We are very excited to get going with the 2011 season of Midwest Whitetail Illinois.  Similar to last year, we will be having the Pro Staff guys giving regular updates about what is going on in the deer woods, so that you have something to compare to and have something to help you figure out the deer in the areas that you hunt.  We'll bring you a new episode every Sunday from here on out, with action from all over the Land of Lincoln, so be sure to keep checking in and follow the stories all season long.

September 7, 2011

Todd Berkenpas- Northern Illinois

 I just made it back from my second trip to Iowa some 400 miles away. The first trip we hung stands and put out cameras. This trip my son Ty and I freshened up the mineral sites and re set the cameras and well as completed the Hit List show. It was a lot of walking but well worth it. On our way out we found a scrape line some 200 yds long with 4 scrapes. Also when we got back in and checked the cards I found a buck I was calling Mr. Perfect had jumped from what looked like the 140’s in July to the 150’s maybe 160. Quite a bit of growing in the last month of antler development. I also confirmed that “Splits” had gone from velvet to hard horn on August 30th and was now showing himself more on the North side of the farm then on the South. The cameras will now run till October 29th which is the day we get to Iowa to start our 2 week hunt. Once we pull the cards we may be able to use the most recent information they tell us to confirm or deny our current strategies or even see if more bucks have moved into the area that may not have shown themselves yet. “Hopefully 5 By” which is one of the Hit List bucks.

Here in Illinois the food plots are looking great. We have been fortunate that the Frigid Forage plots have had good rains and they have responded well. I will set the ground blind here in the next few weeks over the Big and Beasty in hopes that we can get my son Ty his 1st bow kill for Midwestwhitetail. 

Wade Neibarger & John Babcock - East Central Illinois

John and I traveled down to western Kentucky for the archery opener this past weekend. Record temps for the area (98 degrees actual, 103 heat index) and thunderstorms had deer movement shut off almost completely. Upon arrival, we checked our trail cameras we had hung on Tuesday 8/30. The cameras told a pretty grim story for us as we only had a couple of doe's and fawns captured on film. We didn't let this get us down, as we were still excited to just be hunting in September. We were still going to use the stradegy of "Find water - Find Deer". The following is a quick overview of how the weekend went.

Evening of Sept. 3rd - Was in the stands by 4:30pm. Spotted a doe and fawn working along the edge of the timber where it joins a small pasture and a corn field. Distance to deer approx. 100yds. NO SHOT

Sunday morning - Thunderstorms rolled in, couldn't get the cameras out as we did not have the covers with us. We had taken the Ranger bass boat along with us just incase we had some time available. Looks like we're going fishing boys. Fishing was just a little bit better than the deer movement. We got soaked and went back to the hotel to dry out.


Sunday afternoon - Rain finally quit, even though the radar didn't look good, we decided to head to the woods. We saw 5 hen turkeys on the way into the stand and that was it.

Monday morning - We awoke to high winds, cool temps, and overcast skies. We were in the stands before daylight. Around 7:50am we had two hen turkeys work in behind us. Turns out that's all we would see this morning. We got out of the woods, loaded our gear and headed back for Illinois. We will be back down to Kentucky for the early muzzleloader season in mid October.

Back in Illinois, the food plots are planted and burning up. In our particular area where most of our food plots are, we have only had approx. 1.7" of rain since June, with .7" coming in the last two weeks. We overseeded turnips into our plots three weeks ago and while we do see some emergence, another good shower would sure do wonders for everything. Be sure to check back frequently as the guys are going to be updating more often as we approach hunting season. GOOD LUCK & BE SAFE.

Chaz Askew & Shane Workman- Decatur, IL

People always say, “If you don’t like the weather in central Illinois, just wait a few minutes”. Unfortunately, this statement has not held true for us in Decatur, IL this season. After many empty promises from the weatherman and a lot of neglect from mother nature, the food plots we had worked so hard on this season were withering away into small, brown, dying plants. So, we took matters into our own hands.

After much debate and praying for weather to finally break, Chaz had finally had enough and called in the reinforcements, a local guy with a water truck. After the first round, Chaz had put 1000 gallons of water on our late season Frigid Forage Big and Beasty food plot. We were hoping for a miracle as the plot was looking awfully dead after going six weeks with only four hundredths of an inch of rain. I have to admit, the staying power of this Frigid Forage blend is amazing! Even with no rain and close to 100 degree heat for several days in a row, it germinated. That was about the extent of it at that point. Cue the water truck!!

After putting 1000 gallons of water on the plot, it seemed that overnight it came alive! It was literally a day and the plot had thickened and greened up!

The second round of water came when more empty promises and neglect had fallen upon us. The second round of water provided 1000 gallons to our early season Pure Trophy Clover plot and another 1000 for the Big and Beasty plot.

All in all, we have put in a lot of hard work, sweat, maybe a little blood, some sleepless nights, and a whole lot of praying to the rain gods. In the end, taking matters into our own hands was the answer.

When using food plots in a given area, especially for the first time, it really is a huge risk. You just never know if the ground is going to give the forage what it needs to grow. Couple that with not knowing if mother nature is going to smile on you or not, and the risk increases exponentially, but with patience and perseverance, the reward will greatly outweigh the risk. These food plots are going to be a huge asset to the hunting property this year and we owe it all to Chaz for thinking a little outside the box!