BOBCAT HARVEST INFO :Western Oregon

[dwalton]

There is a lot of difference of opinion on bobcat numbers. You will always have people that catch a lot of bobcats and people that can not find any. Is that do to lack of cats or ones ability of their dogs,time spent hunting and knowledge of bobcat hunting? This is the first year in many that I hunt more in western Oregon them California or over East. I found plenty of cats even saw 8 different tracks on a night old snow in 5 miles of road after season scouting . Until this year most of my cats came from eastern California where I very seldom even seen another truck track. We lost bobcat hunt there because of ignores not lack of bobcats. Tooth analysis is what tells us if we are taking to many bobcats,the number of kittens, and age class of the take. We have never had over take show up in all the years even back in the '70 and early '80 when we were taking thousands of bobcats from western Oregon. Conservation is taking a healthy number of animals so that the recoupment will keep a heathy population. Their are elk hunters that kill a elk every year, fishermen that always catch fish and bobcat hunters that catch bobcats. There are hunters out there that take far more than I do, if the bobcats are not there, they can not catch them. Laziness, jealousy and ignorance causes a lot of problems for us. Look at what happen to our bear and cougar hunting. The take of bobcat has changed little in resent years. Years of snow hound men take more, dry years some can't find a cat. Ask yourself why would I want to limit my take of bobcats, is it that the bobcat numbers are down or is it my own selfish reasons. For myself it is purely selfishness, I want to hunt and take bobcats. I manage the take by where I hunt, taking only so many from a area, not hunting areas hard two years in a row and hunting where most won't hunt. United we stand, dIvided we fall. Dewey

[JakeG]

There ain't enough cats out there worth losin a friend over. I just like to get opinion on what's goin on out there. That's why we have this forum. On a lighter note maybe we should sell tickets to convention this year and rope off the whole thing for some wwf. Of course some of u would have to protect your ears. Cause I bite. especially if you have a new one. Ha ha

[al baldwin]

There ain't enough cats out there worth losin a friend over. I just like to get opinion on what's goin on out there. That's why we have this forum. On a lighter note maybe we should sell tickets to convention this year and rope off the whole thing for some wwf. Of course some of u would have to protect your ears. Cause I bite. especially if you have a new one. Ha ha

Sure hope you don/t lose a friend, but if you lose a friend because you state your concern about over harvesting bobcats, believe that friend is the real loser in the end. Jake, admit even at my age tough to state my opinion, also hope I don/t lose any friends. Al
Dewey one thing that triggered measure 18 was the refusal of ODF&W TO STOP THE SPRING BEAR while the sows had young cubs. I remember the opposition stated if those were continued they would take it to a vote of the people. Al

[dwalton]

Al: The pole done by us before they went back to the voters showed that 67% of the people that voted no for measure 18 voted to stop bear baiting. If we would of dropped bear baiting instead of going for it all there is a good chance we could still be hunting it all with dogs. Again united we stand divided we fall. Dewey

[mike martell]

Do the math! When you count hound hunter harvest and derive at 600 harvest for Western Oregon, border to border, Summit of the Cascades to the Coast and look at the number of square miles and roadless areas, private land, early snowed out locations to name a few....Our Hounds and traps aren't the problem if the numbers taken by trappers is more than double that of hounds, it wouldn't matter.....I would suspect other issues drive the cat population far more than the two listed above.

Here is another thought on all that free public information? Why hand this information off to the opposition on a silver platter? Why give them the "copy and paste option" off this site with names attached? We would be unstoppable if we united in the fight. The market seems to have tapered off and this will slow down the numbers being harvested considerably and possibly will make up for any loses...I too would like to see the Eastern numbers, but look at the vast expanse of ground over there as well?

[Tim Pittman]

Well said Mike! A lot to consider.