Setting up in River Bottoms

[515Raven]

What do you guys find is the best way to setup around river bottom bedding areas? Found a hotspot this off-season of bedding and deer activity in an area near the river that’s overrun by briars and other thick brush.

I’m having trouble identifying the best way to tackle the area without making a ton of noise trying to get through to it.

 

[mattfish]

No expert by any means. Still a journeyman. I would definitely find how the wind and thermals react. Both morning and evening with all wind directions. Some apps have great historical data for your specific area. In my experience nothing beats being there and seeing first hand how the wind currents move.
After gaining that first hand knowledge you can decide on entrance and exit routes.

No real simple solution other then time served and knowledge gained from time served. Maybe place some cameras and study how the deer are moving in and out of the area.

 

[PastorKen]

Sacrifice a day for prep work: Go in once and cut a path through the briars and preset a tree. Maybe even do more than one to set up for different winds. Mark the path so you can find it in the dark. Give it a few days then sneak in well before sunrise and be there when the deer come back to bed. Worth a try.

 

[TK161BOONER]

Boat or Kayak... if possible, it hard sometimes to hunt a bedding are , you may be able to get in without bumping deer but most likely you will kick them out when you leave. Try to have access where you have a safe entry and exit. If you can’t have those two I would suggest waiting till the rut to hunt it. Good luck.

 

[515Raven]

Sacrifice a day for prep work: Go in once and cut a path through the briars and preset a tree. Maybe even do more than one to set up for different winds. Mark the path so you can find it in the dark. Give it a few days then sneak in well before sunrise and be there when the deer come back to bed. Worth a try.

Sounds good, although it’s public land so I won’t be doing any cutting. Just have to spend some more time around there finding the best way to navigate it, accounting for wind/thermals/etc. like some of the other guys said. Thanks!

 

[515Raven]

Boat or Kayak... if possible, it hard sometimes to hunt a bedding are , you may be able to get in without bumping deer but most likely you will kick them out when you leave. Try to have access where you have a safe entry and exit. If you can’t have those two I would suggest waiting till the rut to hunt it. Good luck.

Definitely thinking of taking a canoe out there to check if that’s a viable option. Thanks!

 

[NMSbowhunter]

I try to walk creeks off season scouting and find where the deer are crossing and find a good spot to ambush them at those locations. In my experience, deer usually have a runway on at least one side of a creek that parallels the creek and at some point, there will be one or more creek crossings. Hopefully there are just a few or one is even better. This helps if the creek is deep and hard to cross in most places. I have even considered setting up down in the creek itself where i can cover the crossing. The water would draw my scent down and away. I need to try this.

 

[515Raven]

I was doing just that in an area leading up to this one. I found a couple gradual slopes in contrast to a lot of high banks that had fresh tracks on it. It was maybe 400 yards from this area so it may have been too far away to correlate the two locations. Maybe not.

 

[PastorKen]

it’s public land so I won’t be doing any cutting.

Check the regulations. Sometimes you are allowed to cut briars or things under a certain diameter.

 

[kyler1945]

Use thermals and wind currents from the river, along with day wind direction. Lots of deadly combos with spending time in your spot.

don’t be obsessed with getting in a tree, or high in a tree.

Remember everyone likes walking on flat ground over hills. Water crossing or thicket a must to keep pressure from other hunters down. No matter how much sign you find.

 

[515Raven]

Thanks. I have some more scouting of the area to do, specifically to the West. I had an hour or so before dusk to get out there and check it out before rain washed away the snow. I wanted to make the best of the tracks that were on the ground.

All tracks led directly to the middle of this low lying thick brush cover that humans couldn’t get in to hunt. The area was adjacent to the East was a clearing made by powerlines, and on the other side of that clearing were corn fields. River ran along the south of the area. To the west there were tracks crossing a creek, including some that were funneled by a downed section of barbed wire.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

I was doing just that in an area leading up to this one. I found a couple gradual slopes in contrast to a lot of high banks that had fresh tracks on it. It was maybe 400 yards from this area so it may have been too far away to correlate the two locations. Maybe not.
[/QUO

400 yards is not really that much distance to a deer, especially if they are moving under the cover of darkness or there is good security cover. Once the season is over you could completely circle that bedding thicket making notes of prominent trails leading in and out. Also look at the tracks and try to decide if they are going in one way and going out the other. Sometimes deer have a "circuit" they tend to run daily. I have found that at a lot of the creek crossings I see the deer tracks are predominantly going in one direction and they seem to be making a big circular loop. I've put cameras up on these crossings and found that they will be either morning or evening spots for the most part and the deer are usually going in one direction. This leads me to believe they are crossing at another spot at another time of day or night and making a loop.

 

[515Raven]

That’s a good consideration (the loop and which time of day they cross particular trails). Thanks.

 

[neonomad]

My home farm is in NE Ohio along a lake Erie tributary… this puts our woods in a valley about 100’ deep. I love it and I hate it. The thermals are absolutely key to hunting it; I’ve been studying them for 5 years and still learning. Burn through milkweed as you get to know the area. The most common huntable scenarios for me are (1) wading up the river early in the morning and setting up on a river crossing where the river is pulling my scent downstream, (2) that same setup in the evening, (3) classic 80 yards off a bedding spot evening setup, and (4) catching them coming up the hill to Ag. This is my best buck which was setup #3. Overall this valley kicks my butt, but any success I’ve had was pre scouted trees… improvised fumbling through the brush just never works out, you really need a predefined path and planned trees. On morning hunts sometimes I need to change locations when the thermals switch. They’re fun puzzles but not easy.

Edit: fun fact glassing from the top of the bank last month I see a big foil balloon resting right in the middle of their main bedding area.

 

[515Raven]

That’s a nice buck! I don’t think there’s enough between the powerline clearing/ag and their bedding to set up on that, but your option #3 would probably be best in the layout I’m working with, I just need to build more Intel on the parts west of this area I’m looking at.

 

[Nutterbuster]

How near is "near?"

I've killed 2 deer this year that were bedded within a few yards of a creek or river. Running a boat up to a couple hundred yards of the spot and then running the trolling motor up to a spot on a trail just outside the thick cover payed off. One deer got killed on the first sit, and the other got killed on the 2nd sit because I passed him on the first sit.

In general, deer do not expect danger from the water. I've watched them casually observe bass fishermen pitching the banks several times without showing any signs of alarm. If you can approach quietly from the water, it's perfect access. No ground scent, reduced sound profile, and generally in a small boat you're low enough in the water that the bank hides you until you pop up at your spot.

If that's not possible and it's as thick as you describe, the only option I see is getting as close as possible on an exit trail. Some of the stuff I've seen deer bed in isn't something you can penetrate without the kind of prep work that is generally frowned upon on public land.

 

[neonomad]

Agree with others here that using a river to eliminate ground scent and suck airborne scent is a great tool… and waiting in a river bottom for deer to cross might be boring but is an underrated ambush. I haven’t scored with this yet, but just started using it this year. I’ve noticed on cellular cams that my hunts didn’t disturb deer activity as much as the dry land assaults.

 

[515Raven]

That’s an interesting thought. There is a decent amount of ag all across the other side of the river. I’m going to continue looking to identify where they may be crossing throughout the year.

 

[Still Kicking]

I have used beaver dams to cross from ag ground into timber at my hunt location in the past and I also set up a zip line on one property to cross a large creek from an ag field into a draw below a very brushy bedding ground. The zip line was also a great way to move my kills into a field I could drive right up to them. The air movement is your primary consideration. I killed hundreds of deer on a 15 acre patch next to creek for over 40 years but could only hunt it with a West or NW wind.

 

[JDHoosier]

Use thermals and wind currents from the river, along with day wind direction. Lots of deadly combos with spending time in your spot.

don’t be obsessed with getting in a tree, or high in a tree.

Remember everyone likes walking on flat ground over hills. Water crossing or thicket a must to keep pressure from other hunters down. No matter how much sign you find.

The bolded above can be a big help. It's been my experience that if you sit close to a creek/river bank the wind will pull down onto the water. That can help keep your wind out of the bedding area but beware of sitting upstream of deer crossings.