Ep. 618: Foundations - That's a Wrap, Now What?

actually not really over for me yet. I'm heading to southwest Wisconsin in two weeks to go on a little dough hunting mission. So technically it's not a rap I guess, but let's just say it is for the hell of it. After all, even if the season is still open for quite a few hunters out there, quite a few hunters aren't really getting after it very are in the late season.

So let's just say the curtain is closed, and the old sun is set, and first fistful of soil has rained down on the coffin that contains your deer season. What do you do now? That's what this episode is all about. I love saltwater fishing. It's a passion that I've come into over maybe like the last decade, and listen,

this is maybe the biggest first world problem ever. But it's really not a great hobby to have as a Minnesotan who makes outdoor writer kind of money, because it's not like I can just catch a quick flight to somewhere beachy and warm anytime I had the urge to go fishing. It's more like once a year type of thing if I get lucky, and that's almost always paired with my family, a family that contains big and small people who like shopping and swimming and non fishing related activit.

He's quite a bit that means, just like it is with mountain hunting, I know my time is limited for this thing that is pretty special to me, so I want to make the most of it. The few days a year where I get to saltwater fish, I just want them to be the best they can be. When I'm done with them, I think about how to make my next trip better so I could just be more

efficient and enjoy it more. So let me break down my fishing this past March in Florida, the sea trout were biting the whiting or somewhat biting the hardhead catfish were definitely biting, so whore a bunch of random fish. It was pretty damn fun. But I also figured out a bunch of stuff about saltwater fishing, or me specifically saltwater fishing. I figured out that instead of buying shrimp

like crazy, I could neet some bait fish myself. That's a twofer because you get the fun of throwing a cast net, which is real addictive, but then you get the fun of using that catch to fish with. I also figured out that four inch swim baits paired up with ten pound floor carbon line will fool a lot of predatory fish in the ocean, and that was a

lot of fun. But I also figured out that if I trust my ten year old daughters to watch a rod that has some cut bait on it when the catfish are really eating right at sunset, I might hear the sound of a very expensive travel rod and a very expensive bait casting reel go pop right into the water. I also figured out that if I take a different expensive rod and leave it under a tie up cleat on a dock so that the fish can't pull it in, I might, like an absolute idiot, try to pick it

up and snap it clean off. Every day in my life since that trip, I felt a sharp pain in the tip of my pointer finger. And do you want to know why, Well, because I tried to throw a little fish back into the water and it spined me. It was so very pain and full but sometimes fishing is.

What I didn't realize is that no matter how much I rooted around in my finger with a sharp knife after that fish spine went in there, and maybe some very manly tears were threatening to form it any second, that freaking fish spine is destined to stay in my finger forever and remind me of how dumb I can be. The lessons I learned from that trip are mostly what not to do, but there are a few that showed me more of what I want to do with my limited time ocean fishing. Now, what does all this one

percent or fishing talk mean about deer hunting? Well, let's reflect a little. The deer season, archery, gun, muzzleloader, whatever, might vary between a week or so to several months. That mitigates some of the mistakes because the sheer amount of time to get things right, you got a lot of it. Sometimes it also makes it seem falsely. I might add that you always have some time left, of course,

until you don't. So what happened with your season? Scratch that, because I know we're going to think about the deer you killed and the deer you didn't. That's what we all do. A good season is one where we killed some deer, especially a big deer, and a bad season is one where we didn't. But that's all bullshit. Well it's not all bullshit, but it's partially bullshit. Here's why this lesson isn't supposed to make you a better hunter now. It could if you think back to some of your

mistakes and make a plan to remedy them. I've talked about that on past episodes, so I'm gonna let that go. If you missed now, If you missed a buck, do whatever, practice more. If you got busted a lot, figure out how to set up better. If you didn't see a buck all season and you hate the world, it's time to get to work. If you thought you were going to have a major chest grabber dragging a dopon downhill and short grass, time to get to the gym. Some

lessons are playing as day, others not so much. When I think about my season, actually my last three seasons, I'm reminded of a few things that I need to have to make it more fun for me in the field. And that's really the ticket, my friends, and it matters to every part of this. Sure, there is supposed to be some level of suck involved when you kill an animal. That's a given and a write of passage that really shouldn't be dismissed. But you should learn to love the process.

You should love the act of figuring this stuff out. You should think back to what you enjoyed and what you didn't, and you should use that time of reflection to plan a better year this year. Now, let me explain this because it gets confusing for everyone, and I mean everyone. It's kind of like, if you don't work out and you want to start, what is your reasoning going to be? People, it's going to be to lose weight rate. That's an admirable goal, but it's the wrong

one in my opinion. That goal means that if you don't shed the pounds by a certain point, it's a failure. If you don't shed enough pounds overall, it's a failure. That's a trap, it's a trap to think that working out that way is the only reason is you're gonna just lose some weight. The goal should be to get in shape and feel better. And I know that sounds dumb, but it's true. You should want to do it to

feel better physically, of course, but also mentally. If you get into the habit of working out, that will happen, and you know what else will happen, You'll lose weight. With deer hunting, we always look at this type of mental exercise as a means to get us to kill more deer. We equate dead bucks with happiness, and believe me, I'm rarely sad when I kill a buck or a dope. But it's the wrong goal. The goal should be to enjoy hunting more in a way that makes it easy.

Here to hunt in less than ideal conditions and when you're tired, and when you just don't think it's going to be very good. This is all about figuring out what you like. Maybe as an example, you've listened to me and a bunch of other industry dipshits drown on and on and on about how awesome all day sits are during the rut. So this past season you made some sandwiches and you brewed some strong coffee, and you went out in November for a dark to dark sit

on some sweet funnel. Maybe you hated it because you got I don't know, two hours into the sit and didn't see a single buck and you could have done a million things more with your time. Maybe you realize that you're more of a three hours of night September kind of hunter. Or maybe you bought a saddle because every really cool guy you know is all about that

saddle life. In fact, we could probably make a lot of money if we made saddle life window decals, like all those salt life decals you seat down in floorida on souped up trucks. Anyway, maybe you bought a saddle and you tricked it all out and then realize after a few hunts that you're kind of really more of a ladder stand kind of hunter. Maybe you didn't hunt much in October because everyone says it won't be good and you should save your best stands until the rut.

But then the rut came and the kids got the flu, and your dumb boss made you work weekends, and suddenly you didn't get to hunt enough and you feel kind of like unfulfilled by the deer season. Is the fix as easy as saying next year, I'm going to hunt the early season as much as I can, or maybe October more than I did this year. Now, what about your standards for a shooter. Here's something we never talked about,

but I'm going to talk about right now. I figured out I like shooting deer more than I like waiting for a very specific animal to walk by. That's just me. You do you, But for me, the best feeling as a hunter is when I slipped from the mode of an observer to someone who is going to try to

kill a deer right now. I love that feeling. I love it so much that always holding out for a big deer doesn't do it for me, because I know those opportunities aren't going to come my way more than a few times each season, and when they do, the odds of me getting to actually shoot they're not that great. I know this about myself because I've been through every stage of a hunter from its brown it's down to antlers or everything, and I'm over the trophy stuff and

I just want to have fun. But what do you want? Do you want the trophies but only see dinks. Maybe you're in a bad spot and should spend your off season looking for new ground with better potential, or better yet, you should do that while also scouting more and more and putting in some real work. The odds are pretty good that where you hunt there's a buck or two that would make you really happy if you and him

didn't cross paths, that's on you. Maybe you hunt it in a way where you thought the rut would save you, or maybe a late season food plot would save you. Maybe that left you're feeling kind of cheated on the whole process, and next year you're going to do things differently. Maybe you decided you would scout your ass off in the summer and try to kill an opening night buck on a bean field and you got so close and

you want more of that in your life. Or I don't know, you took your first trip and you loved it, so you want to plan another that's an easy one. Or maybe all of your buddies took a trip and you didn't because you couldn't afford it. And now you hear that we are in a recession, and you go to the grocery store in your billis twice what it was a year ago, and you think I'm never going

to be able to afford to travel the hunt. And maybe that's true, or maybe now is the time to start planning and putting away a little bit of money each week. Some of the best deer hunting options out there are pretty cheap still, They just take some research. What is it that you personally want on your deer hunting besides buck with four drop times? What is it that you loved about last season that you want more of? What is it that you've never tried but you think

you might like. This whole deer hunting thing is a gift, my friends, and it's not going to be around forever. We have such a cool opportunity to devote some time to these critters and see a world that most humans will never know about from this time and history forward. Instead of basing your hunts on what you think you should do to kill a big one, ask yourself what you do to just have more fun. I've been doing

this a lot in my life. As I stare at a bunch of deer amounts on my walls and I'm reminded of a line in an old Counting Crows song that goes if dreams are like movies, the memories are films about ghosts, the deer of the past, and the hunts from the season and all before them. They're just memories, and that's great, but also a good reminder the next season will also be a memory, and hopefully many many

seasons after that one. What are you going to do with them to make sure you think back fondly on them, or better yet, so that you look forward, and I mean really look forward to your time in the field so much so that you never look for an excuse to not go that you're so happy to put in the work to scout this winner and hang some stands this summer and just immerse yourself in it so that

it fills your cup up, so to speak. Figuring out how to do that incrementally, because there's no wholesale way to do it, is a big step in becoming someone who really really loves deer hunting. And you know what happens to folks who really really love deer hunting. They get really really good at it. They tend to figure out how to hunt in a way that they love, and they tend to calibrate their standards in such a way that they are just as happy to not fill a tag as they are to fill, or at least

the balance is pretty damn close. So let me tell you what I did the last two seasons that I won't do this year to sort of frame this whole thing up. I'm not going to skip the early season hunting. I've done that the last two years to save some tags for some projects, but I hated it, and I mean hated it. Some of my favorite hunting happens in September, and it normally takes the call of the Elk Mountains or a funeral to get me not to be in

the deer woods. Then, during the last two seasons with this current Giga Matt, I haven't planned very well for that and it hasn't been that much fun. And I'm not gonna make that mistake again. In fact, I'm gonna work my ass off to get on some early season bucks here in my home state and see what I can do about filling my buck tag within the first few days of this season. And just the thought of that gets me excited because I love that early season stuff so much. And I'm also going to go back

to the big Woods. I love the challenge of the big Woods, and I love the reality that killing a forkey on public land that is just miles of timber is more challenging than killing a much bigger deer in egg country. Least it is for me. I missed that process and I missed the ass kicking it delivers. So no matter what happens with this job and what I have to film, what I have to do, I'm going to spend some time in northern Wisconsin, where I tend to fill the least amount of tags but feel the

best about my hunting. I'm also going somewhere new, and I don't know where yet, but I want to hunt some public land this year in a state or a part of a state that I've never been to. I think it might be in Oklahoma, but maybe somewhere else, and it really doesn't matter. I just want to feel that anticipation of the late nights on on X when the reality of loading up, you know, all the camping gear and heading out for five or six days to a new place for a little deer hunting adventure just

hits home. I want that feeling again. I'm also going to start teaching my daughters how to actually hunt, not just kill in spots that I've set up for them, but to read sign and figure some things out. I'm going to ask them to start picking some spots to hunt and show them what this stuff is really all about. You'll be hard to not default to where I know they can kill. But I want this passion to stick, and I don't know if it will, but I do know that putting in some work into a challenging task

certainly doesn't always put the fire out. It often fuels it. Those are just some of the things I'm gonna do because I've spent a lot of time thinking about this past season. So what are you gonna do with yourself? What changes will you make this year so that you can enjoy the whole thing a little bit more? I hope a few things come to mind, and I hope your gears are spinning just a bit. We have, like I don't know, nine months to set the stage for

a new, better season. That seems like a ton of time, and in some ways it is a lot of time. In other ways it's no time at all. It's cliche, I know, but it will be here before you know. It, So let's figure out how to make the next season better than the last, and come on back next week because I'm gonna switch things up and talk about how damn tough deer really are. That's it for this week, folks,

I'm Tony Peter. Since this has been the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, which has brought to you by First Light. As always, thank you so much for listening and all

your support. If you just haven't gotten enough white tail in full, feel free to check out our wire to Hunt YouTube feed that is chock full of how to videos, or visit dummy eater dot com slash Wired to read articles by white tail killers like Alex Gilstrom, Beaumarton, ak Toni Hanson, of course Yours truly, and the mustachioed madman Mark Kenny