What does every living thing in this world need? Zach Haas, a senior aquatic biologist from Wisconsin Lake and Pond Resources, reveals the biggest hunting secret every hunter needs to know to pull in a healthy whitetail herd. If your land doesn’t have this element, it would be tough, yet Zack bares the secret formula. Discover the perks of putting wildlife ponds on your property and how much it costs. Moreover, learn the value of different aquatic plants, the worth of plastic synthetic liner, and the amount of water deer drink all day. If this didn’t give you enough clues, tune in for more science and facts that would load you up with hunting strategies.
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Deer Hunting Secret #1 Is Water with Zach Haas
We’re heading out to Wisconsin, and we’re going to talk to Zach Haas. Zach’s with Wisconsin Lake & Pond Resources. Zach, welcome to the show.
I’m glad to be here.
Zach and I have been talking about water. What’s so special about water? The Earth is made up of water. Human beings are made up of water and the deer we hunt is made up of water and need water, as we do to survive. Having said that, Zach is a senior aquatic biologist. He knows his stuff and I’m so glad that John O’Brien from Grandpa Ray Outdoors gave me a shout-out and said, “Get Zach on because he knows something about water,” which I don’t. I’ve been fortunate enough to hunt places where there’s plenty of water and it wasn’t an issue. It might be on your property and that’s why Zach’s here. Zach, tell us about why water is important for a healthy whitetail herd.
I’ll start with the basics and I might nerd out here a little bit on water. What does everything living need? It needs food, cover and water. Water is the most overlooked thing on most properties and most properties don’t have water especially if you get out of areas like Minnesota and Wisconsin. We have a lot of water. When you start getting in areas like Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota, you start getting into areas that don’t have a lot of fresh water, you’re starting to see fewer successes in that way. Whenever you get water on properties, the goal is to get them that third element that they all need. It’s a matter of you give them that element. It’s a matter of making it the right element. The way I bring that up is there’s a lot of bad water out there. Possibly the biggest thing that’s striking most of the country. You go to Dakota, out west in Iowa, we have EHD issues. That stems from poor water quality. The EHD midge runs poor water quality. Our goal is to show land managers, hunters and conservationists how to get the right healthy water. That’s my goal here. That’s where I stemmed a lot of my work because being a big hunter, it’s been a passion that’s a good combination for me.
Every living thing needs food, cover, and water. Share on XLet’s throw a couple of scenarios. I’ve got 120 acres, I don’t have a stream running through it, I don’t have any ponds on it, but I know water’s important because the deer are leaving my land for somebody else’s to get water. Not food, not cover but water. What do I do?
When you get into those areas that you don’t have any water. Who knows, maybe your neighbor does have water. Those are instances that we create water essentially. The way we do that is through a designing process where we use synthetic plastic liners. When we’ll go into these areas making whether it’s a 25×25 pond all the way up to a full-acre pond. Whatever it is, we have the means that we can create that water and create the right water. A lot of people, they buy the little twenty-gallon tub or they go and buy the plastic 75gallon drum and cut it in half. It’s water but it’s not the right water. All that is an aquarium scenario of how fast is the evaporation going to take that out and you have to go there non-stop. You don’t want that. What we’ve done is we’ve gone from the twenty-gallon tub to a 25×25 pond that might hold about 14,000 gallons.
It’s a big difference. You’re never going to be able to haul that out to the site. Enough water that your property has become number one. It’s through these synthetic liners that we do it and to go through the process of how we create it. Like The bigger ponds, approximately when they’re a smaller size, it’s 25×25 about four feet at the max depth. From there, that’s probably 10,000 to 14,000 gallons. The first step is we lay a piece of fabric down and what does is cushion the liner. It protects it from rocks, stumps, you name it. It’s underneath that you don’t know are there after digging. From there, we lay this reinforced polyethylene liner down. It’s not like roof matting that way. We put another piece of fabric on top of that and what that does is holds all your soil, gravel, whatever it is that you put back on top of the liner in place.
What kind of fabric is that? Is that burlap?
It’s landscape fabric. Something similar that you would put in a beach area or put rocks in even a landscaping area. It’s a denser fabric. It’s probably an eighth of an inch thick. Maybe a little thinner than that and both pieces are that big but it’s very tough stuff. It’s even tough to penetrate it with a knife.
Is it substantial?
You are having that in place, it will protect that investment, not that it is a higher investment than getting that tub. It is an investment that’s going to last years. What’s nice with the liner is when it’s in water, it’s almost preserved by the water so it doesn’t break down. That’s why we also cover it with dirt and that way is the only thing that will ever deter a plastic liner is UV. If the sun hits it, it can start breaking down like any other plastic. That’s why we also cover it that way to protect it as well. Even you get those hole things that way, you get a kiddie pool. Those things all break down eventually, whereas the liner is almost preserved in that water source.
That’s essentially how we build these ponds. I guess you could say there are a couple of layers of fabric. There’s a layer of the liner and that covers the whole base and then all it essentially is rainwater. That’s all you need. You need some good rains and it will fill it up fast. For example, I have a client that had a 25×25 pond and dug it, lined it, and had some general rains, nothing crazy. Maybe a half inch rains here and there and it filled up within three weeks. It didn’t take long to get that 14,000 gallons in there and it’s there. You have to go up there with the four-wheeler and you didn’t have to fill it up with a tanker trunk. He didn’t have to do anything. Let Mother Nature do her thing.
We’ve got a hole in the ground four feet in depth, 25×25 feet. We’ve got a liner like people put down in their floral beds. The black liner then we put polyethylene down, plastic then put the liner top of it. How much backfill do we put on it?
Every food plot you have should have water near it. Share on XUsually about six inches think of covering. It depends when your digging already. Whatever soil you take out, you can lay them nicely on the bottom and cover the whole liner.
That’s basically it. Do we smooth out the edges or plant aquatic plants or plant reeds or what do we do?
The next step is your pond is starting to fill. It’ll be cloudy for a while. It’s not going to look pretty for a while but our next step is once the water has finally reached the point where it’s topped out essentially to the bank, we want to start putting aquatic plants around the entire edge. There’s a bunch of different aquatic plants out there. One plant that I like to call the aquatic food plot plant is called arrowhead. Deers love to eat it. It’s one of those things that you can plant and get a secondary benefit around the pond. Another is water-plantain. John O’Brien, in one of his plots, he has plantain in it. You can put all these plants around it. It not only filters the water, but they’re also doubling as a food source. We don’t want the deer completely eating them, so we put some plants like a bulrush, almost like a reed. We put bulrush in the ponds. Pickerelweed is another one and we put these aquatic plants in there. What they help do is they give you a food source. They create natural beneficial bacteria that grow on their root system and they filter water like crazy. You could take a 40-acre cattail marsh, put raw sewage on one end, push it through and by the time it leaves, it will pass most EPA water drinking standards. It is that good at filtering and that’s why it is a key point of having these around the pond.
We even have a lot of clients ask, “How do I take care of it? I have this pond dug. What am I doing? How do I make this healthy?” We use a lot of different things to keep the health up. For one, we add beneficial bacteria. We add enzymes. We put pond colorants in to block sunlight so you don’t get gross enzymes in the pond and the aquatic plants are part of that. That’s something that has developed and I can share with the audience or whoever’s asking, but maybe even a Willett pond management kit that the audience can buy. It’s simple. Maybe once a month you drive by your pond, you add a couple of these things and you drive on. You don’t even have to get off the four-wheeler in most cases.
What are we talking about cost-wise from the plants? Somebody’s got to dig the hole.
If you do the whole thing from start to finish, a pond that size you’ll probably be looking right around $1,500 and that gets you everything you need.
Is that you doing it or me doing it?
That’s me doing it. If the average Joe wants to do it himself, your cost of liner and fabric for that size pond you might be dealing with $350, $400. You dig the hole and do everything that way. It’s a higher investment on the frontend, but it’s something that is going to be a more beneficial source. It’s going to draw more deer, hold more deer and you’re not in there bumping deer all the time. It’s one of those things where it goes down the road. It’s a higher cost tool but it’s something that you can have in your inventory, whereas the pond is a tool to make your success even greater.
How about the plants? How much do the plants cost because am I planting plants or I’m doing seed?
We usually do seed. The main reason being is for cost reasons. Plugs can cost you anywhere from about $2 to $3 a plug. A lot of times we do seed. I like doing seed because it grows. When you do a plug, it’s going to shock going into a different soil source. For a pond that size, you’re talking very minimal. You’re talking maybe $10 for seed and that’s something that’s a perennial. You’ll never have to seed it again.
Even the flat weed or pickerelweed or whatever the weeds you’re saying because we’re putting them on the water or are we putting them along the borders?
Essentially what they do is a lot of these plants grow a foot above the water line and a foot below. You don’t have to worry about when you do get a drought. All they need is somewhat damp soil and they’ll grow. They’ll grow within that two-foot range essentially. When we seed, a lot of times when I’m building my ponds I’ll rake around the whole edge and I’ll lightly seed that whole area. It doesn’t take any time. They start growing and start doing their job.
Clover would be a nice thing to put a ring around the pond.
I do that quite often. I work with Grandpa Ray Outdoors’ seed but I’ll plant fall forages around them. I plant my perennial forages right around them and I recommend that because you’re putting your food right next to your water source. You’re getting two of the three things you need for survival. All those plants are acting as a natural filter for the pond as well. For any runoff that’s going towards that pond, your food plot is also acting as a buffer. It actually doubles and does more benefit than most.
25 x 25, isn’t that big? Isn’t that small? Most people would have it or if you have a food plot that’s larger than that, pick an advantageous place to put in a wildlife pond and then build your food plot around it. That’s what I’m thinking. Am I thinking wrong?
You’re on the right track. For instance, even at my own property, I’m doing an extreme property makeover on my own land. One of my key things was I don’t have any water on top of my hill. I have a marsh on my property, a creek and I pretty much hunt a big hill. I am not getting on top of that hill. I went in there, I cut out a section and I put in about a quarter-acre food plot right smack dab in the middle of that food plot, I’ll be doing some live videos soon on it. I’m putting a little 20×20, 25×25 pond in it. I have a water source but there is no water. All those deer that are on top of that hill, whether they’re in thermal bedding or whatever they are in, they’re all going on that source. That’s the closest and takes the least amount of energy. Every food plot you have, you should have water near it. It’s a no-brainer in my opinion.
How much does a deer drink a day? How much water do they need?
When you look at a deer, they get most of their water from their forage. I believe it’s right around 70% approximately. They get their water needs from their food, but you get into an area of a bad drought, their food’s drying up. Their food doesn’t have as much moisture. Maybe go on a food plot that burned out because of the drought. A little bit of time that these water sources are incredible. I have clients send me pictures of fifteen deer at one time around a 25×25 pond in times of drought. That 70% they normally get from the forages might have gotten knocked down to 30%. Now, they have to make all that up somewhere else and they have to go to your water.
Do you have a rule of thumb if I have 40 acres? Going with the water source, how much water should I have on that? Should I have one 25×25 or one 20×20 or one 10×10?
What I do is I usually base it almost no different than you would mineral supplements. I think they have one to two per 40 acres. Depending on your land layout, because your contour plays a lot into that as well where your deer are moving and things that way. I’d say if you’re at one to two water holes per 40 acres, you’re doing great.
One wildlife pond at twenty acres. Let’s change it up. We have on the farm two springs. One’s on the neighbors but it feeds our deer and then the other one definitely on our controlled ground. Nobody can get through it. They run pretty much all year long. If it gets drought, they’ll seep. Other than that, it comes off the hillside and the road’s always wet. What do you do with that to improve it, to hunt it or should you never hunt it?
When you deal with springs, the biggest issue there why it doesn’t make it a preferred drinking source for a deer is coming from aquifers deep in the ground is very cold. That shocks the deer’s system. They don’t like that cold water and that’s why a lot of times these little ponds are more beneficial because they’re closer to their internal body temperature. It doesn’t shock their system as much. For the same reason over Germany and all this stuff. German class and all that, they always said that all those drinks over there are served at room temperature because they believe that it’ll shock your system too much. A lot of times in springs that’s still not a preferred source. I’d still even try to get those little ponds other places on my property. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing having those springs and creeks and things that way, it’s still not a preferred source. I’d still build ponds closer to my stand areas, closer to my food plots to draw deer there for that better water. They will leave those springs, those ponds.
If I took one of the springs and ran a pipe from that into a pond to fill it, it would warm it up. I could make east of where that one spring is that we control, we put a pipe in there and suck it down and then put a pond in there. The pond would be huntable for all the reasons that you said.
Even for me, I have a twenty-acre marsh and I also have headwaters from the Milwaukee River come from my property. We have a creek. I have a lot of water on my property but I still put all my little ponds because I know the deer will go to those and there too for positioning ponds even. Deer love seclusion. You might have a spring in a wide-open area that you’re like, “I have water here.” If it’s not secluded, the deer don’t want to be there. It’s no different than a very large food plot. A lot of times your mature animals avoid those big food plots. They love the tiny microplots. Those little microplots are where I also put my ponds because that’s where the deer want to be. They feel safe, they know where their predators are at. They’re not getting bumped. That’s where you want to be.
My kill plots are only ten but they’re 100 square feet. I can’t put a wildlife pond on that. It will be like a bucket. That wouldn’t work.
A lot of times I get asked that way. Sometimes they’re over people’s budgets and I completely understand. I get it. What I tell people is don’t dig in these little tiny tubs if you have a little microplot like that. What I recommend is doing an above ground water source like a galvanized tank. The reason why I don’t like things in the ground for those smaller tanks is you’re still having mud and things going in there that can grow the EHD midge and you don’t want that. That’s why I like them still above the ground. That’s the budgetary way to do it. You can also go smaller with the pond. I have a client in Western Wisconsin that did a 10×10 pond, shot his biggest buck on it. It’s not a big pond by any means. I think the surface of it is maybe 7×7 feet. That’s it but it’s holding a lot more water than any tub still would. That’s where you can custom your pond size. You don’t have to have that 25×25. That’s more a recommendation, but you can always narrow them down to like, “This pond would be a great spot to have water and food.” You can always shrink them. I still would like to see that because I like knowing that it’s more of an ecosystem rather than a tub.
That’s the whole thing. Once it’s there for a while, you get it in, you mess it up. The pond should be in pretty much. It’s a little late to go in and throw a pond in there. You’re screwing yourself I would think if you want a mature buck to come in.
We put ponds in all the way up until almost the end year season. It’s nice if a lot of times you’re doing your running and most areas that we’re hunting whitetail, they’re used to machinery. They’re used to hearing tank running around. If you’re a mini excavator or skid loader, it sounds like it’s a tractor. It doesn’t bother them as much as you’d think and you’re in and out of that on the same day. It’s not a very long project. You’re in there, you’re done, get some rains, fill it up. I’ve had it where we do a lot of bigger ponds even for our company and we put a two-acre fishing pond in. There were four bulldozers and two excavators. There was a lot of equipment. You wouldn’t think a deer would be around it. The next day we went down there, the liner was completely full of deer tracks. They’re curious animals. They still want to check it out. It’s more than if you’re in there every day checking on it, that’s what’s going to hurt you. If you’re in there and you do your job, you build that pond and you get out, it’s not going to hurt you.
If you aren’t hunting in the wind right, you’re not hunting right, period. Share on XMy friends, I’m going to have to call them because we were going to use old tires to form up and put plastic liner. Let the rain fill it up, but it’s not any close to doing anything for the ecology of that. It’s an old trashy tire and a liner put in the ground to collect water, but it’s not going to do anything.
The biggest thing you want to avoid is what I call the aquarium feel. There’s nothing real in it. What I always tell everyone when they say, “Why do you do a liner?” Think about that fish tank and put your water in it. Don’t treat it, just let it sit. It’s going to turn green, it’s going to turn nasty. Any fish that is in there is going to die because it gets that aquarium feel. You need that fresh dirt, you need that ecosystem, you need the plants and that’s what will avoid these issues.
On your ponds, do you set up tree stands?
All my ponds are within a bow shot. It’s one thing they’re doing is that it gives you an awesome opportunity if a deer comes in. A lot of times what I do is I’ll also even burn some areas or I’ll put trees or something where I don’t want deer to drink that day. If I have silt, I may burn the whole backside up because I don’t want them right towards at me and make it where they don’t want to stand there. Whereas areas I want a shot, those areas I’ll level out. Things that way the deer will come and drink. You’ll get nice broadside shots. Their heads are down, you can draw back on them and you can get a great shot. I try to put them right around that twenty-yard mark. It’s also a yardage marker for you. If a deer comes out, “It’s at 23 yards. Seventeen is the front side.” You can also use a yardage marker. It definitely helps you.
Once you put the pond in, you said deer are inquisitive creatures so they could be there the next day, they could be there the next hour when you leave going, “What’s going on?”
For the most part, once you get that first rain to get any kind of water in there, you’re going to have deer in it. That is a guarantee in my mind that you will have deer in it that first time water starts going in that liner.
If we’re on the hill and the water fills up and goes over, do we put an outlet in it so the water moves downhill or not?
Usually, if you’re on top of the hill, you’d never have that issue. It will balance itself out. You have more of the issues that you have your pond set up where you’re collecting drainage, where you’re collecting a lot of runoff. Sometimes in those areas, we’ll put a little piece of either a drain tile or a little pipe going out one side where it can naturally go out to the area. I would say if you’re next to a food plot, sometimes put your food plot on the downside so it’s getting that overflow, where it’s soil and helping your food plot out too. One thing that I don’t want ever to collect is a lot of runoff. It can hurt the system especially if you have farm runoff going into it, even there too. If you know you’re going to get a lot of water, it’s going to fill the pond up fast. Maybe put your food plot on the downside a little bit so it gets that extra water and can help in that way too, but we do outlets on some of them we know are going to receive a lot of water.
This is interesting stuff. I haven’t thought much about it. For our audience, if you’ve thought much about it, let me know. I’m curious about how you’re putting wildlife ponds on your land. At this time I’d like to say, I’m changing it up from the water. We’re talking about whitetail deer hunting and the one thing that you wouldn’t leave home without your flashlight. You wouldn’t leave home without your rubber boots. You wouldn’t leave home without your safety harness. What’s the one big thing you wish you knew several years ago that you know now?
I guess not as much the stuff that I can bring with me. The things I’ve learned, it’s more about how I get in the stand and things. Going at the right winds and don’t hunt stupid in this spot. I did way too much of that when I was young. A lot of times, my big thing is Windicators. My buck I shot in Kansas, I changed my stand four times in the same day just because of wind direction. I constantly am using my Windicator. If you aren’t hunting in the wind right, you’re not hunting right period. I’d say that’s one of my number one things is probably some way always to watch my wind.
When you think about hunting in different states, how many states do you hunt every year?
Usually, I try to hunt two to three states a year. How a whitetail from one state to another is a completely different animal. If I can, two to three, if my wife lets me. Usually, it’s two a year though.
Where do you like to go?
I go to Iowa and Kansas. Those are probably my top. I’ve got more into Kansas. I help an outfitter out there doing land management and things that way, but there are two. Iowa’s always been fun. Missouri’s been fun.
In Iowa, you have to wait for a permit. You have to put in a draw. In Missouri, do you have to put in for a draw?
Missouri is over the counter. Kansas, that one’s pretty much a guaranteed draw. You still have to put in for a draw. Iowa, I didn’t get my bow tag, so that’s three points I have and I’ve got my fourth point. There’ll be a five-year process to get that bow tag.
I’ve got a couple of points for Iowa. I’m going to hunt Western Nebraska and trying to take a mule deer with my crossbow. That’ll be a fun hunt and they do have whitetail on the ranch too, so we’ll see where that goes. When you’re traveling, how is that different than hunting the back 40 near Eldorado Marsh?
I think the biggest thing for us is when I roll up for hunting and stuff like that, we have very small parcels here in Wisconsin. You might get a buck that lives in a 40 and that’s it. My biggest buck, for instance, he lived in a 30-acre woods and that was it. It’s neat to go to different areas like Kansas where you might be sitting in an area where you’re the only tree and then you’re looking at a field that’s twenty acres with not a public tree in there and your deer are wandering through it. Iowa’s very similar I believe. A lot of rolling hills and the amount of bucks is ridiculous. I’d say that’s my biggest difference is when I’m here at home, there are more hunters here in Wisconsin. We have a high density of hunters so it’s a lot of competition, where you start going to other areas you’ve got these big parcel sections where you don’t have the competition. It’s fun when you go up that way and you see maybe four or five mature bucks. Whereas back here, I might be hunting one mature animal and following him for a few years until I can even get a crack at him.
I guess that’s why we like to travel. I’m sure your business takes you to different states and that gives you somewhat of an advantage because you’re already on somebody’s land and see where the thing goes. Zach, thank you for spending your time with us. How do people reach out and get ahold of you?
The best way is either you can hit me on Facebook at Wisconsin Lake & Pond Resource. You can also go to our website. It’s WisconsinLPR.com. My email is [email protected]. I’m always open to talk about water. I’m a water nerd so I like to talk about it.
I appreciate it. I learned a whole lot and hope my audience does. Reach out to me at WhitetailRendezvous.com and let me know what you thought about the show. Check out Zach because water does make a difference. I know that hunting in the west is huge and it’s as huge in the whitetail woods. We haven’t paid that much attention to it. You put up some Egyptian weeds or Egyptian grass and some of that plantain and you get some cover and you can set up a nice little kill plot right over your wildlife pond. Thanks so much. It’s been great.
Thank you, Bruce. It was nice talking to you.
Important Links:
- Wisconsin Lake & Pond Resources
- Grandpa Ray Outdoors
- Wisconsin Lake & Pond Resource – Facebook Page
- WisconsinLPR.com
- [email protected]
about Zach Haas
Zach Haas is the Research Director and Senior Aquatic Biologist at Wisconsin Lake & Pond Resource. Zach attended the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in both Biology and Water Resources in May of 2011. Zach has a broad range of knowledge in the overall health of a pond, ranging from aquatic vascular plants all the way down to aquatic invertebrates. Throughout his studies he focused a great deal on learning how to conduct research and evaluate unique situations in a pond/lake ecosystem meanwhile providing a management plan for how to correct problems in these environments. Zach has over 10 years of experience in the aquatic management field.
Zach is a people person and enjoys talking to clients about problems they may be having and sharing his info of what may be the way to go in means of management. He can relate to the problems and cost of having a pond due to helping out with his parent’s pond for many years. From planting aquatic plants for a client to completing a research project on the reduction of organic sediment, Zach continues to enjoy his job and helping out pond owners.
When Zach isn’t out in the field managing ponds, he is spending time with his wife Hailey and the rest of his family. Zach is also very passionate about hunting and wildlife management which typically fills up most of his free time. If a hobby involves whitetail deer or turkeys you better believe Zach is on top of it.