Photo by Michael Corrigan.

Daylight broke, and I was settled and ready for action with my bow in hand. Perched 20 feet up in a live oak tree, I waited and listed for deer.

It was February 20, and temperatures were in the mid-50s. My stand was situated on the fringe of a shallow one-acre sinkhole fringed with live oak trees.

The small sinkhole did not hold water, but the tiny depression maintained moist soil, and smilax (greenbrier) vines were thriving.

When I first stumbled onto this late-season food source, everything else in the landscape appeared brown and spent. But the evergreen quality of the greenbrier stuck out, reminding me of a green leafy salad in a brown wooden salad bowl.

Deer had literally carved out trails through the head-high thicket of greenbrier. Deer sign -- in the form of tracks, droppings, beds and fresh browse sign -- was bountiful.

A few old rubs and one fresh scrape were visible from my stand location and within bow range, but those did not really matter.

I knew lots of deer were feeding on the food source. And with the late-season North Florida whitetail rut in full swing, I knew the bucks would be hanging around close if the does were eating here.

One hour after daylight, five mature does and three yearlings entered the salad bar. Three bedded down almost immediately, and the others began to browse feverishly. The wind was perfect. I watched them for over two hours before the first buck, a young forkhorn, made his appearance.

He made a beeline for one of the mature does and displayed typical rutting behavior. A chase ensued through the maze of trails until all at once, the young buck stopped dead in his tracks and went on the alert.

I instantly thought he had winded me. Quickly testing the breeze with my wind checker made me think otherwise. I could tell the buck’s attention was focused in a direction away from my stand location.

Gazing through my binoculars in the direction the buck was looking, I saw a healthy 6-pointer come into view on the opposite ridge.

This buck entered the greenbrier thicket with a hasty purpose and walked with an aggressive posture toward the forkhorn buck.

The younger buck wasted no time exiting the playing field and happened to choose a trail less than 15 yards from my stand. The 6-pointer followed, to make sure the young buck got the point.

As the dominant buck reached the edge of the thicket, I stopped him with a single doe bleat and delivered a razor-sharp broadhead.

The buck spun around and headed back into the security of the greenbrier patch. He barely made it to the opposite ridge before collapsing.

I took a moment to regain my composure from the excitement. This was the third buck I had taken in four years of hunting this location, and it proved that hunting a natural food source late in the season works when trying to connect with North Florida bucks.

Find the food, and you find the does. Find the does, and when the rut is on, the bucks are close by.

It’s a concept that has worked well for me over the years. And if it’s applied with a little old-fashioned scouting effort, you too can score on bucks during North Florida’s late season.