Flooded stand?

[lpcjon2]

Well went to check on my swamp stand and we have had a lot of rain and the stream has over flooded and it's about 8" deep at the base of my stand.Gun season opens Monday and this stand was the place they would go when the gunners would drive the woods around me.I am wondering if they will still seek refuge here even though it is really flooded.The trail that they used to jump the stream is not even visible.I never seen the stream this over flooded before.any experiences and advice with unusual flooded stands would help in my decision making.   :confused:

[mikeineugene]

I have hunted islands on the willamette river here in Oregon for over twenty years and sometimes i have as much as a foot of water beneath me.I have found that the deer will still use the same basic line of a trail that they are comfortable with but they dont hang around long when the water is up.The blacktails that we hunt here travel the flooded river sloughs much more than many would expect but of course whitetails may act differently.

[lpcjon2]

TTT

[Ray Hammond]

Where I pig hunt the FEEDERS are UNDER water in our swamp.

That's just part of the game, and you gotta deal with it.

You can't have just one stand...so hunt elsewhere if the water is too high.

On the other hand, I hunted in a place that was a large swamp created by a meteor crashing into the ground, throwing up a sand berm and this gigantic lake off a river occurred. The cypress trees grew huge there, and when the river rose it always flushed in new water, new fish, new and bigger gators and water mocassins too.

When we picked up the place, however, they'd been in a drought. The lake had trails crisscrossing it- we marked them, placed stands, and the water came up high- all we could see was the ribbons marking the trails under 3 feet of water.

The deer still used the same trails- bedded at the base of these cypress trees on the needle piles, high and dry.

If its only 8 inches, keep hunting it..it shouldn't matter to the deer.

[joevan125]

We have pics. of deer on our trail cameras standing in water up to there chest. My buddy has a place that stayed flooded last year and we just put our hip waders on and went after them and the water didnt seem to bother them.

[waknstak IL]

I have seen deer in water past their knees. Eating acorns off the top like wood ducks. If theres a few high dry islands for them to bed down they will be there. Especially if they are being pressured.

[Stone Knife]

The deer will still head there if the heat is on them. I have bumped a ton of deer out of water over the years, that's were the moss backs hang out.

[bawana bowman]

Can't even begin to count how many deer I've taken in water.
I've placed stands a week before season opens only to come back opening day to find I now had to wade through waist deep water for a 1/4 mile just to reach the stand! In this part of the country conditions can change that quick due to tropical storms and depressions.

But the deer still seem to follow their normal routines. They will still go there if that is where they feel safe.

I even intentionally place stands in flooded cypress heads because deer hide and feed there. Especially on well hunted public lands. Have heard other hunters come to the edge of a head and say " There's no deer in here it's too wet". As long as they keep thinking like that, I'll keep killing those deer they believe don't like water.

[wapitimike1]

Blood Trail??

[ronp]

Yup, I was going to say the same thing, Mike.  I have lost a couple deer when rain washed away the blood trail.  I have a stand in a creek bottom that floods on occasion.  I don't hunt it when it happens because I wouldn't have a blood trail.  I'm sure the deer still use the area, though.

[Uncle Buck]

where I grew up there was a guy who took some big bucks out of the middle of a large cat tail marsh he hunted in waders, not really spot and stalk more like listen and stalk, slow and quiet the deer used it as a santuary after opening day of gun season. it was a cold, wet and physically demanding way to go, but he did get some huge deer.

[lpcjon2]

Uncle Buck I have miles( live on the jersey shore) of marsh and have been hunting that for years and have killed a lot of deer in the marsh. It is an intense way to hunt.I am going to give the flood stand a try I checked it today and I can wear the hip boots instead of the waders(climbing a tree in waders doesn't seam like a good idea).Wish me luck.