Hinging and hunting in seasonally flooded creek bottoms

[Greta&Gus]

I have three pieces of lowland creak bottom that are on the edge of our property. The contain mainly swamp grass species, 'buck brush', ash trees, and other seasonally flooded wetland species. Historically I have never been allowed in their by the property owner (Grandfather) but now things have changed. The areas are known for housing deer, specifically mature bucks. We have hunted the ridges but our success has been limited at connecting with mature bucks consistently. They stay in the thick creek bottom until dark and enter our property at night.

So my questions are this:

1) Has anyone ever hinged in a creek bottom to thicken bedding cover?
2) Has anyone ever entered a creek bottom to hunt, and if so what tactics did you use?

 

[dipper]

Greata part of my properties is exactly like yours. Can u hinge anything?
I'll wait for your response on the hinging, which I hope you can! I turned my lowlands into hunting spots, I never thought I could experience in my part of wi! I felt like I was in Iowa during the first days of November.

 

[Greta&Gus]

I have been given the green light to do anything I want. I am also considering cutting specific paths for creek crossings.

 

[dipper]

Whoo boy-
I hinged all basswood, with my half cut technique. It's not popular, but large hinged trees are dynamite. Most mature tag alders cut at 3'. Leave some mature clumps to screen/ enhance specific bedding locations. Deer will bed by a mature clump surrounded but cut tags.
Year 2-take a very hard look at how deer respond and where they bed!!!!! Extremely important!!!! Just after season is a great time because that's where pressured deer already want to be. Those are the cream of the crop bedding locations. No so called expert could ever tell you this info by looking at an aerial photo.
Enhance those prime bedding areas further by hinging those"pockets" further. Nothing crazy, just 1000 square feet or so.
Year 3-Id the runways going between the "pockets" and to your food plots. Hinge some more to bottle some runways further, and hunt it during prime rut!!!! Just don't put your bow down!!!!
I've also added spruce, but that's gonna take time to produce.

 

[dipper]

Or just hinge the whole damn thing and cut a couple trails out. I'm really tempted to do this.
Does right before estrous love hinged areas. The hinged mess helps them duck and dodge chasing bucks, hours before they will "stand" for a buck to be bred.
I've yet to see a better spot to kill the neighborhood boss, than a twisted hinged jungle. Still need luck, but you are gonna see action.

 

[sandbur]

I have waded the creek for stand approach to areas like this. It is great for scent control.

I have a similar area and have concerns that the emerald ash borer will convert much of this area to reed canary grass after the ash trees die. My plans are to plant some conifers in there now. When the EAB hits, my conifers would be released.

You will need to walk the area and look for any high spots. While you are at it, look for rubs, and bedding areas to get a feeling for stand sites. Creek crossings, also.

I am planting black spruce and balsam fir plugs in the areas of my black ash swamp. Balsam fir might need to be kept on slightly higher ground or the edges.

Tamarack plugs might be another choice.Even white spruce if the area does not flood too much. White cedar probably would not survive unless deer numbers were very low or you would fence small areas.

Your grandfather, you, and other family members should discuss the EAB and what you can do to provide deer cover in the next 5-15 years in this area. I wish the state would give more guidance on this issue.

Sorry for the long post and for wandering off of topic.

It also sounds like a great spot to drop a few trees and to stick a few willow cuttings in the ground. And I always like clumps and strings of conifers or tamaracks in there.

 

[dipper]

Sounds like the deer are really doing well up there too. My buddy hunted public land in Burnett county beginning of November. They had a lot of sits where they were seeing 5 deer including a buck or two. They said they saw deer all over driving around!

 

[Greta&Gus]

Sounds like the deer are really doing well up there too. My buddy hunted public land in Burnett county beginning of November. They had a lot of sits where they were seeing 5 deer including a buck or two. They said they saw deer all over driving around!

The deer in burnett county are doing well but this is in pine county mn where we are still struggling.

The area is known to flood at times so I would be nervous about planting any plugs unless they can handle some water. There are volunteer white pine sapplings all over the ridge that haven't been browsed.

I will take some pictures this weekend of the 2 areas and post some aerial photos to see if anyone has suggestions on layout and design.

 

[Big Snow Man]

I have hinged in a swamp with success. If you have ash in there you have nothing to lose they are going to die from ash bore anyway.

 

[wiscwhip]

I have three pieces of lowland creak bottom that are on the edge of our property. The contain mainly swamp grass species, 'buck brush', ash trees, and other seasonally flooded wetland species. Historically I have never been allowed in their by the property owner (Grandfather) but now things have changed. The areas are known for housing deer, specifically mature bucks. We have hunted the ridges but our success has been limited at connecting with mature bucks consistently. They stay in the thick creek bottom until dark and enter our property at night.

So my questions are this:

1) Has anyone ever hinged in a creek bottom to thicken bedding cover?
2) Has anyone ever entered a creek bottom to hunt, and if so what tactics did you use?

First of all, it doesn't really sound like you need to "thicken" the bottoms for bedding if the deer are already staying in there until dark, they must already feel safe in the bottoms.
Entering our creek bottoms was off limits, as this was our sanctuary area. Thing is, you couldn't have gotten in there without spooking every deer in a couple hundred yard radius the minute you got into the bottoms anyway. To much noise from all the alder brush and briars. My little brother did have one stand that was only about 30 yards into the bottoms and it could only be used with the perfect SW wind, he did have a good vantage point to see out into the bottoms, but never connected with a deer from that stand.
G&G, get some pics and aerials uploaded and a topo if you can find an accurate one. These areas sound exactly like the lowland creek bottom that cut our old place in half from east to west. Make sure you know what the "normal" usage patterns are before you go hacking things up all willy-nilly. DO NOT just start dropping trees randomly. I watched a neighbor to our west, over the course of a couple years, totally destroy movement on his higher ground in the bottoms because he did too much to try and dictate movement patterns throughout those islands and oxbows, the deer quit using his area completely during daylight hours and only passed through it at night. I think it was due to the way he hinged and that he was trying to force the deer into going directions that they didn't normally travel through that area, essentially, they didn't feel safe moving through his hinges. I believe they felt trapped because they were forced to either walk in a direction that did not make them feel safe, or jump into water to use a "safer" route.

 

[bueller]

Excellent point ^^^^^^

Sometimes we try to do to much and our efforts actually have a negative response. I would work on developing a spot or two for quick and quiet access into the bottoms where you can get a good vantage point as wiscwhip described his brother doing.

 

[OakSeeds]

One caveat; if you don't own it, you may want to think long and hard about making land adjacent to yours even better at holding deer during daylight hours. Sounds great when the owners/others say "do whatever you want" .... then someone appears with a lease offer you can't/won't match and your free labor and any other material investments now work greatly in your disfavor. I'd put my efforts into improving the land I own or land on which I am certain I will have absolute control for the future (like a relative's land where, hopefully, they wouldn't take control away from you).

 

[dipper]

First of all, it doesn't really sound like you need to "thicken" the bottoms for bedding if the deer are already staying in there until dark, they must already feel safe in the bottoms.
Entering our creek bottoms was off limits, as this was our sanctuary area. Thing is, you couldn't have gotten in there without spooking every deer in a couple hundred yard radius the minute you got into the bottoms anyway. To much noise from all the alder brush and briars. My little brother did have one stand that was only about 30 yards into the bottoms and it could only be used with the perfect SW wind, he did have a good vantage point to see out into the bottoms, but never connected with a deer from that stand.
G&G, get some pics and aerials uploaded and a topo if you can find an accurate one. These areas sound exactly like the lowland creek bottom that cut our old place in half from east to west. Make sure you know what the "normal" usage patterns are before you go hacking things up all willy-nilly. DO NOT just start dropping trees randomly.

I used to have this same mentality, but than I started experiencing the improvements I did to some of my bedding areas. The 3 bucks totaling approximately 435" I watched rut crazed over a couple does this November has me completely convinced you can improve bedding areas. Those 3 bucks were seen numerous times between the wife and I over the course of a couple days. I haven't seen that intense rut action since my last trip to Iowa.
There also isn't such a thing as too thick of deer cover. Especially when it revolves around mature bucks. Deer habits might change but u are not going to push mature bucks off your property by having too thick of habitat.