If you had to bet........

If you had to bet on a foodsource for the evening of opening day (this Saturday), what do you think? Corn that was cut today, or a flat that was dropping red acorns, beech nuts, and walnuts heavily?

The map below shows the area. Orange is our property line. Yellow blocks are the cut corn fields that they just cut today. The green blocks indicate the mast producing hardwood flat that has traditionally shown me good encounters early season. The red circle indicates the primary bedding area, and the two pink squares are places I have stands. I will enter this from the road you can see to the north, through that farmers field so I don't disturb that bedding area on the way in.

Wunderground is calling for a west wind. In the southern most stand right between bedding and mast, they follow that stream into that flat, so no worries of them slipping into the flat south of me and getting downwind. At the stand that is furthest northeast, they cross by the southern most stand, follow that stream, and have to go through that pinch point between the field and stream to get to the corn.

What do you guys think? Anything else on this that pops out at you for an opening day sit with a west wind?

 

i would give the cut corn a little time... if they just cut it, might have been enough activity for the deer to stay out of for a few days. i like the idea of the hardwoods cause that is what is hot right now. (at least by me in northern Illinois) lastly i'll go with the "if it aint broke dont try and fix it" motto. green dots show you luv, keep hittin' em'! good luck

 

Not me if I was a betting man Picked corn for me!!!! Walt

 

You can tell Walt and I hunt Illinois... Corn. No question about it.

 

You got It Walt!! A freshly picked corn field Is like a magnet.

 

I like the stand on the creek.

 

They are both on the creek chief. Which one?

 

I'm partial to the one closer to the bedding area but I ask,

what about your food plots?

 

If the oaks are dropping, I like the odds of the south stand.

I'll be in the oaks tomorrow on my place. They were starting to drop pretty good last weekend.

 

Rob - If we do end up with a west wind like Wunderground is predicting, the plot by my Aunt's house above the nanny whacker will be good. Dan will likely be there in a ground blind since he is gimped up right now and can't hike or climb trees. I need a S/SW wind for the plot in front of camp, or a N/NE wind for the big plot.

Another thing is that I've been glassing the plots and there are LOTS of nannies, fawns, and 1.5-2.5 year olds, but no bucks I really want to shoot. I am seeing buck sign down in the bottom by that stream though, that's where all the rubs I found a few weeks ago were. I don't think we are going to start seeing shooter bucks in or around those plots till primetime, that's how it worked last year.

 

The Eastern most one.

 

Don't know if you remember this, but you picked that spot out over a year ago when looking at my aerial and topo maps............now I have a stand in there.

You also picked out the spot I killed my buck last year too.......:d

 

Thanks for letting me know that.... Last year

What spot was that in?

 

Well I already had a stand in there before you pointed that spot out, but the pink spot below is where I killed him. I actually killed my buck the year before out of the same tree, on the same day, within 1/2 an hour. You indicated that it was a good place for a buck to be chasing does, or cruising along the stream between bedding areas (smack middle of 2x bedding areas that are about 300 yards apart). Both bucks were cruising through in the morning. I killed him on 11/6.

 

May be look to see where the does are coming to eat, that'll bring the bucks in later. I've read that acorns are the hot thing, but that was two weeks ago. I was out in the woods this past weekend, & I did'nt even seen any acorns on the trees and everything on the ground has been eaten.