That's why that after leaf drop, I reposition all of my tree stands to areas where the oaks, or some other hard- or soft-mast food source, have produced in thickets. Right now is a good time to scout out the public and private lands you hunt to find those places. For instance, you might come across an oak that stands sentinel among a sea of evergreens. Or you might turn up a hard-mast producer thriving in an overgrown creek bottom. If Dame Fortune really smiles upon you, you might even discover a fruit tree still producing its bounty in a long-abandoned -- and badly overgrown -- homestead. All these places are dandy ones to hunt after leaf drop, and, again, you can find them now -- or reconfirm the potential of such places that have produced in the past.

SOFT MAST AND OTHER SWEET SPOTS
As much as oak acorns dominate as a Southern deer food source, here is another maxim for our region -- at some stage of the season, those acorns will have been consumed by the host of game and non-game creatures that feast upon them. The virtues of Southern soft-mast food fare are that the varieties exist in great number in every region of every state, and that they generally produce every year. The downside of these same varieties is that they typically don't draw deer for long periods, as the animals tend to visit these menu items in a hit-and-run manner.

A good example of a soft-mast variety that is characteristic of the above is the grape family. One or more members of grape species flourish in every Southern state and rarely do these varieties attract deer for long periods of the season. Once again, now is a good time to locate those copses where grape vines send forth their tendrils.

Of course, other soft-mast food sources are worth learning about right now and where they exist on your hunting properties. In some places, those soft-mast producers could be a lone persimmon tree growing along a fencerow, or a pawpaw sending forth its custard-like fruit in a creek bottom, or a crabapple dropping its bitter fruits (to us) in a coppice. Find those soft-mast food sources now, mark them on a topo map, and keep that information handy for later in the season.

I truly believe that how well we conduct our pre-season scouting of food sources will determine how well we will do during the bow season. That's why it's so important to find the sweet spots before the season begins.