Steve Bartylla
Bowhunting Bluff County Outfitters
2004 Hunt - Day 1 This year's bowhunt at Bluff Country Outfitters really began in early August. Each year Tom and Laurie Indrebo allow me to tear apart one or two of their new leases. Typically, this entails scouting the property and putting up stands in the most promising locations. Because I have always went the do it yourself route, I get the thrill of hunting from my own stands and Bluff Country Outfitters gets a bunch of killer stands sites that I share with their other clients. It is the definition of a win win for both of us.
Personally, I prefer to do all my scouting in the spring. However, due to acquiring these new leases in August, I had no choice but to begin then. That meant finding stands based on topography, what I could still find of last year’s rut and just plain a combination of woodsmanship and predicting hot food and water sources. To complicate matters slightly, Buffalo County, Wisconsin was deemed an earn a buck unit, by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. On rare occasions, when the deer greatly exceed the DNR’s over winter population goal, they implement a plan where hunters must tag a doe before being legally able to harvest a buck. To avoid throwing bucks off of their natural patterns, from all the disturbances created by harvesting does, I supplemented my buck stands with doe harvest stands. In each case, the stands were away from buck areas and had extremely low impact entrance and exit routes. At the conclusion of the stand hanging phase, I felt pretty good about the upcoming season. Between the two farms, I had 12 Rivers Edge strap on stands up and set a Double Bull blind: 4 doe stands and 9 buck stands. All I had left to do was wait for opening morning. Bluff Country Outfitters 2004 - Day 2 Opening morning found me sitting a stand located a mere 50 yards from a dirt road. A small 10 acre piece of woods sat between a crop field and the road. With a large swamp on the other side of the road, the woodlot served as a natural transition zone between the family group bedding areas and food. Being setup on 4 converging doe trails, I was confident that I’d cut them off. I was correct. Unfortunately, all 9 does and fawns came through before first light. Filling a tag opening morning wasn’t to be. Returning to camp was filled with excitement. Four of Tom’s hunters had sunk arrows into does. He and his head guide, Donnie, were out tracking them down. With a great meal under my belt, I dumped my supplies in the bunkhouse, grabbed my spare release and flung a few practice arrows.
As a side note, you may notice I wrote "spare release". I actually take two Golden Key Top Gun Caliper releases with me on every trip. They are identical, save for the marking on the one used for hunting. I have found that releases are one of the primary culprits for foiling odor control strategies. Think about how much your wrist sweats while practicing all summer long. Still, even many of the more fanatical odor conscious hunters bring that same stinky release out in the woods with them. Because I only use my hunting release for practice once before season, to ensure it is working properly, I am able to keep it odor free much easier. I find that a tremendous advantage when trying to beat the powerful nose of a mature whitetail. With a shower out of the way and my equipment dowsed in Scent Killer spray, I slapped on a pair of Elimitrax and headed for a stand on the side of a ridge. Truth be told, this stand broke one of my cardinal rules: never place a stand if you don’t understand why deer are traveling through the area. With my scouting and stand hanging time limited, I cheated this stand. Late the last afternoon I could afford to spend hanging stands, I found a glut of doe sign in a low impact area. Without bothering to nose around, I slapped up a Rivers Edge stand. Sure, I would never do this buck hunting, but this was merely for a doe, after all. Well, after spending the afternoon without seeing a single animal, I nosed around the next day. It seemed that a couple oaks along the ridge had dropped their fruit. Obviously, this added great appeal to the area. Unfortunately, the acorns were long gone by the time I hunted the stand. Day two may have ended doeless, but it was still a success. It reinforced the important lesson I was taught years ago. If you truly want to succeed, it isn’t enough to settle for finding sign. To put yourself in the best possible position to fill a tag, even a doe tag, you need to analyze what you found and see the big picture. Finding the answers to why the sign is present in a particular area, what the animals were doing there, along with the likely time of day this behavior occurred, allows us to determine the probability of the action repeating itself. Anytime I learn a new lesson or reinforce an old one, I consider it a day well spent in the woods. NEXT, Day #3 Bluff Country Outfitters
Phone: 608-685 3755
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