Flip on a random hunting television channel at some point today
for an hour and I can almost guarantee you’ll see this scenario play out: A
deer hunter climbs into a tree, settles in for a highly anticipated sit and
moments later sees a giant buck walking into his pristine green food plot. The hunter
gets set, music crescendos and then stops, an arrow or bullet flies, and the
happy hunter celebrates. It looks so simple, right?
But anyone who actually
plants food plots and uses them as a hunting tool knows this isn’t the case. In
reality, you face a plethora of details and decisions along the way — never
seen on TV or mentioned in stories — that are crucial to reaching that magical
moment. Recently, I dove into several successful food plot stories to peel back
the layers on each and see what factors and variables along the way made the
difference. Here are three stories about food plots that worked and the
nitty-gritty details that led to success.
Kale Kitterman
Kale Kitterman, of
southeastern Kansas, has enjoyed the benefits of his favorite food plot for
many years and in many ways. He and his father have killed several mature bucks
from this plot, but one story — in which no trigger was pulled — stands above
the rest. Kale’s wife had just taken up hunting that year, and on a special
night, the couple sat together in a blind overlooking their plot and watched a
wildlife extravaganza. Twenty-five does and 15 bucks worked through during the
evening. Bucks sparred and chased does back and forth. It was an experience
Kale and his wife would never forget. And it was thanks to a 2.5-acre field and
lots of hard work. But what made this plot so special? The story began years
ago, when Kale and his family used an ATV and an old implement to carve out a
circular opening for a plot on their property. An early decision made at that
point, regarding the shape and placement of the plot, turned out to be
incredibly important. Near the center of the 130-acre parcel was a timbered
draw, roughly in the shape of a
backwards C, and to the north and south of that timber were large tracts of
grasses and wetlands enrolled in a wetlands reserve program. With hopes of
creating a hub for deer activity in the center of the property, they decided to
tuck their food plot between the two grassy bedding areas. The finished food
plot would be in the shape of an oval, filling the inside of that half-circle
timbered draw. After they had chosen that perfect location, they planted a mix of
Imperial Whitetail Clover and Chicory Plus (now Fusion). That and subsequent
annual frost-seeding has continued to produce nearly year-round attraction. To
use the plot as a hunting tool, Kale and his family situated three hunting
locations along the perimeter to allow use during various wind directions. A
ground blind — the one where Kale and his wife’s magical hunt occurred — and a
tree stand were set up on one end of the opening in the timbered C. Another
stand was located along the outer curve of the draw on the opposite end. Mowed
trails and roads were maintained to create silent and stealthy access to any of
the locations. With that plot design and the carefully chosen stand sites, Kale
and his family could easily access a stand to hunt while never spooking bedded
deer in the adjacent bedding areas. That well thought-out food plot placement
led to a season-long hub for deer activity, several deer on the wall and
uncountable lifelong memories.
Aubrey Parker
Aubrey Parker was the mastermind
behind a memorable food plot as well — but his beginnings were a bit more
modest. He was new to deer hunting just three years ago, and early on, he knew a
food plot was in his future. So after buying a 29-acre property in
mid-Tennessee and taking a year to get to know the area, Aubrey got to work. It
paid off a few months later. With a parcel containing 29 acres of thick
timbered hillside, the best location for Aubrey to try a food plot turned out
to be a logging deck at the top of the slope. Thanks to help from a neighbor with
a tractor, Aubrey quickly got to work clearing out a one-acre opening shaped
like a long, squished rectangle. Imagine a squeezed tube of tooth paste,
running north to south. Being new to the food plot game, Aubrey was careful to
do everything right, and details were critical. He recorded every step of the
process, with hopes of learning from this first plotting experience and making
adjustments in the future — a practice all food-plotters could benefit from as
well. On Aug. 1, Aubrey’s neighbor brush-hogged the opening, and two weeks
later, Aubrey applied glyphosate with a backpack sprayer, followed by another
application a few more weeks down the road. On Sept. 13, Aubrey sent a soil
sample to the Whitetail Institute labs, and in three days, he had the results
and fertilizer and lime recommendations in his email. It was time to get back to
work. The lime and fertilizer were spread by hand Sept. 19 and then disked into
the ground. And on Sept. 20, Aubrey broadcast an acre’s worth of Pure
Attraction atop the rocky, well-drained soil and lightly dragged the surface.
Then, all he needed was good luck and a little rain. Fortunately, he got that
for almost two weeks, resulting in a lush, green plot even more beautiful than
he could have imagined. Which brings us to Nov. 24. With deer almost always
nearby or feeding in his plot, Aubrey took nearly 45 minutes that morning
carefully sneaking into his stand overlooking the field. It was a prickly 30
degrees as he settled in at 5:30 a.m., and within moments, he saw deer in the
food plot through his binoculars. His stand was on the northwestern edge of the
plot, with a light southerly wind blowing his scent over his left shoulder and
away from almost any deer that might feed into range. Not long after daylight,
several does fed into the plot to his south, and a buck soon followed. At the
time, it looked to be a nice 8-pointer that Aubrey had been seeing on trail
cameras. It was an almost surreal moment — his first food plot and the top buck
he was after, stretching forth in front of him. Aubrey cleared his mind, stood,
centered the buck in his scope and put the finishing touches on a terrific
first food plot experience. The buck he’d shot was not the one he had seen on
camera, but that one detail didn’t matter to Aubrey. It was a wildly successful
first food plot experience, no matter what was at the end of the blood trail.
Despite limited resources and experience, Aubrey’s attention to detail and a
focus on following the proper steps had led to a successful plot. And finally,
his smart placement of the plot in an area of good cover and his careful access
led to a dynamite hunt.
Rick Stahl
On the opposite side of the food
plotting spectrum from Aubrey is Rick Stahl, a 14-year food plot veteran. And
three years ago, one of Rick’s food plots would play a critical role in his
hunt for a Pennsylvania buck he’d captured in hundreds of photos that summer. Using
a small ATV and disc, Rick had created a half-acre opening for the plot several
years earlier. He planted Imperial Whitetail Clover. It soon came in green and
lush and, with a regular schedule of two to three mowings per year, would stay
that way for years to come. It became a reliable deer destination. The plot was
roughly rectangular in shape and was located west of a thick timbered bedding
area, with a larger crop field to the east on an adjacent property. That
placement would prove crucial to success, as the plot’s location lent itself to
becoming a natural transition area for deer traveling between the bedding area
and corn or bean fields on the neighbor’s land. Rick was careful about his
activity around the plot, too, never going into those nearby bedding areas
unless he was tracking a deer, and instead focusing his hunting efforts
primarily on the edges of his plots, such as the clover field. When
Pennsylvania’s gun season arrived that year, he settled in a ladder stand 25
yards off the edge of the opening. The tree he sat in was at the southeastern
corner of the emerald-green clover plot, with the wind drifting from the
bedding area back toward him. Almost any deer leaving the cover would pass
north and upwind of him while traveling from left to right. It was perfect. His
hopes for the plot and stand location were that the big 10- pointer he’d
watched that summer would come out of the timber to his west and cross into the
clover ahead of him for a quick snack. And the big boy did just that. Proper
plot placement and careful hunting again led to success, this time in the form
of a beautiful 4.5-year-old Pennsylvania buck on the ground.
