Early season evening thermals next to water

[Mattj]

What is your strategy for hunting next to water in early season evenings. I hunt a lot of swamp edges and river edges. The problem I’m having is when thermals are dropping in early season the warm water pulls my scent towards the water. The deer are traveling right on the edge of the water and dry land I don’t want to be setup directly above the deer traveling on that edge I also don’t want to be too far back on dry land because of less predictable movement. Do you hunt these scenarios mornings? Get farther back so your scent isn’t pulled?

[<DK>]

A few things come to mind

Hunt closer to the trail and higher. Try higher wind speeds.

Try to find a spot where the trail splits or turns.

Idk the full situation but this might be a good opportunity to try and make your own funnel/obstacle to force their movement. Id pull all kinds of different brush to the spot and force them from the edge, around the front of my tree. May not be a bad idea

[Mattj]

I think stronger winds could work, also good idea about blocking off trails to redirect movement

[Hookslinger]

Are you talking just long straight transitions from woods to swamp? Most of the time there are points, fingers, bowls, and so on. So in that case you could try to position yourself to where the thermals will pull towards some standing water or down a little hill away from where you expect the deer to come from. I don't have any experience with rivers, but again, they usually don't just run in a straight line forever, there are bends and oxbows so same concept of trying to find a terrain feature that you can make thermals work for you instead of against you. I'm a novice here but this kind of stuff is what I look for when it comes to evening thermals.

[Mattj]

I am talking swamps and wet backwaters Connected to rivers. I know the deer are bedding in thick stuff sometimes just inside these edges so I don’t want to get into it. I want to shoot that edge but those thermals from the water pull right when the deer are moving. Maybe just be prepared to shoot right when they hit my scent? How far Off the water do you need to be to not get that pull?

[Elite]

Hard to give advice without a map, but I would suggest finding a knob of higher elevation next to the water and your scent should fall down the side and into the water. Another suggestion would be to hunt in the water depending on how deep, thickness, etc. if you can find a standing tree in the water that might be ideal. Again, hard to give advice without a map…

[Mattj]

Here is an example the top is a riverbend inside the green is thick and below that are two wet swamp depressions usually filled with water. The red x is where I have observed a buck bedding and the red lines are the deer travel.The deer come through this funnel early season but use it less in daylight when it gets colder because vegetation loss. Access is through the woods. From the edge of woods to bedded deer is 55 yards

[DaveT1963]

IME there are always locations where you can gain wind advantage whether it's terrain, canopy, or speed of water..... While you may not be in the area where you see the deer most often, you're in the area that when you do see him you won't be betrayed from thermals. wind is just like water in that all the wind can't just gather in one spot. For every place where wind is coming in or down to the creek bottom it is moving somewhere. There are places where you get sunshine later due to open canopy that often times will delay thermal action just enough to where you can get a shot if you set up on the edge of it. Same with big turns and Rivers high Banks vegetation etc all of it can move thermals around even if it's only for a hundred yards or so that will allow you to have an advantage at that location. this isn't something you'll learn through books videos or listening to folks it's something you have to walk and experience. In the summertime I often want creek bottoms in the heat of the day until I find those unusually cool spots. I immediately know that there's some thermal activity that's out of the ordinary there. Then it's a matter of learning how the wind and thermals act during prime hunting times. Also very narrow tall Creek bottoms are much more difficult than wide open flat bottoms. As someone mentioned above wind speed can also cause some spots that you couldn't hunt because of thermals to become Huntable. there is so much to learn out there and I'm 59 years old I've been hunting all my life and I'm still learning things every time I go out. But don't take anything is 100% rule. Yes bottoms are more difficult to hunt most of the time. but there are also times on especially on your calm day where you can find where thermals are going straight up out of the bottom. Not up the slope straight up. The thermals are coming down the mountain or down the hillside, they pull in the bottom and then typically there's some location where The thermals are going straight up. You find one of those spots and you're in a dynamite location because most of the bucks cruising those Creek bottoms before the sun comes up think they have the wind in their advantage when you're in the one spot where they are betrayed. These spots can only be found by being in there and hunting. And keep in mind what happens in early season when there is foliage can be totally different than what happens once the foliage drops depending on the type of terrain and trees you have. So much to learn.... but that's what makes it fun and it's what separates the experienced from the read.

[PK_]

This buck in the illustration was bedding there early season? Mature buck? Was he visually monitoring the funnel or downwind?

For your original question, it is very simple, setup down thermal of the deer or where possible shoot across the water… or use one of the other bodies of water as a thermal magnet to suck you away from the deer. You have to proof all of this with milkweed to get the hang of it as Dave said, thermals don’t all behave the same but once you get a feel for certain areas/conditions you can make pretty accurate assumptions.

[Stingray713]

This buck in the illustration was bedding there early season? Mature buck? Was he visually monitoring the funnel or downwind?

For your original question, it is very simple, setup down thermal of the deer or where possible shoot across the water… or use one of the other bodies of water as a thermal magnet to suck you away from the deer. You have to proof all of this with milkweed to get the hang of it as Dave said, thermals don’t all behave the same but once you get a feel for certain areas/conditions you can make pretty accurate assumptions.

Always looking for a way to do this. Sitting a smaller drainage that dumps into a bigger creek or river usually sets up well. Access can be stealthy, crossings easy to pick out, and scent drifts down the smaller creek into the bigger body of water.

[Mattj]

The buck in the illustration was mature, the first time I observed him was oct 5 he was bedding with the wind at his back and walked out with wind at back. I was sitting off the pinch point observing the pinch and he came out a good half hour before dark so I figured he was bedding very close. The next time I saw him was oct 25 same wind to his back. I was setup on pinch and he did the same exact thing I could have killed him but my bow made a slight noise when I drew when he was 15 yards away and he spooked.I only hunt there on winds in my face which sets up wind to his back in that bed. This is also the rarest wind direction for my area so I seldom hunt this spot. The reason I didn’t have the thermal problem in these scenarios is he was coming out so early it was before the switch. Previous times hunting this spot I’ve seen does and small bucks traveling the swamp edge right at dark and thermals pull right to them.