Friday, May 7, 2010

First Velvet Buck of the Season on the Cuddeback

We hung our first camera this month on one of our hunting properties.  There is a spot in the woods with a natural spring that fills with water.  We hung our camera about 15 yards off this remote watering hole.  There are several main trails that pass by here, so we thought it would be a great spot to hang our Cuddeback IR.  A few days ago we went and checked it and got our first trail cam picture of a buck in velvet.  He just has about 2 inches of his main beams starting to grow.  We were pretty excited to see a buck already. 

Yesterday we were out there working up the ground with our Plotmaster 400.  We are planning on planting about 3 acres of food plots at this particular hunting spot this year.  We want to plant several different BioLogic blends to attract different species out there.  The total field size is about 13 acres consisting of tall native grasses.  We did a controlled burn on about 3 acres to put into food plots.  We plan to put a 1/2 acre into Whistleback for the turkeys, quail, pheasants, and doves.  We have even considered raising some quail and pheasants to release out there.  We are going to plant an acre of Roundup Ready soybeans in the next few weeks.  The deer love the leaves in the summer when they are growing their antlers.  If they don't overbrowse, they are probably the most effective late season food plot when there is snow on the ground.  If the deer tear them up we will probably disc them under and replant something else there in the fall.  Next to the beans we will plant an acre of LabLab .  The deer also love the leaves from the LabLab as well.  It provides a generous amount of protein during the critical summer months of antler growth.  Some plants can grow 2-3 feet high.  

In the late summer/ early fall we will probably disc the LabLab under and plant some smaller plots of Full Draw, Green Patch Plus, Winter Peas, and Maximum.  This should give us a good variety that should be palatable from early bow season all the way through the late season.  

The Cuddeback also took a pretty neat picture of a big turkey walking through the woods.  We are excited to see what else shows up on our cameras this year.  We hope to get a hit list of the bucks that we will be hunting this year.  Feel free to send in your trail cam pictures.  We would love to post them on the website.  Email us at poceoutdoors@yahoo.com and check out our website at poceliteoutdoors.com.