Calling Cougars

Machias

New member
Going to call Thursday and Friday, can't wait and looks like the weather will be nice to me. Going to call in NE WA. Have my brand new JS Fawn Bleating and my new secret weapon, "Mt. Lion in Heat". Can't wait to get into ear shot of a HUGE old horny Tom. I'll let you all know how it goes. Fred
 
hehe you said "horny tom."
tongue.gif


Good Luck to ya!

Jits
 
Calling in a 150 pound cat and pretending to be food sounds a little scary, but calling in a 150 pound cat and pretending to be his special someone may just be crazy.

bobcat.
 
Well I will be by myself. I was thinking of wearing my brown coveralls, getting on all fours, purring and rubbing my side against a tree. If it works I may be a canidate for next years Darwin Awards. LOL
 
AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!! I think I blew the engine on my little GMC tonight. There goes Tursday and Fridays hunt. Had to get it towed to the shop tonight. Well at least it waited till I had Christmas paid off. HUGE Bummer. Fred
 
Hi guys. I am not experienced with cats but wanted to say that JS lions mating tape worked for me a year or two ago. Bobs heard this story already. (yawn)
smile.gif
There were four of us calling (that's right four). I had a friend of mine and his two sons. 20 and 21 years old. We were spaced in a line along a heavily treed ridge. 8-12 inches of snow. The two guys on the end had radios. The caller was set up between the two middle guys which was me and my friends son. Very soon after starting the tape a cougar ran by the guy at the end of our stand. According to the kid, the cougar was running towards the call. He had no time to shoot. He got on the radio and told his dad one just went by heading for the caller. They were anticipating a shot soon. Meanwhile me and the other kid are about 40 yards on each side of, and slightly higher, than the caller. We had no idea what had taken place. The tape played out and I walked down to pick it up. The dad meets me and excitedly asks if I had seen the cat. I replied "no". He told me what happened. We got to looking around and found where the cat had come in and jumped a skid trail that the other guy was watching, undetected. It then walked up to within 30 yards of the caller behind some low bushes and sat low to the ground and watched the caller. You could see where its tail cleared a spot in the snow. Freaky how it got so close undetected.

As far as calling alone, I would not worry about it. Your chances of be injured while driving to go calling are much, much greater than being injured calling. I would prefer electric calls for the big predators in the woods to keep the sound away from you.

Good luck, Curt
 
Curt, That is the third time I have heard that story and I am still not yawning
smile.gif

I pick up bits of info from stories like that. It is amazing how sneaky the cats can be and how close they can get with out being detected. In your story the cat was coming in fast until it got close and then it went into the sneak mode. If you had not had four guys spread out like you did, you might not have ever known that cat had been there. This reinforces Steve's setting the caller out 150 yards or more, and spreading out to cover approach routes. When they gey in close to the caller, they can be hard to see.

Several years ago in early June, my boys and I were riding our 4-wheelers one evening.
We stopped to glass five elk cows bedded down on a saddle across the canyon. We were looking to see if we could spot any calves bedded down in the surrounding area. There was a steep, open grassy slope just above the saddle. I saw a white object in the grass for a moment and then it disappeared.
So I set up the spotting scope. The grass on that slope was about 16 inches tall. I saw a cougar slowly raise its head and peer out of the grass from above the elk. The white I had seen was the muzzle of the cat. We watched for about an hour as that cat closed from 300 yards to about 100 yards with no cover but the grass. Eventually one of the cows got up and walked over to a timbered slope and disappeared. The cat followed it.
I think the cow went to feed its calf. We never knew the outcome. I have wondered if the cat was after the cow, or if it was smart enough to know the cow would lead it to its calf.
I read an interesting story posted by BobMc awhile back, where his Airedale alerted him to a cat peering at him from back in the cover on a calling stand. I can't remember where I saw that, but I would like to read that again.
One thing is for certain, the cats ability to remain undetected, makes it hard to see them when they are called in.
Bob
 
Bob it has not happend just 1 time, but over and over again, on both lion and bobcats and even bears. I ALWAYS have from 1 to 3 dogs with me on a stand, and they often alert me to the presents of game before I see it. Sometimes I never see it (until it is treed) but I know from the actions of my dogs that it is there, lurking in the brush out of sight.
 
Ok it was just my fuel pump that went out. Wouldn't you know it though the truck wasn't fixed till Friday night, so I'll have to wait till next Weds before I call again for lions. Fred
 
Hi Bob! You are right about probably never knowing that cat had come in without the amount of people we had. I also completely agree with you about covering the approach routes. The father of the two younger fellas, (Fred), has a knack for picking stands. He got a large male cougar a few years back while deer hunting. (no calling, kinda stumbled on it) The only time he has been calling is with me as far as I know and he likes to bring his sons. He will station us watching likely points of entry. We have only called together twice. Both times only 3 or 4 cat stands. The first time calling was when his son saw the cougar. The second time we called a bear fairly close with a fawn distress in very dense vegetation and never got to see it. But we heard it clearly and it left plenty of easy to read sign. Crafty little buggers. Anyhow, like you said, I think that would be an effective tactic.

Rain has been pouring for days and is decimating the snow. Freezing level climbing to 8000 ft.
frown.gif


Take care, Curt
 
Back
Top