Looking for Fresh Eyes on an Old Spot

[Trout]

Looking for a fresh set of eyes on a piece of public I like to hunt. I’ve had opportunities here over the years but never sealed the deal on a buck of any size, though there is sign every year that they are there. No one in their right mind is going to access this area from the east, south or north- it would take 3-5 hours depending which way you came from. The only way to access is from the small singletrack dirt road you see going through the SW part of the property. This is walk-in only, though it gets the occasional vehicle from the gas company checking one of the three wells on the west side.

The walk from the gate at the start of this trail to what I have marked as well 1 is about 1 mile. Easy walking and relatively flat. Most guys won’t get too far from that trail. The red dots you see on the aerial are places where I’ve encountered treestands/blinds/other hunters over the years. For some reason, bowhunters particularly will pile up along the west side of the main river channel. Guys from other areas of the country would call this river more of a creek as its only about 15-20 feet across. Lots of feeder creeks come into it in this area as you can see.

aerial w pressure

Here is a map of the same area but showing the various cover types. I would call purple cedar swamp with pines/poplar/tag alder here and there. Green is mostly pines. Aqua green is marsh, mostly cattails. Light orange is maple/poplar/brushy type trees, gray is field, the ones shown are like knee high grass, and the light yellow is thicker aspen.

cover type legend
cover types

And finally the topo

topo

Thanks for any help or thoughts on stand location you might have. Appreciate it!

[MOBIGBUCKS]

I'd walk the edges of all those cover changes for starters.

[headgear]

I circled some stuff I liked in yellow but you really need to tear apart the entire area circled in orange. Cover those creek edges, get in the wet stuff and walk all the transitions. Spend a full day or two there and you should find some good buck sign. Forget everything inside the red dots unless you have a good doe bedding area scoped out for the rut. Wouldn't surprise me to see them setup in the wet stuff close to your access road to sniff anything coming into that area.

[Trout]

Thanks, appreciate the feedback. What's funny is the area you circled in orange is an area I have very little experience in as far as deer hunting goes. After watching some of Dan's YouTube videos and a couple of the dvd's, I immediately thought back to this spot and the fact that I've probably been hunting it all wrong. Need to pick up the marsh and swamp DVD. Will bucks bed on those points into the marsh facing the marsh or looking back into the woods? Guessing wind will be over their back either way? Thanks again

[Hawthorne]

The 3 in the lower right corner is high density aspen saplings surrounded by conifer swamp. Could be a food source with bedding. Behind the 3 is a pink 6. Lowland deciduous. Could be a maple grove with a fallen leaf food source. Just thinking outside the box here from the normal transitions everyone sees on a map.