Now is the time to start scouting
As the days heat up and mid 80 to 90 degree days are the norm, it is difficult to think about the cold wet days of duck season. However it is now that I turn my focus on to scouting for the upcoming season. First off, those warm days make a great excuse to get the canoe out and hit the river for a day trip. Heck I might even invite the wife along and pack a shore lunch. All the while I am looking for where any resident birds are hanging out, and checking for any new clearings that may have been made over the spring and things like that. The resident geese will be loafing on their favorite spots so you can pinpoint some late morning hunting spots by finding them. I always carry my GPS with me while on the water to mark spots where I see activity or little potholes I find. I carry an older model Garmin GPS12 because I have had it so long I am comfortable with it. There are many different models available, and some have the topo maps built in, you can find more at www.garmin.com . Topo maps are great as well to look at the surrounding land features. I like Google Earth, but many of the places I hunt are pretty rural and they don’t offer good images, so I stick with my old USGS topos for the most part. Places like terraserver and mytopo.com are good places to find topos on line. You cna customize and print the maps using the programs for a fee. I also take a long an ultralight and a spinning reel for the smallmouth hot spots I may run across. It makes for a great day and helps me be more prepared for next year.
A USGS Topo map may be the greatest scouting tool available:
The Garmin GPS12, it is a dinosaur when compared to todays handlehld GPS units, but is still works great and I just can’t part with mine.
