New to deer hunting, only shot my first dear less than a month ago. I have an opportunity to drop my duck boat into a decent sized lake, and hunt the BLM land that surrounds the lake. There's one cove in particular that I'm looking at on onX that looks pretty nice that I'll be able to park and walk in a few hundred yards to a choke point where several valleys meet up and take you to the water. It's pushing 100* out here in California right now, and I'm thinking it might present some opportunities in areas that we can't get to by foot. Would you go in the morning, the evening or both? Any advice? I've duck hunted plenty from this boat, and even have a duck blind setup on it, however I don't think I'll be hunting from the boat itself unless the opportunity arises.

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The morning....always the morning.


And dusk too.

Yes, quite often. It is simultaneously a big enough pain that few other hunters do it, and also makes hauling in and out gear much easier. If I can find land that is either inaccessible by land, or only accessible by a long 1+ mile walk, but it's accessible by boat, that spot is almost always my plan A if it looks promising.

I haven't but hear lots of folks hunt the Army Corps of Engineers land around Bull Shoals Lake by boat.

I hunt the land around my house which is about 30 acres.

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Crappy pic but there’s three does in it if you look hard. We were able to get way further up than what the map lead on because the lake is a lot more full of water than what the sat photos show. We eventually had 6 does in this little valley here drinking and feeding on some kind of grass near the water. On our way out we passed no less than 20 more does along the waters edge all getting a drink and standing in the water. Didn’t see a single buck. Might have to wait towards the end of the season and hope for some rut action.

If it's hard to get to 90% of hunters won't bother with it.  This benefits you.  It's also a great option for later in the season after the deer have been pressured and look to get away from it.  Absolutely worth some time.

disclaimer: I know nothing about California deer hunting.

Good luck!

If your #1 priority for a property is deer hunting, big giant chunks of monotonous woods/grassland/etc are less productive than where the woods/grassland/etc butts up to or has edges along water. Edges of almost any kind will always be more interesting. Edges along water more-so.