OTC Honey Holes

[Sinkinglizard]

Couple of questions for the guys getting it done every year in OTC units.

How long did it take you to find "honey holes"? Did you "Accidentally" stumble upon them while hunting? Or were you intentional on being in the area with e-scouting, etc?
Do they produce every year? If so, are elk behaviors in the area more or less the same from year to year in the area?
How repeatable are these areas at producing bulls?

And last but not least, how many of your honey holes are found by other hunters? Is it possible to still have an OTC honey hole to yourself?

Thanks in advance for input

 

[wildwilderness]

I figure it takes 3 years of hard hunting to learn areas. Some from sheer luck and others from e-scouting. Hard to tell patterns in one season

Not every honey hole produces every year so find a few of them and check them all.

No where on public is entirely protected from others. Some years you may not see anyone but others may be crowded.

Plenty of overlooked spots can be great

 

[westslopelaker]

I think elk hunting success is WAY more about the hunter's skill, strategy, experience and has little to do with the location. A fud would struggle to kill a elk in Yellowstone while a great elk hunter could be successful about anywhere.

 

[cnelk]

Ive been hunting my otc areas for over 30 years. Probably over 100 sq miles.
Each year I have a goal to find SOMETHING new, either scouting during the summer or while hunting

Definitely elk have their favorite spots. Over the years Ive killed 4 different elk standing by the same tree.

I gave up on a really good area because some rookies came in and camped right in an elk travel corridor every year.

 

[XLR]

I think you have to have numerous "honey holes" if you are going to get it done year after year. Some years nobody is in a spot and that is your new honey hole. Then the next year its like they gave everyone GPS coordinates on Go Hunt... I have a couple of spots that are that way so I just check them out every year. Some places produce more elk while other have higher quality bulls year after year. Always have a few back up plans though.

 

[Hnthrdr]

Hard to say, had spots to myself for 4 years; then last year had 5 other hunters on trail cam and during season had 30+ in one drainage during season, sometimes stuff is cyclical, sometimes stuff is unexplainable. Find stuff by looking on line and then putting boots on the ground. Burn a lot of boot leather looking for new spots. Sometimes you just luck into areas though

 

[87TT]

Seems like every time I find a new "honey hole", they either log it or it burns.

 

[Crowmangler]

The group I hunt with drop camp, so our area is limited by how far we can & are willing to hike during the day & get back to camp at a reasonable time day after day.

My strategy is to have 8 or 10 "spots" in that general area. Which spot I go to depends on sign, time of day, etc. and from experience gained in that area over the past few years. Kinda like how a buck makes his rounds on a scrape line.
Also, I think people underestimate just how far elk travel. You can run up on a herd of 50 one day & never see them again the rest of the week.

Weather can have a huge impact too. Lots of snow & cold temps can push them down out of the areas you typically see them at from one year to the next. This happened to us last year.

However, that same weather can keep other hunters out as well. Saw 35+ people one year & 1 the next because of weather.

Luck plays a big roll but you gotta put in the work to put yourself in a position to be successful. IMO, boots on the ground is 100x more important that e-scouting.

 

[SoloWilderness]

My favorite area I have been hunting for close to 20 years. It took 4-5 years of hunting the general area pretty heavily to get the elk patterns figured out. This was prior to E-scouting, all USGS topographics, and still learning to hunt. I stumbled upon the area that I would call my honey hole now on one of these trips by accident. I then invested heavily into focused scouting and learning every nook and cranny of the particular drainage. I have since killed 6 elk within a 1/4 mile area in that canyon, and a dozen more around the fringes or in the general area. But mine are general areas (typically a certain side of a finger ridge), as opposed to a specific wallow or gps coordinate.

My sweet spot, is an area that is probably 5 miles wide and 5 miles deep, that spans 3 major drainages, but all glass-able from a few key vantage points. Finding these glassing spots was more critical than anything in getting the areas dialed. Get to them a day or two early, spend all day on the glass, find the elk at first light on opening morning, and game on. After that it's just exploring new areas and parts of it each year. I got bored with a very productive area, and shifted into the next canyon complex. Similar elk behavior, similar terrain, killed several elk there, and gave the original canyon to a friend, haven't been back since, except to help him pack his first bull out of a spot within one minor finger ridge of my little 1/4 mile circle.

But, with E-scouting these days, I can look at a section of map, and go into country I've never been in, and still have a reasonable chance of getting into elk pretty quickly. I just find similar terrain features to ones that are known to be productive, and if there are elk in the area, that is where they tend to be.

 

[cnelk]

I will add this:

Way back in the day, using printed paper aerial maps, I would make a dot on the map every time I encountered an elk. I would note the time of day, weather, wind, terrain and anything I thought was important.

Then I would start looking as to WHY that elk [or those elk] were there.

It didnt take very long to figure a pattern.

 

[SoloWilderness]

This. Laminated my USGS topos and carried a sharpie and notebook. Every single encounter got a number and mark on the map with detailed notes in my notebook. Also drew in the elk trails, wallows, and viewpoints on them in different colors. These maps and notes are absolute gold. I still always carry my paper maps, and they are what comes out at night when planning the next day, not my gps. New area, first thing I do is order a 7-1/2 minute map. I also print out a stack of zoomed in aerial views from Google Earth, and match up the aerial view to reality.

I will add this:

Way back in the day, using printed paper aerial maps, I would make a dot on the map every time I encountered an elk. I would note the time of day, weather, wind, terrain and anything I thought was important.

Then I would start looking as to WHY that elk [or those elk] were there.

It didnt take very long to figure a pattern.

 

[S.Clancy]

I think you have to have numerous "honey holes" if you are going to get it done year after year. Some years nobody is in a spot and that is your new honey hole. Then the next year its like they gave everyone GPS coordinates on Go Hunt... I have a couple of spots that are that way so I just check them out every year. Some places produce more elk while other have higher quality bulls year after year. Always have a few back up plans though.

This^^^. I have like 10+ "honey holes", I just go through them like a rolodex until I find cooperative elk.

 

[Extrapale]

No place is good everytime. You have to have several spots to be successful.

To find spots requires boots on the ground. Take what you know about elk and apply it to maps and satellite photos. Ground check to confirm elk activity.

If they are there, use that info to find more spots. If they aren't, back to the drawing board.

If you stumble on to elk on your way to a spot, figure out why they are there. Find more spots that offer the same values to the elk.

Repeat, over and over and over again.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

 

[Nickofthewoods]

My best Elk spot I found while hunting mule deer one year. I spotted 4 bulls early one morning about 2 miles away in a tiny little drainage and decided to go check it out several days later. When I finally got in there I found a spring with the only water for about a mile in any direction and a heavily used natural mineral lick. I have a 100% success rate there and have yet to encounter a human. I attribute the quality of this spot to the fact it doesn't look appealing on maps or Aerial photos, doesn't have anything nearby that typically attracts hikers, and has very difficult access.

Another favorite spot is not very far from a highway, is behind Private property and requires a river crossing and lots of bushwhacking and side-hilling to legally get behind the private land.

Both places are in OTC units, don't look like good spots via e-scouting tools, and have difficult access hurdles. I shoot an Elk in one of these spots almost every year. Both places were found by getting out and putting boots on the ground.

 

[Shraedus]

Not trying to hijack the thread. Without getting to beat up here, what types of terrain/map features does everyone look for on a map when finding areas to look at? Ridges, saddles, depressions, ect. I am just trying to learn. Thanks.

 

[insanelupus]

Always be looking for honey holes if you plan to hunt an area long term. Things change a landscape as time goes on, time to scout can get harder to find. If you rely on just a few spots, eventually you'll find the elk uncooperative.


I check usual areas every year and try to find new spots too. May be during scouting, it may be during hunting, heck it might be the same unit but just a different spot.


Elk patterns can change for unknown reasons. Always be looking for the next spot to be a honey hole.


And don't forget to check honey holes that dried up years ago. Sometimes they rotate back through.

Killing elk is more about time management on the landscape and being efficient with that time, until the elk cooperate.

 

[mpb21]

Not trying to hijack the thread. Without getting to beat up here, what types of terrain/map features does everyone look for on a map when finding areas to look at? Ridges, saddles, depressions, ect. I am just trying to learn. Thanks.

Could be all of those or none of em. They need food, cover, water and to breed. Depending on the time of year and what the landscape has to offer will determine if they are on a ridge, in the timber, up high or on the winter range, etc. Can’t just make a generic statement about whether they like open ridges, timber, etc. without knowing the country. Gotta get out scout

 

[Geewhiz]

Anybody whoes been elk hunting for any amount of time who happened to stumble onto one of those consistent money zones better not say a peep or you risk losing it all. Thank me later.



Also, I am curious what the term honey hole means to people that claim to have one. Is this an area that looks elky? An area you've seen elk in a couple of times? An area that youve killed elk in a few time? I am curious how many guys consistently kill bulls in a single relatively confined area year after year on public ground in a general unit.

 

[roosiebull]

Couple of questions for the guys getting it done every year in OTC units.

How long did it take you to find "honey holes"? Did you "Accidentally" stumble upon them while hunting? Or were you intentional on being in the area with e-scouting, etc?
Do they produce every year? If so, are elk behaviors in the area more or less the same from year to year in the area?
How repeatable are these areas at producing bulls?

And last but not least, how many of your honey holes are found by other hunters? Is it possible to still have an OTC honey hole to yourself?

Thanks in advance for input

It ain’t the spots, don’t even look at it that way, honey holes is a dynamic concept, and I never get too attached to a “spot”

Even if others don’t find your spot, your spot will not always be the same, tons of factors that go into that, but it’s best to have a long list of spots to check and keep tabs on… one day one of them will be a honey hole, but next year it will be a different spot.

I think using a lot of time and energy looking for a spot is a bad approach… instead, focus on their habits, what they need for habitat, so wherever you go you can make a big area small, by narrowing down where they will be and why they will be there, you can cover a lot more ground that way and will be way better off than looking for a honey hole

There are places i have killed more than one elk in, but there are more days that are dead in those areas, some years reliably good spots suck… don’t worry about spots, worry about learning how to narrow down what elk need to be comfortable, and if they aren’t there, leave it alone for awhile and check back later.

If you learn how to find elk, the spots don’t matter much, and you can go to a completely new area and find elk. Stay dynamic, the pieces of the puzzle get easier to put together with experience.

 

[ElkNut1]

Shraedus, find water! I could care less about all this terrain feature stuff in timbered country if there is no water around. I mean very small pockets the size of a wallow or larger. Not looking for lakes here! Some areas will have 10'x10' sized ones others may have that & larger but very small in comparison to lakes or large ponds. I use Basemap & can locate all kinds of spots I'm referring to.

You will notice that most of these areas located that elk are within hearing distance of calling from these water sources.

Some of these areas are within 1/2 mile from roads & others can be scattered further in. I look for ones that are less than 3 miles from my access points. This helps on the packout!

Do elk frequent the same areas yearly, heck ya they do, it can be banked on! Now if someone beats you in there & runs them out & then you show up days later thinking elk weren't there that year. No way, they were around.

P.S. Find those water pockets! The more secluded the better your chances of little to no hunter competition! I'm referring to Archery hunting here!

ElkNut