Mike's Southwestern Ontario Buck

Mike Verhoef's latest Southwestern Ontario buck.

"I had been waiting patiently for a month now to sit in a new stand of mine, as it was going to be the first time I had hunted the area. The location was perfect to intersect a mature buck with three well used trails intersecting within 20 yards of my stand and it met all the vital requirements to be called a true "funnel" for the surrounding areas. My plan was simple; sit as often as I could in the last week of October and surely I would connect. Over the years, I have come to realize that your odds of seeing a good buck are best during the rut and it is possible anytime during the day. This is why I have changed my bow hunting strategy over the past few seasons to spending as much time as I can in a concentrated time frame, in other words, hunt all day during the peak of the rut. The first two evenings in the stand were very productive with two smaller bucks walking by within 10 yards on the first evening and a doe and a fawn passing by on the second. With that much action I knew it just would be a matter of time before I had my chance at the dominant buck in the area. Two days later, I was walking quietly into my stand just before daylight with the determination and provisions for a full day sit. Once it became light enough, I noticed three fresh scrapes along one of the trails that weren’t there the two evenings before - things were looking good! It was a perfect fall morning to be on stand with cloud cover and a slight cool breeze coming from the direction I had hoped for. Three hours had passed with nothing more then a few squirrels making their claim on some goods for the winter when I caught a movement 80 yards off on one of the trails. I peered intently for a few minutes to try and make out what I saw when I then realized it was a buck making a scrape. At that point I couldn’t tell if he was a "shooter" or not but I proceeded to stand up and get ready for a potential shot on the trail he was hopefully going to come down. As he worked his way along the trail I realized he was a definite shooter with a very even 5x5 frame. It still amazes me that even after 20 yrs of bow hunting and taking a number of good bucks in the past how excited one still gets when that buck is approaching those final few yards, as he walked into a shooting lane at 20 yards and with a subtle grunt I was able to cleanly take this beautiful whitetail.

Side note; although I spend most of my time in the fall on the Maitland river guiding for steelhead I always keep 4-5 days available at the end of October to pursue whitetails with my bow. As I write this today, my stand has been placed and I’m now patiently waiting. Wish me luck!"

Mike is also the owner and primary guide of http://www.flyfitters.ca/ Watch for Mike in upcoming episodes of Canadian Outfitter Television.