Northern California Bobcats and Foxes?

[david]

Hey Tom,
It is good to hear about your dog again, I have not forgotten about it and have wondered if he was going to put it back together. Sounds like it only took a couple months. I dont know how long you have been doing the bobcat/ gray fox thing, but if you dont already know, you need to know, as Mike said, this dog is one in a hundred, or maybe one in a thousand, well....... really could be one in a million.

I hope you have enough other dogs to use on bear that you dont have to use Jake on bear again this year. It is a lot easier to find a decent bear dog than a dog that can even catch more than a couple grays. If you keep him on Fox/Cat and let him grow up into that specialty, I agree with Mike, he will be famous. If you hunt him on bear again, I am afraid you will most likely have a couple months of fox season where he is still too rammy again. Plus, there is that thing that bears sometimes do to dogs that fox never do: kill them dead.

Do history a favor: keep him for fox/cat.

[Dan Edwards]

David,

Send me a pm with your phone number please. I dont think I use the pm function on this board properly. I feel like I keep erasing the pms or something before I get them sent.

[Dean Webster]

Back in the 80's about 83, 84 I bought a walker female from a friend . Alvin Codd better known as Peewee, anyway I bought her because she was the best fox dog I knew of any where in the state. I'm sure Louie Peck, or Sunney Turnner had as good if not better, but that is another story. I only got to hunt with these guys once any way the dogs name was Prinsess. I only hunted at night back then, in fact I didn't think the game moved at all in the day, but back to the story. When I hunted fox I hunted what is now our training area. It was'nt unuseual for me to catch 3 fox a night back then. The fox would almost always run from where we struck it, to its home area then run in a big circle some times it would be a short race but sometimes If the ground was hard frozen It could be very long, like 14 hours was the longest I can remember.The dogs worked that fox alnight in a big circle, so we never was out of hereing of the dogs. Most of the time I would build a fire, and pull out my lawn chairs roast hotdogs, and drink coffee, and listen to a good race, and ribb one another when one of my friends dog would get behind. This little dog I had only weighed 38lbs but she was like greased lighting on track. When I bought her I thught she would be a fantastic catdog. That wasn't the case. At best she was just medium. Had a dog on a scale of 1-10 would have been about a 4 would make her look like a idiot every time on a cat.In my opinion a bobcat is the most chaleging animal on Gods green earth. Back to what someone else said about the fox jumping out, If the race was short, and the fox was fresh then somtimes he would try to bail out. But most of the time that was a mistake with her their. I have found that for the most part fox don't run as hard in the day,and will tree alot faster. Thanks for reading, Dean Webster

[Everlast]

Hi Guys,

This is an intersting topic for me since I only fox and cat hunt. Here in Central Ca. the location you are hunting has allot to do with what you are going to catch on the hunt. For example if I want to catch a cat, (or at least get after one) I try to go hunt in the low oak country not in the pines. There are cats in the pines obviously, but there are more of them in the low country (foothills). I usually catch about 2-3 cat for every 10 fox whether I hunt in the low country or higher in the pines. I think there are just more fox than cat around here period.

As for the way the 2 run around here, the fox once jumped will 99% of time run way longer than a jumped cat. For example, many hunters around here with descent dogs, when they see a cat cross the road in front of them, they look at each other and smile like they know the dogs will just "suck" that cat up and tree it easily. But when a fox crosses the road and you dump on it, you don't know what you are in for..it may tree pretty quick, or you might run it for 2-3 hours or more.The foxes will almost always run in big 1/4 to 1/2 mile circles until they get ready to tree. Then the circles get smaller and you know the dogs are about to put him up. I absolutely love hunting both. I think a cat is much harder to trail up and jump than a fox. Cats are just smarter in the way they travel I think.

It's does seem like it means a little more when you go to a tree and see a cat.....maybe because you get so used to seeing a fox in the tree. I like to "kick out" the fox and cat I tree and run them again for training. The cat are usually harder to get out than the fox.

The biggest difference in the two as far as I am concerned is locating. It is much easier for a dog to locate a fox than a cat. I think a fox is somewhere between a cat and a coon as far as how far up on the tree they will jump. A coon starts up the tree at the bottom and are too easy to locate for a dog, and a cat usually jumps kind of high in the tree and is more difficult. My dogs have always had a little harder time locating a treed cat than a treed fox. Seems dogs really have to be able to locate out of the air on a cat as opposed to a fox.

Hope this info helps....

[bency]

Everlast,

Ive noticed that when my dogs have ran fox in the past that it is hard to determine if their cold trailing a fox or cat, except if the track is pretty good then it doesnt take long at all for them to strike and go.
Can you tell the difference when your dogs are trailing...

[Dan Edwards]

Outstanding post everlast! Sounds to me like you actually get out and do it. Fargin incredible. I enjoyed it alot and believed it.

[Everlast]

Thanks for the kinds words Mr. Dan Edwards.....I do love to varmit hunt.

Bency,

There are a few things to look for to help determine if the dogs are cold trailing a cat or a fox. None of which is very accurate. One way is by knowing your dogs tendencies when working a cold track. For instance, you will probably notice after time that one dog may bark more (or less) when trailing a cat or one may bark more (or less) when trailing a fox. This takes time to learn but is sometimes a give away. Sometimes all of your dogs may bark the same on both, then this method won't tell you much. The only other thing is by how hard the track is to move. Cold Cat tracks are usually allot harder to get going than a fox. I've noticed that allot of cold cat tracks seem to "line out" in a strait line and sometimes leave the country where as fox go all over the place.

[Dan Edwards]

"None of which is very accurate."

That pretty much sums it up right there. I have always been amazed by those who believe that they actually know without a doubt what the hell is goin on out there. I usually feel that I got a pretty good handle on things and then "BAM" reality smacks me right in the face. Just when a fella thinks he has got it figgered out, he realizes he dont know a damn thing. HAHA!

[Everlast]

Your right...........you think you know..................but you really don't.

Get this.........One time I was out hunting at night by Pine Flat lake above Fresno. I come around the corner and turn on to a bridge, there are 2 foxes sitting together in the middle of a bridge. They take off and go on across the bridge and up the hill. I stop, dump my dogs and they run for about 10 minutes and sit down and tree. I go to the tree and there sits a bobcat???????????????

You think you know........but you never know!

[houndcrazyfool]

good stuff everlast,
i live in the foothills and have roamed these hills my whole life and we come across way more foxes than bobs. But way more like to see a cat in the morning than other treeing game. So if you have a good broke dog that would be the time to cat hunt...
Jumpin those foxes out sure is fun

[Everlast]

I was hoping to tree a bobcat this weekend. I had Friday off from work and got to hunt 3 days...............ended up treeing 3 fox, one each morning.