I will say that planting foodplots to attract deer to you is basically like chumming for fish, IMO......nothing wrong with it, but alot easier than actually fishing structures and landscape where you expect fish to be.....


BH

Bazingga!

Bazingga, congratulations you have fallen for one of my latest pranks, lol

You're not offending me at all.

But I wasn't referring to making food plots in that expansive area of hypothetical hardwoods. Now food plots can be a powerful management tool, but in my opinion they are a tad over-rated.

I was thinking in the lines of thinning patches of that timber to allow sunlight to reach the ground and produce whatever natural food sources the area can grow. A few small scattered heavier cuts would also be useful, simply to maximize the natural food sources those bottomland soils could grow.

But doing absolutely nothing to the habitat is perfectly fine with me too. As long as the hunters understand the limitations that would place on management results--a much lower deer density hence fewer total mature bucks--then no habitat changes at all is fine with me.

That's why the first question I always ask a prospective new client is, "What kind of a hunting experience do you want?" What type of hunting experience they want will drive the management plan, whether that's an unaltered "wilderness" experience, or as close to a Midwestern agricultural experience as can be produced (massive habitat alterations).

Either one, or anything in between, is fine with me, as long as the hunters understand the limitations in herd density and performance minimal habitat alterations will produce. It's all a trade-off.

That may be a fairly correct analogy,...another similarity between the two is that altho you may get more "fish" in general by chumming them...on average the "better fish" will always come from putting in the time and locating the desired structures...

BSK....

What response do you normally get when you ask "what kind of hunting experience do you want to get.....?"

Would you say that the most common answer is somewhat of a microcosm of today's hunting society?

"I want hunting like I see on the TV hunting shows."

Your joking, Right? I have NEVER heard ANYONE talk like that. Especially people that have land and are investing in management plans. The ones I have talked with are very realistic. That is very dissapointing

It's becoming the most common response I get. More and more hunters are being fooled into believing these hunting shows are reality.

Go to a deer/habitat management seminar these days and see who hunters really want to hear speak; a wildlife scientist presenting real comparitively tested information--true facts--or a "hunting celebrity" who doesn't know squat about deer management. The "hunting celebrity" talk will be packed.