This journal will chronicle my Rut-cation and review tactics, based on weather and timing, to hunt NE Ohio whitetail deer.  I look forward to sharing this ongoing story with you.   Good Luck Everyone and  – Stay Afflicted with Whitetail OCD  

• Pressure 28.8 and steady
• South West winds 13 MPH falling to 3 MPH
• Temperature
  • Low: 35
  • High: 55
• Moon
• Waxing Gibbous
  • Rise:1:35 PM
  • Set: 11:58 PM

Strategy:

Evening hunt only because I skipped the morning sit. Hunting with a decoy out in the field near known doe bedding area.

Results:

I slipped into the timber at 2;30 PM and placed the decoy out in the field. I sprayed Cooks Fatal Attraction Dominate Buck under the decoy and hunt a doe in heat scent wick 10 yards from the decoy in the edge of the woods.

Within 5 minutes of being in the tree stand, I had a deer blow at the decoy in the field. It wasn’t downwind of the decoy, so my best guess is that it got startled when it entered the field and say the decoy.

30 minutes later I caught movement in the field edge and a yearling fed slowly along the woods line. The young deer never startled from the decoy but was curious/wary of it being there. The deer fed up and down, looking at the decoy then feeding some more. I watched the deer for one hour before it made a tentative move towards the “unknown” statue posted up along the woods.

The young deer moved within ten yards of my decoy, stopped, looked smelled and looked again. The deer never alarmed and I watched it feed in the field until just about dark. This was the only deer I say this evening. I am guessing that a solo yearling means that either it was a button buck that momma ran off when the rut started or that momma began to come into heat and a buck is chasing or tending her. Either way, it is not uncommon to see a solo yearling during the rut.

It is supposed to rain in the AM and while I have the waterproof clothing, I will probably sit out the morning hunt. The rain is supposed to stop at noon. The afternoon should find bucks freshening scrapes and/or cruising for doe. We will see what tomorrow brings.

More to come!

Results