Fall hunting is here, and we have a few tips and pointers to better help you prepare for those early season sets in the Southeastern United States!

1. Take on the Heat

Be prepared for the early season heat. Here in Tennessee, during the opening of archery season it’s still semi-summer conditions. Get ready for 80 degree plus temperatures in the afternoons. Temps like this can often last into the early part of the rut. This results in a lot of rut activity will be at night. So your first couple of hours of morning light is vital, and can be your best chance to catch your buck heading into his bedding area for the day. The afternoon sits may not yield as much as your morning sits. Scouting is key, and the more you know where your bedding areas are and water source areas are, the better. Hunting trails leading to or from bedding and water are where I’ve had the most success during this part of the season. Thermacells are your best friend during the early season because the bugs are relentless.

2. Scouting

Scouting is very important. In Tennessee specifically, we have the foothills and mountains. You really need to scout multiple spots and really look at those transition lines. While doing this you need to think of multiple points of entry and egress for wildlife, as well as multiple ways of getting to your stand. Where I’m from, the wind will change from day to day, or even hour by hour and that can seek havoc on your stands.

3. Give Them a Reason

For you private land hunters, I encourage you to really look into food plots. We have started to split some of our fields, half with summer crops into early fall food, then the other half will have that late fall to early winter crops that keep the deer in the area. We tend to do a lot of corn and beans for the summer crops, and clover for the rest of the year. Keeping that food source going year round will keep your deer in the area.

4. Educate Yourself

Take some time and learn different plants and trees. I have a few friends who always struggled to fill tags on their land. I went out to their place and looked at their stand locations. All of them have stands leading into an open field full of broom sage. They would always say they can hear the deer moving around them, but they never seen them. I noticed they had about 10 full, mature oak trees only 50 yards away from their existing stands. We placed a game camera and within days observed multiple does and 3-4 different bucks coming in and eating the acorns and all during daylight hours. So needless to say, simply knowing a little about plants and trees, in addition to whitetail behavior will increase your chances.

5. Tap into the Untouched

For my public land hunters, dig into your wildlife areas. Find those spots that are hard to access by foot, but easy kayak or a small Jon boat with a trolling motor. I just recently got into kayaking, and I have been able to get into areas that have no pressure at all because it’s a pain to get to, and people don’t want to get wet. A buddy and I went out last year. We were late setting up, as it was the night before our hunt. We put a set in deep in an untouched area. We came back the next morning, kayaked in, and got into our stand about 1.5 hours before daylight. He was able to get his biggest deer to date that morning. Take the time to look into wild life areas that might not be that well known, or only allow archery, for example. These will obviously have less human traffic, and from what I have experienced, your odds will improve for filling a tag.

-Daniel Wright, Fall Obsession Field Staff