Backwater bucks

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brkissl82
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Backwater bucks

Unread postby brkissl82 » Fri Mar 24, 2017 1:07 pm

So i am by no means a serious duck hunter but i do tag along with my cousin and uncle every year for the missippi zone wisconsin opener. We always hunt some swampy backwaters and on an aerial it looks like a maze of water and small strips of hardwoods. Ive always thought...man theres gotta b some nice deer in here. Has anyone ever hunted s scenario like this?


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Jonny
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Re: Backwater bucks

Unread postby Jonny » Fri Mar 24, 2017 1:14 pm

Right by my place on the Wisconsin river is a lot like that. Really fun to hunt but it's tricky. Never ventured in too far to look for beds since you can really get screwed up in there, but have seen some dandies. A GPS imo is a must unless you really know the area.

Oh and I never saw deer til the rut. Last weekend of October was like a light switch turned on and somebody dropped 50 deer in the area. Could be different for your area, and I also didn't hunt it properly.

I really love river bottoms though. Lots of fun to hunt and needing a boat will get you to a lot of places you will be all by yourself. Just know where the main food sources are in the area. Mine were over a mile from where I hunted. Deer could easily be bedding 1.5-2 miles from the food.
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brkissl82
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Re: Backwater bucks

Unread postby brkissl82 » Fri Mar 24, 2017 1:24 pm

Yea food doesnt seem to be real close but im guessing a lot of browsecim there. It would be more of a rut hunt i would do but who know. Thats kind of interesting that you didnt see deer until the rut
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Mibowfreak
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Re: Backwater bucks

Unread postby Mibowfreak » Fri Mar 24, 2017 1:48 pm

Where there is ducks.....there is bucks!!!!


That's a quote Bridge say to me while at the Michigan scouting workshop.
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Jonny
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Re: Backwater bucks

Unread postby Jonny » Fri Mar 24, 2017 1:55 pm

brkissl82 wrote:Yea food doesnt seem to be real close but im guessing a lot of browsecim there. It would be more of a rut hunt i would do but who know. Thats kind of interesting that you didnt see deer until the rut

I think most of it was my stand location being far from bedding. But there never was much sign until the rut. My theory is that there is few deer there until the crops are cut. Once those are gone, the deer move to the bottoms. Del monte owns/leases half the land in the area and it's all green beans, carrots, sweet corn and taters as far as you can see.

My area also gets lots of gun hunters. Maybe 500 yards by boat from the boat landing. I used to have access from private land but lost that years ago.

But yes I 100% agree on the ducks and bucks statement. I would definitely give it a look to hunt if I were you. If you find out its full of people, then go fishing. That's what I do
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Jonny
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Re: Backwater bucks

Unread postby Jonny » Fri Mar 24, 2017 1:59 pm

And don't rule out islands. In the last 10 years I have seen multiple deer, bears and squirrels swim a quarter mile accross the river to and from an island. And a friend of mine hit a coyote with his boat 3 years ago. No idea how, but he did. Never saw it, but said it got to shore and ran off fine.

The squirrel swimming was a gut buster. All that was out of the water was the head and tail
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brkissl82
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Re: Backwater bucks

Unread postby brkissl82 » Fri Mar 24, 2017 11:08 pm

It may b worth checking out depending on pressurevi guess. If there a duck hunter at every corner it may not be worth it
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Jonny
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Re: Backwater bucks

Unread postby Jonny » Sat Mar 25, 2017 12:48 am

brkissl82 wrote:It may b worth checking out depending on pressurevi guess. If there a duck hunter at every corner it may not be worth it


If you can get away from the waters edge you should be fine. I know of one duck hunter that hunts small ponds back in the bottoms you can't get to by boat. Everybody else sits out in the river/ bays. My dad missed a nice 6point during what sounded like D-Day. The deer know where the hunters are, and avoid it. Its just more predictable when it is duck hunters.

I also hunted a larger land tract as well. I will see if I can get an aerial posted up of it.
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Jonny
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Re: Backwater bucks

Unread postby Jonny » Sat Mar 25, 2017 1:06 am

Image

The red dot is the boat landing, yellow is where I have seen duck hunters in the past. Never seen that many, but they move around quite a bit and we get lots of different guys that come and go, but these are the spots I always see them. The entire bay is maybe 2' deep at best. The bottom end is 5-6'. Catch lots and lots of walleyes and crappies back there in april 8-)

Blue is how I used to access. My place is just outside of the picture, and we would walk across the neighboring property, until he decided he wanted to hunt the area with his kid, so my dad and I lost access. They don't hunt there anymore, so I really want to get back here to hunt. Never saw anybody bow hunting or see any empty boats parked on the shore while we are fishing. Gun season is different though.

By the blue dot, there is a trail/gravel road. That is the main trail the deer used to get up to the farm fields on top. Looks like a cattle trail. But it shows that there is a lot of area the duck hunters just don't go to. Most don't like leaving their boats.

This is also about a 10 minute drive from two very large cities, and sees very little hunting pressure. Most of the other public land in the area is elbow to elbow with hunters.
You have a monkey Mr. Munson?
brkissl82
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Re: Backwater bucks

Unread postby brkissl82 » Sat Mar 25, 2017 1:58 am

Hey thanx johnny. Im gona try n post a map to but by my photbucket hasnt been working
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Jonny
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Re: Backwater bucks

Unread postby Jonny » Sat Mar 25, 2017 3:08 am

brkissl82 wrote:Hey thanx johnny. Im gona try n post a map to but by my photbucket hasnt been working


Try postimage. Works great for me. Just upload it to the site, copy the direct link, and post it between the image icon [img]direct%20link%20here[/img]
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Hawthorne
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Re: Backwater bucks

Unread postby Hawthorne » Sat Mar 25, 2017 4:23 pm

Some big bucks come from areas like that. I've been scouting an area similar to that but it has less trees. The area has some areas off limits they make refuges. I have friends that see some big deer duck hunting in the area. They are die hard waterfowlers and not big deer hunters so they're info is good imo.Funny I've been bowfishing there since high school and never thought of deer hunting it till I joined this forum. It doesn't look like good deer habitat to most people. Just like whitetail freak says, where there is ducks there's bucks. I kicked a up a ton of waterfowl there.
brkissl82
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Re: Backwater bucks

Unread postby brkissl82 » Sun Mar 26, 2017 12:13 am

Josh_S
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Re: Backwater bucks

Unread postby Josh_S » Wed Mar 29, 2017 11:52 pm

I scouted a similar area yesterday. I really didn't find much of anything in the high ground sticking out into the water, I think part of the reason being it was quite open. However I did find lots of meaningful sign and beds where the backwater transitioned to a large patch of swampy red brush.


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