Choosing an opening day spot

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Jazzy66171
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Choosing an opening day spot

Unread postby Jazzy66171 » Sat Aug 29, 2020 10:02 am

So I hunt in the central forest of Wisconsin. This encompasses Jackson, Clark, and Eau Claire Counties. It is fairly similar to northern Wisconsin but IMO there seems to be more logging in the central forest than in the Northern zone. I have targeted a number of places on the map that look like they could hold good bucks such as an elevated old clear cut going out into cedar swamp. I have not however hunted any of these spots to date. My question is, how do you guys decide what spot to hunt in an area you haven't been to before? I am assuming you have to hunt the hot sign, but how do you go about looking for hot sign in a spot that you are going to hunt that given week without blowing out the area? I have always wondered how people do "midseason scouting" without wrecking their hunts. Thanks for the help!


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Re: Choosing an opening day spot

Unread postby may21581 » Sat Aug 29, 2020 11:29 am

An opening day or opening week spot is based off summer scouting and observation. When an animal is repeating his same summer pattern into the opener this tells you when and where to hunt. Unless you have historical info from years of hunting a given property or know a specific spot from scouting then this is the go to method for early season.
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Re: Choosing an opening day spot

Unread postby 1STRANGEWILDERNESS » Sat Aug 29, 2020 12:23 pm

If there are logging trails you may be able to drive them and look for tracks. I know a couple spots that I will be checking this way right before opener. Based off where I plan to sit I know where I should see the sign from deer crossing.

Also depending What stage of growth the cut is in you could always setup hIGh in a safe spot and glass it to see what’s going on.

Otherwise I just setup on Sign when I find it. Although there is always that question- do I set up on this sign? Or push on for something better? Maybe push on to a few places. If you don’t like what you see go back to that first choice.
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Re: Choosing an opening day spot

Unread postby justdirtyfun » Sat Aug 29, 2020 1:02 pm

Another bit of deciding information is the wind and weather. An advantage such as wet leaves or a certain wind can help me pick a spot. Or maybe oaks are dropping but will be done by October so the spot is an early season spot.
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Re: Choosing an opening day spot

Unread postby MichiganMike » Sun Aug 30, 2020 5:17 am

I say just use your gut and if it looks good (good sign, terrain features etc.) and you have confidence in it- hang a stand. See what happens. Enjoy the moment and have fun with it and try not to overthink :) Good luck this year!
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Re: Choosing an opening day spot

Unread postby Lockdown » Sun Aug 30, 2020 4:29 pm

Make your best guess(es) at bedding, go scout the fringes of suspected bedding for hot sign, and get aggressive.

People hate bumping deer but those “negative” encounters really aren’t a negative. Maybe for that day, but other than that you will learn sooo much. Knowing exactly when and where a big buck was laying is huge.

Hanging too far back leaves you with nothing but questions. Or worse yet you booger him when you’re packing up. “I heard something take off but I didn’t see what it was.” :doh:

If you bump him during daylight at least you can analyze everything and soak in all the details.

If you go for the kill and nothing happens, if you lose faith in that spot you can always check out the suspected bedding after the hunt. Bring a flashlight with and snoop around a bit.
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Re: Choosing an opening day spot

Unread postby A5BLASTER » Tue Sep 01, 2020 1:18 pm

My opening day is always going to be on the hottest oak I can find with water between it and their beds.
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Re: Choosing an opening day spot

Unread postby Bowhuntercoop » Tue Sep 01, 2020 1:29 pm

Sawtooths for me between bedding and water.
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Re: Choosing an opening day spot

Unread postby Jonny » Tue Sep 01, 2020 1:31 pm

I hunt that same area. Find a hot oak near thick stuff and get away from the logging trails. Don’t need to go far from the truck but early season guys just plop down on the trails.

Not much luck for bigger bucks but always saw deer early in the season.

I’d walk a lot of logging trails and more open ridges to find fresh sign, then take an educated guess from there. Most hardwoods will have sign, just need to find the right sign and attack from there. Best ridges are the ones without trails going to them. Not many of them around but they are there. My best one id walk a mile down a set of high lines and hunt a hardwood/swamp transition. Very small hardwood patch but there was a point on it that I’d hunt with any southerly wind. Sit just off of the wind and always saw deer.

But that one got logged last year
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Re: Choosing an opening day spot

Unread postby Tennhunter3 » Tue Sep 01, 2020 2:12 pm

Opening day is the day everyone notices and is in the woods. I never hunt my best areas on opening day or the weekends.
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Re: Choosing an opening day spot

Unread postby Jazzy66171 » Fri Sep 04, 2020 12:53 pm

Jonny wrote:I hunt that same area. Find a hot oak near thick stuff and get away from the logging trails. Don’t need to go far from the truck but early season guys just plop down on the trails.

Not much luck for bigger bucks but always saw deer early in the season.

I’d walk a lot of logging trails and more open ridges to find fresh sign, then take an educated guess from there. Most hardwoods will have sign, just need to find the right sign and attack from there. Best ridges are the ones without trails going to them. Not many of them around but they are there. My best one id walk a mile down a set of high lines and hunt a hardwood/swamp transition. Very small hardwood patch but there was a point on it that I’d hunt with any southerly wind. Sit just off of the wind and always saw deer.

But that one got logged last year


So with no parking restrictions anywhere up there, I actually find it difficult to walk a mile in any direction! There’s log roads, atv trails, and roads everywhere! My other thought is, I wonder how much hunting pressure makes a difference in the north woods in early season. I have a hard time believing people are flocking to the central forest in September. Any thoughts?
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Re: Choosing an opening day spot

Unread postby MrT » Sat Sep 05, 2020 2:37 am

This is one of the areas I'm looking at hunting opening morning. I guess I'll call this spot plan A.
20200904_100837.jpg


The yellow circle is buck bedding that I confirmed last year. The blue dots/lines are deer trails that I've found or at least estimate based off of the ones I have seen. The green circle is a little pocket where I hung a trail camera back in turkey season overlooking where the deer come through. I checked the camera about a month ago. There are multiple bucks that travel through there in daylight hours in morning and evening. Mostly in the morning. Every picture where they show up is on a south wind. There's more morning pictures than afternoon, and all the morning pictures show bucks headed to bedding area. All afternoon pictures show bucks coming from bedding area. There might be another bedding spot NW of the one I have circled but it was not as heavily used as the one I have marked. I have no choice but to access from the south of all of these markings.

So here's my two options as I see it...

The red dot is about where I would park. If I hunted near the trail camera, I would hook around to the north of where they are walking through, which I have shown with the red line.

However, I have also thought that there will be several other hunters to be hunting throughout this area opening day. Possibly not very far from where the camera is. I don't think it's likely to run into anyone by going straight to the bedding area as it's not as obvious. If I did this, I would follow the orange route and hook around to the NE side of the bedding and wait for them to come in. I've also scouted two other bedding areas not shown on this map that I could hunt in or around that the same deer might be using.

So not sure exactly what I would do. The conservative side of me says hunt by the trail camera and not blow them out of there. The aggressive side of me says go straight to the bedding area because all the other hunters on opening week might booger the area anyways. Might as well beat them to the punch.

Of course all of this would be dependent on a south wind. Anything else and I'll have to go to plan B which hasn't been thought out yet.

I'm curious to hear the thoughts of fellow beast members.
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Re: Choosing an opening day spot

Unread postby Jonny » Mon Sep 07, 2020 1:38 am

Jazzy66171 wrote:
Jonny wrote:I hunt that same area. Find a hot oak near thick stuff and get away from the logging trails. Don’t need to go far from the truck but early season guys just plop down on the trails.

Not much luck for bigger bucks but always saw deer early in the season.

I’d walk a lot of logging trails and more open ridges to find fresh sign, then take an educated guess from there. Most hardwoods will have sign, just need to find the right sign and attack from there. Best ridges are the ones without trails going to them. Not many of them around but they are there. My best one id walk a mile down a set of high lines and hunt a hardwood/swamp transition. Very small hardwood patch but there was a point on it that I’d hunt with any southerly wind. Sit just off of the wind and always saw deer.

But that one got logged last year


So with no parking restrictions anywhere up there, I actually find it difficult to walk a mile in any direction! There’s log roads, atv trails, and roads everywhere! My other thought is, I wonder how much hunting pressure makes a difference in the north woods in early season. I have a hard time believing people are flocking to the central forest in September. Any thoughts?


There’s some pressure but it’s mostly locals. You see more people moving into the area come end of October.

I never had issues with getting away from people. Very easy to do that.
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Re: Choosing an opening day spot

Unread postby mbarthelemy » Wed Sep 09, 2020 1:57 am

I dont have too much experience with public land yet. I plan on hunting my best spot on opener and sitting all day. I dont see why not at this point unless the wind is against me.
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Re: Choosing an opening day spot

Unread postby A5BLASTER » Wed Sep 09, 2020 7:32 am

MrT wrote:This is one of the areas I'm looking at hunting opening morning. I guess I'll call this spot plan A.
20200904_100837.jpg

The yellow circle is buck bedding that I confirmed last year. The blue dots/lines are deer trails that I've found or at least estimate based off of the ones I have seen. The green circle is a little pocket where I hung a trail camera back in turkey season overlooking where the deer come through. I checked the camera about a month ago. There are multiple bucks that travel through there in daylight hours in morning and evening. Mostly in the morning. Every picture where they show up is on a south wind. There's more morning pictures than afternoon, and all the morning pictures show bucks headed to bedding area. All afternoon pictures show bucks coming from bedding area. There might be another bedding spot NW of the one I have circled but it was not as heavily used as the one I have marked. I have no choice but to access from the south of all of these markings.

So here's my two options as I see it...

The red dot is about where I would park. If I hunted near the trail camera, I would hook around to the north of where they are walking through, which I have shown with the red line.

However, I have also thought that there will be several other hunters to be hunting throughout this area opening day. Possibly not very far from where the camera is. I don't think it's likely to run into anyone by going straight to the bedding area as it's not as obvious. If I did this, I would follow the orange route and hook around to the NE side of the bedding and wait for them to come in. I've also scouted two other bedding areas not shown on this map that I could hunt in or around that the same deer might be using.

So not sure exactly what I would do. The conservative side of me says hunt by the trail camera and not blow them out of there. The aggressive side of me says go straight to the bedding area because all the other hunters on opening week might booger the area anyways. Might as well beat them to the punch.

Of course all of this would be dependent on a south wind. Anything else and I'll have to go to plan B which hasn't been thought out yet.

I'm curious to hear the thoughts of fellow beast members.


Best advice I can give is this. Never leave your house to go hunting without 3 solid plans to hunt for that wind that day.


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