Island hunting,

[Slinghunter1974]

Hey island hunters I have a question. I have found a decent size island in a lake on public land. It is 560 yards long and 150 yards wide and skinnies down to a corridor of what would be two islands if the water was higher, but as of now its connected. It is 500 yards out in the lake though! Had I found it prior to season I would have explored it looking for sign. But it's now hunting season here and I am wondering with it being that far out do you think there's any possibility that there are deer on it? Will deer swim 500 yards to an island to get away from everything? It's pretty close to a boat launch that is busy during the summer as well.
As hot as it is here (90's) I'm trying to lay back and observe some of these areas before the cooler weather comes. Could it be worth the time?

[Lockdown]

If they don’t feel safe on the main land they will absolutely swim 500 yards.

[hambone]

Oh yeah, they will swim to that island if they want to...or need to. Deer swim back and forth to the islands in the middle of the Mississippi River all the time.

[Slinghunter1974]

If they don’t feel safe on the main land they will absolutely swim 500 yards.

Thanks for the response...I just looked on OnX and the island is 530 by 196 yards . So it's a bit wider than I originally thought. I guess it's worth a paddle out there to check it out.

[Slinghunter1974]

Oh yeah, they will swim to that island if they want to...or need to. Deer swim back and forth to the islands in the middle of the Mississippi River all the time.

Thanks for the response, after looking it is 196 yards wide...so a bit wider than I originally thought. I'm gonna give it a look. It is a mile from the boat launch and all I had was my little 12 ft. Canoe with people out on big boats for the weekend. Either I'll take my Go-devil boat or do the canoe on a week day with less boat traffic.

[headgear]

They will for sure swim out there when pressured but not sure you will see them swim it for bedding on a regular basis, an island out in a swamp might be better suited for consistent bedding. With an island that size that far from shore I think they might not have a great escape route and those can be very important when determining bedding.

[1STRANGEWILDERNESS]

I used to hunt an 80 acre island for about 10 years. I always speculated where the deer came from. In the winter there would be zero deer, summer maybe a dz and a few falls where acorns were bumper I could have been over exaggerating but I swore there were 50+deer.

It was 80 acres of oaks and when the Great Lakes were at their low point there were additional acres of broom grass (phragmites) where they could bed. Nowadays the levels are back up and all that bedding is well underwater. Anyhow I watched deer cross a few times on a shallow flat that ran all the way to the island where they didn’t really have to swim much if at all. This distance was 1-3 miles depending which portion of the mainland they came from. To the north of this island was a Peninsula which was 2 miles away and 12ft or deeper the whole way. I heard occasional reports of people seeing deer swimming to and from that penisula or the island then one day a friend and I witnessed an 8 pt come off the peninsula and swim for the island till it went out of sight.
Some guys made it in the paper one year for pulling a small doe into their boat in that deep 2 mi stretch. They were deemed hero’s for saving the deers life and I just laughed. They probably wrecked that deers day. By then there was no doubt in my mind it was common for deer to swim that distance.
I would check that island out. Sounds maybe like only 20 acres or so.. maybe not enough area/food to support some deer. Always worth a look.

[802bowhunter]

I found alot of islands in lakes if big enough and have food will produce deer and noticed during the winter alot of deer walking to the mainland across the ice and head back to the islands for the summer and fall.