Creek crossings

[Susquehannariverarcher]

I was scouting this past Sunday on some state game lands in PA. I found two separate creek crossings that were very torn up. Both in very thick areas. It's in the mountains. The creek is only a few feet wide. I usually tend to stay out of bottoms because of getting busted. How do you all hunt creek crossings? Figured it's worth a sit and see how bad my wind actually is. What I normally do is follow the sign out to a different pinch point.

[Wudstix]

Check a couple different spots/angles for switching winds, so you'll be in the best position for whatever gets tossed at you.  Stay as scent free as possible.
 

[Ryan Rothhaar]

That’s all you can do in a bottom…sit it and see what the wind does, usually doesn’t work and the wind is all over but maybe you found a spot with predictable wind.

R

[Susquehannariverarcher]

Yep. In my 5 minutes of standing there chucking milkweed I was reminded why i have sworn off bottoms.

[dnovo]

Bottoms are tough. I only have one place on my property I can hunt without being busted. I took me close to 10 years to figure it out.
If the creek has flowing water sometimes you can get in when there is very little wind and the thermals seem to draw down toward the water.

[Bwidowma3]

Boy sounds an awful lot like the areas I hunted years ago. The only way I found to sometimes get away with hunting bottom creek crossings was to set up down the creek from the crossing 15 20 yards and check to see if you have a thermal draw down the creek. The places I hunted would draw my sent down the creek behind me. Sometimes it worked and sometimes not so much. We switched hunting the bottoms to following them up to a bench and had way better luck especially with the bucks. Hope this helps.

[Susquehannariverarcher]

The creeks are about dry this year and it's in a big hemlock bottom so thermals are crazy. I ended up setting up few hundreds yard above the crossing in a different pinch. Saw some deer even got the chance to miss one!

[Friend]

Have had occasional success hunting bottoms on hi wind days. EX...My several hunters hunting ridges, food plots and pinch points saw little to nothing. My two Bottom's hunters saw 20 deer. and were not blown out..conditions must be right...