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Nocturnal Deer area activity question

I and my family are looking some ideas on an area we have trouble hunting due to nocturnal behavior. We have an old double beaver pond area we placed a food plot into it. The food plot is 200 yds. X 60 yds. It runs east to west. North of it is second year clear cut thick polar growth now. West is a large eight year old semi clear cut very thick growth. South is tall marsh grass then a pine plantation that is thirty years old. East is thick four year old cut. One access road, this plot has been visited by us four times all year to this point. I just mowed the clover plot,very healthy, pulled my camera which has been there for three weeks. Hundreds of pictures but all after dark and before day light. No daytime activity at all. Has been this way as long as we have developed it and hunted as it now is. Human activity is very limited within three to four hundred yards in all directions and less all summer. Any thoughts or ideas to help us sort this out. Thanks in advance.

hunting pressure, and distance to your plots, deer may be bedding far away. , small patch of woods, no safe place for them during the day

Closet actual road is half mile north then 1 1/2 miles to east, 3 miles to west and 6 miles to north. I am the only primary hunter within 500 yards. Logging road on neighbors is south of pine plantation 300 yards away. We hunt only when wind is right for stands which amounts to 5-8 times a year.

don't bet your the only one, some one is always around, a lot of poaching never gets reported, they also most likely have bigger corn piles then yuo

I am not dismissing your thoughts, We own a 700 acre piece the neighbor we work with in management own 2800 acres and borders us on the south and west. East we own a mile and a half and north a half mile. Pretty restricted. We have cameras for security and deer and have not had an issue in this area since our neighbor bought up their piece 8 years ago. Baiting is an issue yes, and in Wisconsin overall.

to much bait and the deer get lazy and smart and fill up fast and go lay down and chew all day. this is why food plots are better.

Sounds to me your property carries great browse and deer will always prefer the comfort of good browse in the cover of the forest over most anything they eat in the open.

Cooler at night and more comfortable. Probably will change when it cools off and they put the feed bag on.

Create a micro plot that is between the main bedding area and the big food plot. Ideally you could put in two of these micros.

Make it no more than 1/2 acre

Plant it in clover.

Hunt the micro plot and not the big plot.

This would allow you to plant some variety in your main food plot.

Or save yourself some work and just hunt the trails that lead to the main food plot....back in say 30-100 yards.

Good luck and let us know how you end up killing that big buck!

Mark

Agree with Mark, have to hunt the woods, I would get off the plot and move in closer to where you think the deer are bedded, corners are usually the better place to be and I particularly like the natural funnels leading to my fields especially during the rut. Might want to try to put up two corner stands in the woods 60 yards on each inside corner to play the winds.

Thanks for the input all. Anymore ideas out there as well throw them out.

I have found that unless it is the rut, I don't get any buck activity during day time at my larger food plots.

However the micro plots surroundsed by thick brush tend to see better daytime buck action.

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