Anyone have much success patterning and hunting whitetails on waterholes in big bush country. Since we've had such a dry summer drought like conditions in Eastern Manitoba have dried up a lot of water supplies for deer. Can whitetails be hunted consistently over waterholes or are there just too many other watering areas to make it worthwhile?
Waterhole setup for whitetails
- Thread starter Big Game
- Start date
Are you looking for one buck to single out and put some time into patterning, or a random deer?
What I'm seeing around the Steinbach area is well developed trails around a water source right now. Much denser trail usage that normal.
If you follow these for a bit they invariably lead to either bigger trails, bedding or grazing areas. If you find an active bedding area trail leading to a water source, find out where the nearby grazing areas are - sometimes they sleep there as well. A blind location that takes these 3 areas into consideration will probably be successful.
Larger and older deer will begin covering substantially more ground towards the end of September, so if you're looking for a muzzleloader deer, I would begin looking for trails that cover some flooded or wetter swampy areas even if they are much drier than usual. This is where I see big bucks during muzzleloader season in dry years.
You can definately pattern a single buck at a watering hole, but I don't know how well that will work early season unless you are willing to pattern a few watering holes looking for that one "Mr. Big." I think you'd have to get lucky.
Later in the season, you can use estrus to draw one in.
What I'm seeing around the Steinbach area is well developed trails around a water source right now. Much denser trail usage that normal.
If you follow these for a bit they invariably lead to either bigger trails, bedding or grazing areas. If you find an active bedding area trail leading to a water source, find out where the nearby grazing areas are - sometimes they sleep there as well. A blind location that takes these 3 areas into consideration will probably be successful.
Larger and older deer will begin covering substantially more ground towards the end of September, so if you're looking for a muzzleloader deer, I would begin looking for trails that cover some flooded or wetter swampy areas even if they are much drier than usual. This is where I see big bucks during muzzleloader season in dry years.
You can definately pattern a single buck at a watering hole, but I don't know how well that will work early season unless you are willing to pattern a few watering holes looking for that one "Mr. Big." I think you'd have to get lucky.
Later in the season, you can use estrus to draw one in.
I was thinking more along the lines of African hunting where a waterhole setup
will allow you to view multiple animals and perhaps see a shooter if you put the time in. If a waterhole won't consistently attract lots of animals then I may as well stick to my stand sites between feeding and bedding areas.
Perhaps in an area where there was VERY, very little water to be found for miles this would work. Deer are able to extract so much water from vegetation - even during a drought. A water source won't attract too many animals at once, but you will see them coming and going.
Drier than a popcorn fart! They said Winnipeg got just 10mm in July, I`m pretty sure I didn`t even get that at my place.
