Strategy shifts away from food plots and ag edges toward the timber. Find the freshest dropping white oaks — clusters of two or three productive trees within a few hundred yards of bedding produce more than any food plot during heavy mast.
During rut weeks in a heavy mast year, bucks have to travel more to find does because does are scattered across food. That's one place hunting actually improves — cruising bucks during seeking become more visible because their travel distances expand. See state mast reports for the year's heavy-vs-light picture.