Your food plots should fall into two categories: One you hunt and one that you don't. Far too often food plots are all hunting all the time, and there is a major risk that you need assess as it relates to your hunting and herd management efforts. Why? Because spooking a deer herd off of your food plots just one time can take any of the potential rewards your food plots offer, and replace them with an experienced herd that learns to avoid the food plot, the travel corridors that lead to the food plot and the bedding areas that support the food plot. Do you want to send deer packing for the neighbor's land? Then consistently hunt the wrong food plot at the wrong time. It is critical that you determine if your food plot is a hunting plot or a destination plot, and there is a huge difference.
In this weeks episode the ingredients for both food plot types are discussed and illustrated, to help you determine if you should back off or go in for the kill, on your own personal food plots this season. The greater the level of attraction, the greater and far-reaching the potential risk to your herd and hunting efforts.
*Don't forget to check out my trilogy of Advanced Whitetail Strategy books, including my food plot strategy book, "Food Plot Success by Design".
Should you hunt your food plot?
A great guide to follow is that if the food plot is merely a pass through on the way to a larger food source that deer can reach safely and feed undisturbed prior to dark, then depending on the lay of the land and screening cover for access, it may be a great spot to hunt. On the otherhand, if you can't possibly get into or out of a treestand or blind without spooking whitetails that are bedding or feeding, then the risk is likely far too great. Make sure to check out Whitetails By Design Ep 2, to help you assess manage the risk of your your own food plots during this hunting season.
