My friend Tyler and I (tcjohnsonjacks... he likes to sit back and doesn't post very often
) had a set up that we hunted this fall that we want to share with you. The night before opener, Tyler watched 3 bucks leaving some public cattails for a corn field about 100 yards away. The interesting thing about this spot, is ALL the good ground is on the other side. NOBODY bow hunts there, as all the good oak flats, points and islands were separated by hundreds of yards of cattails. Where the bucks came from it is generally void of big trees. We both cyber scouted this area, and somehow overlooked this TINY patch of willows where the deer were bedding. Anyway, the night before opener Tyler saw two little bucks and one 10 point that was easily 130's or better. A stud for our area.In the subsequent weeks, he saw the 10 pointer again, in the same wide open spot, heading for the corn. It was then when he noticed the tiny clump of willows while cyber scouting. We made our game plan and headed in for a ground hunt.
With the wind blowing from bedding towards us, we knew we wouldn't get busted. At last light we heard some sloshing out in the cattails
there was no mistake... here comes a deer! As it often happens, light faded, and the buck hung up just out of sight on the edge of the cattails. We waited and waited... NOTHING. We snuck out as quietly as possible, but I'm sure he probably heard us leave. In the next days Tyler put the pieces of the puzzle together. No doubt, both nights he saw the 10 out in the open field, the wind was blowing from the field to the bedding, giving the buck confidence to step out into the open. When we set up, he did not have the wind to his advantage. He therefore hung up and refused to show himself without knowing for certain the coast was clear.
After we decided we weren't going to hunt that bed anymore that season (this was our first season of bed hunting and we had many other spots to hunt) we went out to that island one afternoon. No deer were bedded there, but there were beds all over on it, including one that was worn to the dirt, which is extremely uncommon for our area. The thickets were rubbed multiple times where they were staging once they reached dry land. The island was mostly void of rubs... I believe there was 1 or 2 small rubs.
I have our access and ground blind spot highlighted in black. This season, we're going to make a little hidey hole in the cattails, and hide on the opposite side of the trails, with the wind in the buck's favor (drawn in red). I have 100% confidence that this bedding area will hold bucks year after year, and we will have it all to ourselves. Pheasant hunters walking the transition will undoubtedly walk right past these deer, but the best thing is these deer basically exit this bedding area on one trail, in plain sight of the road. Lesson learned: Don't necessarily jump right in... if we would have realized this buck was only visible with a favorable wind, the end result could have been entirely different.
. This situation is an unusual one due to the fact that he's in the wide open after leaving his bedding/staging area. And maybe it has to do with the buck's personality that he only feels comfortable doing so with the wind in his favor. 
