Hunting River Bottoms
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Hunting River Bottoms
Some of the public properties close to where I live are predominantly river bottom...or I should say the places I expect deer to be within these properties is in the river bottom. How do you hunt/scout these in comparison to a marsh? The reason I am asking is that they seem to be much tougher to scout using the normal aerial map that I can use for the marsh. What do you guys look for? I just feel when I look at an aerial, I just see a lot of endless trees and brush with very few spots that really jump out at you right away.
- justdirtyfun
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Re: Hunting River Bottoms
I have river bottoms to but no method to narrow things down. Well 2 things come to mind from other posts. Edge Transitions and elevation changes. But putting a effective plan together to scout the good areas escapes me. Anyone else have river bottom blues?
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- hunter_mike
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Re: Hunting River Bottoms
I have the river bottom blues too. I have never been successful in river bottom but when i hunt there i use hip boots to get to the tougher access spots.
Some of that stuff though is all accessible pretty easily. Its just big enough and low enough pressure that there are big ones in there and I have no idea how to hunt them.
Even the islands and other stuff you need a boat to get to seem to get very evenly spread pressure. I would like to hunt the river bottom more but just never feel like i have a good enough plan to hunt it well.
I have done some scouting in the river bottoms with snow on the ground. All the tracks indicated a hot bedding area with lots of doe tracks and even some suspected big buck tracks on a small maybe 5 acre sandbar that was thick with (either willows or dogwood i can't remember) It was thick brush on that sandbar. I was not about to trust river ice and chickened out (still don't regret that)
Some of that stuff though is all accessible pretty easily. Its just big enough and low enough pressure that there are big ones in there and I have no idea how to hunt them.
Even the islands and other stuff you need a boat to get to seem to get very evenly spread pressure. I would like to hunt the river bottom more but just never feel like i have a good enough plan to hunt it well.
I have done some scouting in the river bottoms with snow on the ground. All the tracks indicated a hot bedding area with lots of doe tracks and even some suspected big buck tracks on a small maybe 5 acre sandbar that was thick with (either willows or dogwood i can't remember) It was thick brush on that sandbar. I was not about to trust river ice and chickened out (still don't regret that)
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- checkerfred
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Re: Hunting River Bottoms
Is it all flat land or hills nearby? In my minimal experience, I've never had luck seeing deer down low on creeks in hills. I always get busted by swirling wind unless I can get up on a hillside and still watch the creek. I can think back to anytime I hunted the bottoms in hills on a creek or ditch and saw deer. They were always busting out due to my scent swirling. I've recently been hunting some bottom land next to the big river. The hills are far away and it's all flat except for a few small rises. I've noticed deer bedding on very sharp creek bends out toward the point with water almost 360 degrees around. I haven't been able to confirm young or mature bucks though.
- justdirtyfun
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Re: Hunting River Bottoms
If I hit a deer finding it will be virtually impossible due to so much standing water. But I agree about some deer are big enough to keep me trying. If a year or two turns up nothing ill move on.
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Re: Hunting River Bottoms
I guess I am thinking of some of the stuff that is in the Lower Wisconsin River unit if any of you WI guys know what I am talking about. I was down in the Arena / Spring Green area for a canoe trip this summer and from what I saw, a lot of the spots looked like they had potential, but looked to be super thick in some areas.
Most of the river bottom I am talking about has hills within a few miles, but does not but right up to it.
Some of the spots though I have been able to aerial scout like a marsh, but this seems to be the exception. Maybe deer don't use it that much, but it looks like good terrain for holding deer.
Most of the river bottom I am talking about has hills within a few miles, but does not but right up to it.
Some of the spots though I have been able to aerial scout like a marsh, but this seems to be the exception. Maybe deer don't use it that much, but it looks like good terrain for holding deer.
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Re: Hunting River Bottoms
fishlips wrote:I guess I am thinking of some of the stuff that is in the Lower Wisconsin River unit if any of you WI guys know what I am talking about. I was down in the Arena / Spring Green area for a canoe trip this summer and from what I saw, a lot of the spots looked like they had potential, but looked to be super thick in some areas.
Most of the river bottom I am talking about has hills within a few miles, but does not but right up to it.
Some of the spots though I have been able to aerial scout like a marsh, but this seems to be the exception. Maybe deer don't use it that much, but it looks like good terrain for holding deer.
I know a lot of that country well. The most consistent pattern is to find the way they navigate around around and bed with relation to the large oxbow ponds and backwaters. Also, important to identify any oak islands or small increases in elevation. In the absence of oaks, the pattern is simple. Big river on one side. Big ag on the other side. Deer in the middle. Daytime bucks follow the river during the rut.
Now is a great time to scout it!
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Re: Hunting River Bottoms
BassBoysLLP wrote:fishlips wrote:I guess I am thinking of some of the stuff that is in the Lower Wisconsin River unit if any of you WI guys know what I am talking about. I was down in the Arena / Spring Green area for a canoe trip this summer and from what I saw, a lot of the spots looked like they had potential, but looked to be super thick in some areas.
Most of the river bottom I am talking about has hills within a few miles, but does not but right up to it.
Some of the spots though I have been able to aerial scout like a marsh, but this seems to be the exception. Maybe deer don't use it that much, but it looks like good terrain for holding deer.
I know a lot of that country well. The most consistent pattern is to find the way they navigate around around and bed with relation to the large oxbow ponds and backwaters. Also, important to identify any oak islands or small increases in elevation. In the absence of oaks, the pattern is simple. Big river on one side. Big ag on the other side. Deer in the middle. Daytime bucks follow the river during the rut and it hunts relatively easy due to the number of pinches created by the backwaters.
Now is a great time to scout it!
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Re: Hunting River Bottoms
So a topo may be a more valuable tool than the aerial? I guess that assumes that the topo would be in detailed enough increments that you could pick out the higher spots.
Sounds like more than anything, I need to just dive in and start looking. Can't wait to start scouting these areas.
Sounds like more than anything, I need to just dive in and start looking. Can't wait to start scouting these areas.
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Re: Hunting River Bottoms
BassBoysLLP wrote:fishlips wrote:I guess I am thinking of some of the stuff that is in the Lower Wisconsin River unit if any of you WI guys know what I am talking about. I was down in the Arena / Spring Green area for a canoe trip this summer and from what I saw, a lot of the spots looked like they had potential, but looked to be super thick in some areas.
Most of the river bottom I am talking about has hills within a few miles, but does not but right up to it.
Some of the spots though I have been able to aerial scout like a marsh, but this seems to be the exception. Maybe deer don't use it that much, but it looks like good terrain for holding deer.
I know a lot of that country well. The most consistent pattern is to find the way they navigate around around and bed with relation to the large oxbow ponds and backwaters. Also, important to identify any oak islands or small increases in elevation. In the absence of oaks, the pattern is simple. Big river on one side. Big ag on the other side. Deer in the middle. Daytime bucks follow the river during the rut.
Now is a great time to scout it!
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And that pretty much sums up what I am looking at. There is a lot of it down by the WI river, so I figure I am limiting myself by not trying to figure out how to hunt it.
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Re: Hunting River Bottoms
fishlips wrote:BassBoysLLP wrote:fishlips wrote:I guess I am thinking of some of the stuff that is in the Lower Wisconsin River unit if any of you WI guys know what I am talking about. I was down in the Arena / Spring Green area for a canoe trip this summer and from what I saw, a lot of the spots looked like they had potential, but looked to be super thick in some areas.
Most of the river bottom I am talking about has hills within a few miles, but does not but right up to it.
Some of the spots though I have been able to aerial scout like a marsh, but this seems to be the exception. Maybe deer don't use it that much, but it looks like good terrain for holding deer.
I know a lot of that country well. The most consistent pattern is to find the way they navigate around around and bed with relation to the large oxbow ponds and backwaters. Also, important to identify any oak islands or small increases in elevation. In the absence of oaks, the pattern is simple. Big river on one side. Big ag on the other side. Deer in the middle. Daytime bucks follow the river during the rut.
Now is a great time to scout it!
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And that pretty much sums up what I am looking at. There is a lot of it down by the WI river, so I figure I am limiting myself by not trying to figure out how to hunt it.
A little tip on hunting pressure...the south side of the river receives a lot more pressure than the north side of the rivet between Spring Green and Sauk City.
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- Kraftd
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Re: Hunting River Bottoms
Check the on-line GIS mapping applications for the counties in question. Most in WI have at least 5' contours that are much much better than the USGS maps. Some even have one-foot data.
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Re: Hunting River Bottoms
Kraftd wrote:Check the on-line GIS mapping applications for the counties in question. Most in WI have at least 5' contours that are much much better than the USGS maps. Some even have one-foot data.
Agreed. Good suggestion. Also, most also have black and white aerials from the early 2000s that show cover density better.
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Re: Hunting River Bottoms
Edge transitions, especially interior. High spots, low spots, river oxbows, and over looked areas.
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Re: Hunting River Bottoms
Thought I would post on this one. I finally hunted one of these spots and thought I would share what I found.
Where we hunted the low ground was very open likely because it floods. as soon as we found oaks (higher ground) the terrain started to thicken up and the sign went up. Even then compared to a swamp it was pretty open.
The island I hunted was full of blowdowns and I checked a lot of them but no beds found.
I don't know if this is coincidence but the upstream end of the island was the high side and had the most sign. I will look out for that in the future even though it's a bear getting on the island being the bank is elevated.
There was one island I wish we could have pushed that was a thick willow tangle. looked awesome but we ran out of time.
Where we hunted the low ground was very open likely because it floods. as soon as we found oaks (higher ground) the terrain started to thicken up and the sign went up. Even then compared to a swamp it was pretty open.
The island I hunted was full of blowdowns and I checked a lot of them but no beds found.
I don't know if this is coincidence but the upstream end of the island was the high side and had the most sign. I will look out for that in the future even though it's a bear getting on the island being the bank is elevated.
There was one island I wish we could have pushed that was a thick willow tangle. looked awesome but we ran out of time.
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