Things change and so Does Deer Movement

    Let me set the scene: A few years ago or maybe more than that even, you find a honey hole of a spot. It's not just a good stand location, it's amazing. For years it produces without fail until one year you notice it's started to change. The deer don't move through as much and are unpredictable. At this point it's still a good stand until, gradually it gets worse and worse until there is no movement, no sign, no rubs, no scrapes, no anything. And there you are left wondering what happened to your favorite killing tree. A huge number of factors could be playing into the profound absence of game. For one thing food sources change. That can be a factor. If you hunt agricultural areas which would most of the midwest, it's no secret that most farmers rotate crops. Soybeans one year, corn another, wheat the next, and maybe alfalfa for a couple years. Some deer in different areas prefer different things. Mine prefer corn. Yours may not. But that's an obvious factor.
     Water or more like the lack thereof can cause 2 problems: 1. Obviously deer need water so if there isn't any available they will relocate. (Again an obvious reason). 2. When water gets low maybe a whole deer herd amongst other creatures may be drinking from the same tiny watering hole. This can cause the spread of a devastating disease called Blue Tongue or Catarral Fever which most of you know about. A virus which is first started by midges and spreads through drinking water. (luckily biologists say it can't affect humans) This can wipe out huge numbers of deer and sometimes an outbreak won't be as obvious as you think.
   It's your favorite tree so you have hunted it a lot right? Maybe even sometimes when the wind
hasn't been the best. And usually, if you hunt a spot long enough and enough deer pass by the enevitable will happen. You will probably be seen, smelled, picked out, or heard by any number of deer maybe more than once. Get busted by the Matriarch doe or get busted enough times by the deer period they will start to know what to expect. At first they might continue to use the trail and just be more cautious but get busted again and they will probably stop using the trail completely. I have a stand where deer never looked up until one day the wind swirled and a mature doe (probably the Matriarch) smelled me and saw me at the same time. Every deer from that time forward looked me right in the eye when they got to that spot in the trail. I got busted 2 more times from that trail and they stopped using it completely. Call me crazy, but it's true, deer comunicate.
    So what's my advice? As hard as it is to do, leave it completely alone for at least one or two full seasons. Also, try to remember closely the conditions on which the deer movement was paramount and strike when those conditions align down the road. Hopefully, in a couple of years your old spot will be as good as the first season you hung it. Just don't give up! -Lake