I just returned from a whirlwind tour of southern Alabama and the 2008 Archery Trade Show in Indianapolis.

In Alabama, D&DH TV Producer Chris Hermans and I had the great fortune to hunt with DDH Northern Field Editor Charles Alsheimer and Steve Scott, Wilson Scott, Wade Atchley and Justin Moore of the Whitetail Institute of North America.

As many of you might know, Alabama's landscape, and latitude, causes the state to have rutting activity all over the board. While Jake Edson was seeing great rutting activity in the western part of the state, the rut had barely started where we were hunting south of Montgomery.

The temps were WARM. We had daytime highs pushing 80 and, hence, we saw few bucks. We did see large numbers of does, however, which allowed us to help the Scotts with their doe management program. In fact, Charlie and Chris got a great doe hunt on film that will be included in our new round of TV shows on Outdoor Channel later this year.

I had the opportunity to hunt several food plots that were planted with lush Pure Attraction, which is a new blend that Whitetail Institute just unveiled for the public last week. The blend is actually a fall forage that provides rapid growth, attraction and abundant food for both the early and late season. The biggest attractants in this blend are a special strain of forage oats and winter peas. I hunted these plots almost exclusively during my trip, and I saw on average 12 deer per sit. I shot this dandy 6-pointer one evening when he came to the plot which was already filled with does and fawns.

We will include more information on this forage blend and all the other great new products from the ATA Show (and SHOT Show) in our upcoming June issue and the Deer Hunters Equipment Annual. The June issue hits newsstands at the end of March.

Our next trip is the the Shooting, Hunting & Outdoor Trade Show, which will be held in Las Vegas over Super Bowl weekend.

--Dan Schmidt
D&DH Editor