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...

[Radford]

I was just thinking this same thing. Had some snow and found two draws with heavy crossings. These draws are at most 5 yards wide. The wind seemed to chimney up the draw until right at dark. I was thinking it could work even if f the thermals switched because it’s so tight I there. If the deer winded me they would have to be directly above or below me and I could get a shot. The draw being so narrow there was no swirling at all. Very consistent.

[Phil Magistro]

You will have to play the wind and thermals by choosing the best location for a given day/time. You’ll need to identify a few or more spots to hunt based on time of day (thermals), where the sun is hitting (also thermals) and wind direction and then still need some luck.

Check The Stickboy’s podcast. Alan Altizer had a few episodes talking about hunting situations like you are describing.