Ep. 107: Hunting Water and the Effects of Drought

heat up, animals need a cool drink of water. So this week I'm going to cover strategies for hunting water, including how to pick a water to hunt, how to set up for your best chance at a shot, and how drought might actually help you out. But first I want to share the story of that time I shot an antelope in my underwear, the first archery analyopt tag that I ever had in the state in Nevada. It was on a year that I actually had drawn nearly

everything that I put in for, which is crazy. That's the first time it happened and the only time that's ever happened. There was a few tags I didn't draw, but man, I had a lot of good tags that you're a couple of different elk tags. I drew some good meal der tags. And it was all during archery season, kind of before my guiding scenes. There was like from August one through beginning mid September, so I didn't have a lot of time to devote to hunting prong horns.

I was like, okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna find a good water hole and hunt that. And my buddy had actually had My buddy Mike had had that tag the year before, and I found a good water and got a good buck. So I was like, sweet, I'm gonna go check those areas out. So I went up really scouting in the summertime. I didn't have trail cameras at the time, but I did check out a few different waters. I kind of had a plan. I was like, all right, this is my plan. So I ended up shooting a deer.

I drew it actually a limited entry California meal deer tag and got a really nice buck and I was like, all right, sweet. But I think there was the last weekend left in the pronghorn season, so that was like on a Friday or something. So I had a couple of days left. I'm like sweet. So I drove all night, got to my antelope spot. As I pull in, I'm like just checking the waters. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna set up a blind. Check the first water dry, check the next water dry. I'm like, oh my gosh, this

is not gonna work out for me. But the place I really wanted to hunt it was a lot further away, and I'm like, well, I'll just I'm gonna keep going because that's where I was gonna hunt anyway. So I get there and sure enough water like sweet, but it was like a three inch mud puddle, Like well, if you got a water somewhere, this is the only other water I can think about, And um, the water is

a lot smaller. It was hot. So I sat up my blind that night and uh went and slept for a few hours, and then got up and walked in and walks maybe kind of two miles is a good walk. Um. I get into the blind and set up and I'm waiting and as the sun's coming up, like am I gonna see anything? And sure enough sunlights up and there's all these antelope out in this big flat, like cool, this is awesome glassing around. There's a really good buck.

So the buck comes in and some of the does are there, and they I think they just didn't really like the way the blind was sitting. I don't know if it was just the fact that it was fresh or new, but there's just something maybe just like the wind or something. They just didn't really like it. So the does came in. They kind of drank a little weary and then kind of spooked off and then came back and then they were a little more comfortable, a little more calm, start drinking, and then the big buck

started coming in. So I'm like, all right, here we go. This is it, man, first morning, nice buck, this is gonna work out. So the buck comes in and he's kind of like came in straight across and he's drinking, but he's quartering to me like all right, it's work. So he puts his head down drinking. I think, okay, I'm gonna just shoot while he's distracted by drinking. So I let him start drinking because he came in, we didn't drink, kind of went out and then started came

back in start drinking. So I'm like, sweet, according to me, I draw back, I put it inside his shoulder, released the arrow. It's like thirty five maybe forty yards, and that buck jumped to that string so fast that that arrow. By the time that arrow got there, that buck was not even anywhere close. I mean he just matrix that arrow. And I was like, wow, I mean I've stalked in on antelope and I've never seen an antelope up until that point really jumped the string, and that thing was

just he was keyed in and just out of there. Like, man, bummer, I just blow it like I've got one pretty much one day to hunt this thing. Like I was pretty bummed. So get out of the blind and all the antelope are gone. I like hike up to the little rise and I'm glassing and I do not see any other antelope. Oh my god, dang it. Man. It's like, do I just start walking around or I just try a different spot. And I was like, I was just sitting there blind.

So I'm sitting on the blind and I'm like, man, it's got to be a hundred and I don't even know. I wasn't as prepared as I probably should have been. Had to have been a hundred and ten or plus degrees. I don't even know, maybe a lot more. Inside that point. I was just as like my brain was cooking in there. So I'm like, gosh, dude, I'm not good at sitting, like all right, but I'm thinking this is probably the best way to get a buck in this short amount

of time. So sitting there, it's like the middle of the day, I'm just cooked, and I'm like, dude, this is so hot. So I just taking my shirt off. I'm like sweat and there's no breeze, and I'm like it feels better because it's just so hot. So I take my shoes off. I'm like, okay, it's like nothing around I can see for miles. I'm like, nothing's gonna happen. So I'm in the blind. It's like, take my shoes off.

I'm like, I'll just take my pants off too. I take my pants off, and I'm like sitting there, like finally, it's like God, starting to feel a little bit better. So I'm just like distracted and I look up and there's an antelope buck standing in the middle of the water hole, just like slurping down the water. I thought I could see everything, and all of a sudden boom antelope like in the water hole. I don't even know

how it got there. He must have sprinted from five miles away when I was just distracted and I'm like, oh, crap. So I don't even think I had my release on. It was just on the ground because I just like it was cool and off and wasn't expecting something like crap. So I put my release on, like I gotta get my everything's disheveled. The bucks still, they're drinking, drinking, drinking. I draw back, aim, shoot, boom, hit the buck. Perfect shot.

I mean he didn't even go ten ft and I had my first water hole antelope, pretty much completely unexpected. Sitting there hunting in what I would consider my modern day loin cloth. Hunting water might sound easy, like, oh, you can shoot a buck in your underwear, it's really not. I mean, there's a very mental game to it, and there's a lot of things that can go wrong. In a lot of places. You could sit in the entire season and not have anything coming in. So picking a

water is kind of crucial to this whole thing. Working out in every species is a little bit different. But I didn't want this episode to be not just about antelope water hole hunting, but more just about hunting over water. So I think it comes down to picking a water source, and this is a main theme with anything you're hunting, But you have to first kind of analyze what those

animals are looking for. So if I was hunting antelope, I kind of look for more isolated water pockets, like where they have to go to a certain water hole and one that's out in the open because they can use their eyes they can run in. The more open it is, probably the more antelope are going to use it. And the nice thing about antelope is they don't necessarily get super freaked out about blinds now. If I was hunting deer, I actually think dear a little bit the opposite.

They like more sheltered brushy areas, So if there was tall sage around the water, if there's some canyon or something like that, they're more likely to use that where they kind of they've got that edge of cover nearby. And actually, meal deer tend I find, tend to use longer waters, so whereas antelopeal uses isolated waters. If given an option, a meal deer will probably dre and kind

of a creek over like a pocket. They'll hit springs as well, but they like those waters that like maybe I was a spring and then runs where they can go in water and they don't have to drink at the same place every day. Now if there's no other options, they'll do that. But mule deer like to kind of not fall into that same pattern, whereas antelope will pick a water source and can be pretty predictable on it, and then when it comes like elk, it's a little

combination of all of those. I've seen just out and like a trough out in the big flats below the mountain, and then I've seen them, you know, hitting obviously springs, wallows, whatever. But I do find especially earlier, you know, elk, you can kind of find on bigger water sources because there it's a big herd and they kind of all one in there. They all want some action. They might want to roll in it, the cows might want to splash around in it, and it's kind of like where those

cows want to go. So they want those bigger water holes where they can especially if it's hot, where they can roll around, where they can get wet, where it's not just a little tiny seat. If they've got the option. So those are just a couple of little things I think about, But when it comes down to picking a water really activity is key and then understanding that activity. So now there's the ability to leave a trail cam on the water and you can decipher, oh, well, what's here,

what's coming in? You know, you can go put a camera on every water and then figure it out. But as trail cameras become illegal in a lot of places, or maybe you don't have them, it's really good to understand how to find active water holes without the use of trail cameras because it's not always an option. And so the way that I do it, and I've I've done this before trail cameras and during trail cameras doesn't really matter. Is I like to do a work backwards approach.

So what I do is when I go out and I'm looking for water sources, I first try to spot animals. I'm looking for animals, not water. So I go out, I score out or even during a hunt, I'm looking for animals. So if I'm in an area i'm hunting pronghorn, I'm looking, I'm looking, and I find the buck that i'm like, oh, there's a good buck. Then I work backwards. Now I go, where's the water, where's this animal watering? Same thing with elk, same thing with meal dere I

hunt and scout and whatever looking for those animals. I don't necessarily just start looking for the water. Now, maybe I've looked on a map and say where is the water, and then start going into those areas and looking for animals, and then I go, Okay, there's animals here. Now I'm going to go investigate the water sources that I can find. So I'll find the water and I'll say, well, what kind of water is it? Is it a stream? Okay, well look at the stream, look for sign, check for sign.

Maybe I'm hunting antelope. Maybe it's an isolated water hole. I go there, I look for tracks, I look for trails going in any kind of sign thing. They're using this water, and that's where I'm gonna pick. Okay, now this is a productive water. I found the animals in the area. I know they're here. I know maybe there's a certain kind of animal that maybe I saw a big buck, maybe I saw a big bull. I know there's animals that are using this. This is going to

be a place to set up. So now the next step hunting water is having something that hides you from whatever is coming in. When it comes to antelope, ground blinds are the best pop up ground blinds in my opinion, or the best. I've hunted a lot of antelope on water holes. I've done every kind of blind. I've made blinds with friends. We've brought like made full brush blinds

that take five man crews in full weekends. And then I've used just like pop up double bull style blinds or whatever, and I think that the pop up blinds work just as well. Now there's a couple of things when it comes to prong horn that I mean. I've actually seen antal open the distance, gone out, set up a pop up blind and then just had them come in their ice say it's so good. But I don't think that that shape that whatever really bugs them very much. So I think the pop up blind is really good

for antal. Now it comes to elk and deer, I think it's a little bit opposite. You kind of have to have it brushed in. I think actually building a blind is a little bit better, or even going blindless, but just um cutting a bunch of vegetation, building something up where you can sit down, be out of sight, be down wind, and then when they move in or when they're drinking and when they aren't looking, you can use that opportune time to raise up, to shoot, to

do whatever. It's not as effective with antelope because their eyesights so keyed in and generally where you're hunting pronghorn isn't as brushy. So that's the nice thing about deer and elk is they kind of tend to go to those water areas where there might be a little bit more cover around. When it comes to antelope, pop up

blind it's probably going to be your best option. Now you can also for deer and elk um there's a lot of places where all hunt over water, and you know, good time to put up a tree stand or whatever. It's just finding some way to hide and conceal yourself. There's a lot of times for elk whether it's a wallow or whatever, where I'll just move back yards from the water wallow and sit on the ground, put my back up against the tree and just they're still, and

have had animals walk right past me. I've taken plenty of animals that way, just kind of sitting. Even sometimes I'll go and check different water holes or whatever. Sit on the ground that way, don't have to bring anything in or don't have a whole big setup process. And the key is just with anything, get down wind get down windo the water down windo. Where you think they're going to come in. Now A big topic, I would say, especially this year a lot of places, is a drought.

You know, there's a lot of bad things when it comes to hunting and droughts because during the springtime, that's when most of the water, you know, and most the antler growth happens. So droughts do definitely affect the antler growth of animals in the area. They can be detrimental to popular aans, especially if they get really bad. Um you know in places with the white tails and stuff seems like e h. D kind of kicks up when there's a little bit less water, a lot more standing water,

a lot more stagnant water. There's also, you know, limited resources, so you might have cattle in an area, but the cattle are all on the water hole or you know, in a lot of places, the cattle aren't so bad because they've got their own water. Troughs and other things. But the wild land where you're hunting deer, analyope, the wild horses just hammer the water sources in the drought, and they get really aggressive toward a lot of the game animals and the game species, so they chase them off,

and and then you have some die offs. With enough drought and not enough resources to go around for everything, you have a lot of die off. So in that aspect, droughts are bad. In another aspect, droughts can be really good because you can use it to your advantage. You might say, like, how, well, how is something that's bad can be good? Well, if you think about it, when there's a limited resource that animals need, all you need

to do is find that limited resource. If you find the water where there isn't very much water, it really helps you narrow down where the animals are, and it also gives you a really good spot to sit to hunt water. You're gonna have more activity during the daytime because there's gonna be more competition, more animals interacting with it. Uh, it's just gonna be overall more effective hunting. So during a drought, I actually tailored my hunting and my scouting

and my EA scouting based on looking for water. It's one thing. It's like anytime you can narrow down something that those animals need to a certain place or a certain spot, whether it's a full timbered mountain and you're looking for that one area feeding, or maybe it's a really open area but you're looking for that area betting. Maybe it's an area that doesn't have a lot of water, so you're just looking for that water is something that

those animals are gonna be tied to. If it's water, it's a concentrated spot, and it makes it a really good place to set up an ambush by either blind or lying in wait waiting for those animals to go to water. So hunting that water can be super effective if there's less water. Also, generally during a drought, it's pretty hot, um you aren't getting that weather, you aren't getting that cloud cover as much because that cloud cover starts to bring that rain, start to bring that water.

So when it's really hot, it's kind of like this cycle where if it's hot out and you've got to drought, then the animals need more water, but they've got less water, so they keep going to the available water. So one thing you can do is you know, identify where the waters are and then where other potential waters are as the water start drying up. Like on my antelope hunt, three of the four waters I think that I had

planned on hunting were dry. One was available, but because of that, that's where the antelope were, and it concentrated them on that one water. Now there must have been another water somewhere else because they weren't all hitting that one water every day. But knowing where all those water sources are really helps you focus in and be a lot more successful sitting that water because there's times where if there's water all over, sitting water is not a

very effective way to hunt. You could sit in one place and never see a deer and I'll come to that water because there's too many other places that they're using. So that's why it's really important to pick the right

water finding good activity. You know, have that blind or whatever brushed in so they aren't gonna see you, or if it's antlope, don't even worry about it, but just have something to obstruct the anal from seeing you, and then think about strategically hunting water during a drought and focusing in on water sources. Now at the end, we kind of touched on drought, but really one of the worst things about dry years is wildfire. So as we prepare for ALX season, it's coming up, September is just

about here, Like, I'm pretty stoked done it. I've got a tag fires off September one, so I'm gonna be in the Elk Woods, and I just want to kind of touch on what you should expect when that smoke rolls in on the hunt, because there's gonna be a lot of you out there. They're gonna have smoke filled hunts, and it's a terrible, terrible thing. I mean, it's one of the worst things when it comes to Western big game hunting and something that we have to deal with.

So I definitely want to set expectations right and also give you a few tips on things you can do when that smoke rolls in in ways that you can try to make lemonade out of lemons. I appreciate everybody tuning in, listening, all the great comments, all the great feedback. You've you've got questions or whatever, feel free to reach

out to me on social media at Remy Warren, Instagram, YouTube, whatever. Also, there's just been some really great comments and ratings, so if you like the podcast, feel free to drop a comment, leaver, rating, whatever you guys want to do. But until next week, uh this, I'll just say sit tight, sit tight, or should I say, grab a drink? Grab a grab a drink now, sit tight. We'll just stay with it, man. One of these days I'll find a good sign off.