Sunrise on The Bald Knob
A doe and fawn were standing behind the spruces on the right when I took this. You're looking at the top of The Knob.
As planned I spent the entire day on what we call The Bald Knob. The Knob is the southwest corner of the 140 acre property my parents own. Most of their property is open field; The Knob is the one wooded area on the property we hunt. Less than ten acres, The Bald Knob is so named because of a round hill slightly west of the central portion of the land that for many years was treeless. Surrounded by wetland meadows on three sides and open field on the fourth, The Knob provides deer with everything they need in a small space: a water source, dense cover, browse, and grazing. We've sweetened the deal by creating two small food plots planted to oats and we've built a figure-8 pattern of trails that are seeded heavily to clover. Last summer nearly half of The Knob was logged, creating even more new-growth browse for deer to feast upon. In short, it's a deer magnet. I've shot a buck here each of the last three years and the deer sign this year is better than it's ever been. Seemed like a no-brainer to start the season on The Knob.
Trail leading to the west end of The Knob and my smaller oat plot.
6:20 a.m. Left the warmth of the house in favor of the morning chill. It was 33 degrees and still as death. A light frost covered everything. I rode a 4-wheeler half-way to my destination, walked the final half with nothing but the stars to light my way. Silence. Perfect. In my stand by 6:45 under the cover of darkness and ready to roll. Bring on the deer! (and the sunlight)
Looking north from the top of The Knob.
7:50 a.m. Five minutes after finishing a symphonic barrage of grunt and bleat calls I heard a branch snap in the meadow thicket to my south. Surprised at how quickly I'd called in what was sure to be a Boone & Crockett buck, I readied my gun. "Crunch, crunch, crunch" got my heart racing. Not a second later I caught sight of movement - not a buck....not even a deer. It was a long and lean timber wolf. Not exactly the best omen; kind of like seeing The Joker show up when expecting Batman. As quickly as it arrived it was gone, taking my confidence in this spot right along with it.
The stand I spent nine hours in today. As seen from the oat plot you'll see in the next picture.
10:35ish a.m. After getting out of my stand at 10:00 I did some still hunting along our east/west trail. Never have understood the term "still hunting"; how can it be called "still" when I'm on the ground moving? It's one slow step at a time with a lot of stopping between steps, but hardly still. But I digress....after still hunting my way to the east end of The Knob I picked up the pace a bit on my return trip. Cresting a hill I was surprised to come face to rear with a large deer in the middle of the trail I had walked not ten minutes earlier! A doe, joined shortly by her fat fawn. Same doe and fawn I've seen all summer on several different cameras. I put both in the crosshairs of my scope but never took the safety off the gun; after watching them all summer shooting either of them would be like shooting a pet. Except I don't like pets, so if they keep crossing paths with me.....
The northern view from my stand....
and the eastern scenery. Wanna hunt with me? Stare at these two pictures for nine hours...you'll see what I saw today.
At noon I decided to head back to the house. I almost never do this (leave the woods during the day) unless I've shot a deer or run out of cookies. But I have a sick daughter I wanted to check on, and the batteries on my trail camera were in need of replacement, and my cookie supply was a bit low, so off I went. I saw a small deer, maybe a yearling or big fawn, along The Sanctuary as I rode in. Hunting buddy George came rolling in while I was home, nice young deer strapped to the back of his 4-wheeler. He'd shot a 7-point buck a little after 11:00.
It was 65 degrees when I headed back out at 1:15. Spent the entire afternoon sitting in my stand. A gorgeous day for almost anything except deer hunting. The official high was 71 degrees. Unreal. I've kept a deer diary for the last 14 years where I record daily temps and other weather notes as well as deer info for each day; 67 was the highest temp I had recorded. Needless to say there wasn't a lot of action this afternoon for me or anyone else; between returning to the stand and sundown I heard two shots. The wrap-up of the day is pretty bleak: George has the only filled tag, his son Blue heard a few deer and saw some on fields at sundown but didn't get any shooting, my dad didn't see anything, and I saw only my pet deer and the wolf.
A great opener? Nope. Worst opener ever? Nah. The only bad opener I've ever had was 2013 when I wounded the deer we never found. Four inches of snow on the ground that day. 71 degrees on this day. Snow or rain, hot or cold, the opener is the opener - it's exciting, it's relaxing, and it's always unproductive (for me). But rather than going to my standard "things are never so bad they can't get worse" line, I realize this about hunting season: Getting into hunting mode doesn't just happen because the season opens. The hunter thinks and moves completely different than the teacher; it takes me at least a day to make that transition. I am convinced my 32 year deerless-opener streak is due in very large part to being a really bad hunter on the first day every year. Tomorrow I'll be better, and by Monday the deer won't know what hit them.
Tomorrow dawns an hour earlier. Warm temps predicted again, but this time joined by high winds. If there's one thing deer like less than warmth it's wind. Back to The Knob, to the same stand. The oats that were knee-high two weeks ago are barely above my ankles now; the deer have been hitting them heavily and since they didn't come eat today.......look out tomorrow.
The sun sets on the 2016 opener.
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