Trail Camera placement

[sunset samurai]

As the winter/spring scouting season approaches I thought it would make a good thread to see how some of you guys are utilizing your cams on public. Creek crossings, saddles, field corners and the like are obvious tactics as well as bait and/or mineral sites (a no no here in NC on public)
I like hidden food sources in spring/summer as well, apple trees, crop fields etc.
When the late season approaches I like to take a few weeks off while the cams are running and see what kind of activity develops as the neighboring properties get pressured, the lack of intrusion will often allow a buck to get comfortable and make himself vulnerable.
Is anyone doing anything different or out of the box in winter when food sources are limited and spread out?

[Motivated]

Right now in late December I have specific goal for my one trail camera. That is to discover what bucks survived the season, and match footprints to pictures.

That being said, I'm placing my cameras in specific places where tracks cross a muddy area caused by water levels being down. My last 3 camera placements have actually been underneath the bank (water's edge) where the brush hangs over. That's kind of funny and ironic considering my first camera this past summer was flooded out while it was 12 feet up a tree.

I'm using a cheap camera on public land. Considering my timing and strategy I'm not concerned about spooking bucks and I move my camera pretty frequently every few weeks .

If I don't go low and concealed that I usually go 12 feet high and angled down. Still concealed though.

[ Post made via Android ]

[Buckfever]

I took inventory on a property a couple years ago for a late season hunt and this year I'm actually using the cameras to see if I have a hunt there. I used aerials to identify the bedding, funnels to the food and the runs to bedding. I started at the food source and skirted the marsh finding the runs to the food source and looking for buck staging. I found 3 runs and set cameras on each run. From there I scouted the pinch points from the bedding to the food source. You can't cover everything but you can find where there are pinch points whether it's deadfalls or terrain features that funnel things, look for big tracks and buck sign to confirm that the bucks are running through those funnels. I set 3 cams there. And then finally back to the bedding. I actually skirt the marsh coming off the swamp islands find all the runs out of the bedding again looking for staging and I actually try to cover every single run out of the bedding that I'm covering. I have 7 cameras on bedding.

So If there are multiple food sources and multiple bedding I can't cover everything, I cover a specific bedding and a food source completely and the pinch points will either tell me they are using a bedding or I rule that out, they are using a specific food source or that's ruled out. So for me it's about stacking the odds and ruling out a food source or a bedding as much as it is identifying specific bedding and the runs they're using in and out.

I set up the cameras in the rain, I'll go back and pull cards midday the day before I start hunting and then I dive in on a set and stay on it. This time of year they will stay on a pattern for a good bit before they shift.

Also I do not set the cameras where I'm going to hunt but where they'll give me the intelligence and where I can get to them to pull the cards with little intrusion.

[Zona]

Since we are having above normal temps with no snow, I am setting cams on water holes close to thick bedding. This is in hill country so it's sort of location and condition specific. Alfalfa fields around here are still getting hit so I will probably hang a few on pinch points heading to the fields also.