Helpful ways to spot a cat.

[Unreal_tk]

What are some helpful ways to spot cats in trees?

I like to try to get elevation on a tree if I can, ill sit and spot for a good while. I also do a circle around the area and try to find the tracks going into the tree and make sure there are no out tracks.

Night time, ill use lights to spot some eyes.

Thanks JC for the idea!

[coastrangecathunting]

if there are 2 people have one get back where they can see the whole tree while the other person hits the bottom of the tree with a big stick. not always but most of the time the cat will move.
at night time the biggest mistake people do is use a light that is to bright.
in thick trees look in other trees that the cat could have jumped into from the tree the dogs are actually treeing in.
pay attention to the wind direction. i have found cats 50 yrds away from the dogs.

[dawger]

I use a small set of bino's and systematically grid search the tree, and them move a quarter way around the tree and do it again.

[BlazeNBrat]

Our cats don't tree here, unless the snow gets deep, then most of them tree. Thickest most concealed place to be is on the ground around here, so they end up bayed most the time.
Knowing Bobcats, I suppose the first place I would go is where I'm most concealed, like a huge ponderosa pine. Must go up fairly soon after the jump in that country?

[Unreal_tk]

Blaze in my country usually yes, not always but probably 7/10 if I would guess. On JCs side from what I've been told its the opposite. Yes usually its the thickest spot in the tree. Not uncommon to wait for dark to see eyes in the missltoe(spellcheck).

[LarryBeggs]

Mostly knowing where to look. On the coast in the big fir trees they are usualy in the 1st bushy spot and seem to prefer the down hill side of the tree. In a maple or alder with less cover they are usaly layed out flat on a limb or in a notch with just there ears sticking up visible from under the tree.Sometimes you can spot there white belly from down below. Last winter I was nursing a bumb knee and trying to let my boys go to most of the trees. 1st cat we treed hung up and I had to pack the chainsaw down as I didnt want my boys falling a tree in the dark. Another cat the dogs were so far down you could barely here them and the boys couldnt find him. I knew he was up so I walked in there to find all three boys hudled up to close to the tree. I spotted the cat when I was 50 yards from the tree as soon as my lite hit the tree. They havnt lived it down yet.

[coastrangecathunting]

i went to a tree last year. my buddy and i looked for 30 min or so. it was a maple tree with no leaves. i finally said lets go and headed back to the truck . put the dogs in the box and heard one dog start treeing again. i started calling and even shot the gun a half dozen times , still nothin but chop, chop, chop. i told my buddy i will be back in a min. got back down there and 30 yrds before i got to the tree there was the cat looking at me. they can flat hide .