Pre Scouting for Oaks

[FHlzr]

I've heard mention on this forum and youtube content about going to an area and hunting "oak islands" and "oak flats", my question is wether there is a way to find and determine these areas of hardwoods from E scouting or maps? Or is this just based on boots on the ground and/or experience?

[purebowhunting]

Only way to be certain is boots on the ground or glassing from a distance in my opinion. Any island with decent sized trees generally have oaks, but without boots on the ground knowing how to approach with what wind will be tough without going and looking at the island.

[backstraps]

You can cyber scout for oaks. Once you have read maps long enough you can predict what shades on aerials are oaks.

One of the easier ways are, if you are looking at aerials where the leaves have fallen, then the oaks generally hold leaves a lot longer into the winter.

[stash59]

If you can find fall pics on GE. Taken when the leaves are changing you can narrow things down abit. But you can't tell walnuts from hickories, hickories from oaks, etc. Plus knowing if the oaks are in the red or white family can determine when in the season they drop and or are palatable for the deer. It can also help with the year to year cycles as far as when the trees will beare acorns!

[JAK]

Boots on the ground ive found isolated oaks in the fall just by driveing around and seeing what trees still have leaves. Anytime i find oaks i mark them and what type they are Red or White.

[Twenty Up]

Even if they are oaks, they don’t always drop acorns every year. Red oaks typically take 2 years to really produce acorns. White oaks have mast years every 2-5 years, with poor to minimal acorn drops in between.

[gsquared23]

I’ve been making note of oaks, immediately adjacent to what I feel are thick bedding points. I think next leveling it would be to do some immediate pre-season or in season scouting and use binoculars to check the acorn crop for those trees that year. I believe that’s what John Eberhart will do to determine if an area/spot is worth hunting.

[Hawthorne]

If you can get an aerial during leaf change you can tell if there is oaks. Michigan DNR has a map online for habitat types within public areas. It will show you oaks. I have found hidden small pockets of oaks that weren’t on the map on foot. For the most part it’s pretty accurate. Not sure if other states do the same

[tbunao]

What everyone else said above is spot on. I would like to add that keeping a journal of these spots and the years they produce.

[Kraftd]

Agree with all the rest. Once you know what you're looking for aerials can be helpful, but not 100 percent, and a may be a little trickier when looking for the holy grail of a couple of isolated white oaks in a swamp or marsh.

Like others have mentioned, oaks tend to hold their leaves much of if not all of the winter. This can be the best time to really hone in on them. You can almost drive-by scout areas for oaks this time of year.

Of course, as also mentioned, knowing they are there does not mean they will produce in a given year. Really only two ways to figure that out. 1. Late summer scouting. 2. Guess and check and hunt them knowing it may be a total bust if there are no nuts.

I've heard a lot of info on when Oaks produce acorns. As far as I've been able to figure and research, its really largely dependent on spring weather, in particular when they are flowered up. There may be some cyclical patterns to certain species, but if we we have a windy rainy couple of days at the peek of pollination, even if the cycle says it should be a good year, you may get squat (weather knocks the pollen down and out of the air and no pollination so no nuts). Also, because weather can be pretty localized, you may have an awful year in one marsh and 10 miles away the ground is marbles.

My last oak thought...don't discount reds just because they prefer whites. Reds can absolutely be a huge draw under a variety of scenarios.