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Excellent Podcast(s) on Identifying Thermal Areas and Hubs and Strategies to Hunt Them Using CalTopo

woodsdog2

woodsdog2

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Joined
Jun 28, 2019
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I have dabbled with Caltopo in the past but after watching these great podcast(s) last evening I will certainly look into this more. I have spots that settle thermals in the evenings, especially in the early season and on north facing slopes with South winds and the buggers still get me. There's a thermal hub and everything especially in the evening floats to it. Tough to set up sometimes as sometimes they are bedded closer to the ag and othertimes higher up the ridge. This clock timing of shadows sounds like a way to figure it out even more precisely.
Long Version:

Condensed Version on Caltopo Shading:
 
Now that is a cool feature I did not know about with Caltopo. I've been using Caltopo for years and learned something new today. I like the False color IR feature that shows vegetation density and also the Shaded relief feature under Mapbuilder Hybrid. That laver will really make low level terrain features pop right out.
 
This is cool. When they were talking about finding the small spots that always get shade, I had an idea. Pick a spot, then pick early morning or late evening around the time the thermals change. Then set it for October. Then look for the little dark spots. Then only change the month. Go November, then December, then January. Doing that really pinpoints where those permanent shaded spots are.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
This is cool. When they were talking about finding the small spots that always get shade, I had an idea. Pick a spot, then pick early morning or late evening around the time the thermals change. Then set it for October. Then look for the little dark spots. Then only change the month. Go November, then December, then January. Doing that really pinpoints where those permanent shaded spots are.
Click to expand...
Exactly!!!
 
My only question is when are you going to go in there and how do you know they will not already be there? How close to set up and so thermals and wind doesn't negate that spot for you before any movement even happens. Hoping the always down thermals will be constant.
 
I too have been using Caltopo for years but I also hadn't seen this clock timing of shadows feature until this video. Out of curiosity I checked a couple of spots where I have experience with the thermals and sure enough, the image correlates with my experience in those spots. Good stuff!
 
boyne bowhunter said:
I too have been using Caltopo for years but I also hadn't seen this clock timing of shadows feature until this video. Out of curiosity I checked a couple of spots where I have experience with the thermals and sure enough, the image correlates with my experience in those spots. Good stuff!
Click to expand...
Yes, I was about to go and check some historically good spots against this new info, and see if things line up.
 
woodsdog2 said:
My only question is when are you going to go in there and how do you know they will not already be there? How close to set up and so thermals and wind doesn't negate that spot for you before any movement even happens. Hoping the always down thermals will be constant.
Click to expand...
My thoughts on it are this. I am pretty aggressive when hunting bucks. I also use a pretty good scent control regimen. I am interested in the spots because I know bucks play the wind if they can. I like to have the wind in my favor but if I can't and I know I need to be in a certain spot to get a shot I will roll the dice and see what happens. Since I bowhunt only, I want to get right inside their comfort zone and if I get busted for sight, sound or scent, well, I at least was in the game.
 
woodsdog2 said:
My only question is when are you going to go in there and how do you know they will not already be there? How close to set up and so thermals and wind doesn't negate that spot for you before any movement even happens. Hoping the always down thermals will be constant.
Click to expand...
To answer that more precisely, I would set up on those spots when I expected those spots to be of no value to the buck, such as 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours before daylight. Go in, set up and wait for him to come to the spot when the sun comes up and the spot suddenly has the right conditions to attract him.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
This is cool. When they were talking about finding the small spots that always get shade, I had an idea. Pick a spot, then pick early morning or late evening around the time the thermals change. Then set it for October. Then look for the little dark spots. Then only change the month. Go November, then December, then January. Doing that really pinpoints where those permanent shaded spots are.
Click to expand...
I pulled up the spot I pinned last Saturday for a spot to hang. When I was in there it was heavy overcast but just the way it all seemed to lay that spot seemed to have the most bullet proof access and thermal setup even though it is on the south face. The sun exposure layer shows that spot as staying purple through 9 am in Oct and Nov. It is on an old grown up logging road that transitions from an oak flat in the bottom of a thermal hub up to and oak flat between the pin and N/NE bedding point with heavy cover. The logging road leaves the upper flat right where the ridge shoulders up to a higher elevation that runs northwest so pretty much any N wind should make that spot nearly bomb proof but still mostly in the deers favor as they transition around the ridge complex. Used Caltopo years ago but since all of my hunting then and most of it lately is in flat ground. That is going to be real handy for learning these mountains I have been scouting the last few weeks.
 
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Hall17 said:
Same here! Def need to check it out
Click to expand...
I pulled up some of my river bottom spots too and holy crap it shows some stuff I have never seen on any other mapping system or set up. Absolute freakin gold mine. I mean durned near like an open book test with everything except the answers redacted.

@woodsdog2 you should prolly just go ahead and delete this thread :p
 
woodsdog2 said:
I have dabbled with Caltopo in the past but after watching these great podcast(s) last evening I will certainly look into this more. I have spots that settle thermals in the evenings, especially in the early season and on north facing slopes with South winds and the buggers still get me. There's a thermal hub and everything especially in the evening floats to it. Tough to set up sometimes as sometimes they are bedded closer to the ag and othertimes higher up the ridge. This clock timing of shadows sounds like a way to figure it out even more precisely.
Long Version:

Condensed Version on Caltopo Shading:
Click to expand...
Wow… thank you.
 
My new problem is going to be bouncing between all these different apps for different uses.
 
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