Love this kind of content Bill, it's one thing to have in season content. However, without the off-season content, the success rate drops in the fall. Keep these kinds of videos coming.
Great topic Bill. Just because you can't hunt doesn't mean you can't improve your area. There really isn't an off season, there are things to do all year long to make your hunting season better. Keep the videos coming, I love them.
Thanks Ron. I find that the projects I have lined up for the farm are nearly as much fun as the actual hunting and take nearly as much of my time! Have a great day and good luck.
Thanks for the comment. It is the first thing I look for when I am scouting a new area. Ditches and creeks give you a huge leg up on getting in and out undetected. Good luck.
Bearing with you?! The stories, the tips, during the off season are what I need to push on and get prepared and excited about the upcoming season. Albeit my farm is a bit rolling in the better areas, but this gives me refined ideas for entry to them. It’s just the wind, the wind, the wind! Adjusting and using different styles of hunting, as you have suggested, helps a lot. Thanks Bill and keep letting us “bear with you”!
I still have your book sir. Excellent book. Every hunter should have it. We can learn something new no matter how much experience we have. Learned so much from it and yes it increased my success rate 💯. I really appreciate your efforts and knowledge. Thank you again and please keep up the great work.
Great tips, I put more effort into my stand access planning and location/tree prep now than any other time of year. Before spring you can see the terrain features more clearly and map out travel patterns more easily. Clearing limbs and debris after winter storms is best done well ahead of the season. I do one more light access clean-up with hand clippers to remove blackberries and other fast-growing summer vegetation that can slow me down in the dark.
Bill, several years ago I bought your book “Setting Up the Perfect Hunting Bow” (signed by you) and the DVD “Hunting Creeks and Ditches.” I have enjoyed them both and they are full of useful, invaluable information. Thank you.
Thanks Lawdawg. I have tons of the Setting Up... book also but I fear some of the information in there is kind of outdated so I may just "eat" those. Thanks for the comment. Have a great day.
This was a well edited video, I liked it Bill. We need to enjoy the offseason, it builds the excitement for the upcoming hunting. Fishing all spring is fine, but fall success is built NOW
I absolutely loved your book. I bought it years ago. I have always been waiting for the next book in the series, at least now I know why it didnt. I was shocked when another installment never came out honestly. Creeks and Ditches was one of the best if not the best hunting book I have ever read.
Bill, I have based my whole hunting strategy on this concept. I’ve had some funny looks over the years as I have popped out of a ditch/creek/river with waders on. I learned this years ago from reading that exact article in Peterson’s bow hunting and listening to you on social media.
Thanks Bill. Deep narrow ditches are great ways to get to hunting locations in the driftless area undetected. Steep side hill terrain, is another great way to travel to "pinch locations". I also make it a priority to hunt the pinch points at the tops of those ditches like you mentioned. I find that the easier it is for the deer to get to a pinch point and the harder it is for me to get there creates a better outcome for harvesting deer especially during the rut. I prefer driftless area hill country deer hunting terrain over all other terrains, although I am closing on a Mississippi river front property just north of Prairie Du Chien near my other hill country property next week and really looking forward to learning bottomland and island deer hunting.
Paul, I have always said that hunting this bluff country is simple from a strategy point, (we know where they will be bedding, feeding and mostly how they will be traveling between) but is very physically demanding to hunt it right with all the climbing required to get to the best spots. Good luck with the new property. It is a cool area.
Thanks for the order and you are definitely right. The real chess match is the coming and going - more so than the exact tree you hunt out of. Have a great day.
@@bill-winke "... more so than the exact tree you hunt out of." Exactly, think about that all the time - the big boys don't get old because they're stupid! 🤣
Thanks for the support. Yes, I am not probably the best expert on big woods hunting. I have hunted some of it in other parts of the country (Manitoba, for example) but most of my hunting has been in the areas with mixed woodlands and fields. Even my hunting in the west has been near ag fields. It is just so much easier to find them and pattern them in areas with ag than in the true big woods setting. I am sure there is a trick to the big woods hunting too, if you do enough of it, but I saw it as much more random and harder to pin down. Good luck.
I also like to hunt along a creek bottom, many times deer will follow the creek. Along with the fact that it’s a water source and typically pretty good cover.
Yes, there is usually a pretty good trail on each bank of the creek. I like spots where there is a crossing allowing me to shoot to the deer crossing as well as those on at least one (if not both) of the trails along the bank. Good luck.
Good information on these features! New to a lot of terrain on a place to hunt but have a new farm with a hard wash out creed and a few ditches. I hope to have some creeks and a supply of ditches on a dream farm one day.
Hi Bill.I bought your book on how to hunt creeks and ditches and the following hunting season I shot a very nice 11 pt. buck. My question is, when are you going to write a book on how to hunt from the ground for some of us older guys that can't use tree stands anymore? Thanks for all your helpful information, tips and tricks for bow hunting success.
Paul, I appreciate it. I would not be the best person for that book, unless I interview some experts in that style of hunting. I have hunted from blinds a lot, dating all the way back to 1995, but I have only hunted maybe a couple dozen times from the ground without a blind. I will see what I can dig up. Thanks for the comment.
Wow, I was also planning to clear a creek bed this turkey season for the fall deer season to sneak in position. I have seen coyotes smell my foot print 3hrs after i had walked to my stand and spook them. The funny thing is that i had walked 1 km to my stand in mud and the coyote still smelled the bottom of my rubber boots. i would imagine that the deer nose should be just as strong.
This was awesome, Bill…I have some public spots with great ditches. The parking is at top of hill. If you walk to that ditch top you crash through thick stuff but there is a gated road that drops to the bottom. Would you walk to the bottom then work up through the ditch to the stand location?
One way or the other, your number one priority is to get in there undetected. Sometimes you have to go the long way to accomplish that. Without actually seeing it, I can't give a definite answer, but sounds like looping around and coming in from below is better as long as your scent isn't blowing to the deer as you sneak down the trail. Good luck.
Just a question on setup, at 3:18 on the video, would you set up right on the crossing, or would you setup more around or slightly under the "C or R" of crossing to be able to cover traffic from both S curves? Assuming the deer are using that oxbow to travel to the fields and not bed there.
Josh, in that specific location, there is actually a good funnel between the field edge and the high bank of the creek to the left of the C in crossing. I did hunt there some. But the actual crossing where the deer go across the creek, is generally the best option because it allows you to cover both the crossing and the trail that always follows the creek on both banks. For a crossing like this, I would set up on the left edge of the dotted line and hunt it on a wind from right to left on this location. That should be pretty safe. Good luck.
I’m planning my first bow hunt later this year. Would these tips also apply to irrigation ditches? I’m scouting locations on a hard transition line between a marsh and ag fields, my plan being to catch the deer as they come out of cover to feed.
Love this kind of content Bill, it's one thing to have in season content. However, without the off-season content, the success rate drops in the fall. Keep these kinds of videos coming.
We enjoy your off season videos. Deer Season is really never over in our home!
Great topic Bill. Just because you can't hunt doesn't mean you can't improve your area. There really isn't an off season, there are things to do all year long to make your hunting season better. Keep the videos coming, I love them.
Thanks Ron. I find that the projects I have lined up for the farm are nearly as much fun as the actual hunting and take nearly as much of my time! Have a great day and good luck.
Bill I’ve heard you talk about this for years and still watch each time. It transformed how we hunt our property. Keep it up
Thanks for the comment. It is the first thing I look for when I am scouting a new area. Ditches and creeks give you a huge leg up on getting in and out undetected. Good luck.
Bearing with you?! The stories, the tips, during the off season are what I need to push on and get prepared and excited about the upcoming season. Albeit my farm is a bit rolling in the better areas, but this gives me refined ideas for entry to them. It’s just the wind, the wind, the wind! Adjusting and using different styles of hunting, as you have suggested, helps a lot. Thanks Bill and keep letting us “bear with you”!
I still have your book sir. Excellent book. Every hunter should have it. We can learn something new no matter how much experience we have. Learned so much from it and yes it increased my success rate 💯. I really appreciate your efforts and knowledge. Thank you again and please keep up the great work.
Great tips, I put more effort into my stand access planning and location/tree prep now than any other time of year. Before spring you can see the terrain features more clearly and map out travel patterns more easily. Clearing limbs and debris after winter storms is best done well ahead of the season. I do one more light access clean-up with hand clippers to remove blackberries and other fast-growing summer vegetation that can slow me down in the dark.
You have the perfect plan. That will result in consistent success in the whitetail woods. Thanks for the input.
@@bill-winke 👍 These days I'm primarily a blacktail hunter but I have hunted whitetails in five states and Canada.
Bill, several years ago I bought your book “Setting Up the Perfect Hunting Bow” (signed by you) and the DVD “Hunting Creeks and Ditches.” I have enjoyed them both and they are full of useful, invaluable information. Thank you.
Thanks Lawdawg. I have tons of the Setting Up... book also but I fear some of the information in there is kind of outdated so I may just "eat" those. Thanks for the comment. Have a great day.
This was a well edited video, I liked it Bill. We need to enjoy the offseason, it builds the excitement for the upcoming hunting. Fishing all spring is fine, but fall success is built NOW
Thanks. I agree. Jordan edited that one. She will be editing most of the videos now. Have a great day.
I absolutely loved your book. I bought it years ago. I have always been waiting for the next book in the series, at least now I know why it didnt. I was shocked when another installment never came out honestly. Creeks and Ditches was one of the best if not the best hunting book I have ever read.
Thanks for the comment and the order. Have a great day.
Bill, I have based my whole hunting strategy on this concept. I’ve had some funny looks over the years as I have popped out of a ditch/creek/river with waders on. I learned this years ago from reading that exact article in Peterson’s bow hunting and listening to you on social media.
Thanks Bill. Deep narrow ditches are great ways to get to hunting locations in the driftless area undetected. Steep side hill terrain, is another great way to travel to "pinch locations". I also make it a priority to hunt the pinch points at the tops of those ditches like you mentioned. I find that the easier it is for the deer to get to a pinch point and the harder it is for me to get there creates a better outcome for harvesting deer especially during the rut. I prefer driftless area hill country deer hunting terrain over all other terrains, although I am closing on a Mississippi river front property just north of Prairie Du Chien near my other hill country property next week and really looking forward to learning bottomland and island deer hunting.
Paul, I have always said that hunting this bluff country is simple from a strategy point, (we know where they will be bedding, feeding and mostly how they will be traveling between) but is very physically demanding to hunt it right with all the climbing required to get to the best spots. Good luck with the new property. It is a cool area.
Entrance & exits... make or break you a lot of the times! Just ordered the book and a shirt! Appreciate you and the crew Bill!
Thanks for the order and you are definitely right. The real chess match is the coming and going - more so than the exact tree you hunt out of. Have a great day.
@@bill-winke "... more so than the exact tree you hunt out of." Exactly, think about that all the time - the big boys don't get old because they're stupid! 🤣
More great content, thank you sir! I think a series dedicated to hunting big woods/terrain features could be extremely interesting.
Thanks for the support. Yes, I am not probably the best expert on big woods hunting. I have hunted some of it in other parts of the country (Manitoba, for example) but most of my hunting has been in the areas with mixed woodlands and fields. Even my hunting in the west has been near ag fields. It is just so much easier to find them and pattern them in areas with ag than in the true big woods setting. I am sure there is a trick to the big woods hunting too, if you do enough of it, but I saw it as much more random and harder to pin down. Good luck.
Keep it coming with the content! I always learn something from you, Bill!
Thanks for the comment. I appreciate it. Have a great day.
thank you for the great info. my property has many ditches and a small stream. def try this in the fall!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I learned something new today and will put it in my toolbox for the future
Thanks for the comment. I really appreciate it. Have a great day.
I also like to hunt along a creek bottom, many times deer will follow the creek. Along with the fact that it’s a water source and typically pretty good cover.
Yes, there is usually a pretty good trail on each bank of the creek. I like spots where there is a crossing allowing me to shoot to the deer crossing as well as those on at least one (if not both) of the trails along the bank. Good luck.
Bought the book when you first released it - great read! Thanks Bill
Thanks Ron. I appreciate it.
Good information on these features! New to a lot of terrain on a place to hunt but have a new farm with a hard wash out creed and a few ditches. I hope to have some creeks and a supply of ditches on a dream farm one day.
I’ve seen bucks bed on the uphill side of a ditch during rifle season. About 10ft up where it slightly flattens out. Great tip
Thanks for the comment and the input Jay. Have a great day.
Good to see you guys at the deer show. Looked at drones down there and was wondering what you use or recommend.
It was a pleasure Tom. We use the DJI Mini 3 Pro. It is a really good drone for the price. Have a great day.
Hi Bill.I bought your book on how to hunt creeks and ditches and the following hunting season I shot a very nice 11 pt. buck. My question is, when are you going to write a book on how to hunt from the ground for some of us older guys that can't use tree stands anymore? Thanks for all your helpful information, tips and tricks for bow hunting success.
Paul, I appreciate it. I would not be the best person for that book, unless I interview some experts in that style of hunting. I have hunted from blinds a lot, dating all the way back to 1995, but I have only hunted maybe a couple dozen times from the ground without a blind. I will see what I can dig up. Thanks for the comment.
I’m an old Hunter but you just taught me a new trick👍
Thanks for the comment James. I appreciate it.
Bill, just purchased the book. Would welcome your signature addressed to Donnie. Been enjoying your content for years!
Will do. Please send me a quick note from the contact portion of the shopbowhuntingwhitetails.com site so I know which order that is for. Thanks.
Bill, just purchased the book. Would welcome your signature addressed to Donnie. Thanks for all you do!
Thanks. I will be glad to. Please send me a note from the shopbowhuntingwhitetails.com website so I knew which order this is for.
Great information here. Gives me some ideas about stand location and which wind will be best for them.
Thanks for the comment. Good luck.
Wow, I was also planning to clear a creek bed this turkey season for the fall deer season to sneak in position. I have seen coyotes smell my foot print 3hrs after i had walked to my stand and spook them. The funny thing is that i had walked 1 km to my stand in mud and the coyote still smelled the bottom of my rubber boots. i would imagine that the deer nose should be just as strong.
Great information, will help me this fall
Great information!
Thank you for sharing.
Awesome info like always!
Thanks Jason. I appreciate the comment.
This was awesome, Bill…I have some public spots with great ditches. The parking is at top of hill. If you walk to that ditch top you crash through thick stuff but there is a gated road that drops to the bottom. Would you walk to the bottom then work up through the ditch to the stand location?
One way or the other, your number one priority is to get in there undetected. Sometimes you have to go the long way to accomplish that. Without actually seeing it, I can't give a definite answer, but sounds like looping around and coming in from below is better as long as your scent isn't blowing to the deer as you sneak down the trail. Good luck.
One idea I would share is, in the off-season, go clear your preferred creek/fitch approach routes to keep from tripping and making unnecessary racket.
Very good point Tommy. Have a great day.
Just a question on setup, at 3:18 on the video, would you set up right on the crossing, or would you setup more around or slightly under the "C or R" of crossing to be able to cover traffic from both S curves? Assuming the deer are using that oxbow to travel to the fields and not bed there.
Josh, in that specific location, there is actually a good funnel between the field edge and the high bank of the creek to the left of the C in crossing. I did hunt there some. But the actual crossing where the deer go across the creek, is generally the best option because it allows you to cover both the crossing and the trail that always follows the creek on both banks. For a crossing like this, I would set up on the left edge of the dotted line and hunt it on a wind from right to left on this location. That should be pretty safe. Good luck.
I’m planning my first bow hunt later this year. Would these tips also apply to irrigation ditches? I’m scouting locations on a hard transition line between a marsh and ag fields, my plan being to catch the deer as they come out of cover to feed.
Good stuff, thank you
Waiting for mine and n he mail lol
Thanks Bill
Thanks Robert. Have a great day.
Could you do some turkey content? I bet alot of your viewers would like it as well as your deer videos Bill!
We can do a couple of turkey hunting episodes Stephen. Thanks for the comment and the support.
Dream Big brother 🙏
Thanks Edward. You too.
Bill if I was to purchase a book could you sign it please? I have signed books buy Ted Nugent, yours would make a nice addition.
Thank You!
Yes, for sure. It is best if you send a note from the Shopify platform when you order so I know who to sign it to. Thanks.
It's good to cover this stuff but what's funny is you guys will be in only the food plots. 😂
Usually in the evenings we hunt near open areas, but most often in the mornings we are back in the timber.