(left) Scouting can lead to a big buck.  (right) This nice buck bedded in high grass.

Some things about whitetail hunting never change. Many deer hunters choose the same tree for a stand, walk the same trail into and out of a hunting area, and nothing changes.

Many will sit on the same stump, along the same deer trail, as they did 10 or more years ago. It's difficult for many sportsmen to break their old habits, and some hunters never try. It becomes a tradition to again hunt where a buck was killed sometime in the far distant past.

Hunters often wonder: If it was good 20 years ago, it will be a good spot now. Right?

Such a hunting attitude cause deer to go elsewhere. If possible move with them.

Maybe not. That tradition of returning, year after year, to the same old spot has probably saved the life of more bucks than poor shooting or a lack of preseason scouting.

Sadly, clinging to a traditional spot, even when it no longer is hot, is a lesson in frustration. It also leads to fiery claims by skunked hunters that the Department of Natural Resources' reports of deer numbers for whitetails are grossly inflated and way out of whack.

Perhaps this season is about time to cast aside the traditional old haunts, and think about trying a new location. Too many people never realize that food and habitat conditions can and will change, and if the landowner doesn't do something to make the land produce more food and offer more cover, the deer will move on. It's as simple as that.

Change is good but it also can be bad. Hunters must study the land, learn what natural forage is present, and nearby farmers plant that deer will eat. To change for the sake of change makes little sense. Hunters must grasp the philosophy that more food is a good thing.

Deer are animals of farmland and woodland. Granted, some deer live in deep forest and many live on farms, and that's a fact of life in this and many other states across the nation.

If recent hunting years have been unsuccessful, change your hunting ways.

If you agree that a new hunting location should be tried, where should hunters start in their search for a new spot to test their luck or skill?

Hunters can start with the DNR. They keep track of deer trends, and know which counties have the highest deer numbers and which ones produce the largest deer. The county extension agent often deals with farmers and other landowners, and they also can help gauge a new area.

Determine if you want to hunt the Upper or Lower Peninsula, but if you've read hunting reports elsewhere about deer hunting prospects, the U.P. is not the place to go. The Upper Peninsula has lots of wolves and fewer deer. The area with the most deer is south of an east-west line from Bay City to Grand Rapids.

Start asking questions. Talk with regional game biologists. Talk to conservation officers.

Learn which counties produce big bucks and lots of deer, and learn why deer numbers are so high in such areas. Determine the availability of state or federal lands nearby, but both state and federal land is often quite sparse and over-hunted. especially in the southern Lower Peninsula.

Spend time scouting two or three different areas. Determine which ones offer the best combination of land, cover, deer foods, bedding cover and access. Walk around the land, and check for well-used deer trails leading from bedding to feeding areas and back. Always be on the lookout for tiny thick covers like and over-grown and abandoned apple orchard. Tiny clumps of heavy brush on the top or side of a hill is often overlooked. Places where human foot traffic is tough are good spots to find deer.

Forget the U.P. Draw a line from Tawas City to Manistee, and hunt south of there.

Look for buck rubs and deer scrapes now. Check barbed wire fences for bits of clinging hair that indicate deer passing through the area.

Talk with landowners to determine their idea of hunting pressure in this spot. Often, in farmland, the major hunting pressure is from the landowner and his or her family and close friends.

Learn where nice whitetail lead bedding cover and how they move.

Consider the possibility of leasing hunting rights. Fees vary depending on length of the lease, property size, whether it is ideal or marginal deer habitat, and what it offers the hunter.

Good land should support good truck crops, mast and other natural forage. Sometimes, an area with some does and some bucks can lead to big bucks if they are given time to grow. If you find a good spot, practice crop rotation and try to build better ground cover.

Remember: deer need five things to grow big racks: three or more years to grow, good cover, good secure bedding areas, plenty of food and water. A sixth key is a lack of steady hunting pressure.

No one owes today's sportsman anything in terms of hunting private property. I manage my land to produce big bucks, and crop lands are rotated and some timber is cut. Doing so helps maintain good hunting, but it's a never-ending learning process to keep up with where whitetails travel after crop rotation and timbering takes place.

Finding a good spot means scouting, being in the right area and being smart.

I spend many hours scouting for good spots. Deer habits change, food supplies change, and hunting pressure can make deer seek quieter areas. A hunter doesn't know these things unless they spend time in the field on a regular basis.

Public lands feature too many hunters in narrowly confined locations, and the hunting pressure is far too high. Food supplies are far better on private land than state or federal lands. Private property holds deer, and, in many areas, it supports more whitetails than public land. For this reason it's easy to understand why more people lease hunting land even though the price of leasing acreage is rising.

Whether a hunter leases private land, hunts on public land, or manages to wangle an invitation from a landowner, scouting is a never-ending problem all year. Hunters who don't scout old land or new land run a major risk of not being successful.

Those who scout properly will never spook deer. Those that make numerous mistakes often chase the deer over onto the neighbors, but don’t expect them to thank you.

Casey Richey (left) and his son Shane, with his former state-record brown.

All things are relative. A trophy brown when I was a kid was the 11-pounder that George Yontz of Wolverine caught from the Sturgeon River in the late 1950s.

Frankly, over many years of trolling Lake Huron and Lake Michigan for brown trout, I've landed many that were big enough to put a hefty strain on my rod, and would tilt the scales to weights from 11 to 19 pounds.

The brown trout is a mystery fish to many anglers. A five-pound brown on the Holy Waters of the upper AuSable and Manistee rivers is a trophy fish. Fish one of those back-of-beyond jump-across creeks, and catch a brown trout measuring 12 inches, and it too is a trophy.

Brown trout numbers have dwindled somewhat in recent years around the Great Lakes. Previously, browns of 20 to 25 pounds were common catches, and the current state record fish was caught two years ago from the Manistee River below Tippy Dam. It weighed in at 41 pounds, 7.2 ounces.

Big brown trout are around but they are difficult to hook and harder to land.

Big browns are where you find them. Most harbors on Lakes Huron and Michigan produce some big fish. For many years, Thunder Bay at Alpena was home to some of the state's biggest browns and the area continue to produce some big fish.

Some very nice fish have been caught trolling in Hammond Bay north of Rogers City, and the area near AuGres off Whitestone Point has produced some very nice fish as well.

Huron Bay at Baraga and L'Anse on Lake Superior also produce good numbers of brown trout in the past. Another Upper Peninsula hotspot for years has been along the Michigan's shoreline from Escanaba and Little Bay de Noc south to Menominee. Ten-pound fish were common catches here, and I've caught some 11 and 12-pounders near Escanaba.

Lake Michigan's Grand Traverse Bay, including both arms of the bay, have produced some huge browns. My son David hooked a huge fish on a Rapala years ago, played it with a gentle hand, and lost it when the lure broke apart. Three of us saw that fish, and our closest estimate to its weight was 25 pounds. In higher waters of yesteryear, the Acme Reel along US-31 was a real hotspot.

Harbors at Frankfort, Onekama, Manistee and Ludington also produce big brown trout on occasion. Even some of the southerly ports such as Saugatuck and South Haven have delivered good numbers of browns.

Some key fishing methods for Great Lakes brown trout.

It's possible to cast spoons off breakwalls or piers at these harbors, and a blue-silver, green-silver, orange-silver, all silver, copper, brass, pearl or other color 1/4 or 1/3-oz. Devle Dog spoons work well. Experiment with sinking time, retrieval speeds and vary between casting straight out off the pier or casting parallel to the pier if no one is in the way.

Trolling produces very well, and the trick is to work in and out of shallow water during the spring months. Years ago, Jack Duffy pioneered this offshore fishery, brought me in on it, and between us, we pounded the big browns for many years. The methods that follow worked for us, and they continue to produce.

We always used 6-pound line, and trolled two types of lures: wobbling plugs (X-4, X-5 and U-20 FlatFish to be exact) or minnow-imitating plugs like the Rapala, Rebel, Long-A Bomber or FasTrac. Hot colors were silver, silver-black, chartreuse-orange and gold-black in the latter category. FlatFish colors were silver, silver with red spots or pearl.

FlatFish required a very slow trolling speed, and we'd test lures next to the boat to see if they tracked straight. If so, slowly release line until the lures at least 100 yards behind the boat, and put them into rodholders. Some anglers prefer trolling off in-line planer boards.

Minnow-imitating lures can be trolled faster than FlatFish, but tie a loop knot to the lure's line tie to open up its wiggle. Again, let two lures out at the same time and speed for about 100 yards, and put the rods in rod holders. Adjust reel drags so a brown can take line on the strike.

Big browns almost always rip off an additional 50-75 yards of line on the strike. Reel the other line in to get them out of the way, and play the fish gently. Often, browns will strike and run toward the boat. Reel fast and hard, and you may be pleasantly surprised when you catch up to the fish when it is about 25 yards behind the boat.

Great Lakes browns grow to be the largest but some big ones come from rivers.

Browns occasionally jump, and most often will roll on the surface. Once they get close to the boat, be prepared for one or more last-ditch efforts by the fish. Watch its head, and if the head cocks to one side or the other, he is planning another run. Let the fish go, and don't try to pressure them on 6-pound line. A big fish will break the line like sewing thread.

Try trolling near the edges and tips of piers, along the mud line where river water meets lake water, and off a river mouth. Gravel or rocky bars in six to 15 feet of water can be good spots, and the key to good brown trout fishing is an abundance of alewives or smelt.

Catching big browns these days is not easy but my nephew, Casey Richey of Frankfort, set a new state record a few years ago. His record was broken last year with a massive fish from the Manistee River. The big fish are around, but scoring means putting in a lot of time.

Fish smart, play big fish with a soft hand and good luck!

This buck bedded in tall grass during hunting season. Find these spots now.

The weather for the past three days has left something to be desired. Normally, by now, it's quite easy to get around in the woods, but in my area of the northwest Lower Peninsula, we've had 18 inches of new snow in the past 72 hours.

So give the snow a few more days to melt, and then go for a walk in new deer areas. You may just find this fall's new whitetail deer habitat on federal or state-owned land.

A two-hour hike can be great fun. Especially when this little jaunt enables hunters to check on where deer are traveling.

Now is when to find hidden bedding areas, seldom used trails & other hotspots.

Actually, hunters can get some good winter exercise while scouting for old and new deer sign. The third fringe benefit of this early-spring hike is to look around near feeding areas or bedding areas for shed antlers.

To me, the walk gives me some exercise while allowing me to check out various nearny areas. There are always spots that are seldom or never hunted hard, and I like to use this opportunity to check out different locations before the snow is completely gone..

Deer are amazing animals because they can -- and will -- hide out in some of the strangest areas. Some of these spots are used year 'round, and very few sportsmen take the time and make the effort to go there to study the terrain for good deer sign.

This buck bedded in cedars and pines but traveled through this pinch-point.

Let's face it: some deer have more ambition than some hunters. But deer, also are a lot like hunters: they choose the easy spots. It's the big bucks that sometimes settle into a pattern of laying up in places where humans never go.

It's up to you to find these locations. They often are in very heavy cover that can barely be penetrated in an upright position, but imagine how happy you will be if you find such an area this spring and follow a buck's tracks out of there. These areas can be an ace in the hole next fall.

Get out and look before all the snow disappears.

I've seen countless whitetails laying up in cattails around a swamp. Some head for the densest part of a cedar swamp, and other deer will hole up wherever they can get out of the coldest winter weather. Deer in this area favor thermal cover that offers good bedding habitat.

Creek bottoms are good spots to check, and I still have some food plots that will begin growing once it warms up. Deer lay up back in heavy cover, and it provides them with available food and cover throughout the winter months when deep snow piles up.

There is a narrow funnel in one of my hunting areas that has a deer trail running through it that looks like a cattle path. That spot has thick cover at both ends of the funnel, and I check it often during the winter to look for big tracks moving through the area. I know that many of the largest bucks in the area bed down at opposite ends of the funnel, and I have good stands at both ends of the cover.

There are some deep tangles in some low-lying areas. The cover  is thick and tangled, but even the largest bucks seem to ease their way through such spots without making a sound. If you or I were to move through it, we'd make a great deal of racket. The bucks, they ease through without making a sound.

Walking and looking, stopping and checking out tracks along major and minor trails, is perhaps the best cure I know for cabin fever. We all suffer this problem to some degree during the winter months. This offers a temporary cure for a winter-weary hunter.

Check those areas you really wouldn't want to walk through,

Pick a nice day, dress comfortably for the weather, and go for a stroll. Stop often, look around, and study the area for some "eye candy." This is one term used for a big buck, and I've walked up on such animals on many occasions.

One never knows what they may find during an early spring walk in the woods. If nothing else, it is great exercise and provides us with some fresh air.

It's something we can't find while sitting on the home sofa.

The author found two shed antlers the other day. It’s a fun winter thing to do.

We've been picking up shed antlers lately, and most of them are being found near food sites. We've found shed antlers up until this past heavy snowfall. but as the snow starts to settle more with slightly warming temperatures, we’ll be going again soon.

Areas where tree limbs fall along the edge of our food plots are good places to look. Last fall and early winter the bucks would stick their heads in under overhanging branches or under limbs laying on the ground to get at the forage. Depending on how advanced the stage is of antler separation from the skull, any quick move or a brushing of a loose antler against a branch can knock it off.

Antlers often fall off, but it's somewhat like a kid with a loose baby tooth, the buck can tell how loose it is. Often they will intentionally hook a branch or hit it against a tree trunk, and off it comes.

Shed hunting is a fun way to spend a late-winter weekend.

It doesn't always happen but seldom will both antlers be found near each other. Often they are some distance apart, and in some cases, the two antlers may be a quarter- or half-mile from each other. It makes it difficult to tell if the two sheds came from the same animal unless you have some great trail camera photos.

Hunting sheds is great fun but if the weather is moderate like it was a week ago, and most of the snow is gone, wandering porcupines are quick to find antlers and begin gnawing on them for the calcium and other trace minerals they contain. Mice also nibble on antlers, and it's one reason why many hunters start looking for sheds during the so-called January thaw. In this case, a February or early March thaw with little snow is an excellent time to look.

The two hotspots to check are bedding areas and feeding areas. Some sheds can and will be found along trails that connect the two sites, but we find many sheds in those two primary locations. Field edges are another good bet as well as thick cedar swamps.

The trick is to walk slowly through these areas, and look for a light-colored object that looks out of place. Shed hunters very seldom will see the entire antler: often just one tine or even the base will be found sticking up out of the forest or grassy duff.

It if is light-colored, check it out. It may be a tiny patch of lingering snow or it could be a large antler shed. I've found many in the spring, but these midwinter thaws allow hunters to spot antlers much easier.

I've found a few sheds near old rubs on a tree, but not very often. Look  in heavy cover, look near old food plots, check out areas near the tops of cut or fallen trees, bedding areas and along heavily traveled trails. Don't rush the process, but take your time looking.

Shed hunting is somewhat similar to hunting morel mushrooms. Travel and look in just one direction, and you'll miss many sheds.

Don’t look for a whole antler. Instead, look for a piece sticking up out of the snow.

Instead, walk 20 feet, stop, look around, and then do a 180-degree turn, and look back and to both sides. Often a shed antler that cannot be seen from one direction, can be spotted when viewed from a different direction.

Shed antlers are indicative of the quality of animals found in your area. Often, the small sheds are quite easily found if your area produces predominantly small bucks. However, if an occasional big buck is seen frequenting croplands or woodland bait sites, that deer may live in the nearby area and may drop his antlers where they can be found.

Most bucks have shed their antlers already although there always are a few bucks around the state still wearing their headgear now. Shed hunting is fun, and if a hunter does it at the right time and in the right place, they may find a buck's antlers of an animal they didn't know existed.

Give it a try. It's much more fun that cleaning the basement or garage on weekends.

Hunters who want good deer land will probably wind up paying plenty for it.

Deer hunters are creatures of habit. Many staunchly resist any form of change.

Many will sit on the same tree stand, along the same runway, as they did 10, 15 or 20 years ago. It's difficult for many sportsmen to break their old habits or traditions, and some deer hunters never try. It becomes a tradition to again hunt where a buck was killed sometime in the far distant past.

They often wonder: If it was good 20 years ago, it should still be a good spot now. Right?

That’s not always true. In fact, it is seldom true with whitetail deer.

Maybe yes and maybe no. That tradition of returning, year after year, to the same stand has probably saved the life of more bucks than poor shooting or a lack of preseason scouting.

Sadly, clinging to a traditional spot, even when it no longer is hot, is a lesson in frustration and futility. It also leads to fiery claims by skunked hunters that the Department of Natural Resources and Environment reports of abundant whitetails are inflated.

Well, they no longer are. It's true that Michigan's deer herd is down in numbers, and that should be a good enough reason to start using the old noodle for something other than a place to store a camo cap. Changing stand locations is probably long overdue.

Perhaps this season is the time to cast aside the traditional old haunts, and think about trying a new area. Too many people never realize that food and habitat conditions can and do change over time for a number of reason, and if the landowner doesn't do something to make the land produce more food and offer more cover, the deer will move on. It's as simple as that.

Deer are animals of farmland and woodland. Granted, some deer live in deep forest and many live on farms, and that's a fact of life in this state.

If you agree that a new hunting location should be tried, where should hunters start in their search for a new spot to try their luck or skill?

Finding good deer areas isn’t as easy now as it was 20 years ago.

Hunters can start with the DNRE. They keep track of deer trends, and know which counties have the highest deer numbers and which ones produce the largest deer. The county extension agent often deals with farmers and other landowners, and they also can help find a spot.

Determine if you want to hunt the Upper or Lower Peninsula, but if you've read hunting reports elsewhere about deer hunting prospects, the U.P. is not the place to go. The area with the most deer is south of an east-west line from Bay City to Grand Rapids.

Start asking questions. Learn which counties produce big bucks and lots of deer, and learn why deer numbers are high in such areas. Determine the availability of state or federal lands nearby, but both state and federal land is quite sparse and overhunted in the southern Lower Peninsula. It's not as heavily hunted in Region II because deer numbers are way down from four years ago.

Spend time scouting two or three different areas. Determine which ones offer the best combination of land, cover, deer foods, bedding cover and access. Walk around the land, and check for well-used deer trails leading from bedding to feeding areas and back.

Look for buck rubs and deer scrapes in late October. Check barbed wire fences for bits of hair that indicate deer passing through the area.

Talk with nearby landowners to determine their idea of hunting pressure. Often, in agricultural areas, the major hunting pressure is from the landowner and his or her family and close friends.

Leasing land can be done, but depending on habitat & deer, the cost can be high.

Consider the possibility of leasing hunting rights. Fees vary depending on length of the lease, property size, whether it is ideal or marginal deer habitat, and what it offers the hunter.

No one owes today's sportsman anything in terms of hunting private property. I manage my 20 acres to produce deer and hopefully one big buck will move through my land on occasion.

Crop lands are rotated and some timber is cut. Doing so helps maintain good hunting, but it's a never-ending learning process to keep up with where whitetails travel after crop rotation and timbering takes place.

I spend many hours every day, 365 days a year, scouting my land. Deer habits change, food supplies change, and hunting pressure can make deer seek quieter areas. A hunter doesn't know these things unless they spend time in the field on a regular basis.

Public lands feature too many hunters in narrowly confined areas, and the hunting pressure is too high. Food supplies are far better on private land than state or federal lands. Private property holds deer, and, in many areas, it supports more whitetails than public land. For this reason it's easy to understand why more people lease hunting land even though the price of leasing acreage is rising.

Whether a hunter leases private land, hunts on public land, or manages to wangle an invitation from a landowner, scouting is a never-ending problem. Hunters who don't scout old land or new land run a major risk of not being successful.

Knowing what lies over the next ridge and why deer travel one trail and not another is why some sportsmen bag whitetail bucks year after year, and why some hunters never tie their tag to the rack of a good buck.

This hunter set up closer to a bedding area & shot this buck as he moved out.

It's always been a perplexing time. There comes a period about two weeks after the Oct. 1 bow opener, when the deer seem to stop moving around.

The woods get still. There are few if any sign of does and fawns moving about or feeding, and the bucks have taken an apparent siesta. There is nothing much to be done for it.

Some call it the doldrums, although that applies more to the hot summer months. Many feel the deer are slowly becoming more accustomed to humans in the woods.

The 10-day period is when deer slow down. It‘s time for a new trick.

Some hunters feel this is the time when deer begin shifting to their fall mode or travel as they begin preparing for the upcoming rut that will start the end of October and early November. Still others believe the deer are just starting to settle into their autumn routine.

It makes little difference what causes this slowdown of whitetail deer activity. It's enough to realize it happens, and there is little that can be done to change things.

Over the years I've learned that if a savvy hunter can move in close to the bedding area without making noise, or being winded, that they often can get a better chance at the deer as they move out. Those hunters who are set up along field edges will see few if any deer. Most of the action, such as it is, will happen in or near heavy cover.

Knowing that this annual phenomenon does occur, and that making slight changes in hunting techniques can turn this two-week period around, is important to bow hunters. The month of October begins with deer still following their summer mode of travel, and it is followed by 10 days to two weeks of inactivity, and then the rut kicks in during late October.

Several things can work, and all can fail unless the hunter recognizes the need to be scent-free, and to approach hunting areas with the wind in your face and avoid making noise.

One thing that has worked for many hunters is to get in as close to the bedding area as possible without spooking deer. Make one mistake with this hunting method, and all the deer will head for exits in other parts of the area and you won't see a deer.

Another thing that can produce is to mix a little rattling with a little grunting. Keep it low-pitched, soft and quiet, and make it sound like two deer testing each other without either one wanting to get hurt.

Soft, non-aggressive grunting and rattling can get deer up & moving.

This often occurs if a doe is close to entering estrus. Nearby bucks will push and shove, grunt softly, but neither buck wants to get gored in the eye or become seriously injured if she isn't ready and willing.

Keep the calls soft, and the antler rattling gentle without the violent clashes of bone against bone. Remember that the best response to antler rattling and grunting will come during the pre-rut. Set up shop near travel routes that lead to food sites, and keep the rattling and grunting short, not violent and make certain you are downwind of the bedding area.

There are times when this grunt and rattle routine will draw deer out a bit earlier than normal. Play the weather as well. If a storm is due to move into the area, make certain that you are in a key location to intercept deer as they dash out for a quick feed before the storm arrives.

Another major problem during this period is that the wind direction often shifts and brings in an east wind. Such wind shifts have become all too common in the past several years, and few deer move on an east wind. One can try to establish a blind set up for an east wind, but deer often try to cut the corners on an east wind, and come in from a cross-wind position, and they can and may pick up your scent.

Many hunters give up during this in-between period, and sit out the east wind days and do household chores so they can hunt the rut. That's OK, but it robs hunters of several days when trying different techniques might work.

It's my belief that shooting deer is impossible from the house, and especially from a couch in front of a television set. My thought is to get out in the weather, regardless of what it is doing, and try to puzzle out a workable hunting strategy.

It doesn't always work, and in truth, it seldom works but hunting during bad conditions makes people hunt harder. Those who put in their time, and try different tactics, will occasionally shoot a good buck.

Don’t shoot just yet! Wait for a quartering-away shot.

Wise decision are needed when choosing where to hunt.

Know all natural and planted food sources, and how deer travel to them.

Know why some deer stands suddenly go dead.

That seldom is the correct answer.

The southern half of the Lower Peninsula is the best place to start looking.

Think about leasing land. It’s expensive but the best way to find great hunting.