Cage Trapping Bobcats tips

So- if bobcats can go long periods without a drink then would it be possible for them out in this desert to survive only drinking during the monsoon (late summer) and then in a normal year in late winter? These two periods being the only time we normally get rain. Drinking from puddles in the rocks and such. How about when they kill a chukar or quail? Those birds can have a half ounce (?) or so in them when coming off springs

We average 4 inches of rain per year and often during dry periods it will not rain for 18 months or so.

If not- then tell me why the trail cams on the water holes show very few cats with respect to how many get harvested in the same area?

Just rambling, ML
 
Last edited:
Everybody knows bobcats are invisble till they get caught Mercer,LOL!! I talk to people all the time that lived their whole life here and swear there is no way bobcats live here cause they have never seen one!!!
Go figure..
 
when i lease a ranch to trap and ranch owner says he never seen a cat just coyotes and when i show him the cats i catch off of ranch they are dumbfounded.
but i love trapping ranches when owner says a family of cats has been eating cat food off his deck for years. i just see dollar signs.

and mercer. been sprayed by 2 toms dirty buggers. just makes it easier on release or stretch....

i just had a horse die of old age in my river pasture.
so i set trail camera up on it. no cats so far on film. but tracks all around carcass. so crazy cats can move slow enough not to trigger motion sensor on bushnell trail camera. and yes it was on. have many pics of coyotes and skunks.
 
I use the "high sensitivity" setting if it has one for cats.

And yes- some move too slow. You will get more nonsense pictures this way but the cats will trigger it more often.

Also purely from experience with no scientific backing that a cats fur is somehow stealth like to the motion sensor. I have had many cats get caught/visit cages that never triggered the camera yet the ground squirrels and everything else did.

ML
 
I think a double door with a fresh, dead game bird or rabbit hanging in the middle and covered only on the top would be a great way to catch a bobcat.

ML
 
Ha I think so too, as long as it was not snowing!!
And depending on where you trap, the rabbit may be illegal, be sure you know the regs for your state.
Maybe case skin the rabbit, leaving the head, stuffing the inards and grass back in the skin, then you and the cat have something to eat!
And you are within the law! in Colorado>

Of coarse it is just a thought??
 
I once used carboard cut-outs of cottontail rabbits with popsicle legs to stick into the ground. On the cut-out I glued a color print of a rabbit. My thought was that the bobcat would recognize the shape. In conjunction with rabbit pee I figured the cat wouold naturally do the math.

Ended up with videos of them walking by and did catch a few. No better than anything else in the end.

In Colorado I brought some chukar with me to use for bait. The local DOW guy said as long as I had a reciept I was good. I brought the reciept with me from the grower and used them. CO kitties like CA chukars!

ML
 
That's funny Mercer I did the same thing with the cardboard bunnies, had a cat step right over the thing, I was using a trip string at the time and it was way to tight to go off! But I learned they only wanted the real thing. Although I think it did pull them closer!
There is a guy, my fur buyer in fact uses pigions(sic) for his bait, he swears by them. So I have no doubt chukar is fine cat table fare!
Myself if I bait at all it is with prairie dogs, cats love them, I have shot a few big toms off dog mounds as they sit and wait for them to pop out of the hole during breeding season,late Jan and all of Feb.
With our fine state everything has a season so I have o get my dogs in season and freeze them.
Had a sheep herder get in the wrong freezer in the dark one night, when he got back to his camp guess what he almost had for dinner!!
 
my favorite bait is collared doves here in colorado.
no season and no limit. always shoot fresh bait night before i need it.and they in every tree and barn on our farm.

I have yet to catch a cat on prairie dog. I have shot a few off dog towns. never anyluck as bait.

second favorite bait is a leg of female kitty with foot and pad attached. just spray some cat pee on pad and sit back and wait.

thinkinthebox. i would like to get ahold of a few of your walk thru cages to try.

I would have to say my all time favorite bait is a fresh packrat. only ever caught two of them. but went two for two on them. just pure luck catching rats. tipped over log and there they were...
 
Shep that can be arranged it will be about a month till I get my you know what together!! but I will get some built..

I had a big tom pull a 40# cage down a hill one time trying to get to a prairie dog bait, could not believe my eyes when I saw that thing with doors still up at the bottom of the hill!! That was during my experimental trap days, I near cried when it happened because we sure needed the money back then, now it is funny!

It would be interesting to do a little study on cats reactions to differant baits, and baits only.
We all use scents and urine plus the bait, just makes me wonder if the bait helps that much.
As I have stated I seldom use bait anymore, strictly urine and good scent, until last year I never had reason to question this as nearly every cat went in the box, just the young cats would hang around the outside and never commit. If I wanted them then I would throw a bait in and have them.

I like Sheps paw bait, it makes scents!
 
If you are thrown' your cat feet away with the carcass you are tossing four nice attractors every time.

This fall save your mule deer ears and tails. Ask your local cutter to save you a box full as well.

ML
 
I tried pronghorn hide last winter. put a big ole hunk of hide in back of cage with eyes on it.

i hanged it to low and mice worked it over in one night. only thing left was raw hide and fake eyes. and floor of trap looked like a hair bomb.

i was so pissed just left as is and caught a ringtail next day. he must of rolled and rolled in hair. looked crazy when walked up on him.

but i have to say when i use my furbee's or fake fur with eyes. some of the kitties must get pretty pissed about getting caught and nothing to eat. they shred everything and even eat the baling wire attaching fake fur to cage.
 
I did not fair very well with PDs but did catch a few with skinned muskrats as bait. I try to save all my left overs from dove hunting and they have worked well. I have also used left overs from chicken butchering with success.
 
Most bobcats react to the SOUND and likely the VIBRATION of the door trippig on a cage trap.

I have watched dozens of cats get caught on trail cam for five years or so now and at least 70% of them launch forward at the RELEASE of the door NOT the door hitting them on the back foot or rear end.

Another roughly 25% spin in place which clears their hind end and the door falls without hinderence. Another few percent have little reaction at all to the door droping.

I have caught several hundred bobcats in cage traps and am still waiting for the first evidence of a bobcat "backing out". I have heard of a couple but until I see it for myself I won't believe it.

What happens at the moment of tripping on a double door? This years project.

ML
 
Mecer I do not have videos but I have seen tracks after a door failure (frozen), they went forward, with one jump out, of coarse the door that hung was the one that they were facing so it was a natural thing.
I have never had one back out.
I am going to go to a smaller cage and see what happens.

I have had many lions go in my cages, all but one have backed out after a door hit their backs, the one that was caught must have been all the way to the other door before he triggered it.
He made quite the mess of the cage!!!

G
 
Im kinda excited about being able to use nonedible animal parts this year. I dont believe that having something hanging in the back of your cage makes or breaks you, but I also think that it cant hurt. Why not give yourself every little edge that you can.

I was thinking IF I get a deer this bow season.... maybe cutting the hide into peices and freezing it to use in some cages. Might do the same with some rabit as well.
 
I have been told that deer ears make good attractors.

A bobcat not realizing what you have in the back of the cage is the number one reason why they don't go in. It is amazing the difference in reaction you get from a cat when you hang a good bait and cover your trap conventionally compared to when you hang a good bait and leave the trap completely exposed.

The AZ changes and G and F involvement are a great thing for the AZ trapper. What sucks is the disallowance of non-edible portions of game birds or any other wild bird in your sets. They wanted to change that as well but the process would have involved opening the the law and going before the state which of course the G and F is and should be reluctant to do.

Think - I suspect you are correct. When you watch these cats get caught on trail cam the ones that leap up and forward at the release of the door are just spooking naturally as they can't physically jump backwards. Bobcats often enter the trap low and loaded. They can only jump up and forward. Should hold true for a double door. I will let you know in 4-5 months...hopefully!

ML

 
Last edited:
I look forward to that Mercer.
I may beat you to the punch and get a trail cam on a trap, have always wanted too just never took the time or money to do so..
HOPEFULLY!!!
I have no doubt you will!!

George
 
So take a poll here. If you could put one bait in the back of your cage OTHER than bird... what would it be? (by bait I mean hanging a bait not your paste bait or lure)
 
Back
Top