Wisconsin cats

[Hollister]

Anybody bag any big ones this year.

[mondomuttruner]

Biggest treed was real close to 40 but I don't typically kill so I got no exact weights.

[Hollister]

That's great good to hear

[Hounder-]

We got 2 (32# and 38#) and ran a few (not as many as I'd like) others just for fun and training. I was worried about the population for a while but once this crust hit they seemed to be traveling and showing up, must have just laid low in the deep stuff.

Little nervous what next year will bring for tags. I'm sure they will reduce the tags due to the harsh winter. Not that I need to have a tag to have fun chasing 'em, but would be nice to get ONE in my lifetime.

[Hollister]

Yea still fun to run them but seems like you have better chance of winning powerball the getting a wisconsin cat tag

[Dirty Jim]

Yeah its ridiculous I have 10 points and no tag this year. We don't even look forward to cat season anymore. Now we just run coyotes lot more fun everyone can shoot,get all the dogs ran, and the population has exploded in northern wi.

[Hounder-]

10 points?! I thought the going rate was 8! Yikes, looks like a few more years for me.

[Hollister]

Yea think think it's the luck of the draw I've got 9 an still no tag it's getting to be hopeless.

[Dirty Jim]

I have heard of people getting drawn for the first season with 7 points. But not sure if its lottery or preference point thing. I think they only gave out around 100 tags statewide for the second season.

[luvdemhounds71]

Dam I have 7 points and thought I would be having a tag soon, but looks like I will have a few more years. I want to get my Cameron bluetick started on bobs this year. He will be a year old in a few days. I did a drag last sunday and he took it and treed it. It was his first time I introduced him to cat scent. He did great. I thing today I will do another longer drag for him.

[carl]

I also am sitting on 10 points with no tag. After i finally get one im done applying.

[Dan McDonough]

It's tough being a catdog man in this state. Had a couple of three cat days and a couple two cat days. It was tough going until the crust came on. I had the most success on those deep snow days just pushing into the big spruce swamps on foot and cutting a line until I found a track but every one of those days were extremely exhausting. Coming in with knots in nearly all of my muscles was getting old. I kept doing it just to get in good condition by the end of it. The day after the first crust was absolutely insane as far as the amount of animal movement. To bad the dogs couldn't stay on top. That was sure hard on the dogs and it made the speed dogs completely useless for coyotes. I got some really good running on the days after the crust came on but only in thick pine plantations but if the cats decided to vacate the plantaions the race fell apart. A couple of those cats decided to climb but as everyone knows, it's a pain in the rump to spot cats in white pines and spruce trees most of the time. This was an interesting season for sure.

[Nolte]

Dan,

You had more drive than I did this winter. With the cold and snow I never even really went out. I poked around a few days and there wasn't a cat making tracks anywhere. I had a few trapper friends keep their eyes out and not a thing was moving. I have a hard time digging out a cat in the brush just to run it for fun. We had more fun getting after a few wolves early and then a yote here/there. Heck even they were nestled in with the deep snow. The critters were bogged down for sure for a long time.

[Dirty Jim]

After 10 years we finally drew Wisconsin bobcat tags. Got two nice toms! Now we can get back to chasing yotes

[Dan McDonough]

Nice cats Jim. This state blows for bobcat hunting and it's not because we don't have cats. It's time to start planning on moving for me. Are you running coyotes with rock dogs or have you got some running dogs? Do you have anything down from Tom?