uping your odds on starting cats

[coastrangecathunting]

the number one thing i do to help up my odds of getting cats jumped is hunting the weather. that is the real reason i hunt these little things anyways , is to hear a jumped cat race followed by a long locate bark. to me the perfect cat race is a 15min trail job with a 20 min jump. during this 20 min jump there might be as many as 10 to 15 loses. 10 sec. up to 1 or 2 mins long. some on here say they hunt any and all conditions which is fine i have no problem with that. but when i go out i want to here a race. with work and a wife and kids spreading the time around kinda sucks. if it is night and not pouring down rain i will go , but my favorite time is after a hard rain . im on the site alot but im watching the weather on this computer just as much. i look at the hourly forcast and if i see a 4 hour window with less than 40% chance of rain im loading the dogs and going out. this is just a tip that i use to help get on hotter tracks . hope it helps. i do hunt ather conditions as well but this is what i prefur. another thing i do is i dont go hunting i go cat hunting . i go to where i know cats cross . if u have started a cat in one spot u are very likely to start one there again for many years. hit these spots and u will start more cats and save time and gas money.

jc

[dwalton]

JC; I hear what you are saying and it is fun to hear a good jump race. For me thou I love to see dogs take a cold track and work it up and catch the cat. Cat hunting at its best is cold trailing one up. Dewey

[Unreal_tk]

Jc, I know what you mean. I have best luck when it snows 2-4 inches, and storms hard all night until about 1 am or so. I get up at 5 and go check my spots, usually find something by 8 am. I haven't figured out how rain plays a role yet though.

[coastrangecathunting]

the rain washes all the old tracks away so every track u start is going to be fresh . its just funner hitting the fresher tracks and not messing with the older stuff . good for the young dogs to run a hot track with a wet dripping cat . i do cold trail but i like em hot.

jc

[mondomuttruner]

I've said this before, I get the biggest thrill out of a tough cold track, dogs gotta grub it out of deer, snowmobile trails, runways, you get the picture. I refuse to put down on a bear rig (strike), my dogs only rig something pretty hot, any dog can run a hot track(or should be able to anyways), granted, I realize cats are a different game(not all dogs can run a cat to catch). Maybe I'm alone in my thinking but around here if you don't have good cold track dogs, chances are your going home early.

I'm always talking snow running, I really wish I had the opportunity to run with a couple of you guys on dirt out there. It would be really interesting to get out to your west coast gathering, bet a guy would learn a thing or two and have some fun doing it.....

[twist]

I go when ever there is snow on the ground. Usually the night after a snow storm is my favorite time and yes cats seem to use the same general areas to cross more times than not here also. My cats average 1-2 hours cold trail(every once in a while I get lucky and get one jumped quick). But for the most part the jump is usually no longer than 30 minutes tops in good running area. Andy

[Unreal_tk]

I am much like twist about when I go, I also like to when there has been several nice days and I know a storm is blowing in later in the night. Seems cats do more hunting right before a storm as well to me.

[DogLakeBlues]

I like to listen to the hot races too when the cat is jumped and pulling out his tricks but a lot of times on a hot race the cat finds a rock pile to hide in. A lot of the times i can hear the cat growling so i know he is in there but never get to see him. So for me i would rather run older tracks just because they tend to go to the wood. It is great when u get to hear your dogs locate on those races.