Water holes

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treeroot
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Re: Water holes

Unread postby treeroot » Wed Dec 26, 2018 3:46 pm

Thank you Dan.
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Re: Water holes

Unread postby mobymikeguide » Wed Dec 26, 2018 11:10 pm

I love these types of videos, I always learn something and they are really great when you start talking about hunting at work.A situation comes up, boom I just text a link to a video like this, here yah go. BTW when that deer jumped in the water after the shot that was pretty awesome!
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Re: Water holes

Unread postby Jackson Marsh » Thu Dec 27, 2018 3:32 am

8-)
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Re: Water holes

Unread postby KPnorthdakota » Thu Dec 27, 2018 4:30 am

I have two sided by side natural water holes a couple hundred feet down a ridge, but then it goes back up to a hilltop before it finishes the slope down to the riverbed. It’s a small river.

So, this terrain creates a sort of bowl feature around the twin water holes. How is the wind going to work around this bowl. Not real sure how I should hunt it.
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Re: Water holes

Unread postby austin1990 » Thu Dec 27, 2018 5:12 am

Thanks dan good info! I know where a man made water hole on a saddle between 2 ridges is on some public here in AR and this gave me an idea on how I could hunt it. It’s about 75-100 yards east of a food plot and has a lot of bedding cover around it, maybe in next few weeks I’ll twke a scouting trip and see what kind of sign is around for next fall. It’s the only water within 300 yards or so and may be a good spot to ambush one early in the season when it’s hot. Time to study the map some!
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Re: Water holes

Unread postby stash59 » Thu Dec 27, 2018 5:29 am

:handgestures-thumbup:
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Re: Water holes

Unread postby First Sit » Thu Dec 27, 2018 5:54 am

Water holes can be awesome early season and during the mid October lull. My best buck to date was taken oct 13 near a water hole. I watched him make a scrape right near the water hole before I shot him. Picked up a few tricks from this video. :clap:
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Re: Water holes

Unread postby dan » Thu Dec 27, 2018 7:44 am

KPnorthdakota wrote:I have two sided by side natural water holes a couple hundred feet down a ridge, but then it goes back up to a hilltop before it finishes the slope down to the riverbed. It’s a small river.

So, this terrain creates a sort of bowl feature around the twin water holes. How is the wind going to work around this bowl. Not real sure how I should hunt it.

That's a bad situation cause between wind and thermals wind will likely be swirling everywhere... There may be one direction with a good steady wind you could get away with hunting it, but it could possibly be an unhuntable location that you are far better off getting them coming from or going to.
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Re: Water holes

Unread postby may21581 » Thu Dec 27, 2018 8:25 am

The importance of security in the cover for a water hole is super critical like dan mentions in his video. I stumbled across a small water hole from a spring inside some catails on a farm I hunt. This water hole was adjacent to primary bedding in bedding grass and a thicket. The deer were able to access it without stepping into the open to all the nearby streams and creeks. It seemed like all the bucks would hit this water hole before leaving the bedding to feed. Great video dan!
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Re: Water holes

Unread postby Tim H » Thu Dec 27, 2018 9:07 am

I really enjoyed this video! :clap:
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Re: Water holes

Unread postby KPnorthdakota » Thu Dec 27, 2018 9:24 am

dan wrote:
KPnorthdakota wrote:I have two sided by side natural water holes a couple hundred feet down a ridge, but then it goes back up to a hilltop before it finishes the slope down to the riverbed. It’s a small river.

So, this terrain creates a sort of bowl feature around the twin water holes. How is the wind going to work around this bowl. Not real sure how I should hunt it.

That's a bad situation cause between wind and thermals wind will likely be swirling everywhere... There may be one direction with a good steady wind you could get away with hunting it, but it could possibly be an unhuntable location that you are far better off getting them coming from or going to.

Thanks, Dan. I was thinking I’d have to hunt it the way you were saying. Thanks for advising me.

There’s a buck bedding on the hill on the river (lower) side of the twin water holes. I’ve been observing a buck’s activity in this area. He can move all around that little hill. He’s got two trails leaving his bedding area to the west. One that hugs the slope (higher side)coming out on a bench, which seems like he’s exiting east and then comes around the high side of the pond to go west through the bench. The other exit route has him exiting below (south) the hill and walking below the bench. These have proven to be two pretty good trails in the snow coming out. I’ve not scouted the other side exit routes (east of the hill), yet.

I’ve got a cellular camera on the bench that catches his higher exit route. I was getting some good pics. However, lately I’ve only been getting coyote pics and none of him. Some pics have the coyote walking by and some with the coyote running by. With the consistency of the coyote pressure I’m not sure he hasn’t bailed for a while.
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Re: Water holes

Unread postby Hawthorne » Thu Dec 27, 2018 9:44 am

Just about every nice buck I’ve shot has been related to water in some form. I have 23 acres I’ve owned for 5 years. It has a small pothole that’s usually flooded in winter and spring but usually not in fall. In the fall of 2017 it was flooded and attracted more mature bucks than any year I’ve hunted it. Thru trail cam pics. Shot my biggest buck there that year. I was thinking about building a waterhole so I have water every year in fall.
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Re: Water holes

Unread postby cspot » Thu Dec 27, 2018 10:50 am

I have a spot on public land that I want to check out this Spring as it has a water hole on top of a ridge very similar to the one in the video.
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Re: Water holes

Unread postby dan » Fri Dec 28, 2018 6:29 am

may21581 wrote:The importance of security in the cover for a water hole is super critical like dan mentions in his video. I stumbled across a small water hole from a spring inside some catails on a farm I hunt. This water hole was adjacent to primary bedding in bedding grass and a thicket. The deer were able to access it without stepping into the open to all the nearby streams and creeks. It seemed like all the bucks would hit this water hole before leaving the bedding to feed. Great video dan!

At the beginning of the video I show some old footage of a water hole I hunted in Kansas. Notice how its open around the water hole. It was however thick up to about 20 or 30 yards from the water hole and bedding was real close. However, even though it appeared know one had hunted that water hole prior to me based on no hunter sign, I did see several nice bucks come out of bedding and stay in cover and skirt around the water hole unaware of my presence... Yes. Security cover can be important, especially in pressured areas.


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