I got off work and instead of heading home and sitting on a stand I decided to go to some new ground and do a little scouting. This land is all public, but is VERY VERY difficult to navigate and hunt, so many hunters are scared away from it. It is mainly flooded timber, and even the guys who have ran around these woods their whole lives hunt it with a compass. I have poured over some aerial maps of the area and narrowed a search down to 3 key areas. Today I was able to get to 2 of them, and the first one looks to be a very promising stand site. The next one I went to had me puzzled. The map showed a break of big timber running along with some small trees, that border a field of tall grasses and standing corn. I was expecting to see a trail from the field into the timber, but when I got into the woods I saw very little concentrated deer sign, instead it was all spread out over what was pretty well a 150 yard square before I ran into some deep water. As I walked I did find a nice little area that looks like it could be good. It is a very small raised area on average 7 yards across. On the east side is a very thick and flooded area, and to the west is a very deep ditch with tall grasses on the other side. This area runs about 100 yards long and then backs up to another thick flooded area to the north. There was a small trail running the middle of this area, with a few tracks in it, along with 3 scrapes and 2 very small rubs at the far north of the spot. The majority of the deer seemed to be traveling out of the flooded area to the north and then dispersing into the big timber before entering the field at night. Anyone have any experience hunting these types of areas? This is my first crack at river bottom hunting, and right now I'm trying to find reasons not to slip into tomorrow and hang a set.
