Hunting Whitetail In The Fog

[Calcoyote]

I live in Oregon, but have bought a Whitetail tag over in Northern Idaho the last few years. My wife and I go over there the week before Thanksgiving and rattle for bucks during the rut. I had pretty good success the last few years, but I got skunked last year. I hunted for 6 days and the weather was weird. There was pretty dense fog every day. I would go out into the woods and rattle but NOTHING would come in. The fog would limit visibility down to 150 feet a lot of the time and made it difficult for me to spot deer. Are there any Whitetail strategies for hunting in the fog? Do you guys do good hunting in fog? Do Whitetail change their behavior in the fog?


Edit to add comments: I am calling it fog, but it is possible that it was low clouds. I say this because the fog would not go away when I climbed elevation. Usually fog settles in low places, but this stuff was in the air regardless of the elevation. It was thick enough that two different times when I was in the woods I lost my bearings and had to use my GPS to get back to the truck. I always carry a GPS and always mark where my truck is parked before I head into the woods.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Whitetail see by their smell and hearing. Vision isn’t fantastic. They’ll be out feeding in the same spots, fog or not.

 

[Titan_Bow]

They likely still came in, circled downwind and smelled you without you seeing them. whitetail dont use their eyes all that much, they are driven by their noses, then by sound. Rattling can be a good tactic for sure, but the biggest thing is knowing where the does bed. In November, if you can sit and watch the downwind side of an active doe bedding area, you are likely to see bucks cruising, scent checking for a hot doe.
If you really enjoy rattling and want to use that, one thing I would suggest, is to place your wife (if she is the shooter) 50 to 100 yards down wind from you. When a buck comes into your rattling, they will tend to want to circle downwind to smell you, alot of times before you ever even realize it. Having the shooter downwind, they can usually see a buck that maybe the caller did not see.

 

[Calcoyote]

They likely still came in, circled downwind and smelled you without you seeing them. whitetail dont use their eyes all that much, they are driven by their noses, then by sound. Rattling can be a good tactic for sure, but the biggest thing is knowing where the does bed. In November, if you can sit and watch the downwind side of an active doe bedding area, you are likely to see bucks cruising, scent checking for a hot doe.
If you really enjoy rattling and want to use that, one thing I would suggest, is to place your wife (if she is the shooter) 50 to 100 yards down wind from you. When a buck comes into your rattling, they will tend to want to circle downwind to smell you, alot of times before you ever even realize it. Having the shooter downwind, they can usually see a buck that maybe the caller did not see.

I have thought of that exact thing when calling coyotes, but had not considered that for Whitetail.

 

[Lowg08]

We have tried it. Had a doe walk up at the end up this rock in the picture but someone wasn’t paying attention lol. I couldn’t bring myself to shoot my muzzleloader over his head.

 

[EdP]

I have never observed deer moving in fog. They may be there but I never see them. I don't hunt in fog anymore. Instead I focus on getting somewhere I think deer will show up and wait for the fog to clear.

 

[Lowg08]

I will post pictures when they decide to load

 

[hicountry1]

Not much seen that day....

 

[huntngolf]

I think deer treat fog the same as rain. Not much movement during it, but right after it clears they will be on their feet to try and dry off. We don't get much fog where I'm at, but I've had a few really good hunts that were right after it stopped raining

 

[rolltide05]

Down here deer pretty much shit down with high dew point and humidity. Usually it will clear up about 8:30 or so and then they will get on their feet. Regardless down where I hunt those days are usually warmer than average with high humidity which results in below average movement. Good days to sit at camp, cook and have a cold snack .

 

[RockyMnt Hunter]

I've killed several nice 10pts and called in several others in dense fog. Called them both in around sunrise, they were traveling from feed to bedding areas. Fog or not they still need to eat and in November bucks will be chasing does. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they're not moving.

 

[KenLee]

Whitetails in South Carolina will walk powerline cuts on foggy mornings pretty much the same as other mornings.

 

[STX_Sendero]

I had a heavy fog hunt last year during the rut in Texas, maybe 100 yards of visibility. I had a couple of mature bucks come out after doing some rattling, but they mostly stayed in the edge of the fog. The does were also much more skittish than normal for that time of the year.

The main thing I noticed is that I had stay in my binoculars the entire hunt to anticipate the limited shooting windows