By David Ziegler

Each time we tune in to our favorite outdoor shows, we are consistently exposed to “professional hunters” practicing Quality Deer Management on some of the greatest properties across the country.

The shows detail food plots, deer herd age structure and even how to purchase your dream hunting property. And they keep us coming back again and again. 

What is it that we are looking for?

Some of us are just looking to pass the time on a Saturday afternoon while enjoying a half hour of one of our favorite sports under the sun. Others have taken our passions to a new level and invested the time, effort and money it takes to turn our own desires into reality. The ideas that follow have helped me and my very dedicated group of whitetail hunters turn our dreams into reality, turning our dreams into quality whitetails. 

For the past 20 years, I have been a diehard whitetail fanatic. For nearly 15 of those years, I would have called myself a very average hunter, focused on harvesting my fair share of whitetails each year, and every now and then getting a bit lucky on a good buck.

It wasn’t until a bowhunting trip to Wisconsin that I discovered the true value in developing a Quality Deer Management program. On that trip in October 2004, I hunted on a piece of property that had been managed for nearly 25 years. During those five days, I observed more deer activity than I had ever seen. I saw up close several bucks that I would have harvested in seconds had I been hunting here in Maryland. And on the last day of my hunt, I harvested the largest buck of my life. 

My buck was a fully mature, 5½ -year old 11-point. He sported 5- and 6-inch bases with his longest tine nearly 12 inches. The buck field dressed at 194 pounds and had a gross Pope & Young score of 161 inches. 

Immediately upon my return, my fellow hunting club members and I began our own QDM program. Now, we are experiencing success beyond our wildest dreams. Here are five steps we have focused on to add to our success. These steps may be used on any level to help you start and grow your own QDM program right here in Maryland. 

1. You Plan To Fail if you Fail to Plan:

Having a plan for your QDM program is perhaps the most important advice I can give. Our club has faced challenges around every corner. Getting members to agree with the plan and keeping them on track has been difficult. We also had to determine minimum size standards and doe harvest goals.

The main way we have combated each challenge has been to plan for them before they ever occur. We have spent countless hours talking through each possible scenario and how to deal with each before it arises. Do yourself a favor, and write down your plans before you ever bring the idea up to your club members. 

2. Create Goals and Write Them Down:

Goals not put in writing are merely dreams with no deadlines. I can’t say how important it is to invest the time in setting goals for the success of your QDM program. In Year 1 of our QDM program, our main goal was as simple as beginning to protect yearling bucks. In the many years leading up to our program, our property had been one of those “if it’s brown, it’s down” properties. Just like the rest of the state, over 70 percent of the bucks we were harvesting were 18 months old or younger. In Year 4, our goal was to harvest at least 30 does from our property and have a harvest ratio of four does to every buck harvested. We did exactly that. Also in Year 4, no bucks under the age of 3½  were taken. Out of seven bucks harvested, two scored over 120 inches and aged over 4 years old. Continually setting goals and reassessing those goals has been a key to our success.

This year, in our fifth year, we will take our goals up a notch. My hope is that within the next three years, we will have a goal of only harvesting bucks ages 4½  and older and scoring at least 140 inches. This is all happening right here in the little state of Maryland. 

3. Manage Hunters First and Deer Second:

I learned early on that the most challenging aspect to our QDM program was not going to be managing the deer herd on our 1,000-acre tract in Baltimore County. The biggest challenge we faced out of the gates was managing our group of hunters. When we started our QDM program four years ago, our hunting club consisted of 11 members, mostly close friends and family. 

The problem from the get go was that not everyone in our group saw the value in starting a QDM program. So many of our hunters had been brought up in a time when hunting meant killing. It was not a good day unless you saw 20 deer during your sit and wound up dragging something out of the woods with your hands wrapped around a rack, regardless of the size.

The first step in managing our hunters was to get the right hunters on the bus so to speak. We cut our membership from 11 to six. This was perhaps the most difficult thing I had to do. This meant asking close friends, brothers and uncles to step down as members of our club. In the long run, this was the only way.

From that point forward, every decision that we made as it pertained to our program, was made on a club basis. We have always made sure that each club member has had a say in each and every decision that impacts the club. 

4. He With The Information Holds The Keys:

In a successful QDM program, perhaps the most important technical thing you must do is keep records and collect data. Data will help you determine your success level, it will help you convince your members to work harder, it will help you convince your neighbors to join in your efforts, and it will help you stay motivated when things are tough. From the very beginning, my club has collected data on a regular basis. We started with the simple task of asking each hunter to write down what they were seeing when on stand. This led us to be able to determine how many deer we had using our property.

The second step was to develop a data harvest record. We kept track of exactly how many deer we harvested. This started out by tracking does versus bucks and keeping a total. We increased the level of our data collection by looking at live body weights and eventually aged deer by jawbone collection.

This data allowed us to see how many deer we were harvesting each year, how many of each sex and what the impact our QDM program was having on age structure. The last and perhaps most exciting aspect included the use of trail-monitoring cameras. We started four years ago with just one camera. Now, entering Year 5, we have eight cameras running 24/7 from June until March.

We have compiled thousands of pictures, chronicling the success of our program. In just four years, we have gone from every buck on our cameras being a yearling four- or six-point, to seeing more 4½- and 5½-year-old bucks than we ever dreamed. This visible success has made it easier for us to manage our team and begin to convince our neighbors to join in.  

5. Patience and Persistence Will Lead You to Success:

The building of a high-level QDM program may be one of the most challenging things many of us ever take on. With that said, it is likely to be one of the most rewarding. 

The road to success in your QDM program will not be easy. It will be bumpy and take twist and turns that may cause you to second guess your decision to harvest antler less deer, let young bucks walk, scout year round and challenge your buddies to join you in your quest. Some days, you may want to quit, but never forget why you chose this path in the first place.

If you stay focused on your vision of creating a quality hunting, quality whitetails and quality memories, you are likely to find success. Stay patient and be persistent, and your dream of quality whitetails will become a reality.  

Bass migrate before and after the spawn. Knowing where they are in that cycle will help you put the elusive fish on your line. Bass fishing experts Denny Brauer and Mike Iaconelli tell you where and when to find them.

“The spawn is a fragile time and it’s all about the temperature and the weather,” said Denny Brauer, the first professional angler to appear on a Wheaties box. Regional differences compound specific recommendations because while fish in the South have spawned and gone, their brethren up north are just appearing in the shallows. 

“You can divide the spawn into sections, yet this progression isn’t cut and dry,” said the noted TV host. “Prior to the spawn, fish will be holding in their winter patterns and will migrate toward the shallower spawning areas as the water warms. It’s a migration deal with fish approaching the spawning beds along channel bends, on points, and in riff-raff toward sheltered coves or a big flat. 

“Rising water temperatures will trigger their next move. If a front goes through and cools the water, the fish will retreat. As the temperatures rise again, they will come a little closer to those spawning covers, protected banks or wherever they will spawn. I keep track of the weather. If it’s been stable all week and the water temperature is 60 degrees or above, I need to be in those spawning areas or close to them. If it’s been cold, I will concentrate on points, creeks bottoms and drop-offs. The whole deal to catching fish is finding them.”

And that’s a skill that has earned Brauer more than $2 million in tournament winnings.   

When bass move onto the beds, sight fishing can be a powerful technique and although Brauer doesn’t specialize in sight fishing, he admits it can be an extremely successful technique. 

“Last year, I caught a 27-pound stringer of fish by sight fishing,” he said. “Usually, this technique works best when fish are bedding, but Dave Wolak won a major tournament using the technique, spotting fish and throwing a finesse worm to them.”

You can read the full article in our Spring 2009 Issue

By Mark Hoke

As south winds warm the ground beneath my feet, a blanket of darkness covers the sky above. I stand here just off the beaten path anxiously waiting for an answer to my call. I don’t dare make a sound for fear of missing a distant response from a passing crow sounding off.  I try to calm myself, hoping this monarch I am hunting is close to where I last saw him the night before. The season has begun.

 If you’re like me, this is your life every spring. Once we hear that thunderous gobble, we go into predator mode and too often push the envelope too soon. We know we should slow down a bit and listen to what nature is telling us. It amazes me that as deer hunters we are willing to sit all day in a tree stand and wait on a big buck, but when it comes to hunting turkeys we lose interest after 30 minutes.

The key to a successful hunt this spring is to better understand what turkeys are going through during breeding season. This is one man’s take on reading the flock, setting up and calling during different phases of the breeding season.

Turkeys go through several phases during the course of the year. Understanding how to read these different phases improves your odds of harvesting a long-beard during the spring. Weather, natural predators, hunters and other sources of stress all affect the breeding phase. They can either draw it out or shut it down. Don’t get me wrong, the birds will still breed. But they may be less vocal and harder to hunt if the pressure is overwhelming. A turkey’s vocabulary includes more than 30 unique sounds. During spring, 90 percent of a gobbler’s vocalization is gobbling. The loudest thing a gobbler can do to attract a breeding hen is to gobble, and the loudest thing a breeding hen can do to attract a tom is cut......

You can read the full article in our Winter 08 issue.