Woodland Waterholes

[String Music]

Strategically placed waterholes in the timber can be great places to hunt. Generally, I like to place a waterhole on the side of a ridge just below the crest and about 50-100 yards away from bedding areas.

I make the waterholes about 15-20 yards wide with a max depth of around 4-5 feet. I keep the shoreline as flat as possible. I do not create any steep banks in or around the pond. I want the pond to slowly taper to the max depth of 4-5 feet.

The best locations are in oak stands. These areas are natural magnets for deer and the large oaks provide treestand locations and the right amount of shade needed to prevent evaporation.

Anybody else create their own waterholes and/or had any success with them?

Post pics of your setup if you can!

 

[PickettSFHunter]

I need to do something on a much larger scale. All Ive got is a spring I piped into a small hole just a few feet across and a couple of inches deep. Its located in a hard to access area to, I would prefer it to be centrally located on my 85 acres but thats where the best spring was. I cant stop thinking about the need to dig a larger water hole because my creek was dry for about 2 weeks before this last rain, even when it has water it is at the very bottom of my property and again in a hard to access area.I feel like water is a hole in my bucket right now. I have had a plan to dig out a wet area seep that is centrally located, just havent done it yet. Plan is to rent a excavator and do it myself one of these days.

 

[landman]

I Got 2 in the woods and 2 in fields, 3 are on top of ridges, the deer use them either way, turkeys hit them hard too. I started doing them from seeing what David Hale was doing with his places.
I have 2 more sites picked out to put in, I'm planning on putting cam on one this fall just to see whats happening 24/7.

I watched a buck last year opening day of MZ walk 300 days down ridge top field hit the water hole wading in like an elk drinking and cooling off. He had come out of bottoms and after cooling down he turned an headed straight back out ridge to hit the bottoms again.

I'll get some pitchers, most are no bringer than a pickup
It also is the best place to show up hog sign if their in your area

 

[treefarmer]

I had a timber skidder create two pickup bed-sized water holes just off a low point of a ridge top road. So far I've seen a number of tracks but nothing special. They have held water for two years so the small ones do work. Even if they aren't a deer magnet, they do provide a breeding place for frogs and attract other wildlife such as turkeys and racoons so they are beneficial.

 

[encore06]

I've sat close to a pond twice this year, morning and evening hunt. First morning I had one bust me coming from the opposite direction, of course. I was expecting more traffic, but who knows. Unfortunately, I'm unable to get close enough to the pond to see how much traffic is using it.

 

[BSK]

I avoid making small waterholes. Deer don't need them that much, and they can be breeding grounds for EHD-carry midges in the summer.

 

[landman]

It think EDH is here to stay, I know of cases in 2 KY Counties,
Southern IN and Missouri

OH and they found a Monster Buck dead in Cross Creeks on Monday
been dead a few days, not been shot

 

[BSK]

It think EDH is here to stay, I know of cases in 2 KY Counties,
Southern IN and Missouri

OH and they found a Monster Buck dead in Cross Creeks on Monday
been dead a few days, not been shot

Some EHD deaths occur every year. EHD is endemic in the Southeast. However, what worries me is the big EHD outbreaks, which we usually see every 6-7 years. In those big EHD outbreaks, I see only minor die-offs on properties without stagnant water, while I see massive die-offs on properties with lots of stagnant water.

My property has no stagnant water (just tumbling, rock stair-step spring-fed creeks). In both the 2001 and 2007 EHD outbreaks in my area, I didn't lose over 15% of my local population. Yet in neighboring areas with lots of swampy ground, they lost a massive number of deer, especially in the 2007 outbreak (over 50%). In the 2007 outbreak, clients with properties like mine (just tumbling creeks) found very few dead deer, while neighboring properties with lots of small ponds found entire herds of deer floating dead in the ponds.

Until proven otherwise, I do not recommend clients create ponds. They are not needed. Deer get the vast majority of their water needs from the plants they eat.

 

[landman]

It think EDH is here to stay, I know of cases in 2 KY Counties,
Southern IN and Missouri

OH and they found a Monster Buck dead in Cross Creeks on Monday
been dead a few days, not been shot

Some EHD deaths occur every year. EHD is endemic in the Southeast. However, what worries me is the big EHD outbreaks, which we usually see every 6-7 years. In those big EHD outbreaks, I see only minor die-offs on properties without stagnant water, while I see massive die-offs on properties with lots of stagnant water.

My property has no stagnant water (just tumbling, rock stair-step spring-fed creeks). In both the 2001 and 2007 EHD outbreaks in my area, I didn't lose over 15% of my local population. Yet in neighboring areas with lots of swampy ground, they lost a massive number of deer, especially in the 2007 outbreak (over 50%). In the 2007 outbreak, clients with properties like mine (just tumbling creeks) found very few dead deer, while neighboring properties with lots of small ponds found entire herds of deer floating dead in the ponds.

Until proven otherwise, I do not recommend clients create ponds. They are not needed. Deer get the vast majority of their water needs from the plants they eat.

Whats your opinion on high populations of deer causing it to be more stronger or happen more often?
I had just got my place that I presently own, that first fall
deer numbers were over the top, no doe killing hardly even done, high buck numbers too. I feel some of this is due to nature correcting to populations of the herd, your thoughts?

The Cumberland River, Red River and Yellow creek seen large amounts of deer found in them when this happened, I mean even in your areas I've seen pockets in creeks were the water sits in pools

 

[BSK]

Diseases linked to over-population (Nature's population control) are always contagious diseases. The higher the population, the closer the contact between animals, which increases disease spread and increases the percentage of the population infected. EHD is not a contagious disease. It kills deer in high density populations and it kills deer in low density populations, sometimes at the very same percentage.

The midges that carry EHD breed in the mud around stagnant water sources. If you have rock stair-step creeks, there is virtually no mud and very little stagnant water. Ponds and swamps have extensive areas of mud and stagnant water, greatly increasing the production of disease-carrying insects.