Winding creek bottom

[treeroot]

One area I don't have much experience with is creek bottom. (I've read the other posts on the subject)
If you were going in unscouted winding creek bottom where would you start? How would you quickly scout/ hunt it down? What are you looking for on an aerial to guess bedding?

[FLSkullHunter]

Canoe or kayak if deep enough or walking edge and looking for cross spots. I usually start there and work my way in til good sign is found and come up with a game plan. On bigger waterways I’m always impressed at the buck beds close to the landings where fisherman or hunters park across the water. They just watch and monitor lol.

[DaveT1963]

Oxbows and parallel trails is where I focus most of my attention.

[braveheart]

Oxbow X2
They can give multiple avenues/opportunities for deer movement on both sides of the creek if the wind is right, especially if you can access and shoot from the opposite side of the tip of the oxbow point.

[BackCoverBowHunter]

Oxbows and parallel trails is where I focus most of my attention.

I have watched Dave's videos of him scouting out creeks and they make sense, so go to his YouTube page and check them out.

[DaveT1963]

Oxbows and parallel trails is where I focus most of my attention.

I have watched Dave's videos of him scouting out creeks and they make sense, so go to his YouTube page and check them out.

Thanks - glad it was informative.

Oxbows have two very distinct patterns IMO. Most focus on buck bedding deep inside the oxbow with wind blowing into them - best early season tactic. however, during late Oct-Nov I hunt the top of the oxbow as I find bucks will cut across them 9especially if the are narrow) and scent check the doe trails going in. This is a prime AM tactic for me - the bucks will bed elsewhere, let the ladies walk into the oxbow and bed, and then cruise across their entry trails later in the morning to pick up the scent trail of a hot doe. You have to ply the wind at the mouth though or the does will bust you and you have to have a decent wind to over come late morning thermals that could pull your scent out of the oxbow and up towards the mouth.

[treeroot]

Thank you for the replies. Now that I finally got my onx working I can see the public land a lot clearer than Google. 90% of the property only is one side of the creek. What I didn't see on hillmap or Google is it appears there are several feeder streams going into the creek through the public land. Leaving what appears to be several micro swamps.

This is making me second guess myself on the odds game. Will they be bedded/ cruising the creek/ oxbows or will they be held up in the micro swamps?

This is for my one day a weekend for a few weekends trips to try and hunt pa. This happens to be one of the closer public lands to me. So I'm trying to narrow it down on the arial, scout my way in and throw a few semi educated Hail Mary's at it.