Hunting Washington Forum

Big Game Hunting => Deer Hunting => Topic started by: slowhand on October 27, 2017, 09:40:12 AM

Title: Hunting in The Fog? Ideas and Tactics? Your Experiances?
Post by: slowhand on October 27, 2017, 09:40:12 AM: My honey hole has the potential for thick fog to roll in. Has happened to Me a few times now.
I have no experience hunting deer in thick fog and would like any and all ideas.
Typical Blacktail country, clear cuts and thick woods both.
Help! :dunno:
Title: Re: Hunting in The Fog? Ideas and Tactics? Your Experiances?
Post by: Crunchy on October 27, 2017, 10:00:40 AM: You gota hit the timber, and edge of clearcuts. glassing is obviously not going to work. Move a lot slower. Not really my style of hunting but there aren't other options when the fog rolls in.
Title: Re: Hunting in The Fog? Ideas and Tactics? Your Experiances?
Post by: Holg3107 on October 27, 2017, 10:11:47 AM: Still hunting is about your best option. Move as slow as you can imagine through the timber at the edge of the clearcut... then move slower...
Title: Re: Hunting in The Fog? Ideas and Tactics? Your Experiances?
Post by: slowhand on October 27, 2017, 10:52:06 AM: Any ideas on What the Deer tend to do in the fog? Heck, if I was a Deer Now would be the best time to be out in the open.
I suspect they go into the thick stuff so they can hear a predator coming?
Title: Re: Hunting in The Fog? Ideas and Tactics? Your Experiances?
Post by: Turner89 on October 27, 2017, 11:19:09 AM: We fought the fog all day yesterday. I finally found a good trail coming out of the timber, and just sat down. It almost worked. I had a deer come down the trail within 10ft of me, before she saw me. I screwed up, I should have been farther off the trail. I might of seen the buck that I could smell.
Fog is a pain in the arse.
Title: Re: Hunting in The Fog? Ideas and Tactics? Your Experiances?
Post by: pd on October 27, 2017, 12:25:02 PM: I guess it depends upon your choice of weapon, but for me hunting in the fog is almost my favorite type of weather condition (I generally hunt in a firearms restricted zone, so rifles are not allowed). Because I would be hunting BT deer with either a bow or a shotgun, my range is limited to 50 yards or so, and because of this fog is not really an issue.

This is when your skills as a hunter get challenged! You have to use your nose (smell the deer), your eyes (you really have to look hard for movement), and your ears (listen hard for movement).

Use the tools available (scents, rattle horns, bleats). Still hunt, or stay in one place. In the fog there is usually very little wind movement, which should help you.

I have been quite successful in the fog. I suppose if I were using a rifle I would hate it, however.
Title: Re: Hunting in The Fog? Ideas and Tactics? Your Experiances?
Post by: slowhand on October 27, 2017, 12:41:32 PM: The thought did cross My mind more that once that this would be perfect for Bow hunting.
This was a modern hunt so it really changed things. I plan to pick up a rattling setup and give it a try next time I'm up there and the fog rolls in. I think it could make for a really exciting hunt if a Buck came running in at You in the pee soup fog.
Title: Re: Hunting in The Fog? Ideas and Tactics? Your Experiances?
Post by: pianoman9701 on October 27, 2017, 01:05:35 PM: I've killed a couple of deer in the fog, in the open, later in the morning than they usually would be in the open. Bow hunting mostly. I think they get stupid in the fog. Elk too. Maybe it feels like cover for them. I don't know. I would agree to hunt the transition area between timber and cut so when it does begin to burn off, you're where they want to go. :dunno:
Title: Re: Hunting in The Fog? Ideas and Tactics? Your Experiances?
Post by: pd on October 27, 2017, 01:30:09 PM: Quote from: slowhand on October 27, 2017, 12:41:32 PM
The thought did cross My mind more that once that this would be perfect for Bow hunting.
This was a modern hunt so it really changed things. I plan to pick up a rattling setup and give it a try next time I'm up there and the fog rolls in. I think it could make for a really exciting hunt if a Buck came running in at You in the pee soup fog.

Just to clarify, I hunt BT deer in the fog with a bow during the rifle season (close as possible to the rut).
Title: Re: Hunting in The Fog? Ideas and Tactics? Your Experiances?
Post by: DOUBLELUNG on October 27, 2017, 02:57:04 PM: Quote from: pianoman9701 on October 27, 2017, 01:05:35 PM
I've killed a couple of deer in the fog, in the open, later in the morning than they usually would be in the open. Bow hunting mostly. I think they get stupid in the fog. Elk too. Maybe it feels like cover for them. I don't know. I would agree to hunt the transition area between timber and cut so when it does begin to burn off, you're where they want to go. :dunno:
I've found mule deer less wary in the fog while archery hunting. It sucks if you don't have a specific location in mind (i.e., you need to know where the deer are you intend to hunt). With BT I think I'd post up downwind of a heavily used trail crossing and wait for the deer to come to you.
Title: Re: Hunting in The Fog? Ideas and Tactics? Your Experiances?
Post by: fishnfur on October 27, 2017, 07:45:51 PM: I bail and head uphill or downhill - whatever it takes to get out of the stuff.
Title: Re: Hunting in The Fog? Ideas and Tactics? Your Experiances?
Post by: highhunter on October 28, 2017, 12:04:40 AM: One day hunting mule deer with the fog rolling in and out I experienced a real eye-opener. I was glassing a group of does with a decent 4-point on the edge of some timber mid-day. The fog would roll in and the deer would feed out on the open hillside. The fog would roll out and they would scamper back to the timber over a 100 yards away. This happened 4-5 times over about an hour before I made a move on the buck. I learned something that day (but admittedly, it hasn’t happened since).
Title: Re: Hunting in The Fog? Ideas and Tactics? Your Experiances?
Post by: jagermiester on October 28, 2017, 07:34:40 AM: Get those yellow tinted glasses clears everything up and makes it feel like a bright sunny day. 8)
Title: Re: Hunting in The Fog? Ideas and Tactics? Your Experiances?
Post by: slowhand on October 28, 2017, 09:15:17 AM: Quote from: jagermiester on October 28, 2017, 07:34:40 AM
Get those yellow tinted glasses clears everything up and makes it feel like a bright sunny day. 8)
I will try that. Good idea!
Title: Re: Hunting in The Fog? Ideas and Tactics? Your Experiances?
Post by: JDHasty on October 28, 2017, 04:10:19 PM: Quote from: jagermiester on October 28, 2017, 07:34:40 AM
Get those yellow tinted glasses clears everything up and makes it feel like a bright sunny day. 8)

And keep a sharp knife handy. I love hunting in fog. I also keep a pair in my vehicles, cuts right through rain and spray from the highway. When I can barely see the vehicles in front of me I put them on and can even see the differential if the vehicle sits high enough.
Title: Re: Hunting in The Fog? Ideas and Tactics? Your Experiances?
Post by: screedler on October 28, 2017, 04:21:47 PM: The yellow glasses don't fog up on ya? Between fog and the adjustment of the eyepieces on my binos I couldn't use them and my yellow shooting glasses at the same time comfortably :(
Title: Re: Hunting in The Fog? Ideas and Tactics? Your Experiances?
Post by: JDHasty on October 28, 2017, 05:09:15 PM: Quote from: screedler on October 28, 2017, 04:21:47 PM
The yellow glasses don't fog up on ya? Between fog and the adjustment of the eyepieces on my binos I couldn't use them and my yellow shooting glasses at the same time comfortably :(

Cat Crap on the glasses, not my binocular though
Title: Re: Hunting in The Fog? Ideas and Tactics? Your Experiances?
Post by: Sitka_Blacktail on October 28, 2017, 06:27:37 PM: I've had good luck in the fog, but I admit it can be nerve wracking if you are hunting a place like Kodiak with big brownies in the area and you pass salmon carcasses and scat on your way up the mt. LOL

The first pic is a foggy day hunting on Hawkins Island in Prince William Sound. We get up to where we know there are deer and sit on a good overlook. The deer seem to think they are still feeding in the dark and wander about. Right when the fog lifts is the prime time to see something. My buddy got a small fork horn that day. 2nd pic

The third photo is a couple nice 3 points my buddy, on the left, and I got on Kodiak back in the 80s. It was so foggy we'd have never made it up the Mt, but we had a ridge we always followed which got us to the top. I'd planted my buddy on a good spot and was going up the ridge line when a doe took off from less than 20 yards. Then my buck came out of the fog and I shot him at about the same distance. My buddy came over to see what I'd shot then slowly headed on back on the main ridge and found his laying in it's bed. He shot it at about 10 yards. You can see the remnants of the fog that lifted after we got the two bucks together for a picture and dragging them down to the road a couple miles below.