-By Brandon Wikman
There’s no feeling quite like anticipating a great hunt. As each day passes our emotions escalate, until a point where we basically forget about everything else except hunting. This may lead to sleep deprivation and a loss of appetite, as I can attest. It’s the feeling of finally getting a break and doing something you really enjoy.
As any hunter would do before their hunt, I checked the weather on the internet. I look at everything from detailed hourly, daily, weekly and monthly information to wind speed to barometric pressure. This can be a very useful tool for a conscientious hunter that plans hunts according to appropriate weather conditions or moon phases.
As my previous blog entry entailed, this past weekend’s hunt was supposed to be wondrous, to say the least. A fading moon, cold front and high pressure system moving into the Cheese State would break the disgusting snap of rain, heat and humidity. Finally, deer would be on their feet feasting on calorie-rich corn, soybeans and good ol’ food plots where my stand hung. Was it the hunt of my dreams...?
No!
This weekend was miserable. Saturday’s temperature reached 87 degrees, while Sunday’s tipped 89! The humidity was so bad that I sat in my stand panting for air, and as I scaled down the tree stand my breath was all but taken away! To really top things off it rained every other hour, just enough to get me wet and soggy.
As the meteorologists predicted a few days prior to the weekend, temperatures would already be in the mid-60s. Apparently, that’s not going to happen for another couple days.
Saturday afternoon I sat in a white oak tree, surrounded by acorns and accompanied by a manmade pond. This spot is an ideal location, because it is roughly 80 yards inside the woods from a cornfield; a perfect staging area for deer to wait until twilight before sneaking into the field. The only deer I spotted was a fawn, a fawn with spots still on it to be exact.
Sunday wasn’t much better. We had a doe and fawn come in to drink at the brink of complete darkness. That’s all. If anything else, I was reassured that weather has a huge effect on deer movement, second only to human pressure. When temperatures hover 15-20 degrees above normal and the humidity level is at an extreme, it’s as if every deer has disappeared. This has been going on for roughly three weeks, but eventually this weather is going to break. Once it does, I can guarantee that deer will be tearing up those agriculture fields and food plots you’ve worked so hard at planting during shooting hours. It’s just matter of time, weather, and I guess you could toss in my patience!
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