Whether you started early in the
summer or are just now getting out there the following are some tips that may be helpful in
getting you “up-to-snuff”. I wrote this article last year and it pertains pre any start up. Good luck this season ... let me know if any of these "hints" helped you.
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Sikas leave lots of visible evidence that they
are using the area. Stags mark areas with wallows; the equivalent of a
whitetail’s scrape. They are normally found on islands, tumps, or fingers of
land that are slightly elevated above the water covered part of their habitat.
These muddy holes average one to two feet in diameter and stink as the stags
often urinate in them then wallow or roll around in them just like bull elk do.
During the heavy rut you can often smell the stags before you see them. They
also thrash and rub bushes and pine saplings and break off common reed (phragmitis
communis) stalks. Trails are fairly easy to find and follow in a marsh. As with
other species check for trails and droppings. Of course, you can’t beat
physical sightings. Trail cameras can tell you a lot about the sikas using your
area.
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Identifying areas where bugling is occurring
gives you great advantage in knowing where the stags like to hang out if trophy
racks are your thing. The best times to listen are sunrise and sunset but that
doesn’t mean you can’t hear them at any time during the day especially rut time.
Make sure you arrive early and stay until the end of legal shooting time. The
best stags I’ve taken have been cruising at mid day. High temperatures will sometimes tend to shut
them up.
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Make vocalizations as sikas are very vocal animals
and you can call in males and females alike. In calling stags you appeal to 1) their
dominance and 2) sex drive. Challenge a bugling stag with a bugle and/or growl
and you’ll find out quickly if he thinks he’s the badest stag in the phrag. With hunting sikas through the years, I’ve found that you
usually can’t call a stag 300 or 400 yards across a marsh. So, you need to move
to the stag’s core area which, often times, is a thick phragmitis or briar bed.
It’s important to be quiet and not blow the stag out of the area. Once you get
set up close to his bedroom, a challenging bugle can get him to close the
distance quickly looking to make contact with the intruding stag. Use
some whines, soft whistles or chirps (hind/cow talk) and you may sweet-talk him
in. Hinds and calves also respond to all of the sounds. You can team up with a
friend; one calling with the other out front. Always be cognizant of wind
direction when setting up. Distances can vary depending on the weapon used. The
Sika Seducer is the premier call marketed and sold by myself and in stores in the area. Elk calls can be
modified as well..
- When
hunting the sika marshes it’s good to use a GPS or compass as the marshes
all look similar at night and even sometimes during the day. I sometimes
will tie a green or orange, six inch snap light or light stick (best time
to find these are at Halloween) up in a tree. If I have to head out into
the marsh to find a sika that’s been hit I can easily orient again.
- Use
Google Earth, Bing maps or a similar program to help in your quest for
taking a sika. The satellite images available now are invaluable in
helping you understand a lot about the vegetation features in the
territory you are hunting in. Small islands of vegetation, phragmites
beds, openings in heavy cover and mud flats will be very apparent.
- You’ve
seen the vegetation called phragmites ( sometimes called phrag or common
reed) if you’ve been in sika territory. The leaves are about 2” wide and
20” long. In August and September it develops a feathery-looking plume at
the top of a stem which grows to a height of 10’ to 12’. It normally grows in clumps or beds,
often out-competing other marsh plants. It spreads by seed dispersal as
well as by rhizomes or an under –the-surface root system. These dense beds
provide travel corridors and protective cover that sikas absolutely love.
Fight your way into one of these beds and you’ll see what I mean.
Especially during the rut, stags love to cruise these beds in search for
hinds in estrus. Find a climbable tree inside a bed and you’ll surely see
deer although there are not many openings. Station yourself between two
beds and you’ve found a great spot as they move from one bed to the other.
- In
typical wetland vegetation still hunting works well. Sneaking along
quietly in heavy cover can put you face to face with sikas quite
frequently. A subtle splash here and there along with some low-volume
vocalizations sounds quite natural and can actually draw a deer to you.
Make sure to move into the wind to avoid blowing your cover. They spend
most of their lives not able to see more than 20 yards in front of them.
You can definitely use this fact to your advantage.
- The
marshes that sika like so much are interlaced with rivers, creeks and
guts. Shallow draft boats with Go-Devil motors, kayaks and canoes are
ideal for getting into this favored habitat. Why not utilize a boat as
they can get you into places that many hunters can’t get to. You can cover
a lot of territory and see a lot of interesting things out there besides.
This mode of travel might even help you find some great duck hunting spots
as well.
- It’s important to pay attention
to weather conditions as unusually high water levels will temporarily move
sikas onto higher ground. Change your tactics and hunt the islands and
higher ground in these conditions. Hurricane Irene may have done just
this. Frozen marshes with a lot of ice will do the same.
- Don’t
neglect hunting natural foods that produce hard mast like acorns and soft
mast like persimmons. Feeding or baiting works extremely well for sikas as
well. Corn is the most popular draw followed by others like: sweet feeds,
corn/soybean mixes, small grains like sorghum and pellets. Spin feeders,
drop feeders and just plain ole spreading it on the ground will do the
trick. Sikas love food plots and agricultural grain crops as well.
- Sika
decoys work in the right situations. Decoys need to be seen for a long
distance like on the edge of a needle grass / short grass marsh or food
plot. Sikas, especially stags, will come investigate them especially
during the rut. Give them a try.
- Storms and full moons
have put water into places that rarely have water. With that comes mosquitoes;
usually lots of them. Do yourself a favor and invest in a Thermo Cell. These
devices will keep the mosquitoes off of you which will in turn keep you from making a
lot of unnecessary motion. The light smell doesn’t seem to bother them.
The next best thing is a bug suit that I often use; sometimes both.
- Ground
blinds for sikas?…they work well. Normal precautions using them must be
taken however. Make sure they’re scent free and you place it downwind.
Unlike with turkey hunting, it helps to have shoot- through netting
covering the openings. It also helps to brush it up to blend in with
existing vegetation and/or tuck it in some existing shrubs, needle rush or
common reed.
- Practice
shooting often as these are small animals with small kill zones. The
smallest whitetail target will make a large sika target.
- The
jury is out concerning scents and lures as I don’t think enough hunters
have experimented enough with them to give a definitive thumbs up or down.
If they have…no one is talking. One good sika hunter I know told me he
once had sikas licking the leaves that he had sprayed an apple flavored
foam on. Downwind Scents Foam has never scared them away for me.
- Knee or hip boots are advised depending
on the water levels in your hunting area.
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Concerning the proper camo; if you’re hunting
from the ground then it’s good to match the habitat. Otherwise being still,
scent free and playing the wind is much more important
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The peak of the rut occurs around the third week
in October. I like to hunt late September and early October best as stag
movement and bugling really increases then.
