Water holes?

[wisconsinteacher]

I've been reading a lot about water sources for deer. From what I read, they are good for deer, but difficult to hunt because the deer are on high alert when they are there. So, what are the good, the bad and the ugly about adding water sources to a hunting property?

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I personally want everything that a deer needs on my property. I dont own many acres, but I try to supply the deer with as much as they want, or need. The longer I can keep them on my property, the more they arent out standing in front of someone else's deer stand getting shot.

 

[Catscratch]

A negative is that most water holes are the exact environment that the midge who carries EHD inhabits. I build mine with straight walls and line with gravel to help minimize that risk.

I don't hunt my waterholes but I do keep trailcams on them. I also plant a rub tree with a licking branch near them. Absolute magnet all year long even for does and fawns. Great place for getting pics!

 

[SD51555]

Can't have enough if you ask me. Now, I don't have EHD in my region, so there is that. My place is flat as a flapjack and seasonally wet. Anywhere I can dig a hole to hold water and use that excavated material to raise something else nearby, is a win win. I get water and a high spot to do something I otherwise couldn't do. What I do have is wolves, and I think spreading out water sources would make it a lot harder for wolves to hunt a choke point like a lone water source.

I've dug 4 of varying sizes and depths so far, and I'm shooting to do another 3-6 this year. Someday, I'd like to have them all big enough I can trap my own minnows in each to juice the forage base in my pond that doesn't exist yet.

 

[ruskbucks]

I dug a small 6 ft deep waterhole in NW WI a few years back. It has been one of my favorite improvements. The first year I had a good bachelor group of bucks visiting. The amount of wildlife using it is amazing. I haven't noticed the deer extra spooky around it but one negative we've had is it has funneled the half the deer around the backside of the pond out of bow range. I would highly recommend putting one in. Try to find a low spot and have the water flow in and out the way it always has if possible.

 

[wisconsinteacher]

Now, I need to figure out where to put a few on my land!!!

 

[H20fwler]

No EHD or CWD here either.

I see no downside to putting them in they are great for all wildlife.
We put a big used koi pond that my wife bought for $50 in four years ago about thirty yards from one of our stands. While hunting I have deer use it it and everything else in the woods does too. Constant source of entertainment to watch wildlife...and most of the time the water looks greenish but everything seems to drink it right up, we even have frogs in it.
Our ground has a lot of clay so we lined the hole we dug with a few inches of sand to keep it from heaving in winter. Also keep a log in it so small critters can get out if they fall in.
Tried throwing copper fittings in it to help with the algae but coons kept fishing them out. It hasn’t ever gone completely dry since we put it in.

 

[H20fwler]

We also dug a couple wetland ponds in our pasture at the other farm, one is just under an acre the other two acres.
I watch deer and waterfowl use those all the time from one of our ladder stands. They are way out of bow range but deer never seem spooked around them and drink and feed along edges.

 

[wisconsinteacher]

My plan is to scout out some spots this weekend. I can't think of a spot off the top of my head that would be a good spot. Every spot I think about has a tricky wind or is a good distance from access with an ATV.

 

[wisconsinteacher]

Here is a picture of my land. Ignore all the pins, those are potential stands. The yellow spots are potential food plots and the light orange spots are potential water sources. The one to the north would be the best but it could be tricky to hunt that spot unless I have a SW or W wind.

 

[b116757]

If I didn’t already have a lot of water available it would be very tempting to put in at least one pond for the wildlife to use for the purpose of holding them on our property. That said we don’t really hunt over the water unless we are hunting ducks or geese. Deer certainly use it but don’t really fool around much when drinking at least not in my experience and we have so many places for them to drink 9 ponds 1.5 miles of creek bottom it would be very difficult to pattern them based on water usage. In a different situation that maybe a completely different story as far as hunting it. When I lived in southeast Colorado we very much hunted water sources as some of our best hunting opportunities.

 

[ruskbucks]

My plan is to scout out some spots this weekend. I can't think of a spot off the top of my head that would be a good spot. Every spot I think about has a tricky wind or is a good distance from access with an ATV.

Although the animals are using the water hole on my land, in northern WI I dont look at it as a top draw for hunting. Most of the deer are on their way to the field to eat and pass by the pond without drinking. In WI they usually have no shortage of random spots to get a drink. Like b11 said it would be different if you were out west. I believe that there is something in the ground when you dig that draws deer like a magnet. I have seen them drink out of mud puddles in a driveway when there was a cool crystal clear stream 50 yards away. It was like that the first year I dug my pond every deer went down to check it out. Now they just visit randomly. It is just cool to put a camera on it to see what shows up to drink or swim.

 

[fishin coyote]

I put one in last year out of necessity to try and dry out my food plot. The deer did use it but I wouldn’t rely on it as a draw. It did work for it’s intended purpose though.
.

 

[Triple C]

We've put in 7 water holes on my place. Don't really need em as I have water sources on the property. But, their easy to put in with a track loader or mini-ex and they are aesthetically pleasing to look at and do provide benefit to all manner of wildlife. Oddly enough, I've never hunted over any of them.