Tom Holzer arrowed this unique non-typical while hunting over a waterhole in Minnesota during the state’s bow season. The velvet buck is one of several mature deer Tom has taken over his man-made watering sites. (Photo courtesy of Tom Holzer)
August 09, 2024
By Glenn Helgeland
Tom Holzer likes hunting Minnesota when the weather is warm and bordering on hot for the time of year. When the mercury rises, he focuses his efforts on making water readily available to any buck he’s after, in a place where the buck will feel secure while drinking. Usually, that’s somewhere close to a food source.
Tom began making hand-dug waterholes a main part of his hunting tactics about 15 years ago, because there is no natural water on the tops of ridges where he hunts and where the deer in his area spend much of their time. He digs water holes where you would expect him to dig them — in a location where the prevailing winds will not blow his scent to the water.
Entry and exit access is seldom a problem. In this ridge-and-valley country, morning breezes are mostly blowing down the slope, so he comes in from open fields at the top. Brush is seldom a problem. When Tom hunts low, he clears approaches to stands before the season.
The weather often is nearly 80 degrees, hot for Minnesota deer hunting. It also can be humid, which makes deer even more reluctant to move much.
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“Deer will be drinking a lot of water, even though they aren’t anywhere near rutting or chasing,” Tom says. “In that type of weather, you want to make it as easy as possible for deer to drink. They don’t want to move much, and you don’t want them to move much.”
Tom had set up in a new area in 2019 about a half-mile from where he had previously spent much of his hunting time. This was where he had gotten a trail camera photo of an unusually big-antlered buck. The buck always seemed to be in velvet.
He also set up a tree stand there and dug a small water hole, just in case; because a neighboring farmer planted crops in a new part of his farm that year (2020), enhancing the area. He had enlarged the water hole this year; the smaller water hole had been heavily used its first year.
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Tom places tree stands where deer are heading in and out from feed. “They like to stop then to drink water,” he explains. “This area had been in hay and CRP land. The farmer replaced them with soybeans, so I had set up to be near the beans.”
It was a wise decision. Deer generally prefer soybeans over hay and CRP. Tom vouches for his move: “The buck, and other deer, confirmed my decision by making the same switch of food sources.”
Tom had plenty of reason to be confident. He began hunting deer when he was 12, began bowhunting at 13, and shot his first buck at age 15. He’s now 43. Over the years he has tagged 13 bucks that scored higher than 140. Of those, four scored in the 150s and two were in the 180s. All wore typical antlers, but he had no hesitation going after this non-typical.
“I figured as warm as it is, deer are going to be wanting water,” Tom says. “There’s a creek down at the bottom of the valley, but they don’t like to expose themselves. That’s why I usually put water holes near open farm fields on the nearly flat tops of ridges.”
Tom’s success bowhunting over his homemade waterholes is hard to argue with. He has consistently taken mature bucks during the early season when temperatures rise as high as 80 degrees. Bucks are forced to drink often during strings of hot, humid weather. (Photos courtesy of Tom Holzer) How far will bucks travel for water?
“Across our property, maybe three-quarters of a mile,” Tom says. “Seclusion is the big thing. That’s why I had dug the water hole at an old logging staging area in the middle of the woods. The creek at the bottom of the valley also has a lot of trees, and deer feel secure there, but since they’re already up top of the ridge feeding, it’s less travel for them to come to the high-up water hole.
“They also seem to bed up high,” Tom adds. “That’s an important factor, too. Deer don’t often have distinct trails off a field. A hunter has a better chance to find where many faint trails meet, a pinch point back off the field.”
Some, but not all, of the water holes Tom digs are at pinch points.
“The big non-typical was coming out of a pinch point,” Tom explains.
“I didn’t need to fill the water hole tank because we had enough rain. The buck was coming toward me from a bedding area about 6:30 in the evening. It stopped first at the waterhole and offered a broadside 20-yard shot. After the shot, it turned and headed back where it had come from. I lost sight of it after 30 yards, but it didn’t go much further.
Introducing Water Holes Tom does double-duty on much of his early season hunting. “I hit it pretty hard early,” the hunter says. “But at times it is more of a scouting thing, trying not to disturb the deer, unless I have a plan to go after one.
“Deer in our area don’t feed down low much. They aren’t going to feed much on browse when farmers have good crops on the flat tops of the ridges,” Tom continues.
“I try to set up my tree stands about 50 yards from crop fields. Where my stand is set up decides where I will dig the water hole, considering the prevailing wind direction. I end up setting them at distances from the field that seem best for each situation. That’s just common sense,” he adds.
Bucks usually come to a waterhole alone, while does often visit in groups. Tom Holzer created this waterhole in the middle of a weedy field where deer liked to bed and sometimes feed. Deer felt secure here and really hammered the waterhole. Tom had a ground blind 20 yards away in some brush. (Photos courtesy of Tom Holzer) Generally, Tom decides to set up on a morning hunt near a bedding area. In contrast, he sets up near a feeding area for an evening hunt. “I get between where they are and where they’re headed,” he says.
Tom adds, “I play the wind, where I expect deer to come from, so I’m downwind of their anticipated approach. I’ll also have a second stand set up, so I can move when the wind is from a different direction. I don’t want them to pick me out.
“That’s not the only factor, of course. I need to be in a tree with backdrop branches, so I’m not skylined. In our ridge and valley country, the big thing is not being skylined,” says Tom. “It seems like sometimes I spend half the morning figuring out the best tree to be as close as I can to the perfect setup.”
Location, Location! How does Tom select sites to create waterholes?
“I pick a stand where I think I’ll catch bucks running, especially early in the season, and needing water,” he says. “This works for rut timing, too, with all the extra moving they do then.
“The main concern when setting up high is to avoid kicking them out of the field where they’re feeding,” Tom adds. “When hunting low, I’ll be catching them coming out of a bedding area, heading down to water.”
Tom is adamant about leaving at least three days between sits at a specific stand. “Sometimes I hunt a particular stand only one day a season. Wind direction decides what I do and don’t do, but I have quite a few stands ready in some areas, so with a bit of a wind shift I may be only 30 yards from the tree I sat in four or five days earlier,” he explains.
“I’ll dig a hole that will hold about 100 gallons. It will be about two feet deep by five feet around. I line the hole with rubber pond liner,” says Tom. “I use this because you never know what roots and debris will be in the way. I don’t have rock problems, just roots. I try to find an area where water will flow into it after a rain, so I won’t need to constantly fill it.
“Adult deer come right in to the pond. They seem comfortable,” Tom explains.
Deer don’t punch holes in the liner with their hooves. In fact, “Mostly fawns step in the holes. They are smaller; maybe they have trouble reaching the water. Adults seldom step into the water. Squirrels are my only problem,” Tom says. “When the mud covering the edges of the liners gets washed away, squirrels chew through the liners.”
Tom banks the dirt on the lower side of the hole to catch any overflow.
Tom prefers to place his waterholes about 10 yards off the main deer movement trail, about 20 yards from his tree stand. He places his stand sites according to prevailing winds, to avoid being detected by deer as they stop for a drink. (Photo courtesy of Tom Holzer) “In dry years, it seems like I’m constantly filling holes,” Tom admits. “I monitor the local rainfall. I use 35-gallon barrels in the bed of my truck. They slide off with no problem. I wear knee high boots to minimize my scent when I have to get out of the truck.”
Two places Tom does not dig waterholes are in oak areas, particularly white oaks that are good acorn producers, and wherever there are crabapple trees.
“Crabapples are like magnets for deer,” he says. “Near acorns and crabapples, I don’t need waterholes.”
He digs waterholes about 10 yards off the trail and keeps them in brushier areas, because deer feel more secure in this setting. Tom prefers to dig his water holes about 20 yards from his stand.
How alert or wary are deer when they approach a water hole Tom made, you ask?
“Bucks mainly approach alone, although I have had five bucks at water at once in early October,” Tom remembers. “Does may visit more in groups. I have had as many as 20 does at a waterhole during one day of hunting. If 10 or more come in, they seem to take turns coming to the water hole. In drier years, of course, water attracts them more.”
Tom doesn’t do any digging down low; deer already have a main trail to the creek. “I hunt halfway down the hill when I’m hunting low,” he explains, “as deer are getting to or from bedding and water.”
The buck he shot in 2018 on Halloween was a low-land buck. He was chasing does and headed to the creek, taking a break from the does. Yet, Tom had seen the buck up high the day before.
“I got a heart/lung 40-yard shot around noon. He must have been really thirsty, because he continued heading down to the creek after I shot him,” Tom notes.
In Conclusion Water is a must-have for all whitetails. It’s a necessary and fundamental aspect of every deer’s daily life. And that’s a fact Minnesota bowhunter Tom Holzer realized a long time ago. After years of proven results hunting over his homemade water holes in the woods, it’s hard to argue with his strategy.
If you hunt similar terrain, perhaps a man-made water site is just the trick to bag your next buck!
