Warren Womack keeps detailed journals from virtually every hunt he’s ever been on. He records where he hunted, the date and time, any deer seen and weather conditions — with the occasional accompanying photographs or video.
An excerpt from Jan. 26, 1997, chronicled Womack sitting 20 feet up a tree in Mississippi to wait out the rest of the afternoon. He was situated near a travel corridor deer were using to get to a food source to his north.
It was his third tree of the day after regrouping from missing a doe at 15 yards with his recurve earlier. He saw more than a dozen deer scattered throughout the evening.
Womack arrowed a beautiful 9-point with an 8-yard shot just before sunset.
Womack wasn’t set up on a scrape line; he didn’t rattle the buck in to mimic a fight; he didn’t have the aid of doe estrous.
He simply set up in an area where he knew deer frequented, not unlike he does any other time of the year.
His rut method — so simple yet so effective — is something every hunter should find noteworthy. Although I, and I’m sure countless other hunters, are light years behind catching up to Womack’s harvest numbers or knowledge base, we can emulate what has proved successful for him and others like him during the late-season rut.
“Spend as much time as you can in the woods, hunt different places, watch movement and relocate if necessary,” he said. “Hunt all the time the same way, but just look for different opportunities.
“That’s my biggest key to success.”
