Time to start some habitat improvements, have a look.

[chiaj144]

I've been hunting this block of woods for 7 years. When we first moved here I shot a decent 8 pointer my first sit. Second sit I passed a nice 10 pointer (wanted my son to get a chance). Every year we were seeing less and less deer on the property. I grew up hunting around AG fields and found them pretty easy to hunt compared to this property.
After seeing the decline in deer sightings I started researching some and realized that I was hunting the property wrong. I was blowing out most of the property on the way in and out of stands and thermals were also getting me winded on sits when deer were actually on the property.
I have permission from the land owner this year to make some small improvements on the front half of the property and I now own the back half. I ;have been in touch with the food-plots-for-deer guys and am considering hiring them for help but I started to realize that I should be able to do this myself and put the money towards improvements. The nearest AG fields are over a mile away and are usually off around mid November. There are no oaks, apples or any other source of food other than browse on the property. I know I need to get some food in and also increase side cover along the south road. I work a full time job and also own a pest control company so I need to get at this asap as this is the only time of year that I have some spare time. My thoughts are to get a destination plot on the West side of the property and maybe a trail plot along the East side that turns West to keep the deer moving inside the property lines. Here are a few pics of what I'm working with. Property is just shy of 100 acres. Please be patient with me I am very new to this.
PS the guy across the swamp hunts a bit and his stand is right in the middle of the bedding area that I used to get my bucks coming from.

 

[chiaj144]

I have road access from three side and realize that I need to set the property up to access stands from these roads. Wind is mostly out of the West, South/West.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

You are working with a blank slate. That is a good problem to have. My first thought is as you mentioned, food. If you plan on hunting over the plot(s) a major consideration will be the predominant wind direction during the hunting season and where the bedding areas are. You do not want your scent blowing from the plot into the bedding areas. I know there are only so many places a guy can put a plot but keep that in mind before you put all the work in.

 

[chiaj144]

You are working with a blank slate. That is a good problem to have. My first thought is as you mentioned, food. If you plan on hunting over the plot(s) a major consideration will be the predominant wind direction during the hunting season and where the bedding areas are. You do not want your scent blowing from the plot into the bedding areas. I know there are only so many places a guy can put a plot but keep that in mind before you put all the work in.

I plan to hunt over the plots once in a while if the wind is right and probably only late in the season when the snow is on the ground. I was blowing one bedding area out for the last few years from my main hunting spot. I didn't think the deer were bedding right beside the main corner of the 4 wheeler trail where some people park to drop their machines. Here's a where I've been thinking about putting food (yellow outlines). The South and East side plots would be long narrow plots probably no more than 10 yards wide. I may be able to shift the South plot closer to the house but I need to work on getting side cover at the road first. I can see from the road to the main trail going through the property once the leaves are off. The North/West plot I will make as large as I can and I'm going to try to have the plots all turn towards each other to encourage the deer to stay on the property. I'm pretty much limited to these areas as this property has standing water in the spring and fall in most of the other areas.
White outline is all swamp. Thanks for the response, Carl.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Carl,
The file size of the recent picture is very small so I cant really see to much. One consideration is sunlight. I'm not sure that a 30' width is going to be adequate but I don't know. Maybe some other guys on here will chime in that have "food plot paths" (My plots are all on edges or the one that is in the woods is about 75' wide. The soil in that is terrible so I havent planted it in two years)

 

[chiaj144]

Sorry about the file. I forgot to mention that I will be dropping and hinge cutting trees along the trail plots. I probably won’t bother with the South one until I can establish some kind of screening from the road. The East one will also have some barricades heading East-West to serve as pinch points and stand access.

 

[chiaj144]

This pic should be bigger.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Looks like a pretty solid plan without knowing the current deer travel patterns. I would try to work with their current natural movement patterns as much as possible (they are using those trails for a reason) and create you plot plans around that. Not always possible i know. However if the food plots change their travel patterns and that allows you to hunt the wind better out of better stand locations it can be a good thing.

 

[chiaj144]

The current travel patterns will fit in with two of the plots. The third plot that I want to put in on the south side would be to draw the deer into a spot that would be easier to hunt. Right now they move NE or SW and that makes them hard to hunt as that movement is basically from one corner to the other and right through the middle of the property. Thanks again, Carl.

 

[BenAllgood]

You're in Canada, so I don't really have a good idea of plants and trees there, but I'd really recommend not doing foodplots right off the bat if your woods are as open as you say. If the woods have grown up over time, that may be one reason you're not seeing the deer you once were (on top of the added pressure). I'd find a local provincial biologist or forester (not a logger) to walk it with you and work on knowing the health of the forest. Most forests have been mismanaged these last 200 or so years. You can create more food by thinning and getting regeneration of beneficial species while at the same time giving cover. You don't have to do it in over the entire large area either. You can space them out to give you better hunting situations. Woody browse in your area is very beneficial I'd imagine and the scale you can provide that at would far outweigh the amount of food you can provide with a couple of plots. I'd use the plots as ice cream and get my main course set first.