Mid day elk question

[golfer]

For those of you who have taken bulls mid day from a water hole or near a water hole. How did you pick you location of where to set up? Do bulls tend to use the bottom of a drainage to access water or will they approach water side slope using timber/shade to keep them hidden or concealed?

 

[Brian in Montana]

I've never had success on elk at a waterhole, but guys I know that have say they generally have them come in in the evening. One guy kills elk every year at the same waterhole, always evening; and an interesting thing he says is that when they come to water they are usually very quiet. Here talking before and after watering, but in the vicinity of the water they are pretty silent.

 

[diamond hitch]

The sign tells me there are more visits at night than in the evening.

 

[Irishman]

From what I have seen, the elk tend to come in right before dark (maybe after), and leave right after light. They do sometimes come in during the day, but it is usually right around dark. As far as what direction they come in from, there is usually a beaten down trail if they are going there regularly. The waterhole that I have seen them at most, elk could show up from any direction, but some definitely came in the same way every night.

 

[Nick87]

For those of you who have taken bulls mid day from a water hole or near a water hole. How did you pick you location of where to set up? Do bulls tend to use the bottom of a drainage to access water or will they approach water side slope using timber/shade to keep them hidden or concealed?

The bulls I've saw use water during the day came through timber/shade more times than not. Fwiw

 

[2rocky]

Desert elk would feed along the river and sub-irrigated meadows then go about a mile off into the desert and bed down at daylight. Sometimes during the day they would come back to the river and bed a few hundred yards off the river.

I killed the bull above when he followed his cows to water just before sunset. I sat on him bedded from about 5:00pm on....



At 10,000 feet in Wyoming there is water all over. The elk would usually bed uphill from these little secluded potholes in the trees. At about 8 am i killed a bull 50 yards from here...

I think Paul Medel (Elknut) has a calling sequence for waterholes to sound like a new bull just came into the neighborhood. It is worth a try.