Does anyone have any suggestions on how to attrack deer to my food plot during the day time hours?? I have a small food plot which consists of mainly corn, with a concentrated area of grasses and clovers. The surrounding area consists of a wooded area of pines and hardwoods to the west. To the east is grassy fields. In years past, typically the deer passed into the plot in the early morning hours on their way into the woods. In the evening they moved from the pines into the plot and field. Ive noticed this pattern has been changing during the last few years with more and more deer coming in during the hours of darkness. To complicate things further, this year the gas company came through and cleared a 50 foot wide path way in order to rework their pipe line. The disturbance and pipe line activty actaully attracked more deer activity until the gas company started drilling into the hill...once the drilling started and ensued for approximately 1.5 weeks, the deer activity ceased. The activity is steadily picking up, but once again anything coming into the area is after dark. I had 5 really nice bucks on camera this year, but never saw any of them during the day time...I realize that big bucks dont get big by being dumb but dang!!! Any suggestions?? (Baiting is also not an option in WI)
We have plenty of food plots and even more nice bucks on film. It has been my experience over the last couple years that if you think a bruiser is just going to stroll out in the middle of a plot at 10 am and start eating you are in for a lot of waiting. No matter how often I have seen it happen on Lee and Tiffany's farms and the Whitetail Freaks...........in the real world big bucks don't just walk out in the open and beg to be shot. We use our plots as guides, not attractants. The bucks know they are there (just check your cams and see all the night pics) and they know the does are there all the time........so, just because they don't step out doesn't mean they aren't there. Examine your plots and try to figure out with each wind where the bucks would approach from and do your best to get at least around that area and do some scouting/hunting early sits in these areas and hopefully you will see some bucks skirting your plots and peeking/sniffing for a reason to look closer at the plot. Catch them there with a nice intercept/ambush stand or go back and sit on your plot and pray for a hot doe to come out and feed. I am going to experiment with decoys next year and some deer scents as again I have seen numerous GOOD bucks come right to the edge of a beautiful plot and not even drop a head to nibble but they are scanning hard for a reason to step out or better yet a reason NOT to. I have yet to draw one out with calls so I am hoping that calls AND scents AND/OR visual backup with a decoy will provide the next step stimulus needed to nudge him out of cover for just a minute. As stated above...............a hot doe solves all problems in the woods including this one. My buddy killed a 150+ slob on a does tail a couple years back, he followed her all over the hill and never slowed down when she hit the open plot. I personally don't like hanging that much of my hunts success on the randomness of a doe in heat but to each his own. We have had much more success once we figured out our plots influence on deer movement rather than just hanging a stand over a field of clover and waiting for them to commit suicide.
In the past we used drip bags that would start dripping when the sun warmed them...it helped draw deer there thinking others were already there Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
