For this week’s blog, we interviewed Tony Smotherman of “The Travelin’ Hunter” and the Illinois Base Camp about what he is doing now to prepare for this Fall’s deer season.

Taylor: Tony, what are you doing to prepare for this season?

Tony Smotherman:With deer season being behind us….most hunters have put their gear away for the year and not really focused on the upcoming deer season, but this is the time I really get geared up and learn more about my hunting properties than I do in the fall. With shed season being upon us. This is the time I can deep scout my properties without fear of bumping deer and affecting my hunting. I deep scout now so that I know what to do next October.

Taylor: What kind of food plots will you be planting for this season?

Tony Smotherman: I really like to have a variety of food for my deer. This spring I’ll be planting corn and soybeans that I’ll leave standing all the way through winter. These plots are great late season food sources, especially in the mid-west where snow can cover up typical low growing green plots. Speaking of green plots, in August I’ll be turning ground for annual and perennial green plots such as oats, winter wheat, turnips, and clover. These type plots are easy to grow and supply a great food source up until the snow gets too deep.

Taylor: What is your process for land management (taking soil readings, lime, preparing the land, planting, mowing, etc.)?

Tony Smotherman: One thing you need to know about me. I am a very mechanical minded person and love this part of managing my land around Illinois Base Camp. I enjoying reading soils and figuring out what makes my food plots flourish. Coming from very poor Tennessee soil, I always thought that the ground in Illinois was the Holy Grail of dirt. I quickly found that even though Illinois has some seriously great soil, I still have to do Ph samples for every plot location and apply lime in most every spot because our IBC area soil is very lime-deficient. One thing you must understand. If the soil is lime-deficient it cannot absorb fertilizer properly. With that said, you can fertilize till you’re blue in the face and your plots will not get benefit from that fertilizer unless your lime/Ph is correct. Once you have the ground prepped, IE. disked, Ph balanced, and the proper amount of fertilizer applied, growing green plots are relatively easy. One thing to keep in mind when choosing a seed, “how long will it work for you?”. I personally like to plant clover as it will give me and my deer up to 5 years of good service if it is fertilized once per year and mowed twice a year. In essence, it’s the gift to deer that keeps giving for several years and give’s you more bang for your investment.

Taylor: Do you manage any other land beside the IL base camp?

Tony Smotherman: I do manage other dirt beside my IBC farms, being born in the Vol state, I have several farms there, but work those a bit differently than those that I have in Illinois. As most all deer hunters know, the further south you go, the smaller the deer get. With that said, all deer have a chance of getting big if they have the right genetics and age structure, but on my Tennessee farms, I manage them for my kids to do what they want to do. Meaning we food plot those farms to keep the deer herds nutrition up the very same way as we do in Illinois but I don’t put any restrictions on my boys so they can shoot what they want to and not be too worried about growing big deer. The last thing I want to do is to take the fun out of my boys first years of deer hunting.

Taylor: How are you scouting for next season?

Tony Smotherman: Shed season is when I do all my scouting. While scouring my farms for drops, I’m continually taking pictures of heavily used trails, scrape, and rub lines, and dropping pins for stand sites on my cell phone while I’m burning shoe leather and actually kill two birds with one stone….shed hunting and scouting.

Taylor: How many cameras do you put out?

Tony Smotherman: Oh man!! I love cameras and we run a ton of them! They are the best invention since sliced bread and no doubt are a big tool in our arsenal. We typically run 30 cameras or so almost the whole year. I think the only time we don’t run them are right after the bucks drop their antlers in mid-march and we put them back out in May which it normally when we start to see our first antler growth at IBC.

Taylor: What are you looking for when you are scouting for the season?

Tony Smotherman: Like I mentioned above, we do 90% of our scouting this time of year, February-March. This gives us the opportunity to scout our farms very thoroughly without fear of bumping deer off our farms right before season starts and without the fear of jumping deer off our farms in fear of them dropping their antlers on an adjacent farm. Right now the timber is still very clean, free of bugs and ticks, and last fall’s deer sign is still really visible. This allows me to understand deer movement, find stand locations and cut shooting lanes months before opening day. This gives me a huge advantage on other hunters as when I go to my stand location next fall, it will be the first time I have set foot in that area in over 7 months. I try to do my homework well in advance and use the element of surprise to my advantage to help me fill my tag.

Taylor: Do you do deer herd surveys?

Tony Smotherman: I have never done a for real deer survey. I normally just pay close attention to my trail cam pictures and they give me a great idea of my deer numbers and quality of the bucks that continually move through my ground.

Thanks to Tony Smotherman for answering our questions. If anyone has questions they would like to ask, let us know by commenting on the blog here!