Bobcat hunter question????

[RRR_Malave]

well i let three barn cats go this weekend n my red dog treed all three my blue pup trailed them all they way to the tree but wouldn tree but he is still young i didnt let them see the cats eather

[Nolte]

if i were you i would drive the snow find a cat track , let your dogs out and see if they will take it . if it is fresh they will. dont waste your time walking it by yourself trying to figure out how a cat walks around . if they run coon and house cats they will run a cat. people are going to tell you what ever they want, jc

RRR,

You can try whatever you want, but I've got a good idea what's going to happen if you just find a snow track and put a dog on it. Most dogs who have been snow hunted learn to dip their nose into the track to smell it. Dogs without any experience will just run around. We've got a MUCH lower cat population than out West. I find a "fresh" cat track that hasn't already been trailed up about once every 5 years. Everybody I know that has made a start dog from scratch has walked up cat tracks for them to start.

Look for tracks on frozen creeks and swamps. If it's high ground, chances are low your'e going to find cats. It can happen, but I wouldn't bet on it. The only exception is if a little sliver of brush highground connects two swamps. The best time of the year for running and finding tracks is coming up once the days get longer and the cats start cruising to mate. If you get a good wet snow at that time, your chances go up to find a track that the dog wants to take.

If you don't believe what I'm telling you, contact of a few of the guys via PM from WI, MN, or MI that are talking cats or showing pics. See what they've got to say on the subject. While the critter is the same from here to out West the game is much different. Good Luck.

[foxcat]

eah not sure about back east but in cali you would be a fool to fallow a cat track on foot. that is the job of the dog! if i picked a track and fallowed it, i can only imagine how far id have to walk in the snow......day three and still no bed....what i think you should do is get out there and cut a fresh track, put your dog on it, and hope it goes. if it will run a barn cat then it should be interested in a bobcat ....might take a long time but thats huntin..if you can afford it, find a cat dog for sale. probably not going to find an allstar because people dont sell them, but you should be able to find a dog that u can start a track with...actually i have one you can have if you can get her from cali. she is ten, wont run a bear, and is average bob dog, average fox dog, and excellent lion dog. anyone else can pm me if interested i just need to find her a home so i can get another runnin pup

[coastrangecathunting]

Nolte said i find a cat track that hasnt been trailed once every 5 years.
so how many cats do you run in 5 years .

RRR i dont know your cat population , but if it takes you 5 years to find a runnable track you might want to think twice about cat hunting.

jc

[dwalton]

I will have to disagree with jc on this one, jc and I agree on a lot about cat hunting but I have trained a lot of dogs from pups without old cat dogs by walking the track out but not in the coast country that jc hunts. Pick open easy walking areas to hunt walk the track out, make sure you know that it is fresh, walk it out showing the dogs the track until they take it, follow them and correct them if they go wrong. You will learn a lot about the cat and so will the dogs. In adverse snow conditions I will walk my dogs out on cat tracks that they do not take themselves catch a lot of those cats. The plus is that this teaches the dogs to cold trail better. To me cat hunting is a cold trailing game, if you have a lot of cat you may not want to cold trail. Dewey

[Nolte]

Nolte said i find a cat track that hasnt been trailed once every 5 years.
so how many cats do you run in 5 years .

I must not have been clear in my last post. What I said is that I find a "fresh" cat track in the snow very rarely. Meaning a track that I think a green, wild , "never seen a bobcat" young dog would take alone from the road. If that track is older than 30 minutes, you're cold trailing. It might only be for 200 yards but it's still cold.

I don't have a count on number of cat's I've run in 5 years, but it's a helluva lot higher than what I've caught. Nearly every day a guy goes out, he can find a track to run. Sure some days it's zero and some more, but it all evens out. Sometimes a guy has to wait a little bit for it to warm up and by the time you grind on it, half the day is done. That doesn't leave much time for the second track unless the first one blows up quick.

From everything I read on here, the game sounds completely different out west. It something I'd like to check out sometime.

Good Hunting,

[coastrangecathunting]

i agree walking a dog on a track will be helpful but walking a cat track with no dog to see how a cat walks around is a waste of time. to me anyways.

RRR, i think you have gathered some good info . things like nolte said about copying of a picture of a cat track and keeping it in your truck untill u know what your looking at. over time the pattern of the track is all you will need to see. one thing you might want to think about is if you are going to run cats you should probably quit coon hunting. some people dont . but that is probably another topic. when you hunt in the snow remember all the places u see cat tracks u can go back to same spots for the rest of your life and start cats. even if there is no snow. if u are serious and it sounds like u are good luck and go gettem.

jc

[foxcat]

things like nolte said about copying of a picture of a cat track and keeping it in your truck untill u know what your looking at.

this is very important. if you see toenails or the track looks sharp its a coyote and you will be setting your dog up if you line it out on that track.

[Nolte]

i agree walking a dog on a track will be helpful but walking a cat track with no dog to see how a cat walks around is a waste of time. to me anyways.

I mainly suggested it because the kid doesn't know what he's looking at. A guy who has followed a few cat tracks can pick out the cat in a mess of fox, yotes, deer or dog. Sometimes when we get into a mess and the dog bogs down, we'll leash it up and sort it then put the dog back out. That's tough to do if the dog is pigging it up. I also know how much fun it is to lead a dog through that sort of mess.

The other benefit would be if you pay attention that cat will bring you to areas cats like to be. Then the next time you're out cruising looking, you'll have a better idea on where to pay more attention or head to do some looking. If he's serious about it, he'll get plenty of chances to bring a dog with. Just a thought.

[RRR_Malave]

i am serious about it guys im just waiting for it to snow more now because right now its crusty n i dont feel like dealing with cutup pads and stuff and for the coon hunting i have two older dogs that run coon and im going to keep them on just coon and i have a 2 month old bluepup imma put on coon but my 8 month old pup and my older male redbone im going to put on cats and foxcat please pm me so we can talk about that ten yr old cat dog u have if u still have it because a started bobcat dog would help alot and or a started dog but i dont have any money right now to buy dogs most of the dogs except for two i got for free or for favors i did for a guy that i know and he gave me pick of the litter on the 8 month old and one came from a guy in lacross that couldn hunt because he got hurt and the other blue pup came from my girlfriends dad so i dnt have any money to buy dogs also because im saving up to buy a garmin iv been saving for a year and a half now and i hope i have enough money to get it by this month on the 26 witch is my birthday but i doubt it o well i guess