn’t until late fall? My answer to that is a resolute yes! What can you do in the summer months to put you leaps and bounds ahead of other hunters on a fall hunt? It all lies in the fundamentals of learning a unit and getting down to the basics of mule deer’s needs of feed, security, knowing movements during the time of the year and transitional zones. When it comes to habitats, the core components of mule deer habitat during any time of the year are consistent: water, food and cover...
HOW I SUMMER SCOUT FOR FALL HUNTS
1-Pre-scouting research from my computer What looks great on the computer can be vastly different than in the field, I’ll be WHAT EXACTLY IS SUMMER the first to admit that. However, all of SCOUTING FOR FALL HUNTS? my pre-scouting research starts at the What I want out of my summer scouting computer. I mark anything and everything is to know exactly where to be on the first on Google Earth before I even step foot day of my hunt that will put me in a prime in a unit. I have to first lay down a solid position to start learning what the bucks foundation of pre-in-the-field-scouting are doing and, if I’m lucky, take a buck. before strapping my boots on and hitting Summer scouting for fall hunts means the hills. I start by taking an in-depth look you are not eating up precious “hunting at public land maps, narrowing down time” in the fall trying to learn a new several areas that I feel look very unit. Let’s face it: once September rolls “bucky.” Then, I move onto marking all around, getting any time to slip away for the access roads throughout the unit... a scouting trip is extremely limited as that I know a lot of people call this e-scouting, is valuable time for certain hunts and the but for the majority of us with limited time, time to stack on work at home before a this type of research is actual scouting busy hunting schedule. and this level of work is a tremendous When scouting for my fall hunts, I’d rather undertaking when you get down to it. burn summer days than burn hunting/ As much as I would love to just drive scouting days in the fall trying to learn across the West and run through the the unit I’ve never stepped foot in. mountains to put boots on the ground Plus, when you’re “burning” these precious and scout, I need to have a well thought hunting days trying to quickly learn a unit out plan of attack. And I don’t skimp in while you hunt it, you’re not only letting this area.
2-Drive as much of the unit as possible
Northwood Nash 26N Nothing beats actual scouting intel that you collect from a unit and the quickest way to do that is from a vehicle. As much as I love hiking and carrying my entire camp on my back, if I only have a weekend to scout an out-of-state unit, I need to cover some ground and assess the lay of the land. When starting this “vehicle” scouting session, I like to drive down a bunch of the roads and check out the terrain of the mountains surrounding me. I’m not looking at the terrain close to the road. Rather, I’m assessing the terrain that could be miles away from the road. I want to see what the unit actually looks like after pouring over maps during the offseason.
I also like to cache my unit on Google Earth on my computer while summer scouting. This way I can quickly access my research on a big screen.
It’s best to take a sample of the road situations throughout your unit. Obviously, it’s impossible to check them all out depending on what your unit looks like. Summer scouting for fall hunts is all about learning how to navigate and hunt the unit. I feel a lot of my time is best spent looking over lots of country from several different angles. This way I’m not going in blind, but now I have a giant head start once I start hunting. While driving the unit, you’ll quickly start to notice certain pockets or areas that you missed during your scouting efforts behind the computer. This is why you can never leave all your research to sitting behind a computer. I’m the first to admit that type of scouting is important, but it doesn’t show you everything. When I find new areas that look promising, I always take a photo of what the terrain looks like from my vantage point. Then, after taking the photo, I’ll write down the file name, time taken and date into a notepad. Or, if I take that photo with my cell phone, I’ll move it into a scouting album and mark on my mapping service that I took a photo from here and will call it “Photo 1” or whatever number of photo I’ve taken from that trip so I know how to cross reference it later. This not only helps me reference what caught my eye, but it also helps me see why I missed this spot during my at-home computer scouting sessions on Google Earth. I can now take a look at the computer and compare my photos to cross reference the terrain to other areas of the unit with similar terrain. This is also a great tip to utilize when you are on your actual hunts. That information could be used for future hunts, even if they are in different states. (continued next page)
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While driving the unit, don’t be afraid to bust out your spotting scope and throw it on a window mount to assess the terrain from a long distance away. Another thing to keep an eye out for is closed logging roads. These can be gold mines of good luck come late season hunts. They not only allow you to quickly hike to different vantage points, but they also pose a barrier to entry to anyone who strictly “has to” hunt from an ATV or vehicle. 2.1-Jotting down travel time
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Another great thing to do when scouting from your vehicle is to jot down how long that gravel road takes you to drive up once you leave the pavement to the point where you put that backpack on (seems silly, but when you only have five days of vacation for a fall hunt every minute you can actually spend hunting is precious time). Also, it can be a good idea to mark how long it takes you to get from one spot where you park your truck to your Plan B access point with your vehicle. This way, if your Plan A spot doesn’t pan out and you have to move to a new hunting area, you’ll know how much time you have to allow to drive so you can make sure you have enough time to reach your new evening glassing point. I’ve used this to my advantage several times after I decided to try out a spot one more morning. After the morning hunt was unproductive, I knew I had to be back at the truck by 1 p.m. so I could make the drive to my Plan B area and allow myself ample time to hike in to my new evening glassing point. 2.2-Figure out true road access Nothing is worse than showing up for your hunt and noticing that a road that you thought you could access with your truck was actually an ATV only trail (even when several mapping services didn’t mention that it was a restricted access trail). This exact situation happened to my brother on an Idaho elk and mule deer hunt a few years ago. They drove from Minnesota to Idaho and the spot they had picked out to drive up to access some spots further into the mountains turned out to be an ATV only trail. They battled a few days of hiking this trail, but, soon, enough was enough.
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As crazy as it sounds, they jumped on Craigslist and purchased an ATV from someone in a small town nearby to hunt off of the rest of the week. When they returned to Minnesota after the hunt, they sold the ATV and made some money off it. Another key part of this: what if, while hunting, you spot a buck a great way off in the distance that you want to take a closer look at? What can you do to quickly get closer? This brings us back to the point we were talking about earlier on finding out quick ways to loop around the spot we are hunting and then park your truck and start the hike in again. As crazy as it may seem, when it comes down to a lot of these later season hunts, a vehicle or ATV could be a great tool to utilize. During the summer, if you know you’ve found a solid looking late season spot, but you see a small two-track off in the distance, it might be worth your time to see if you could get your vehicle around to that road in case you need to relocate and hike in on a buck. This not only saves precious hunting time, but it also gives you more options when it comes to glassing an area at different angles in thick aspen or dark timber type terrain. Glassing from multiple angles is always huge for locating an old mule deer! Here are a few other key things I like to note while driving the unit: Campsites If I’m driving a unit in the summer or even during a hunt for that matter, I will mark on my GPS areas where it looks like people might have camped. Sure, some of these campsites might not be from hunters, but it’s still nice to get an assessment of the popularity of a certain area. Big hunting camps are easy to spot; meat poles hung up, large fire rings, etc. Dead end roads Can be good to hunt from as it eliminates vehicle and ATV traffic at that point. Will this road be accessible during late October or early November? 3-Locate multiple ways to access the same country I fully believe that to be a successful mule deer hunter you need to have backup plans. And, by backup plans, I mean backup plan on top of backup plan. I can’t begin to express how many times I’ve been on a hunt only to have something change at the last minute. For example, my Plan A spot wasn’t producing, so I quickly had to change course and move on to my Plan B location and, then, eventually, I killed a great mule deer on my Plan D spot. And, by switching up plans, your backup spot might have finally meant hiking back to the truck and relocating to a totally different area. If you don’t have the knowledge of these different access points from your summer scouting, you might be stuck sitting around at your unproductive area trying to put together a plan by staring at the maps on your phone or GPS. That time, once again, is valuable! Why is this important? This is not to say that your Plan A spot was bad. Rather, the weather conditions might have changed and pushed deer lower or a group of elk hunters might have made camp in your spot two days before the opener, etc. You need to have all the potential backup access points nailed down ahead of time. So, figure out all the different parts of the unit that you could use to access potential hunting areas. Again, nothing is worse than scrambling to find a way to access some Forest Service land when the clock is ticking on your coveted hunt. This is especially important if certain roads that you thought you could drive down and access turned out to stop with a gate across the road and no trespassing signs everywhere on what is a public road. I encountered several of these on a second season (continued on page 25)
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Often called a guide’s best friend. If you ever need to take kids, family members or friends out fishing that haven’t necessarily done a lot of walleye fishing, bottom bouncers are very user friendly. Author Jason Mitchell with his oldest son Brennen Mitchell with Brennen’s largest walleye from the summer of 2019.
Bottom Bouncer Basics For Walleye By Jason Mitchell www.jasonmitchelloutdoors.com
both North and South Dakota, bottom bouncer rigs have Iannbeen catching walleye on the Missouri River reservoirs for awfully long time. The popularity of bottom bouncers
however has expanded far and wide. Come mid-summer, bottom bouncers are probably my go to presentation to catch walleyes day in and day out on many different fisheries. The reason bottom bouncers are so effective is the simple versatility. You can speed up to cover water at over two miles per hour with a bottom bouncer. You can also slow down at a mile per hour or less. You can fish deep water or shallow. You can run plain snells and live bait. You can run half crawler Slow Death style hooks that have become so popular over the last decade. You can run spinner harnesses with blades. All these options enable the angler to fish slow or fast, with subtleness or vibration with flash. You can fish shallow or deep. Through this entire spectrum, bottom bouncers are forgiving in that you can slide out into deeper water or move up shallow and keep your presentation near the bottom if need be. You can also simply put the rod in the rod holder and the rod simply loads up with a fish. Bottom bouncers are so simple to use and so effective. I have often joked that bottom bouncers are a guide’s best friend because you can catch a lot of walleye with a bottom bouncer regardless of experience or feel. Last, bottom bouncers are simply fun. Feeling a hard strike on a bottom bouncer and setting the hook is right up with catching a fish on a jig. Bottom bouncers can also help you really learn what you are fishing. Great tools for really fine-tuning bottom transitions and feeling rock, gravel, etc. which ultimately greatly aids your boat control and understanding of a location, the wire on a bottom bouncer transmits so much valuable information. As a rule of thumb, we recommend an ounce of weight for every ten feet of water. Choosing the right weight is important so that you can keep the bottom bouncer along the bottom upright and close to the boat.
10 | Hunting & Fishing News
There are exceptions of course, there are times when we will run lighter bottom bouncers behind the boat at faster speeds particularly along shallow flats but this is the basic starting point. An ounce for every ten feet of water will enable you to easily fish the bottom bouncer below the boat at about a forty-five-degree angle. This keeps your presentation close to what you are seeing on your electronics. As you change depths, you can always let out more line or pick up line. Usually, if there is any doubt, error on the side of heavy because heavier bottom bouncers are much more forgiving with not only depth but speed. Often, we simply catch more fish with bottom bouncers by simply speeding up to cover water to find active fish and triggering fish. Since I do like to run bottom bouncers at faster speeds, I am also a big believer in using heavier snells. This is not a case for finesse. If I must fish slow with light line, I often prefer to slip bobber or live bait rig. Heavier snells hold up to faster speeds so much better. If your snell or harness is getting twisted, you are using too light of poundage on your snell. I find that fourteen or even twenty-pound snells track behind the bottom bouncer much better at the faster speeds and enable you to use speed to find and trigger fish. Snell length can really vary. Most spinners are tied with a five to six-foot snell but I often prefer to use a shorter three-foot snell when fishing around weeds or using slow death style hooks. Of course, there are exceptions. Long eight to twelve-foot snells can be deadly in clear water or over a real soft bottom. When dealing with clear water or high numbers of incidental pike, I often tie snells with Fluorocarbon and offset the sinking characteristics of fluorocarbon by using a float in the snell or spinner harness. Prop rigs like Northland Fishing Tackle’s Butterfly Blade are simply deadly as they turn at much slower speeds than traditional spinner blades which keeps the presentation off the bottom and out of snags particularly when you have to turn the boat a lot to stay on tight structure. Perhaps one of the hottest trends we are seeing in our travels is the popularity of subtle harnesses that Photo courtesy Jason Mitchell include small metal props, mylar blades like Mack Blades or plastic props like Northland Fishing Tackle Butterfly and Wingnut Blades. These blade options are more subtle than a traditional metal spinner blade and turn at much slower speeds which is deadly whenever you must turn the boat a lot to stay on structure. In clear water, using a simple plain snell is extremely deadly and is underrated at times. From the basic simple snell that has a single hook, you can experiment by adding a single bead or a handful of beads and a float. The next step with vibration is the prop options described above and of course classic spinner harness rigs are a solid option when more vibration and flash is needed. I personally like to lean heavily on spinner harnesses whenever the water is dirty or stained either from wind, water color or algae blooms. Spinner harnesses can also shine when the fish are extremely aggressive as a turning blade can be seen and felt from much further away. On most inland lakes, deep cup Colorado blades have long been the most popular and offer the most thump or vibration at the slowest speeds. Indiana blades shine at slightly faster speeds of over a mile and a half per hour and willow leaf blades shine over open water and fast speeds but put off noticeably less vibration. As water temperatures climb through the summer, speed is your biggest trigger especially when using bottom bouncers and snells. If we are missing fish, we often find that we
improve our batting average by simply speeding up. There is often no need to drop the rod back or feed line, simply drag the fish and let them choke up on the bait. When the water temperatures are over seventy degrees, we often see the fish grab on to the bait and as the bait keeps moving, the fish simply do not want the bait to get out of their mouth. When the rod loads from a fish, simply drag the fish until the rod starts to load even more and as you feel the fish shake, set the hook with a sweep of the rod or use the momentum of the boat to hook the fish… this is why a rod holder will often out fish you holding the rod in the summer when you are using bottom bouncers. Bottom bouncers and spinner harnesses can be run with no live bait as well which can be extremely deadly at times. Gulp! crawlers and minnows or traditional soft plastic fluke and worm profiles are much more durable than live bait and really shine around weeds or small nuisance fish. I often find that I can catch bigger walleye by ditching the live bait options and using soft plastics.
One of my favorite tricks for improving the size of walleye I catch with harnesses is using soft plastic or Gulp! behind a harness and hooking the soft bait with a two hook harness so the bait is warped or curved like a banana. These curved soft baits zig zag and swim through the water at over a mile and a half per hour and really seem to trigger the larger fish and the added movement seems to keep the smaller fish from being able to get their mouths around the bait.
For rods and reels, I prefer to use a baitcasting set up. I personally like to use a stiffer seven-foot medium heavy bait casting rod as the stiffer rod loads up and pops the bottom bouncer through rocks and snags much better especially if you have the rods in the Bottom bouncers are an incredibly effective tool for rod holders. Stiffer rods catching walleye on a wide variety of natural lakes are also needed to hook and reservoirs come midsummer. As water temperatures don’t hesitate to use speed to cover water to up fish at slower speeds climb, find scattered fish and also use speed to trigger fish. Photo courtesy Jason Mitchell below the boat...For holding the rod, nothing beats a good baitcasting reel with a flipping switch which are getting harder to find. Quantum still makes a reel with a flipping switch called the Accurist PT... Bottom bouncer rigs are so incredibly effective on so many fisheries right now. In fact, if I could only use one presentation alone during the month of July, it would be hard to beat a bottom bouncer teamed up with either a spinner harness or some type of rig. You can slow down a bottom bouncer and fish a plain snell with live bait for example if the bite gets tough after a front or in the middle of the day when there is no wind. You can trigger fish with speed and harnesses or go with more subtle hybrid rigs like Butterfly Blades and cover a lot of water on the other end of the spectrum. Bottom bouncers shine around rock, gravel and sand. Bottom bouncers are one of my favorite presentations for running weed line edges as the bottom bouncer serves as a large weed guard collecting a lot of the weeds while the harness runs clean behind. There are few tools that will help you catch more walleye right now under so many different conditions.
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Become more efficient with many trolling patterns by becoming faster with spinning equipment versus relying on line counter reels. Pictured is the author, Jason Mitchell with a trophy walleye caught trolling.
New Trolling Angles By Jason Mitchell www.jasonmitchelloutdoors.com
C
rankbait trolling for walleye is so effective come mid-summer. Besides covering water, crankbaits also simply trigger fish. Most of the prominent trolling patterns in the Midwest are basin, contour or open water orientated. Trolling crankbaits is popular on big locations and shine for breaking down big water. Many people also associate crankbait trolling with deeper water especially come July and August. So often the location dictates the presentation. Trolling takes room. As a rule, trolling crankbaits shines over big locations because if the location is small, you don’t stay in the zone very long. Trolling works to hunt down suspended fish. Trolling works to find scattered fish that are relating to a long contour. Trolling works to comb a basin. Trolling crankbaits can also work in more areas and work extremely well if you change your approach. Many anglers think of trolling as incorporating multiple lines. In some cases, lead core and snap weights are used to get lures to a desired depth. Inline planer boards are used to spread out lines. Several rods are in rod holders and line-counter reels are a crucial piece of equipment. If there is one overlooked use for crankbaits however, that situation would be in much tighter locations. Small spots that most anglers will either pitch or run live bait through. In order to fish these locations however by trolling, you must get much faster and you can do that by scrapping a line-counter reel. Even during the hottest periods of the summer, I catch nice walleye by running and gunning shallow locations that are windblown. Small rock points and fingers, weed lines and sometimes sand. The key so often is fishing through locations fast because these locations are either feast or famine. You might hit five spots without a scratch and then stack twenty fish in a short time on spot number six.
12 | Hunting & Fishing News
But… you must speed things up. Not talking trolling speed but rather the process. If you need time to deploy multiple rods behind the boat and need to wait for a line-counter to peel off line, that process is taking too long. With that equipment, you need to start fifty to a hundred yards away from the location to get lines out and ready. If the spot is only fifty yards long, you just wasted too much time. Expand your trolling this season by knowing when to troll with spinning rods. If you are less than twelve feet of water, you can get in the water much quicker with just a cast. Over the last twenty years, anglers have become reliant on line-counters and dive curve charts. Crucial especially when over deeper water. For so many shallow locations however, trolling isn’t rocket science. If you bow hunt, you know the difference between ten and thirty yards. If you need to troll back at thirty feet in ten feet of water, cast back thirty feet. By changing the equipment and getting confident in judging distance, you can up your trolling game because that is how you really speed up the process of getting in the water and fishing. You pull right up to the spot and it literally takes seconds to set up versus minutes. When you dramatically speed up the deployment process, you can more quickly and efficiently fish much smaller locations. A fifty-yard rock reef might not seem like a very good trolling spot but it sure can be when you can pull up to it and start fishing in seconds. When you get to the end, you don’t have to make a big turn to go back through (although I have caught a lot of fish off over no man’s land). Simply reel up and turn the boat sharp and cast right back out behind the boat. Because you can get in and out of the water so much faster with spinning rods versus line counter reels that weren’t designed to be casted, you can fish much more quickly through locations and hit locations that were traditionally fished with other presentations. These same basic principles also shine after dark or on river systems. Whenever you can find walleye on shallow pieces of structure, this quicker trolling strategy shines. This strategy can also allow you to become much more aggressive when you are trying to hunt down fish. If you do have a three-hundred-yard trolling pass, there might be three or four sweet spots that are high percentage. Instead of trolling the entirety, you can hop into the sweet spots and cherry pick your best waypoints… really fast. If there are a couple of variables that ignite these shallow walleye bites through the heat of summer, a couple of big factors would be either wind or weeds. Of course, full moon periods after dark often produce stellar shallow water trolling. Especially over or along weed line edges, don’t be afraid to run lures close to the boat. If the fish will let you get away with being close to the boat, run close to the boat. The shorter amount of line has a big advantage because you are quicker to clean weeds off because of the distance. You are in and out much quicker. Reel in and cast back out. As a rule, walleye seem to be less boat shy as the water temperatures climb. I often find that I can drive right over the top of walleye in four or five feet when the water temps are over seventy-five degrees. Trolling with the bow mount also have some advantages as you can turn sharp and speed up on your turns. On little spots where there are a lot of places to where the contour cups in and sticks out, boat control is paramount to make trolling work. Boat control when you are moving slow is easy peasy. Boat control when you are flying by at two and a half miles per hour or even three miles per hour is a little trickier. You must really know and understand the spot and you also must anticipate. Another reason to keep lures close to the boat by using lures with sharper dive curves.
If you have mapping capabilities, you will often find that you get much more accurate contour lines if you map the locations yourself. I would dare argue that most contours in less than twelve feet of water are inaccurate compared to deeper structure. As a rule of thumb, I find that I catch more fish when trolling after dark if I slow down to 1.5 to 2 miles per hour. Come the dog days of summer however when the sun is beating down on you, pick up Trolling high action lures like the Salmo your speed and don’t Rattling 4.5 Hornet at high speeds is be afraid to troll at deadly come midsummer. speeds up to three miles Photo courtesy Jason Mitchell per hour. I still find it amazing how much changing the speed can change the results of the day. There have been many days where I couldn’t buy a fish at two miles per hour but couldn’t keep fish off when trolling through the same locations at three miles per hour. Especially during hot weather in shallow water, speed kills. What I love about this overall method is that I am using a presentation where fish are getting left alone by most other anglers. Many anglers focus on offshore structure over deep water. Many anglers are fishing deep and the problem with deep in today’s world is that everybody has a map chip. Deep structure becomes obvious. Weed line and shallow fish often get left alone especially by people trolling crankbaits. If you make a few adjustments however, you can catch really big fish right now with these tactics on these types of locations.
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alleyes spend the better part of their summer season W in deep water. Provided there’s enough oxygen at depth, they happily enjoy cooler water temperatures and
the bevy of bugs and other bait that congregate on deep structure. Older fish in certain lakes, learn to key in on larger bait stock. That could mean ciscoes and whitefish, or suckers and even bullheads or rough fish depending on where you’re fishing. That still puts them deep, maybe coming up occasionally to feed before sinking back down. Depth however is a relative term, depending on the lake you’re fishing. On Minnesota’s Upper Red Lake, 10 feet of water and deeper is considered quite deep. The same is true in the prairie pothole region where there’s plenty of great little walleye holes that never make even 20 feet. Then again, there’s great walleye lakes like Vermillion, where walleyes can be found in excess of 50 feet of water. Of course, your favorite walleye lake may be at either end, or anywhere in between. While the depth of walleyes may be relative to the system in which they live, their ability to survive summer capture at those various depths is not. Most fish caught in 30+ feet of water will likely die as the result if water temps are at their peak. Brandon Eder, Assistant Area Fisheries Supervisor for the MN DNR’s Waterville Office confirmed this in a recent conversation while adding, “No matter how slowly you reel in fish from that depth, there’s still likely going to be some trauma.” (continued page 15)
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Hunting & Fishing News | 13
Photo credit Ryan McSparran
Summer Fly Fishing Tips:
DO YOUR HOMEWORK Before you spend a day or two walking or riding in on horseback you should be prepared with a rough layout of the land. We suggest using OnX Maps to scout, mark, and map out routes of destinations within their mobile and desktop app. On your smartphone, you can download and save the topo maps...aerial images of the area, allowing you to view and navigate without cell service once you’re in the backcountry. If you do not wish to purchase the app’s yearly subscription you can always use the old faithful — Google Earth. Both apps can give you crucial information like elevation, distance between two points, and wilderness boundary markers. WHAT TO LOOK FOR
Exploring Wilderness Waters
By Lee Harrison Mystic Outdoors www.mysticoutdoors.com
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.. ummer is here and with that comes summer fly fishing – including wilderness areas that are usually only accessible during the warmer months. Exploring wilderness waters fills the day dreams during winter tying sessions of thousands of anglers, however, not everyone is sure where to start when pursuing the wild trout that inhabit these places. Here is a kickstarter to get you prepared for your adventure: First, let’s go over some housekeeping. Designated wilderness areas are limited to foot and horse traffic only. Do not expect to rip up to a high-country lake on your dirt bike or in your newly pimped out Tacoma. This brings some sizable challenges when trying to explore an area.
14 | Hunting & Fishing News
Photo credit Ryan McSparran
Topography features on maps allow anglers to determine the fishability of a stream or river. If you are unfamiliar with how topography works just think of it like this. The closer the lines are together the greater the slope on a landscape. For example the image above shows a flat valley floor with a meandering stream running through the middle, flanked by steeper hills on either side. You’ll notice I edited out information that would give away it’s exact location. However, it provides a good example of what to look for. You’ll see a consistent increase in line spacing leading to the creek from the hill on the left, with no topo lines until you reach the small hill on the right. This means the elevation in the creek bottom is relatively unchanged. This will make for slow and deep water for fish to hole up in. Another great “Know Before You Go” tool is historic rainfall. Not only will this information dictate your wardrobe during the trip but also help you identify when water is fishable. I’ve hiked up to lakes only to find they are too low to hold fish in August, due to lack of yearlong runoff and rainfall, one too many times to let you fall victim to it. Getting a spreadsheet of historic rainfall can help you avoid dry creek beds and empty lakes. I’VE MADE IT. NOW WHAT? Once you get boots, or hooves, on the ground the expanse of wilderness can be overwhelming and often give you challenges you’ve missed while looking at maps. After arriving at the creek, river, or lake you’ve planned on fishing, approach it just like you would your local waters. Target water features that are most likely to hold fish. Keep your eyes peeled for tributaries, bends, inlets, and holes. The rules of fishing remain true while away from the crowds and technology. Most importantly, be nowhere else while spending time in the wilderness. There is not much of it left, so to spend time chasing its fish, watching its wildlife, and taking in its sunrises is truly a great privilege. Good luck, tight lines! RECOMMENDED RODS FOR WILDERNESS FLY FISHING Hands down, our favorite fly rods for wilderness waters are the Au Sable series. Designed for light line situations where dry flies are the norm, these rods are perfect for the backcountry. At just 8’ 3” long, the shorter length makes these rods very packable and perfect for brushy creeks.
HOW DEEP IS TOO DEEP (continued from page 13)
Throughout the walleye-belt then, there’s plenty of catch and release fishing that might as well be catch and kill. Not that there’s anything wrong with eating a walleye either. I love ‘em, and prepare them a bunch of different ways. However, there are plenty of lakes that mandate release of walleyes a certain size, and anglers should know some ins and outs of how depth can affect the release of walleyes during the summer. Eder suggests, “Be prepared to keep your first 6 fish regardless of size (depending on the regs) and then quit or go shallow.” There’s a pile of factors that influence walleye mortality, with depth of capture being only one of them. Hooking method, or how deeply into its mouth a walleye eats the bait is a big influence, as is the use of live bait vs. artificial baits, but those are often related. Water temperature is another factor, and warmer temps see fish that simply don’t release as well and survive. It’s why catch and release walleye tournaments aren’t held as often in the deep summer, and why you should consider eating the fish you catch when water temps are the hottest of the year. Extended or prolonged handling of a fish outside of the water is yet another factor that affects mortality. Many of those factors an angler can directly influence, especially in the summer as you can’t control the water temp. Without switching away from live-bait, circle hooks vs “J”-hooks, and pinching down all barbs, what’s a catch and release angler to do? The answer is to change the depth at which you’re fishing, and to know what depths are likely lethal, and which are not.
Photo courtesy Northland Fishing Tackle
Barotrauma is a big word with a relatively simple meaning, especially as it pertains to walleyes caught at depth. It affects all living things, but with walleyes swimming rapidly from deep water, it refers to physical injuries caused by water pressure. Quick ascent means a swelling air bladder, which can push their stomachs out, bulge their eyes, and ultimately cause deadly injury. Releasing those fish at the surface, in extremely warm water may make the angler feel good as they swim away, but may not lead to survival. One solution to the problem of fish barotrauma has been “fizzing” – the act of releasing that pressure with an accurately placed hypodermic needle into the swim bladder of the fish. Of course, “accurately” is the key, as stabbing a fish with a needle indiscriminately, can further exacerbate the problem. Eder says, “I don’t like the idea of anglers running around poking walleye with needles. It’s hard to get the right spot in perfect conditions and even tougher in rain, wind, or after dark.” (continued on page 38)
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LESSONS FROM GROWING UP IN FIELDS OF UPLAND BIRDS By Chloe Nostrant Project Upland www.projectupland.com
A bird hunter reflects on the moral and life lessons learned in a childhood of upland hunting. aking up, I grab my contact case off of the window sill. W My bathroom window had been left open, so last night’s cool temperature gave them a nice chill. I put them
in and blink a few times to warm them up. Walking out of the bathroom, I catch a glimpse of my old Browning Youth 20-gauge sitting in the corner and remind myself to clean it before going hunting. Its stock was a little short for me now that I had grown up, but it still could get the job done. The coming of hunting season brings back memories of my childhood, one that included time spent in the prairies of eastern Montana chasing birds. Somewhere along the way I had become more of an angler and less of a hunter. I went outside to unpack my truck from my latest fishing trip. The cold contacts, the crisp fall air, the gun in the corner and truck full of gear reminded me of one of our infamous trips out east. I was maybe 12 or so, and on a bird hunting trip with my dad and uncle. The men had arisen a little before me to get a head start on coffee. I woke up to the smell of burning hair. Reaching for my glasses, I looked around the inside of our tiny pop-up camper to see that my uncle’s yellow Lab, Curry, had backed himself up against the Mr. Heater, trying to get warm. While my eyes adjusted
to what I was seeing, my brain put the pieces together. It might have been the first time I had cursed out loud, but only the dogs heard me. “Oh, shit!” I said as I scrambled out of my sleeping bag to turn off the heater. I shooed Curry away from the heater and judging by his expression, he seemed more upset that I disturbed him than the perfectly shaped bullseye singed on his hind quarters. Moose, a stately chocolate Lab, scrutinized me from her perch on the empty bed. She was waiting patiently for the hunting to start and I was holding her up. I guessed it was time for breakfast so I grabbed my contact case off the table and unscrewed the tops. My contacts were suspended in the slushy saline, icebound from the freezing night. I buried the case in my jacket pocket, threw on my boots, and swung open the camper door to be met with the words “COUNTY COURTHOUSE.” I had momentarily forgotten where we had chosen to camp. We were parked right on the main drag of some small cattle town in the middle of nowhere Montana. I started walking down the street toward the restaurant while running through in my mind what I would say to my elders. I couldn’t just say “Oh, by the way, Curry burnt his butt on the heater,” but I couldn’t avoid it either. My dad would understand, but my uncle was tricky. He was what I would consider a “brooding artist type.” Think Frank Lloyd Wright but more western. I sat down at the table. We said some good mornings and Buck, the curmudgeon cafe owner I’d grown to like, sweetly asked if I wanted something to drink. “I’ll just have some orange juice please.” My dad, on the other hand, asked for a glass of water, to which Buck replied, “There’s water in the coffee.”
(continued on page 36)
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Bow Season is Coming Stop Procrastinating and Get Dialed By Zach Lazzari
MAKE QUICK WORK OF TRIMMING Photo credit Ryan McSparran
Hunting Gear Outfitters www.huntinggearoutfitters.com
ow hunters get first crack at the woods in most states B and early hunting seasons are just around the corner. Procrastinating through the spring and summer is all too easy and a lack of preparation leads to reduced confidence and accuracy in the field. Get busy and stay ahead of the curve. You won’t regret the early efforts when opening day arrives.
Work Over Your Bow
Before anything happens, your bow should be set up for practice with the same sights, rests, string and accessories that will be used during the hunt. Take this time to consider changes, maintenance and options for the bow itself. Make sure the string has plenty of life left because it must endure a few months of shooting before jumping into the hunt. If you plan on changing to a new string, now is the time. You will have plenty of opportunity to break in the material before the season arrives. Also, match your practice arrows to field arrows and use field points with a weight that matches the broadheads in your hunting quiver. Just before the season, you should shoot with a few broadheads and arrows that match the hunting specifications to ensure the bow is sighted perfectly for the hunt.
Mix Up the Targets
Leading into bow season, shooting on a near daily basis is essential. Practice like crazy but avoid setting a routine that lacks variety. During a hunt, shooting from different angles and positions is not uncommon. Practice shooting off a knee, at variable distances and from angles that resemble a tree stand and setup targets in areas with trees and breaks in the landscape. Shooting on a level surface is still great for daily repetitions but utilizing breaks in the landscape shifts the perspective and requires your eyes to focus on the target in an organic environment. Shoot block targets but also incorporate realistic targets to focus tight groupings on vital organs. If you utilize ground blinds and tree stands in the field, practice shooting from the same positions. Setup your stands and blinds and use them during practice to ensure everything is functioning properly and ready for the season.
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Scout and Prepare
It’s never too early to start scouting and preparing. Setup game cameras, clear treestand sites of limbs and debris to create clean shooting lanes and watch from a good distance to pinpoint the perfect hunting locations. In the west, that means glassing the big country that elk call home and in the whitetail river bottoms that means glassing fields, looking for funnels and building a strategy to intercept animals. It doesn’t matter what species you are after, early season scouting can pay off big time when the season opens.
Prep Your Hunting Gear
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WHY YOU NEED TO ATTEND A LONG RANGE RIFLE SHOOTING SCHOOL By Brady Miller
Originally published at
www.goHUNT.com
All photo credits Brady Miller
It’s time to check your hard-headedness at the door when you attend a school like this. Show up, act like a sponge and soak up every bit of information. After all the coaching, practice and refined shooting techniques, I’m confident in saying that you will walk away a better shooter.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN AT A LONG RANGE RIFLE SHOOTING SCHOOL
t’s that time of year. Everyone is starting their post draw IBut… hunt research and dreaming about the upcoming season. the offseason is also the time of year to think about
how you can become a better hunter. If you’re a rifle hunter, everything about shooting a rifle starts with a solid foundation. And in this case, a solid foundation starts with your education, so one of the best things you can do to exponentially increase your success this coming season, in my opinion, is to attend a long range rifle shooting school. We can’t control the weather, we can’t control animal movements and we certainly can’t control how many other hunters are in our “honey hole.” But what we can control is ourselves and our shooting ability. And if we don’t have the proper training… will we make that shot count in the moment of truth? Myself, I’d rather not leave it up to chance.
IMPORTANCE OF A RIFLE SHOOTING SCHOOL Last offseason I decided that I wanted to change the way I approach my shooting. I’ll be the first to admit that up until this point, I had never considered how a rifle shooting school would benefit me. But, I believe that is something that needs to change in a lot of our heads. For the most part, I believe we all assume that we know what we are doing since we have shot a rifle our entire lives. But as I soon found out… I still had a lot to learn and a lot of mistakes that I needed to get corrected. Last year I attended Bob Beck’s Extreme Shooting School in Oregon. His Extreme Shooting School has two levels. The course I attended was the introduction/intermediate course and they also have an advanced course that expands on even more techniques. I’ll quickly say that it was money and time well spent and the best two days of instruction I could have asked for! A long range rifle shooting school teaches you an endless amount of information that will exponentially benefit you! Attitude to have going in Most of us have been shooting rifles our entire lives. And lets face it, we can be a little hard headed in our ways. After all… the bullet, for the most part, has always reached our target, so could we actually be doing anything wrong? More on this later.
22 | Hunting & Fishing News
Classroom sessions like this are a wealth of information.
So you’re telling me you can teach an old dog new tricks? These long-range shooting courses are taught by extremely experienced shooters/hunters. Which is why I mentioned earlier that you need to act like a sponge and consume all the information given to you. I filled up page after page of notes during the two-day course. The weekend of shooting school education started off strong and heavy with roughly four hours of classroom time. This was a huge help for me. We were free to ask as many questions as we had, and Bob dropped a ton of knowledge bombs on us! Topics included the explanation of MOA, why yardage turrets are a gimmick (one discussion I really enjoyed!), reading wind through mirage, cone of dispersion, ballistics, fundamentals of making a long range shot and a plethora of others. After the classroom session, we moved out to the range for the rest of the day. At this point, it was all about rifle sight in and working on building a solid shooting foundation and executing proper techniques.
BREAKING BAD HABITS
Back to what I was talking about earlier about that bullet still making impact… but even though we’ve always thought we were shooting correctly, most likely, we were doing things wrong. Let’s face it… when it comes to a lot of things in life, we all believe we know what we are doing. A shooting school was a great way for experienced instructors to tell you that you are in fact, doing things wrong, and most importantly, how to fix them. Most hunters out there like myself probably haven’t had formal training when it comes to shooting a rifle. The biggest thing for me, was this class showed that even though I thought my form was correct behind the gun, I was letting my body drift to one side. (continued on page 24)
SHOOT YOUR BOW: BEST SUMMER PRACTICE By Mike Hanback Big Deer Blog www.bigdeerblog.com
tanding in the backyard and burning arrow after arrow into foam target is a good way to get your shooting muscles toned S and your release and follow-through down. But now is the time to raise your game and shoot from an elevated platform like you’ll do when deer season rolls around in 6 weeks or so. Why You Should Practice High When you shoot on the ground, you stand fence-post straight, plant your feet in a baseball hitter’s stance, stare across at your target, draw with ease and let an arrow fly. Pretty simple. In a tree stand, you have to stand up on a small platform; turn your body; and your footing is trickier. Leaning left, right, back or out, you draw, bend at the waist and aim down. Your draw elbow might brush the tree at your back…or you must cant your bow to keep it from catching a limb. Not so simple. Also, it’s harder and takes more effort to pull a 60- to 70-pound bow in an 18-foot-high stand, especially one with a small foot platform, than it is on solid ground. Cold weather and several layers of hunting clothes compound the extra effort you need to pull the string smoothly. Finally, when you stare across the flat yard at a 3-D buck you see deep, flat vitals, and it’s easy to pin a sight pin there. But when you’re 17 feet or so high, you see less of a deer’s broadside; the higher you go the thinner and more hidden an animal’s vitals appear, until you’re almost looking straight down on its spine. Now where in the heck do you aim. How to Get High Got an elevated deck or maybe a second-floor porch? If so, shoot off it at 3-D targets and blocks scattered in your yard below. In late summer I shoot practice arrows off my deck. It’s only 10 feet high—not high enough, but better than nothing. I’ve got a buddy that practices from a small porch off his master bedroom. It is 30 feet up, an extreme height, but he’s into it. “I figure if I can center-punch targets from that high up, I can shoot all right at a buck from a 17-foot stand,” Bill told me... A more realistic if time-consuming way to elevate your practice is to hang a stand in a tree behind your house, climb up and shoot at targets below. A bit of a hassle yes, but the best practice. Commit to it now and I guarantee you’ll be a better deer shot this fall. Hang the exact same fixed or climbing stand for practice that you’ll use in the woods. The more you get used to climbing into the stand, figuring out your footwork and shooting out of it with a harness on, the better (and safer) you’ll hunt. Depending on whether you like to bowhunt at 16, 18 or 22 feet, set your practice perch 16, 18 or 22 feet high. When you practice and hunt from the same height with the same sight picture, it becomes easier to estimate the range to both foam bucks and live ones; in either case, use your range finder to confirm. Also, your practice will tell you precisely how your arrows with broadheads fly and strike—probably a tad higher than when you shot on the ground, so find out now. Scatter three or four deer targets around, under and even behind your practice stand. Set them 10 to 40 yards away, in brush, partly behind trees, broadside, quartering-away, quartering slightly to…you get the picture, change it up. Simulate shots you’re apt to get in the woods. Vary the distances and angles of your 3-Ds every week so you’ll cover all the bases.. Climb into your stand, attach your safety harness and rope up your bow. Sit down and “hunt.” Visualize an 8-pointer coming in. Stand slowly, turn, draw and release an arrow smoothly. The more foam deer you stick like that, the better you’ll shoot on flesh-and-blood bucks in a couple of months, guaranteed.
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WHY YOU NEED TO ATTEND A LONG RANGE RIFLE SHOOTING SCHOOL (continued from page 22) So after being kicked in the legs several times to move my body over, I now know what it actually feels like to have my body in the right position. All these years I “thought” I was behind the gun, but I never had an instructor standing behind me to give me instant feedback. This teaching phase was my favorite part of the course. It began with us firing three shots with zero instruction. We then analyzed our group. Next, they added a quick tip and explained what it will do for us. We fired three more shots, and instantly you could see an improvement in the group. We then continued this process several more times with new instructions until our foundation was ingrained in us.
The highlight for me during this shooting school was seeing the level of improvement from my friend, John. My family hails from Minnesota, and as typical of the thick Northwoods of Minnesota, shooting distances are rarely over 100 yards. Before attending this class, John had never taken a shot with a rifle over 100 yards. And after a short day of classroom discussions, and form training, the next day he was ringing steel out past 1,000 yards and even successfully connected at a steel target at a distance of over 1 mile.
IN SUMMARY
What we saw, was that developing a solid foundation was essential! You might not notice that you’re doing something wrong when you’re hitting where you are aiming at a distance of 100 yards. But once you start to extend the distance to 500 and 800 yards, you’ll instantly see where that prior instruction will pay dividends! Utilizing these new techniques definitely took some time, but the course was set up to first expose your bad habits and then teach you how to fix them. And then finally, showing you how these new techniques will help you hit targets at extremely long distances. Another huge part for me was finger placement on the trigger. Again, I thought I was doing things correct my entire life. But turns out I was having some slight horizontal trigger pressure. Calvin explained this to me by grabbing an empty piece of brass and put it in between my trigger finger and middle finger to further emphasize keeping a straight trigger finger and pressing the trigger like a button. More instruction and long range shooting Day two started off similar to day one. The classroom session gave us a chance to describe how we shot and responded to the techniques from day one and dive into an in-depth question and answer segment. After we wrapped that up, we moved on to long range shooting at targets from 700 yards all the way out to 2,000 yards.
THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING
While at the shooting school, there were people in attendance of all backgrounds and levels of experience. Some were even repeat school attendees because it’s so worth it!
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After seeing a long range rifle shooting school firsthand, I easily recommend it to any shooter no matter their level of experience. Core elements that were reinforced to me like pressing a trigger like a button, importance of breathing and follow through, plus a multitude of other tricks, made the shooting school extremely worth it. As I’ve said before, a long-range shooting school is worth every penny for a hunter at any level of experience. We spend money on tags, gear, and gas to our hunting spots, but we rarely spend it on courses to improve our shooting ability.
Also, the timing of this course was perfect! The following week I had a Montana bear hunt planned. I returned home, applied what I learned from that shooting course out in the mountains near my house, then made the long drive to Montana a short 6 days later. On day 7 of my hunt which was the last day of Montana’s spring bear season I finally got my chance at a gorgeous color phase bear. I applied everything that I learned and made a one-shot kill at a distance around 450 yards. Let’s face it, you can do everything right, but if you don’t have the tools and education to succeed in the moment of truth, all of those hours spent researching, planning and scouting were essentially worthless. Currently, these long range rifle shooting courses are put on all across the West, and several on the East coast as well. If you can do one thing this year, it might be worth your time to look up a course like this and give it a try.
Summer Mule Deer Scouting For Late Fall Hunting Success (continued from page 9)
Colorado mule deer hunt a few years back and it was very frustrating that driving up that road that I had never been down before cost us two hours of daylight hunting time. This problem could have easily been solved in the summer when I wasn’t burning up my precious hunting time. Another good source of information for your fall hunt is checking out agency websites for motor vehicle use maps. They will not only highlight all of the roads in the area and the number/name of the road, but they will also mention if they have a hard closure date. Once you dive into those maps, you can also find road status maps that show the status of the road (muddy, travel impassable, etc). These are updated randomly, but can be a great thing to check out right before your hunt so you know if you can access your hunting area or if you have to access it from a backup plan. I take things one step further and grab a file of the motor vehicle use map that I can overlay on Google Earth. This importance of having several backup plans and several different ways to access the same country paid off bigtime in 2018. After trying to find bucks in a certain area in early November and determining that they had moved out, luckily I knew how to access my Plan A spot from another angle, which should be where the bucks had moved to that I knew about from previous scouting trips. The next morning, we were able to get off the mountain, relocate and then hike back up to where I had originally wanted to hunt (but accessed from a better route, which ultimately meant we had to backpack hunt at a not so typical elevation for that time of year). I ended up killing my best buck to date and the hunt was saved because I knew multiple ways to access the same country. 4-Give up the notion that you must lay eyes on deer
Lots of coffee might be needed for a weekend summer mule deer scouting trip.
Summer scouting for fall mule deer hunts means you need to give up on the idea that actually laying eyes on bucks is the most essential part. Sure, seeing a great buck in your unit is very motivating, but will that buck be there in October or early November? The answer to that depends on a lot of factors, but locating a big buck doesn’t have to be priority number one. If you do find a giant buck in mid to late August, that buck could still be there through mid- to late October if the conditions are right. For the most part, hunting later in the fall means you’re either hunting timbered up bucks in their transition zones or you’re hunting migration corridors. That buck could take so many different paths off the mountain that it might be hard to predict where he could be during the fall. Scouting out a great buck deep in the high country will not do you much good unless you can scout that buck constantly. For most of us traveling from out of state, we don’t need to be concerned with actually spotting a giant right now. However, we do need to find these transition zones or migration corridors, which is why if you only have
limited scouting time in the summer, it really doesn’t pay to go deep into the mountains to locate bucks when you most likely will not be hunting them that high in the fall. Why put all your eggs into one basket to just lay eyes on a deer in one or two basins that you most likely won’t be hunting during the fall or likely even see again? If you really want to lay eyes on deer, you can still do some long distance glassing from lower elevations by utilizing road systems or while hiking around. Again, don’t be afraid to bust out the spotting scope and mount it on the window of your truck. As crazy as it sounds, your scouting time is actually better spent looking over the unit in a bigger picture view and trying to note any potential areas where bucks and does might move into come October or early November.
WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS?
Now we are going to start fine-tuning what we should be looking for when it comes to summer scouting for fall mule deer hunts. We are going to focus on finding fall buck habitat, migration corridors, and much more.
TURNING A BIG MOUNTAIN RANGE INTO SEVERAL SMALL HUNTING AREAS
What we are looking for throughout our summer mule deer scouting efforts, is how to transform a vast mountain range, into several smaller areas that we can effectively hunt come fall. We need to focus on the areas that will actually hold deer in October or the first few weeks of November. A lot of this will come down to learning how to read mule deer country. The main goal here is that we don’t want to waste our time staring over “pristine-looking country” in the fall that doesn’t hold any deer. Another plus to summer scouting and why this type of scouting intel is essential is because you can’t always trust what you see while scouting out a unit on Google Earth. The terrain is always steeper in real life, and sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint what type of vegetation you are looking on satellite images. I will say this though, goHUNT’s INSIDER research tools plus Google Earth plus boots on the ground scouting equals success. You can significantly gain a leg up on the competition, through the use of scouting from your computer, but as always, nothing beats boots on the ground. One thing to note about summer scouting for fall hunts is not to get discouraged if summer scouting areas seem too thick to glass into for deer. Those spots will open up in the fall when the leaves have fallen, making things way more accessible to glass. The terrain to focus on during your scouting efforts That fantastic looking summer country, while it holds some great velvet hunts, for the most part, it doesn’t hold deer in the fall. So we need to focus our efforts elsewhere while we are scouting during the summer months. Scout the transition zone between summer and winter range - what zone is this?
A lot of the terrain we are looking for when summer scouting for fall hunts is that pine, oak brush to aspen transitional zone. Usually this is anywhere from 7,000 to 9,000 ft. Extra attention should be given to the aspen and mountain browse ranges (Gambel oak or more commonly called scrub oak or oak brush). Dark timber and burns are also highly productive areas. (continued next page)
Hunting & Fishing News | 25
Summer Mule Deer Scouting For Late Fall Hunting Success (continued from page 25)
Transitional zones are areas that hold deer in between their summer range, and winter range, this zone is typically located directly above a pinyon-juniper zone. In terms of the types of vegetation, a transitional range is comprised of gambel oak, mountain shrub, and ponderosa pine along with mountain mahogany and aspens. One thing to keep in mind, during a mild fall and especially mild winters, mule deer could still be in the transitional range at higher elevations. Which follows some of my late-season strategies of hunting higher than most people during the later parts of the season. The transitional zone could be a holding spot for bucks in October or the first week of November. In my opinion, areas around the transitional zones are vital places to focus on when hunting that early to mid-November time frame. Pines that are mixed with aspens and within proximity to sagebrush and sometimes oak brush are always areas that excite me and will get a mark on my GPS for a closer look come fall. Those pines are essential for extra security. When all that is mixed near each other you have some of my favorite type of mule deer country. Keep in mind that depending on the part of the state you have a tag for, or even the state you are hunting, this can vary. Also remember, no matter what state or season you are hunting, you still need to play out the core components of mule deer habitat which is food, water and cover. Find those three things, and you’ll find the deer. Cover/protection is one of the items I try to focus on locating. If the terrain is too open, you won’t find the big bucks for the most part on these public land hunts. I tend to avoid places that are very open, as these are also places that “look too good to be true.” A buck might move through this open terrain during the rut, but chances of him slipping through the open country during fall is slim to none. Instead, I will try to find fingers of timber, aspens, or pinyon-juniper. Bucks really enjoy food sources that are in close proximity to cover due to the increased amount of pressure they get during hunting seasons. Also, I like to pay close attention to figuring out the sagebrush, bitterbrush and pinyon-juniper zone in the area I’m hunting. Based on numerous mule deer studies, a vast majority of mule deer utilize pinyon-juniper, big sagebrush and bitterbrush on their winter ranges. This information could significantly come into play if you have a hunt that goes into the middle or later parts of November. When it comes to early to mid-November hunts such as Colorado’s 3rd or 4th seasons, I feel it’s very valuable to start thinking about what types of habitats they will be moving into. Habitats buck move into can vary a lot across the west, but typically the kind of terrain we should concern ourselves with is big sagebrush parks mixed with aspens, and oak brush (7,000 to 9,000 feet), and mid-elevation pinyon and juniper stands that are mixed with sagebrush (5,000 to 7,500 feet). Some studies in Wyoming note that 74% of the crucial winter range occurs between 4,593 to 5,577 feet.
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It takes a few years to figure out where and what terrain types bucks tend to prefer during a specific time of the year across the West. But you can cut your learning curve down. •Summer alpine zone - 10,000 to 13,000 feet •Subalpine zone - 9,000 to 11,000 feet •Dark timber, pine and aspen - 7,000 - 11,500 feet •Transitional zone - 6,000 to 9,000 feet •Sagebrush winter range zone 4,000 to 7,000 feet The above zones are just a basic summary. Keep in mind that where you are in the West, these elevation zones will greatly vary.
Once you gather all the pieces of this puzzle, you’ll be ready for anything the deer or the mountain will throw at you. You’ll know that if mature bucks are not in their migration zones, you’ll find them higher up in their transitional zones just below their summer range. If you have weather on the way, you’ll know you want to move to the migration zone quickly and the flipside can be said if you get an unseasonably warm fall, the bucks will be in their summer range. All of these different scenarios should pop up in your head when you’re summer scouting. It can’t help to get all your Plan A through Z spots dialed for different weather patterns. By utilizing these steps, you will start to figure out areas you can glass from during your fall hunt. Keep in mind, what looks like a good opening on a ridge to glass from on Google Earth, most likely is choked with small trees making glassing nearly impossible. But this is why you are out summer scouting. Keep in mind, no matter what state you’re hunting or what particular unit you’re in, mature bucks will tend to prefer a specific terrain or vegetation depending on the time of year… it is your job to figure that out. Once you figure that out, it’s game on! Fall food sources By the time your hunt opens in the fall, one of the most significant changes to buck activity will be the types of forage bucks will be consuming, and as the fall gets further along, you also need to be concerned with what groceries the does are consuming as well. According to multiple studies, mule deer have often been considered browsers (eat primarily shrubs as opposed to grazers which eat grasses and forbs) due to them commonly being observed for research studies in the winter. However, mule deer are actually opportunistic feeders that select the best food during that available growing season and time of the year. As summer vegetation dries up, mule deer begin to replace their typical summer forb diet. When frost starts to hit mule deer country, deer will shift to feeding predominantly on shrubby vegetation (Mule Deer, A Handbook for Utah Hunters and Landowners). What I’m looking for when summer scouting is trying to figure out the habitat that will hold bucks. This is where cover and feed during the later part of the season comes into play. Bucks love the edge habitats as they can feed and be within close proximity to cover.
CROSSING OUT NON-HUNTABLE AREAS
Part of your summer scouting efforts can be spent crossing out non-huntable areas. Getting rid of some areas that don’t look productive means you’re not wasting your time hunting those less than ideal locations during the fall that will not be productive for mature mule deer. This is probably one of the most challenging and intimidating factors to hunting a new unit. You never know to an exact science where mature bucks will be, but in time, you can learn vital pieces to the puzzle that will help you narrow down the search. One of the problems with determining a hunting spot is that plenty of areas might look great on a map, but not actually hold any deer. In my mind, I find that crossing off areas is extremely valuable. Which is why I’m not afraid to cross areas off that map. (continued page 28)
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Summer Mule Deer Scouting For Late Fall Hunting Success (continued from page 26)
This task becomes a lot easier if you can hunt this location year after year or have hunted a similar time of year in another state. If you’ve hunted a different state or unit, you can take what you’ve learned and apply it to new hunting locations. Soon enough, you will see a pattern on what areas are way more productive than others. But since we are just learning the unit, we need to be mobile in our summer scouting and check out the entire unit if possible. What could be non-huntable areas? •Areas near heavily used campgrounds •Locations in close proximity to a trailhead •Spots with lots of ATV trails •Hillsides that are too open
FINDING HARD TO ACCESS PLACES
To set yourself up for success in the fall, you need to look for hard to access places. These are the spots that a mule deer buck will feel safe while avoiding pressure...Think of it another way, by the end of October, in some states, a mature mule deer has already been hunted or impacted by hunts for other species, for almost 60 days. Seclusion to a mature buck can mean many things, it could be the distance from a road or trail, amount of dark timber, and living in or above steep terrain are all ways a buck will try to avoid you. The common factor here is bucks (more so big bucks) are not hanging out where there are other hunters. Finding the right cover for their security will be essential.
Bucks become hard to find and are timbered up until the rut begins. This is where some summer scouting can come into play by locating areas where bucks might move to. These could be dark timber patches within close proximity to quality feed, or steep and nasty ravines. Locate areas in the summer that hunters might overlook. The less hunting pressure, the more bucks you’ll find. If less hunting pressure means backpacking in, then, by all means, you should check out areas that other hunters aren’t willing to reach. On the flip side, less pressure could mean hunting lower elevations of the unit too.
YOU CAN’T HELP IT… YOU NEED TO LOOK AT BUCKS IN THE SUMMER
Let’s face it. You just drove a bunch of miles for a weekend summer scouting trip and you’re itching to lay eyes on deer. But instead of hiking deep into the backcountry to scout, you can do a lot of great long-distance glassing near roads, or within a short hike to a great vantage point. There is one tough part about this, laying eyes on a great buck and trusting he will still be nearby when your hunt arrives. It’s August or early September and you found a great buck hanging out at 10,000 ft while scouting. Will that buck still be there for a mid to late October hunt? Most likely you could find this buck on your hunt during October, as a good buck is most likely holding up in the aspens or dark timber. If there’s been little to average amount of snowpack in the high country before your hunt, I’m confident in saying that you could still find this buck where you located him. Those aspens will pull and hold deer during October. One example of this was on my second season Colorado hunt in 2017. There was a giant snowstorm the day before the season opened that dumped roughly 1.5 feet of snow. I went high up in the mountains where this herd summers, and still found lots of bucks and deer tracks even higher. A few days after the storm, the deer were starting to pull off this area slightly, so I relocated my camp and we ended up killing two bucks right around 10,000 ft in late October. So even with the storm, these bucks were still tucked up near where they spend their summer months. They were just now a lot harder to find as they had switched over from lounging around in the open to now hanging out in the dark timber. In summary, the quick and easy answer is you could start your hunt where you saw the buck during the summer and work down. Your buck could be close by, it just might take some glassing and patience to uncover him. I don’t like to make laying eyes on bucks my number one priority during summer scouting for fall hunts.
LOCATE GENERAL MIGRATION CORRIDORS IN THE SUMMER
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Since you’re scouting in the summer for late-season hunts, you’ll need to be looking for areas that bucks migrate into for the rut and wintering areas. Figuring out a big buck or more specifically a herd’s migration route is the actual hot sauce of hunting some of these late-fall hunts. If you leave this fact behind, you are setting yourself up for a long hunt as most of the bucks you’re looking for might be long gone. Bucks migrate for a number of reasons and are either calendar-based, weather-based, or rut based. Also, if you’re hunting a season that could have a little bit of rut in the air, then finding the does will eventually lead you to the bucks. As the does start their annual trek out of the high country in search of better groceries, bucks will eventually begin to follow. This again is where it plays to have a basic understanding of mule deer biology and it would be wise to again revisit what types of vegetation they prefer this time of year. I’ve always had this theory about bucks and herds of mule deer in general, will not fully migrate out of the high country
at the first sign of severe weather if they still have all of their nutritional requirements. Too often I’ve heard hunters not having success because they think all of the bucks have migrated out of the high country already, and so they hunt low country with all the other hunters. Yes, some might migrate, but I’ve had great success bucking this trend on late October hunts and even early November hunts. I’ve also taken my biggest bucks to date by hunting in unconventional places. For the most part, according to mule deer studies, the timing of mule deer migrations to lower elevations is based upon quality forage, depth of snow, energy to get around in the snow, temperature, and possibly the age of the animal. So how can you find some of this intel before you summer scout? Some of that work is actually already done for you by state agencies. A quick Google search will give you links to download these maps/layers from certain state agencies. Take for example the state of Colorado, once you download these layers, this state will actually break them down by Severe Winter Range, Winter Concentration Area, and Winter Range layers. Keep in mind these layers are general purpose maps, and shouldn’t be used as a definitive guide to where deer will be. But are great reference points on where deer could be if the weather conditions push deer down. As mentioned in the fall food section, you’ll want to be focusing your attention on oak brush, aspen groves and the fringes of habitat near dark timber. No matter what unit you’re hunting, it’s always important to figure out if your unit is migration dependant. Some units no matter the level of summer scouting you do, you will not find many deer or no deer at all. These units are heavily dependant on migrations. This is where these summer scouting for fall hunts techniques will come into play as knowing these migrations patterns are key to helping you figure out where you need to concentrate your efforts if you have a late fall hunt. Questions we need to be answered when scouting or even hunting the unit: •What triggers the migration of mule deer in your unit? •Weather, seasonality? •When the deer migrate, do they all push to private? Why is that? •Is there actually any public land habitat in your unit that will hold deer when they push out of the high country? Or is that ideal habitat all on private? •If you have a November hunt, I can’t stress the importance of figuring out how the habitat in your unit will dictate how your November hunt will. For example, a lot of the best rut/winter habitat in most areas of the West are on private land. By the time some of the later rifle seasons come along, bucks are already unhuntable due to private land having the best habitat. Once they hit those giant private ranches, for the most part, they are safe. So when you are researching for a unit to apply for, or even trying to figure out where to hunt, you need to take note of the habitat for that season. •Pressure… how does it impact deer movement in your unit? Will the bucks move to another unit or to private land?... While hunting during the fall, just like on summer alpine type mule deer hunts, if I’ve found that doe, fawn and young buck “nursery”... point your optics higher to find the mature bucks. Focus on the habitats that will concentrate bucks during the season you’re hunting. Keep in mind that year to year certain things can change. If you find a pattern that works in one unit, definitely try it out in another unit or state, but understand you may have to modify your plan. Also during the summer, you can also take note of potential migration areas by checking for old deer sign, trails, rubs, and even deer scat. (continued on page 31)
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oday we are taking a look at SNS’ most popular species T to hunt, pronghorn antelope. You may keep close tabs on them during the hunting season, but how much do you really know about them the rest of the year? We may as well begin by addressing their name. Are they antelope? Are they pronghorn? Are they pronghorn antelope? Technically speaking, the Latin name for the species found here in North America is Antilocapra Americana, or American Goat Antelope. They are neither a member of the goat family or related to antelope found in Africa, however. The herds found in western and central North America are indeed Pronghorn. At least now we know where their nick name “speed goat” came from! We already know they are one speedy creature. But how fast can they run? Pronghorn can easily sustain speeds of 30-35mph. They are also able to run a short distance burst upward of 50-60mph. Anatomically speaking, pronghorn have an oversize heart and lungs. That extra volume fuels their powerful running ability. Pronghorn are incredibly alert, skittish creatures. When they feel threatened, they will make a short vibrating snort, almost like blowing air through a low pitched kazoo. They are checking you out and warning the others. You may also see the hairs on their rump raise to flag others in the herd. They have made these adaptations to protect themselves from predators such as; cougars, wolves, coyotes and even eagles with their keen sense of smell and good hearing. Their #1 way of detecting danger however, is vision. Their eyes are like 10×20 power binoculars! It is unknown if they are able to detect color. Interestingly enough however, if you wave a white flag at a buck protecting his herd, he will likely charge in your direction. His heightened curiosity may even bring him in as close as 100-200 yards. If you see your pronghorn hunting guide doing this in September, he is not surrendering, but merely attempting to draw the buck within rifle range. Adult pronghorn males stand about 3 feet at the shoulder and weigh 88-140 pounds. Females tend to weigh in at 75-110 pounds. They have hollow hair that is extremely fragile, but does a magnificent job insulating them during Wyoming’s cold winter months. Pronghorn are hoofed animals. They do not have a dewclaw which may help distinguishing their tracks from deer. Pronghorn need to drink at least once, if not twice a day. We laugh about calling them “day drinkers”. Archery hunters will take advantage of their need for water and tend to set up blinds near watering holes. They are diurnal creatures, meaning active only during daylight hours.
30 | Hunting & Fishing News
With the lack of movement over night, a pronghorn hunter and guide can leave a group at dark and find them in the same spot the next morning. Better be there at “O-dark-thirty” though! They will begin to move with the very 1st bit of day light. Pronghorn are calm the first hour of the day and the last hour. This makes a big difference in sneaking up and hunting such an alert animal! During the winter months, herds will congregate, often several hundred strong. They are the most vulnerable this time of year. This adds to how many eyes are watching, providing an extra level of protection. They rely on grasses and new sage growth for feed. When Wyoming winds blow and the prairies clear, forage becomes available. Their coloring provides great camouflage during the winter months when patches of snow dot the ground. As spring arrives, the herds break into smaller groups of males versus females. A doe will go off individually when she is about to deliver her spring baby. We all refer to them as antelope fawn but Google will tell you a baby antelope is called a calf. They typically have single babies but, it is also common to see twins trotting along behind mom in early June. Males are born with a patch of black color on their cheek which remains with them throughout their life. Their skulls have a boney core which reaches 5-6 inches in length. The sheath that grows around that core is made of dense hair follicles and is the classic horn we all picture. When new hair grows, it pushes off the old horn. These “sheds” are dropped around the first week of December in Wyoming. Speaking of horns, Wyoming’s genetic pool of pronghorn tend to have shorter horn length but larger mass. Hunting pronghorn elsewhere you will find different results. An interesting comparison; the pronghorn pool that reside in New Mexico tend to have taller horn growth but less mass. Wyoming’s pool of pronghorn average 14 inches in length. A Boone & Crockett pronghorn score is calculated from both the height and the diameter of the horn. The majority of mature pronghorn harvested with SNS Outfitter and Guides average 70-75 inches. Above average would be a score of 76-78 total inches. And an exceptional pronghorn may even measure as much as 79 inches to the low 80’s! During the rut, males will protect their breeding group of does fiercely. These “harem bucks” often fight hard, ramming and pounding heads. Hunters occasionally find horns with chips and missing pieces from this activity. It is safe to say Wyoming has the largest population of pronghorn. We have more “speed goats” roaming the grasslands than the rest of the states combined. The Wyoming Game & Fish estimate Wyoming’s herd population to be 500,000. This means a very stable population and excellent odds for your success hunting pronghorn in Wyoming. Don’t make the mistake of thinking trophy horns are the only reason for hunting this species! Pronghorn make great table fare! Processing the meat properly is key! It all starts in the field and your SNS hunting guide will lead the way. The meat needs to be gutted and cooled quickly with care taken to not touch the meat with the hide. This would taint its flavoring. Due to their nomadic lifestyle, there is virtually no fat marbled through their muscles. The meat in that case does not tenderize by hanging and aging. When butchered, a pronghorn may measure up to as much as 30 pounds of meat. Talk about a great way to fill your freezer! Hunting pronghorn is just plain fun! SNS uses a classic method of “Spot & Stalk”. When you join us for a guided pronghorn hunt, expect to traverse ranches in a pickup truck. Be sure to bring your binoculars or a spotting scope to glass the hillsides. When you find a specimen deemed worthy of hunting, its’ time to plan a stalk! Your goal will be to get close enough for a clean, ethical shot. This can be such an exciting challenge!...To learn more visit www.huntwyo.com.
Summer Mule Deer Scouting For Late Fall Hunting Success (continued from page 29) CAMPING ACCOMMODATIONS DURING THE FALL
Another big plus to summer scouting for fall hunts is getting to know where you can camp. There’s nothing worse than taking a truck and trailer up a long windy mountain road in the fall, with no real camp spot and you have to backup all the way down… been there, done that. When you’re planning for a fall hunt, you need to ask yourself several questions: •Do you want to set up a comfortable basecamp and then leave from their every day? •Will you leave from camp on foot or with a vehicle? •Are you able to bring extra gear for this? Chains, etc. •What type of conditions can your truck get you through? •Will you bring an ATV? Is an ATV essential or make it safer? •Do you have the means to backpack in and camp if necessary? •Do you prefer a hotel? •If so, how far is that hotel from your hunting locations? •Is your hotel location limiting your hunting efforts because the hotel is a 1.5-hour drive one way to your main hunt location? •What towns might have better accommodations for the hunt you’re looking for? •Do you have access to horses or mules?
EXAMPLES OF WHY YOU NEED TO SUMMER SCOUT FOR FALL HUNTS
If you don’t have the extra time to take two days before your hunt and scout, then summer scouting is essential! If you think you’ll learn the unit while you hunt, you risk losing valuable hunting time and increase the chance of getting frustrated and rushing things (giving up on a spot too early).
Think of it this way, are you actually able to take additional days off of work and away from family to add on two days of scouting right before your hunt? For the majority of us, this isn’t possible. But it’s probably easier to take off some additional time in the summer for a quick scouting trip. Let’s say you have a 2nd season Colorado mule deer tag. That season is nine days long. If you are driving from out of state and took five work-week days off. That would mean the majority of Friday night and Saturday are travel days. That leaves you with six days for a hunt at best. Do you really want to burn up those precious hunting days trying to learn the unit you’ve never stepped foot in quickly? If you can take additional days off, then I highly recommend doing that. If you can’t make a trip out of state to scout during the summer, then, by all means, planing a few extra days before your hunt opens will be highly advantageous. You can still use some of these steps in this article to put you ahead of the curve. I know several people who arrived for their early November hunt in a unit they had never stepped foot in before, and left after several days of hunting and drove home. They were getting burned out aimlessly moving around the unit trying to figure it out and find a good buck. That frustration in my mind was due to not devoting specific time to scout the unit, and like I’ve said before… you can effectively summer scout for a late fall hunt! If that isn’t the type of hunt you want, some summer scouting could be just the ticket. After all, setting yourself up for success is all about the little things. If your hunting season is already open and longer than a week, you could head out and add on a few days to hunt and do some of these tactics and “scout” with a weapon in your hand. It’s not ideal, but this strategy can work. (continued on page 38)
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Hunting & Fishing News | 31
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32 | Hunting & Fishing News
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Hunting & Fishing News | 33
Photo courtesy Montana Decoy
CREATIVE DECOY USAGE By Trevon Stoltzfus Montana Decoy www.montanadecoy.com
ne of the fun things about hunting is that you usually get O out of it whatever you put into it. You also have the freedom to be creative in your hunting strategies and methods and
when some “out of the box” thinking helps you notch a tag it is so rewarding. Being creative when using decoys can really help you tip the scale of success in your favor. One way that creativity has helped us notch more tags has been in selecting and utilizing decoys that aren’t even the same species as the animal we are hunting. For example in Wyoming where antelope out number people, we will use antelope decoys on long and open country stalks to get into bow range on mule deer. Pronghorn antelope
34 | Hunting & Fishing News
tend to move constantly and a bedded muley buck will sit in his shady bed and calmly watch the “antelope play.” Using that to our advantage we will take an Antelope buck decoy from Montana Decoy and use it intermittently as cover as we move through opening in the terrain as we stalk to with in bow range. We have even gotten a hunter and his camera man into range on mule deer bucks feeding by slowly angling toward the deer. This works well but remember to use the wind on your approach or the jig is up. We also have found in cattle country, by using “Big Red,” Montana Decoy’s red moo cow decoy, we can sometimes cut the distance and get with in our effective range by shadowing a feeding herd of antelope, deer, or elk and slowly angling towards them until we can set up for a shot. The most important aspect of this “out of the box” thinking is that you must have the wind in your favor, and you cannot rush it. If you think you are moving slow, slow down even more. Cows move at a very slow pace and we have been able to get close on numerous occasions with as many as 3 people behind the “Big Red” moo cow decoy when moving at a snail’s pace.
Creatively using a moo cow decoy to close the distance on an antelope, an antelope decoy to get into range of a mule deer, or a cow elk decoy to get a shot at a high country velvet buck in late August is a thrill to attempt and an amazing accomplishment when it all works out. Just remember if it is natural and something that exists in the wild, then it could work. But as always you must slow down and take your time and you have to have the wind in your favor! Because, “You can fool their eyes and you can fool their ears but you will NEVER fool their nose!”
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LESSONS FROM GROWING UP IN FIELDS OF UPLAND BIRDS (continued from page 17)
“So . . . uh . . . something happened to Curry,” I started. My uncle just looked at me and squinted. My dad looked at him, then me. “He just leaned against the Mr. Heater and singed his butt.” Then, trying to soften the blow I added, “He’s fine though. I checked. It was only his fur.” My uncle took a breath and got up from the table without changing his stoic expression. Through the window, I watched him work his way down the street to the camper, let the dogs out, and assess the situation. “He’s probably fine,” my dad said. I wasn’t sure if he meant my uncle or the dog. I got up and went to the bathroom to put in my freezing cold contacts. The quicker we got into the field, the better. Coming of age through days of negotiating prickly pear and sagebrush helped define central themes and direction in my life. Learning how to handle firearms with respect, how to work with dogs, how to talk to ranchers and be not just on the land but in it, shaped me into who I am today. I learned to watch where I walk, clean a shotgun, take care of a dog post-porcupine, sit at cowboy bars and listen to all the tall tales. Most importantly I learned
the lesson that the landscape shapes everything around it, especially those of us who spend significant time in it.
As a kid walking across sections of land filled with cattle and pheasants, I had a lot of quiet reflective time. When a dog would get on the scent, or a deer would spook out of the willows, I’d snap out of whatever daze I was in. I don’t specifically remember what I was thinking about in those days, but I have some guesses. Probably something to do with wanting to be a real cowgirl and knowing that being a bird hunter on the ranch was as close as I’d get to that. Or maybe how odd it was that cactus grew in Montana, or how far we had walked, or about how much further we had to walk, or how weird it was we camped at the courthouse. I thought about the story my uncle told of my great grandfather dancing on the table at the bar next to the courthouse. And I for sure also thought about the cute cowboy working as a bartender at that same bar.
36 | Hunting & Fishing News
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www.tizermeats.com One of the beautiful things about bird hunting is you learn to talk to people from all walks of life. The ranchers who haven’t seen an outsider in God knows how long, the grumpy cafe owner, the game warden, the discerning sportsman with fancy guns that look equally as nice on a wall as in the field. You get the whole spectrum. We all share a common thread: the fields. I learned how to communicate with my fellow hunters. Our needs are paramount to our safety in the field. Comfort, hunger, and thirst are all primal demands that need to be attended to. Position in the field and strategy are paramount to a safe and smooth hunt. I learned to connect with the dogs by hand signals and whistles as well as voice commands. I cultivated successful partnerships with the dogs by learning to read their body language. Ranchers tend to the same land on which elk hunters roam. It’s the same land that the cafe owner sees every day out his window. And it’s the same land the old cowboy at the bar rattles on about, the same land on which my family and I pheasant hunt. Even as a child, I started to piece together slowly that the land was what brought us all together and how beautiful a reality that is.
More importantly, I learned how to think and how to listen. I listened to the wind, the dogs, the cows, the birds. I listened to what my own body had to say. Where was I sore? Was I hungry or thirsty? Why was my vest so heavy? Maybe I shouldn’t have collected so many rocks along the way. I learned to walk, not just walk, but hike for a whole day with my shotgun over my shoulder and burrs stuck to my socks. I learned how to parade up mountains and back down, how to cross streams, get down steep banks and back up. How to move through thick brush or willows, how to watch out for rattlesnakes or holes in the ground. How to cross barbed wire fences and how to read a map. Today, while cleaning out my truck, I found my gazetteer. I have always loved maps, and got my own copy of the big Montana gazetteer when I was a kid. I flipped through the pages and laughed at my early markings of where we had gone hunting. Those kiddish scribbles of “notes” on hunting spots over the years turned into marked fishing spots with short detailed reports on the water. The markings on the map’s pages were a diary of childhood adventures. “Adventures” might be too slight of a word to describe those days, after all they made me who I am today. What do you call the most defining moments of your personality and how do you repay the fields that taught you so much?
Summer Mule Deer Scouting For Late Fall Hunting Success (continued from page 31)
QUICK SUMMARY
Anything you can do now to learn your hunting unit or mule deer behavior is better than just going into your hunt blind. The great part about summer scouting for fall hunts, once you’ve hunted certain places, you can take the knowledge and experience you’ve gained and apply that to future hunts. With all of this intel gained so far in your summer scouting efforts, you should have also found some great glassing points and have marked those down along the way. Summary of items: •Don’t focus on your need to find bucks. We don’t need to see bucks, just sign they were there. •Think in the future…where will the bucks be in mid-October? Where will they be in late October or early November? •Learn what type of terrain is most beneficial to bucks for the time you’re hunting. •Have you hunted this time frame before for a different species? Can you recall where you saw bucks? If so, use that to your advantage. Also, luck could be on your side and while scouting for your hunt in the summer, you might run into some generous locals that are willing to give you some intel or show you some areas on a map. Summer scouting, for the most part, doesn’t take a ton of real work, it just takes some planning at home to mark some spots on a map, and then double and triple-checking them while in the field. Scouting days, are so much more valuable than hunting days. In the end, summer scouting for fall hunts is all about getting to know the lay of the land. If you only can drive around the unit for two days, that is two days that you are ahead by the time your hunt comes up. Plus, any time spent in the mountains looking over mule deer country is time well spent.
HOW DEEP IS TOO DEEP (continued from page 15)
Another solution in the form of re-compression devices may pose some freshwater promise, as they have gained greater acceptance in coastal areas. These tools can simply be an inverted barbless hook secured to a line with a weight that takes the fish to bottom and releases it with a sharp snap of the line, or a jaw clamp that releases similarly. The general idea of both being that the fish quickly gets back down to a depth that allows air bladder pressures to recede, and ultimately supports its survival. For rockfish specifically, studies have shown 80%+ survival rates. While I’m not aware of any similar research on walleyes, the decompression devices show greater efficacy overall. Of course, you could always just limit your fishing north of 30 feet, or make sure that you are legally able to take and eat fish of any size for the lake that you’re fishing. If a limit is what you’re after in those depths, stop fishing once you’ve hit it. Eder also mentions, “If you are on fish over 20″ you should leave so you don’t kill more than your 1 over 20″. All of which means that if you’re putting the hurt on big fish deep, consider switching tactics, locations, and potentially lakes. Focus early and late when fish are more active shallow. Break out some slip-bobbers and camp out on a rock pile, or drag some spinners or rigs along a weedline. There’s lots of ways to get your ‘eyes, but this summer when temperatures climb, do your best to respect the resource by going easy on those deep fish.
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Subaru, Forester, EyeSight, and SUBARU STARLINK are registered trademarks. 1EPA-estimated highway fuel economy for 2020 Subaru Forester models. Actual mileage may vary. 2EyeSight is a driver-assist system that may not operate optimally under all driving conditions. The driver is always responsible for safe and attentive driving. System effectiveness depends on many factors, such as vehicle maintenance, weather, and road conditions. See your owner’s manual for complete details on system operation and limitations. Take a video tour here: https://www.subaru.com/vehicles/forester/gallery.html