The storms and heavy rains that pounded the mid-west during this past May and June caused some of the worst flooding on record. For weeks every time you turned on the news or picked up a paper the flooded fields, floating cars and broken levees were right there. It's no wonder, that my phone started ringing with concerned customers wondering how all this havoc was going to affect their fall whitetail hunts in places like Iowa, Illinois and Indiana. A picture of deer swimming across swollen rivers on your evening newscast does not evoke the kind of images that hunters with a few thousand dollars invested want to see. While there may have been some fawn mortality particularly in areas where the rivers had risen quickly, overall the region's deer herd got through it relatively unscathed. In a nutshell, unless you are with an operation whose farm leases are along any of the mid-west's major rivers or their tributaries, chances are the quality of your hunt will not be compromised.

Ron Beayon, field manager for Performance Outdoors, had just gotten done mowing food plots when I caught up to him last month. Ron's a Vermont native who has been guiding clients to western Illinois bucks for almost 10 years;
"Glenn, I think we are going to have an outstanding hunt this fall!" He went on to explain that the farms that Performance leases, in both western Illinois and eastern Iowa are twenty miles from the Mississippi and while its true that there is a lot more water around than usual for this time of year, it's not necessarily a bad thing.

"Our food plots are doing better than ever. The clover I've been cutting is 14-16 inches tall and so thick it's actually choking out the weeds. Water is good for clover and it reduces the incidence of blue tongue. ( a disease that incubates in stagnant water) Plus, the amount of water around also impacts antler growth; so we're excited."

His latter point, I've heard before from whitetail outfitters across the country. I remember last year when the southwest was getting a century's worth of rain and Butch Scarborough of Sunset Outfitters, south of San Antonio, had predicted better than usual horns on his Texas bucks as a result. Apparently, antler growth can be very dehydrating, which if you think about it, makes sense as the velvet is about 90% blood vessels and blood is about 90% water.

Rick Davidson, owner of Midwest Bucks, has leases located on the eastern side of the state along the Wabash River. He farms and outfits on both sides of the river in Illinois and Indiana. Rick echoed Ron's enthusiasm as he told me about videoing a bachelor group of bucks on one of his farms in late June.

"Our deer still have two solid months of antler growth yet to realize and already we're seeing incredible racks. I had seen this group of bucks on one of our food plots earlier in the week and went back the next night with my camera. These deer were so impressive I was sure no one would believe me if I didn't have it on film. There was one buck in particular that had to be 24 inches wide; already!"

Rick also mentioned that his food plots have never been so plush and all that protein is what grows horn. Some of Midwest Buck's leases are along the Wabash River and Rick suggested that by the time hunting season rolls around the water will be gone and the bucks will be chasing does in those bottoms just like they always do.

"A couple of things people from other parts of the country don't understand is that the reason we have so many levees is because rivers flooding over their banks is a common occurrence out here, its just that this spring was worse than usual. The other thing is that it does not have to be raining here to have flood conditions and it can happen very quickly."

The fact is, that the little town of Marshall, Illinois can be sitting pretty under clear blue skies but if its raining 200 miles away in Chicago or even farther north; if Wisconsin had a bad winter resulting in significant spring snow melt than the Wabash and a lot of other rivers are going to come up regardless of the weather downstream.

So, if you have a hunt booked this fall for somewhere in one of the central states, you are probably in pretty good shape and if you're lucky one of those heavy antlered, big bodied booners just might sneak within sight of your stand. It's also important, however, to recognize that while the deer may have survived fine the toll of destruction on farmland, infrastructure and in some cases, people's lives has been devastating. Americans of the rural mid-western corn-belt are a resilient group and by the time your trip rolls around much of the destruction will have been cleaned up but for thousands if not millions of people the recovery process will have barely started. Be sure to remember those good folks and their hardships while you visit their part of the country.