Mastering Winter Scouting for Deer Hunting

In this episode of the How to Hunt Deer Podcast, hosts Dan Johnson and Jason Thibodeau discuss the importance of winter scouting for deer hunting. They emphasize the value of understanding deer movement, identifying ambush points, and utilizing terrain features during the post-season. The conversation covers practical tips for scouting, documenting findings, and the benefits of using trail cameras. The hosts also share personal experiences and insights on how to effectively prepare for the next hunting season by learning from past mistakes and understanding deer behavior in relation to their environment.

Takeaways:

• Winter scouting is crucial for understanding deer movement.
• Identifying ambush points can significantly improve hunting success.
• Terrain features play a key role in deer travel patterns.
• Documenting findings helps in planning for the next season.
• Trail cameras provide valuable insights into deer behavior.
• Scouting during winter allows for less pressure on deer.
• Understanding food sources is essential for effective scouting.
• Utilizing mapping apps can enhance scouting efforts.
• Sanctuaries can be explored post-season for better insights.
• The more time spent in the woods, the better the hunting strategy.

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Dan Johnson (00:00.859)
All right, everybody, welcome back to another episode of the How to Hunt Deer Podcast. We are your host, Mr. Dan Johnson, that's myself, and Mr. Jason Thibodeau. Jason, man, how we doing? Yeah, right? Right? Yeah, today, I know your kids are home because it's too cold. My kids are home because it's too cold. I look back, like back in the day, I look back and I don't think I ever...

Jason Thibodeau (00:12.363)
Cold it's pretty cold out there. Yeah cold blast

Dan Johnson (00:28.967)
got school canceled because of cold. Snow, yes. Cold, I don't think so.

Jason Thibodeau (00:34.126)
Yeah, I was trying to think on that too. I think we started late, you know, possibly, but I don't think we ever got it canceled. There's a lot of days that get canceled anymore just because,

Dan Johnson (00:46.683)
Yeah, yep, and people in Canada right now are laughing at us. They're like, you're canceling school because it's cold out? It's cold here all the time.

Jason Thibodeau (00:50.773)
Absolutely.

Right, right. was just before we started recording, I was looking at the weather and I didn't realize that it was set in Celsius on this AccuWeather thing. And I thought, holy cow, the upcoming forecast is going to be even colder, you know. But then I went to the settings and and realized that. I had to go out this morning to do chores and it's cold.

Dan Johnson (01:03.356)
Yeah.

Dan Johnson (01:13.307)
Yeah, yeah, that's a fact. That's the thing about people who own livestock or farmers or whatever and the temperature doesn't matter to them. They have to go out. They have to go out. Now you wanna know something crazy? My grandpa never wore a stocking cap. He only wore a hat all year round. Like when it was cold outside, I wear a stocking cap. He never wore a stocking cap and that, I don't know if that's dumb or tough.

Jason Thibodeau (01:22.996)
Absolutely.

Dan Johnson (01:42.789)
but I can just remember him outside, no hood, no stocking cap, just a hat like what we're wearing.

Jason Thibodeau (01:50.816)
Yeah, yeah, I've seen a few people like that, to me, I don't want to say it's tough. You know, there's there's maybe another word for it. But if you have if you you have it, use it as well. Look at it.

Dan Johnson (01:59.533)
Right. Exactly. Well, he still has his ears. He didn't lose them to frostbite. So or he had them when he passed. But you know what I mean? It's cold outside. So obviously we're not going to be doing anything out in the deer woods, especially now that the season for both of us is over. Right. Illinois is over. Yep. Yep. Iowa. We're done here in Iowa. So now if we're.

Jason Thibodeau (02:05.41)
That's good. Right. Yeah, sure.

Jason Thibodeau (02:20.108)
Yes. Yep. Sunday was the last day.

Dan Johnson (02:27.343)
the complete nuts that we are about deer hunting, we are in preparation mode, right, for the next year. Like if that's what we're gonna do, like for me, I'm not. I'm just, I'm gonna be done doing hunting stuff for a little while. Now, March timeframe is probably when I'm gonna start getting back into some habitat work that we talked about last episode.

Jason Thibodeau (02:34.989)
Yeah.

Jason Thibodeau (02:54.286)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Johnson (02:55.185)
probably going to check some of my trail cameras that have been soaking in spots that, you know, I don't have cell service in and doing some of that. But outside of that, I'm just kind of biding my time until maybe we get a big snowstorm. this and this episode that we're going to be talking about today is for people who are maybe new to hunting.

Jason Thibodeau (03:10.958)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Johnson (03:24.763)
who have new properties that they need to find out more information about how deer use these properties. And long story short, this episode is about this winter month scouting, okay? Now, Jason, why don't you kick us off here and start talking a little bit about why it's important to maybe focus on this time of year, these winter months.

Jason Thibodeau (03:39.331)
Yeah.

Dan Johnson (03:51.687)
and scouting the properties that you haunt postseason.

Jason Thibodeau (03:55.276)
Well, I'll just give you an example. Friday, I had gone out and set a bobcat trap. So I actually started some of my winter scouting on Friday. And it was on a bigger piece of property. So I went and pulled some cameras and everything. But what I was able to locate was a few different scrape areas that I hadn't seen, you know, because I hadn't entered into those areas during the hunting season. You know, I try to keep the pressure to a minimum, but I'm able to, you know, basically tell where their trails are, where they're going from bed to food and.

these communicational scrapes and stuff. Some of them are larger in size. Some of them are smaller in size, and it's all relative to the location in which they are and where they feel safe. So for me, it's important, like you said, with the snow, snow is a huge if you can have a week to two weeks of solid snow, those deer are going to give you lines in the in the sand, if you will, of where to go from bed to food and whatnot. But it also you don't want to pressure the deer because they are

know, stressed from hunting season, stressed from cold and everything. So you got to be selective on it, but you can learn a lot about where they're scraping, where they make their rubs, where their primary food sources are. And in agricultural settings like where we're at, if there's a crop rotation, you'll you'll begin to understand what food source they prefer first and then which one they prefer later in the year. So for me, when I go in like right now, if I see fresh

droppings, if I see fresh beds and everything, I know that they're real close to food because it's as cold as it is. So if I have a picked cornfield, I'm primarily going to focus on that area for this time. You know, as we start to shift towards, you know, fall, those deer, they like the beans while they're still green. But as the green comes off the beans, you know, they start to shift into the corn, but then they'll come back to the beans as the beans harden up and everything. So you can learn a lot about their food sources and their bedding. And right now,

you know that if your hunting season is closed, even if you do jump a deer, you're not necessarily spooking that deer forever. And it has time to come back and it has time to, you know, regain its confidence in that being its home. So that's why I think right now is the best time over any time of the year to actually scout.

Dan Johnson (06:16.571)
With that said, I think we can both agree that what the deer are doing right now isn't what they're gonna be doing in October of this upcoming year, right? Yeah, yep. And so this conversation is, to be honest with you, gonna be quite short. And I think we can boil this down to what are we looking for? What are some things that will help us identify

Jason Thibodeau (06:27.444)
Absolutely, yep.

Dan Johnson (06:46.155)
next year's ambush point, right? And you've already mentioned that how deer use terrain can be, especially if there's snow on the ground, it gives you an exact roadmap of where they are, where they're traveling, how they use the terrain to cross the landscape. Now, what I'll add to that is when the vegetation is on the bushes and the trees,

I think that there's a little bit more of a, there's probably gonna be a slight shift in the trails that they're using right now, but it's not gonna be too far off. Like if you can find the points maybe in like a ditch crossing or where they're coming off one ridge and going to another, like so.

Jason Thibodeau (07:26.562)
No.

Jason Thibodeau (07:35.982)
you

Dan Johnson (07:37.733)
Backing up just a second, when I look at what my goals are for post-season scouting, the common denominator for me is locating ambush points for next season. That's really what it boils down to. Now, as far as the details of what we're looking for, the food sources, right? The thickness in the bedding areas. And I think now is the perfect time to go locate thick. Because if it's thick now, it's gonna be thick.

Jason Thibodeau (07:49.454)
You're right.

Dan Johnson (08:07.715)
in October and September when you're trying to locate these deer and trying to find these these bed to food patterns. And then on top of that, it's I would say sign, right? If there's no sign or if there's no snow, you might be able to identify some old scrapes like scrapes, hubs. You might be able to like you're definitely going to be able to identify rubs. And although rubs

Jason Thibodeau (08:08.813)
Sure.

Jason Thibodeau (08:26.19)
Sure.

Dan Johnson (08:37.859)
aren't necessarily an indicator of where deer will be next year. It is an indicator of where deer were this year, where bucks were this year. And then it's almost like you add, for me, I don't know about you, but I add the pieces together. All right, we have this trail. It's a terrain feature. I know where the food is. And now I'm adding the fact that I have a whole bunch of rubs in this.

this corner, maybe this staging area or something like that.

Jason Thibodeau (09:08.558)
Yeah, no, that's and that's kind of what I was getting at when I say

in agricultural land, you know, you have crop rotation and stuff. So like the 50 acre piece that I talk about a lot, you know, this year it was in beans and generally in the past when it was beans, it was not that good just because of my access into that property. I can't get into it. If it's corn, I try to hunt it before the corn is harvested. But this year, I actually learned a lot about it being the fact that it was beans. And I sat Saturday and was able to see where they're coming from out of, you know, neighboring piece and still onto the beans and still eating beans now.

So I'm so you're still able to learn a lot from you know this postseason scouting that it will benefit you You know, but like when you switch those crops You might change one year from say sitting on the south side of your property to sitting on the north side of your property and how you hunt that property if it's a smaller piece and you're limited with you know, whether it's access or whether it's you know, if there's any crops or any food in front of you then I mean you have to use the sign that's there if it's rubs if it's scrapes

Or if it's beds and then this is a perfect time to see those signs, especially if there's snow. But if there is no snow to what you were saying, I mean, you are able to see where those big hub scrapes and everything are. And you can put the pieces of the puzzle together, especially if you, you know, are able to monitor it from trail cameras or just, you know, scouting from the road. You know, if you can view from a tree, far distant tree stand, there's a lot of ways that you can use this time of year to still keep you in the hunting realm of things since our seasons are.

winding down or done.

Dan Johnson (10:43.857)
Yeah, yeah, the mindset, the mindset. And I'll tell you this, man, when I, would say as, as recent as five years ago, man, I did a ton of postseason scouting. mean, you talk to, you talk to some of the guys who are out there doing this, especially the guys pounding public land. Now is the time to go and do it. You take that, you take that layer of vegetation off of the landscape and you can just

Jason Thibodeau (11:10.339)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Johnson (11:13.563)
Look at every slight terrain feature that is that's there The cool part is is if you add snow it like you said it tells that roadmap But I'm gonna give an example here and it's what I call like a spur ridge Okay, and that is my definition of what I was kind of told when I kind of started deer hunting from back in the day

A spur ridge is another ridge that kind of parallels that that's just very slight. And what I mean by that, it may not even show up on topographic maps. And so I had until this property was sold, I had a I had one of these spur ridges, a huge ridge that ran north south and off of it to the right was just the slightest indentation.

Jason Thibodeau (11:45.868)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Thibodeau (11:50.253)
Okay.

Dan Johnson (12:08.627)
Unless you really found a topographic map that had the topo lines close together You wouldn't even know it was there you I found it through scouting and looking at where there was a scrape and a couple rubs coming off of this very slight terrain feature it was almost like a slide that paralleled this and it was that it was that subtle and the deer walked from the end the bottom of it on a west wind

Jason Thibodeau (12:10.752)
you

Jason Thibodeau (12:33.037)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Johnson (12:38.117)
And they just on a west wind, they would just cruise that coming to the field edges. All the does were on the east side of this ridge. And then coming back, if I played my access card right, coming out of the fields, they would pile back into this bedding area on the east side as well. So any type of west, southwest wind, man, I was in the game there. so, but I found it through scouting.

Jason Thibodeau (12:43.213)
Right.

Jason Thibodeau (13:02.414)
Yeah.

Jason Thibodeau (13:07.47)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Johnson (13:07.515)
and I could see in the snow and I could see with no vegetation where these deer were moving and it just made sense. And then I planted a tree stand right at the top of that, a little east of the trail and man, I had a shot into a bedding area, I had a shot at the trail. A lot of the times the deer were coming straight to me so I had to kind of wait until they got close enough.

Jason Thibodeau (13:23.182)
you

Dan Johnson (13:35.653)
They were pretty close when they would cross in front of me, but I found it and it was a staple in my hunting rotation every single year until I lost that property.

Jason Thibodeau (13:44.236)
Yeah.

Yeah, I think that's what kind what I was getting at with when I went on Saturday. So the previous week I had moved a stand to where I had seen deer coming out and everything. And what I was able to diagnose basically Saturday was these deer are coming to this point and then they funnel off of it. And so, I mean, if that same pattern is throughout the season, I'm pretty confident and I know when I'll be able to hunt this stand because I've seen deer, you know, use utilize that utilize those sides and those funnels and everything. It's not necessary.

like a spur ridge, but there is a big ridge on the back side of it. And then this drops down like a shelf. And then there's a creek drainage down below. And that's when you can actually diagnose your property is by right now getting out and walking. Plus, you know, like we I pull these cameras. Some of these are non cell cameras. So I'm able to look at all those cards and see what bucks are still remaining now. And then I also have, you know, the opportunity to pick up sheds from deer that, you know, have been out there and are still making it so.

Dan Johnson (14:47.611)
Yeah, yeah. And really what it comes down to, it's like grid searching properties. There are some spots you probably don't need to go scout just from common knowledge. But if you don't know your property, maybe it's a first year for you hunting it, second year for you, or you only gained access to it and you've never walked it during the winter months, I would walk the shit out of it right now.

I would spend a day, two days, and I'd cover every inch of it. So that way you know, and maybe you have like Onyx or Hunt Stand or some kind of map, and you map out everything. You map out every rub you see, you map out, and that right there will tell you a story. It's documentation of what's going on on this. You can make little things for bedding areas. can, man, this, and then for me,

I would walk in and I would say, okay, I'm going to put a stand here for the fall. And let's not get it twisted. It's cold outside right now. It's gonna be cold outside. But if you can match up a scouting mission and you can dedicate an entire day to it, why not do your tree stand work right now where there's no poison ivy, there's no mosquitoes, it's cold, yes, but...

Jason Thibodeau (15:58.862)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Thibodeau (16:12.596)
F... F...

Dan Johnson (16:16.909)
you can cut shooting lanes easier right now. And yes, there's gonna be some growth during the summer months that might block that, but now is the time to do all of your tree stand moving, your saddle platform moving, anything like that. I used to do all that stuff in the February, March timeframe.

Jason Thibodeau (16:37.486)
Yeah, I was gonna say, you know my brother and I we always drag it out until like August or you know Even sometimes the beginning of September and we're really pushing it as far as that goes But yeah, you're fighting all the poison ivy you're fighting the mosquitoes you're fighting all those things and actually this week if the weather allows towards the end of the week We're gonna start some of our habitat improvement You know with with the chainsaws and everything and then next week Hopefully we get a few more days where we can you know push some of this stuff out make some clearings And I think like you said I've never moved my stands

so to speak and reset them this time of year, I generally take them down. But even the last couple of years, just being so busy, you know, I got stands out there that probably aren't that safe. They need, you know, new straps and everything. So that's a whole nother thing. As far as getting in the woods and doing your habitat stuff. Yes, absolutely. Right now, setting your stand. Yep. You're going to get new growth on the tree and it's going to be a little bit tighter come next year. But that's OK, too. Going back to what you were saying with the

Dan Johnson (17:17.862)
Yeah.

Dan Johnson (17:31.377)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Thibodeau (17:37.3)
You had said it multiple times in the past how you used to use your trail cameras and you would draw on a map and you'd connect the dots with your pictures of bucks and you would kind of say, yep, this is where he's going to be. Well, you can do the same thing with if you don't have all the cameras and you don't have access to that. If you draw on a map where your scrapes are, where your bedding areas are, where your rubs are, you can connect the dots and do the same exact thing by just doing the legwork right now.

Dan Johnson (17:44.711)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Johnson (18:06.767)
Yep, man, that's that's so underrated doing like doing that because and granted me and you were crazy. Like we spend too much time thinking about this stuff. And kind of even going back to what you said about postponing it and pushing it back and procrastinating. I can remember not this year, but the last year.

Jason Thibodeau (18:18.306)
Yeah.

Dan Johnson (18:31.821)
It was 95 degrees outside when I finally had a break in baseball. Baseball was over and I've had this between baseball ending and going on vacation the next week. I had one week to not only work, but then put tree stands up and trail cameras up and it was 95 degrees and it was miserable. I mean, it was miserable. And so you say, okay, well, what would you rather do? 95?

Jason Thibodeau (18:51.374)
Yeah

Dan Johnson (18:59.247)
and mosquito infested poison ivy options or you can maybe just be a little chilly in February or April doing that stuff.

Jason Thibodeau (19:08.438)
Yeah, I was going to say the only thing I enjoy it now more just because you're still going to be sweating. mean, you're going to be hiking. You're going to be up and down a tree. And, know, we drag it out to September, it seems like. then we have one day, you know, because we take Labor Day off and we don't work that day. Our schedules are so busy all year long. And then we're finally like, we got to get some stands set. Well, we haven't put in all the thought, you know, and so it's a hurry of like, let's just use this tree. And then you only get half of your stands done or quarter of them done. And so, yeah, absolutely. To that point.

Dan Johnson (19:14.243)
Exactly.

Jason Thibodeau (19:38.192)
And I think this is advice that I know I'm going to use myself. So it doesn't matter if you're a beginning hunter or 20 some 25 years into it. You can definitely use this.

Dan Johnson (19:48.379)
Yeah. Documentation is great. And I love documenting everything that I find on my hunting apps and I file it away mentally and know that, there's a little, there's a down tree that maybe fell on a fence and it's called, it has made a place for deer to cross. Put a trail camera there. See if deer are in fact using it.

Jason Thibodeau (19:53.067)
Absolutely.

Dan Johnson (20:15.909)
This time of year, deer, especially when it's this cold, they're bedding really close to whatever food source they're at. mean, shit, that goes for guys down in the south because right now, I believe northern Florida is getting snow. New Orleans is getting snow at some point in the next couple days. And so that blows my mind. And so that just tells me that in this area is gonna be, I mean, everybody's.

Jason Thibodeau (20:29.57)
Yeah. Yup. Yup.

Dan Johnson (20:43.559)
This is advice for everybody based off of the temperature and things like that. Now, so trail cameras, obviously they play an impact all year round. The scouting, what you're looking for. Is there anything else that, or any moment that maybe you've had in the last couple years where it's like, you say to yourself, what a dumb ass. Like I should have known this. I should have paid attention to this.

Jason Thibodeau (20:46.222)
Yeah.

Dan Johnson (21:12.313)
and it was too late, the season was over, but maybe you used that information from postseason scouting for the next year.

Jason Thibodeau (21:19.298)
absolutely. I think that's where utilizing your terrain, if you have terrain and you're not just hunting on flat ground and stuff, you can learn a lot about the way the deer travel. And if you have water sources, you can learn a lot how where and how they cross, you know, if it's a creek, if it's a pond, they're coming up to drinking and in relation to their bedding areas, there's so much that you can learn from that. And that's why I say like Friday when I went out and I scouted a piece of property, I only hunted twice this year. I pulled this couple of cameras.

And I didn't realize it, but my brother had put a camera over a scrape that was the size of a truck hood, you know, and where it's at in relation to the creek, the road. mean, it was just amazing that the deer are utilizing that neck of the woods. And all it is is just a skinny little pinch in between the road and the creek. you would think, I'm not going to ever hunt that, you know, because it's too noisy because of cars or because of this or that. I mean, I wouldn't I didn't even see the scrape.

And I, know, so I called him up and I said, got a camera over there. He's like, yep. I forgot to tell you, I put one over there and I'm like, when did you see that scrape? And he says, I saw it was in late October, early November. And he says, I threw a camera up on it. And he says, I haven't even checked it, you know? So, I mean, it just goes to show you that you can utilize your land right now, but you can also learn from your buddy. If your buddy's out scouting during the season or you're out scouting off season and you put all that knowledge together, I mean, it doesn't have to have a camera. It doesn't have to involve that.

Because I could have taken that camera off the tree which by the way I didn't check but I utilized that scrape and I tied it into four more scrapes along a I don't know how you would describe is like a funnel coming off of a ledge going down into a bottom but then coming back across the creek So they're basically

Dan Johnson (23:07.525)
what it did is created a line, right?

Jason Thibodeau (23:09.282)
Yes, yeah, so it created a line and where they were crossing was like a major intersection. So it had me thinking there's got to be a way that you can either put a ground blind here or a tree stand here. And I wouldn't have seen all that had I not been out late season scouting. Because I don't go in those areas during the season, so it's, you know.

Dan Johnson (23:26.055)
That's

Yeah, yeah, and this is the time. There's a lot of people, and I wanna get your thoughts on sanctuaries here in a second because there's a lot of people that they stay out of sanctuaries. They just say, this is an area. Well, shit, we talked about that. We just talked about it on the Nine Finger Chronicles podcast. By the way, I would recommend going and listen to the last one I did with Jason. What was the title of that one? Do you remember what I titled it?

Jason Thibodeau (23:44.906)
We just talked about this. Yes. Yes.

Jason Thibodeau (23:57.678)
I didn't see what the title was because I hadn't listened to it yet.

Dan Johnson (24:01.735)
Anyway, it's a podcast that we did with Jason on the Nine Finger Chronicles podcast about a buck that he shot. Didn't recover right away because of landowner issues and the landowner was afraid that it would interfere with his sanctuary. Now, if you're a sanctuary guy, I personally don't think that there is anything wrong with going into a sanctuary once the deer season is over.

to go and scout it, walk around the edge of it, see where they're coming in and going out of it and getting a more refined look at where you should be setting up your ambush points. I personally don't think there's anything wrong with

Jason Thibodeau (24:44.878)
I don't either. And I think that's pretty much what this landowner had alluded to was he does not go in there at all during the season. He never said that he doesn't go in there and shed hunt or anything. He didn't want me to recover that deer during season because he was feeling like if anybody uses his property and pushes deer out, whether it's him, his nephews or whoever's hunting there, they push them to northern properties or edging properties and then the deer just stay off of it during the hunting season. And I agree to that.

point but if you have a sanctuary right now is the time to go in it it really is yeah yeah

Dan Johnson (25:18.609)
Go bomb it, yep. And even during shed season, like we're gonna eventually talk about the benefits of shed hunting probably closer to a month from now, the timeframe there. But outside of that, man, season's over, take a break just for a couple weeks and then get in there and start walking. Man, I've learned so much about deer movement.

from scouting and shed hunting and just looking at how they travel through the snow, how they travel, where they bed. There is nothing more eye opening to me than finding a deer bed in the snow and how far down the ridges or the terrain features they are. And it tells you like if you're at the top of the ridge system and you're looking down,

Jason Thibodeau (26:06.34)
yeah.

Dan Johnson (26:18.081)
on the elevation you're looking down and where these beds are compared to that, you would never see deer if you're staying on top, but they can smell you, right? And so that gives you a great idea of how far down on some of these ridges that these bedding areas are. And for me, I look at that and I go, I wanna be just down more than where the doze or the beds are at with a shot potentially to the trail leading to and from that.

Jason Thibodeau (26:40.012)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Johnson (26:46.863)
or whatever the case is. And that's a huge thing is locating beds in the snow on these. Now, are they gonna bed there when there's vegetation on? Maybe it will be close to that, but maybe not exact. But it gives you an idea. And when you can, again, find the trail that's closer to this in the snow, set your tree stand or saddle platform up now, and then by the time the season comes, you go to it.

and it's a fresh set and you wait for the right wind and it's it's it's easier it just makes everything easier.

Jason Thibodeau (27:24.205)
Yeah.

Yeah, so back to the finding the beds and everything. I think that's the one thing with the multiple properties that I've been on before and scouted and even hunt is if you can identify the size of the bed, you're going to start to learn what kind of deer like to bed on your property. That does not mean that you don't have a buck come through during the rut or a buck does not visit during the season. He might just be off the edges of it. But once you start to locate the size of those beds, you're going to start to determine, OK, how can I access it? Where where can

I sit, what kind of deer am I hunting, and then you're going to be able to develop a plan as far as when and how.

Dan Johnson (28:02.587)
Yeah, yeah, that's right. Man, it just it it really is absorbing information, walking through the properties that you have access to, keeping your eyes open, maybe even carrying a little notebook with you. If you're if you're not a guy like I can't I can't imagine too many people who are listening to this podcast don't have any type of mapping. If you don't have a mapping device, take a notebook down.

Jason Thibodeau (28:19.97)
Yeah.

Dan Johnson (28:32.655)
and write some notes as you go through your property and then maybe stuff them in the glove compartment of your truck. Don't forget about them, but then pull it out when it comes time to go hunt and say, okay, take mental pictures of this and then say, okay, now I understand why deer are here. This is where I need to be.

Jason Thibodeau (28:43.128)
Yeah.

Jason Thibodeau (28:52.77)
Yeah, and to that, you know, I don't want to get into too much of the shed hunting part of it. But one one app I used to use on my phone several years ago was called Map My Hike. And I would literally start it from wherever I parked that day. And then I would map my entire route on the way back. And while I was shed hunting and I was using that map as a purpose for like the next time I go to that property, I'm not going to duplicate that trail. But you can also learn like when I come in on this wind and when I am walking down

here and I see these beds here and I see these rubs here, you might be able to develop a plan by using that mapping software or having a notebook, having a, I mean, could get copies of maps for fairly cheap, print them out and put the dots on there and then just start drawing it all together and you'll be able to come up with a good game plan. long as you're, I think the biggest thing with, with what I've learned too is your access into your stand using the wind and then you're sitting in the stand and how you're using the wind.

When put those two things together on top of your game plan, that's when you'll start to really develop a I don't know what the word is for it, a plan, a strategy. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Dan Johnson (30:02.247)
Strategy yeah, yep Yep, absolutely Is there anything I said this was gonna be a short episode. Is there anything else we're missing as far as? What to look for during What to look for during these this postseason scouting the winter scouting months Any tips tricks anything else or is it pretty like I look at this as very self-explanatory

Jason Thibodeau (30:28.556)
Yeah, I think if I'm going to sit here and just look back at what we talked about today, I mean, we gave some good pointers and I'm going to use them some of myself with the tree stand stuff like potentially cutting shooting lanes now, potentially putting up stands now. I think we covered a lot. You know, if I wrote it down, I'm just going to write it down on a notebook and I'll be like, well, Dan, Jason said, try this, you know, and this this looks like I can develop some sort of, you know, strategy or plan, if you will, and then go from there. And like you said, maybe take the next couple of weeks off.

Let's see what February brings, warmer weather maybe. Another thing to think about too is if you don't get snow and it does warm up and it rains, don't be afraid to get a little muddy because the deer are gonna mud down those trails right now because the vegetation is not growing.

Dan Johnson (31:14.151)
Absolutely, absolutely. Another good point. Well, I think we covered what we needed to cover today. Get out there, hike around, take mental pictures, take mental notes, document on your mapping apps if you have them, and start putting a roadmap together for next hunting season. And I think the more time you spend in the woods, no matter what time of year, if you're looking to kill a deer, a big buck, whatever the case is.

Hell, you're even gonna be able to identify maybe some turkey locations as well if you're looking at tracks and stuff. And so the more time in the woods, the better and it helps you become more successful. Jason Mann, again, thanks for taking time out of your day to do this and stay tuned for more podcasts and episodes coming from the How to Hunt Deer podcast because we're gonna be breaking apart every month, every week, the upcoming season until it's time to get back in the tree stand, man.

Jason Thibodeau (31:48.078)
you

Jason Thibodeau (32:12.662)
Yep, sounds good. Be safe.

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