Patrick Kelleher has killed some dandies while traveling with Mossy Oak’s “Hunting the Country,” and he’s learned a thing or two about how to keep on bucks as they change patterns.
Here are some of his keys:
• Watch before choosing a spot
“You’ve got to be out there and know what they’re doing, so sometimes I go to more of a viewing position than a hunting position to see what they’re doing,” Kelleher said. “Even if I don’t get a shot, I will be able to see where they are moving before I go into the woods.”
• Watch the moon
“The full moon is the time to hunt mid day,” he said. “If I were going to make a 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. hunt, it would be on a full moon.
“I like the week before a full moon, and my least favorite is the week following the full moon.
“I really like the new moon because it’s the darkest and there’s not as much night movement.”
• Wind direction
“I don’t even go to my property unless the wind is right,” he said. “Just by going in there you might push them to move later or not at all.”
• Breeze a must
Many hunters dislike hunting in a breeze, but Kelleher actually prefers a steady wind to a dead-still day.
“I want some 5- to 10-knot wind in one direction,” he explained. “I don’t want 20 knots, but something steady.”
He said the problem with a calm day is that any air movement tends to be swirling around, distributing human scent all over the place.
“Your scent lingers around forever,” he said.
• Just say, “No”
“Know when to go where,” Kelleher said. “You can’t get lucky sitting on the couch, but I don’t think you can just go all the time. It’s picking your spots and knowing what the right conditions are, and then being there when those conditions are right.
“You can’t just say, ‘Alright, I know he’s there and I’m off Saturday, so I’m going.’ You’ve got to say ‘no’ when the conditions aren’t right.”
Editor’s note: This story is part of an article titled Mid-season Scouting in the December issue of Louisiana Sportsman magazine, now available on newsstands or in a new digital edition.
