Here's the layout...

*80 acre, 8 year old pine plantation to the east
*20 acre, 18 year old pine plantation, thinned last year, just to the west of the 8 year old thicket. Fire break between the two.
*1/4 mile of power line bordering the 20 acre thinned pine stand. Greenfield on powerline with a ground blind roughly 60 yards off it.
*100 acres of hardwood/pine to the west of the power line.

One would think that setting up on the power line in the above situation would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Well, honestly it hasn't been so. We've made 4 hunts on the power line and have seen two deer...one a nice buck that my youngest son missed. That buck, along with a spike, walked out at 5:05 and we barely had enough light to see.

Camera on the plot shows 99 to 1 night time usage but I have about 7 different bucks on camera on the plot. 3 are shooters. I walked the block of hardwoods looking for sign that he might have hit the buck that he shot at and it is absolutely destroyed with scrapes and rubs. A few of the scrapes looked somewhat fresh, but most appear dormant. I've never seen as many as I saw when I walked it, and I only went in a short piece. Hardwood side is fairly steep. Pines are more rolling. Acorns all over in the hardwoods. Can see 300 yards on power line that separates the hardwoods from the thinned pines/pine thicket.

Where would you set up to catch these jokers in the daylight?

Acorns, acorns, acorns...

The powerline should be good, once the rut gets closer.

acorn thicket where the scrapes and rubs are. Likely using this as a staging area before going into the plot to check does

Acorns next to a thicket or timber transition line.

Corn

Can't believe it took that long to get the right answer!

FIFY

Personally, I'd walk the fire break to see if there's a trail crossing it, especially, with the moon time the way it is now. He's probably not even getting to the powerline until well after dark. If the thinned pines are really clean, he's probably not gonna cross that fire break until right at dark.

The thinned pines WAS going to be my next step before I saw all the sign in the hardwoods, and likely still is. I just want to make sure I'm not missing something that's obvious to others. I can see quite a bit of area through them (the thinned pines) and all the way to the pine thicket. They aren't too open...basically just right for me to hunt it and him to feel safe coming through there.

Knowing where you are hunting, he isn't going to step out in those thin pines or hardwoods during normal hours until the rut and he/they get stupid. He might catch a stray bullet from a local.

I would bet he lays up most of the day. I would try getting near the thickest part that's near the hardwoods and the sign and try to catch him coming or going right at daylight or just around dark. This rain should help. He should be back soon freshening up the scrapes.

It's getting close to water oak time.

This is true. One neighbor shot a rifle 5 times about 3:45 and then another neighbor, which sounded like the next lot over, started hollering at the top of his lungs for "Justin" about 5 minutes later. I sure hope "Justin" wasn't on the receiving end of the 5 shots.

That's a fact. Water oak acorns in early and mid December before the rut really gets kicked off is some fine place to be.

I've read that deer don't really like water oaks that much. I'm guessing y'all don't agree?

You have a topo map of the place?

I do but I'm not smart enough to know how to post it. There's a member here that has the topo and knows how to post it...maybe he'll lay it out soon.

They love them. Most of the time mine drop at the same time as my white oaks. Ever so often, mine start dropping in January. When that happens, it's awesome.

Corn and molasses.

I've killed and seen a lot of deer on water oaks later in the season. They start falling about the same time as all others but they also have a few that hold on later than all other oaks. When all the others are gone, rotten or sprouted, they devour water oaks.