Cage Trapping Bobcats tips

mercer,
two a week? have to get you into some better country.
need to make it alittle farther east to canyon country.

my biggest problem is how many years i do continue to release females before i stretch them.
 
Just came through there last week. Dropped my boy off in CO Sprngs. Sold some sets to guys in Canyon City and Rye. Pueblo looks like it has some pretty rich history. Neat looking town from the highway.

With prices the way they are I released fewer females last year, just the bad suck bellies. 17 on one shared trapline and only 4-5 on my personal line. If you have enough ground take 'em and trap somewhere else the next year. If you get some moisture they will snap right back I would predict.

In the end a guy just has to do what feels right to him as only he knows the characteristics of his country. I normally argue that there can be no downside to releasing a female but would never run a guy down for taking them either.

ML
 
i wish i knew you were coming thru would of had you drop off about 10 sets of 4 for me. I cant seem to have enough traps. everytime i get all mine set. i get a call to trap a new ranch and check it out and wish i had more cages.
I hate pulling traps from one good stop to trap a new spot that looks better.
to many sleepless nights. december is not coming fast enough here.

Dan

Pueblo is great to live. wish we had more rain!!!!!
 
Doesn't sound like you need more traps it sounds like you need a partner!!!!!

Ain't that Gates and Powell country? Big place I guess. Room for the top two in the state and quite a few others.

On the way home the area that turned me on the most was around Del Norte.

Good looking stuff there. Looks like a great place to go coyote calling.

Someone asked about house cat smells- I have no idea. Never messed with that stuff. I have heard that that house cat smells work good but if you get the urine on your hands you have to cut them off it stinks so bad and don't wash away.

ML
 
i use litter box turds when i make tiolets. i just spray them with fresh fresh bobcat urine and mix with turds i get from my kitties.

seems to work for me. when i set out my game camera on fresh tiolets in summer/early fall.
 
Originally Posted By: mercer lawing

In the end a guy just has to do what feels right to him as only he knows the characteristics of his country. I normally argue that there can be no downside to releasing a female but would never run a guy down for taking them either.

ML


In my humble opinion,THIS is one of the best comments I have seen on any forum, not that I read a lot of them. It is something as trappers and outdoors people fail to understand, that most guys know their country intimately, and therefore should run according to what they see happening in that area.
That being said when I first started in my area 12 years ago I saw a huge number of females that seemed so embred from lack of management that they were some of the poorest cats my buyer had ever seen for that area of the state. BTW he is one of the top buyers around so he knows his fur. Some of the cats had hardly any teeth left and the females were stretching 42" to 46". Old nasty things.
After three years of taking everything my catches increased and the value of my fur went up also, my fur guy saw it and asked if I had moved to new area! All along people telling me I should release all females, because of this reason or that.
One thing I have found in my remote area is that it fills in as fast as you take them till your food source dies (rabbits,praire dogs)it matters not what was trapped before that, the cats leave or die..that is fact.. no food no cats!
The best thing we can do for each other here is run as you see fit, we see most all that goes on out there and you know when things are starting to go down as far as numbers, work accordingly, don't harp on any one that is doing his thing the way he sees fit.
 
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thinkinthebox,

I had a area in south east colorado like that. i stretched 3 females with no teeth and scar faces they went 44"long and 10" wide.
I hope it gets better this fall. would love to catch some big ole white belly toms that stretch 50"
I just want one tom over 50" and I will be happy catching skunks....
 
That 50" tom is like a Lays potato chip sheperd can't have just one and be happy, especially catching skunks.
Nothing like those 45pounders to get a guy fired up for just one more!!!
 
that is true.
december is not coming fast enough.
my 5yr old daughter set a cage last Feb with a can of tuna and nothing else and caught a three legged 40lb tom, that was all scared up. think he was a victim hit by car.
we are mounting it lifesize.
but since then she wants me to build her, her own traps and wants mom to buy more tuna and sardines.
she has a big plan to out trap dad this winter.

some how i get short end of stick. i have to skin, stretch, and make fur purdy. but she still gets the fur check.
oh well best trapping partner i guy could ask for.

I hope we get some rain this summer. we are burning up down here.
but on good note, been seeing lots of jack rabbits, cottontails and fresh packrat nests. so i hope the cats, fox and yotes do well this summer.

might be baiting cages with bowls of water!!!!
 
Take it from me sheperd never worry about the work ( I know you don't )giving that young lady such a good life in the outdoors.
You will never regret a moment.
 
It was good to see active pack rat nests last year. They can provide some real insight as to the overall health of the area and where to find the cats.

Here in the desert like most places of course the feed runs in cycles. When we have abundant pack rat populations the night hunting gets better as the cats are on the rocky hillsides and boulder jumbles making them easier to find with the light.

Late in the season the Toms come out of the flats and can be found on the hillsides where the females are- eating pack rats.

It has been 7 years since we had a good pack rat cycle.

ML
 
We are still waiting for any cycle to come back over here,start seeing a few rabbits then poof gone,praire dogs died off so bad can hardly find one..pack rats what are they haha...I hope something comes back, but it still takes a couple years for the cats to recover.
 
House cat dropping work really well on bobcats. I collect them out of a litter box and always keep them in the freezer in gallon zip lock bags. A cat cant pass by them as bobcats will kill house cats or ferral cats.
 
Shepherd has the right idea baiting with water, early in the season before the snows hit to hard a guy will probably find a lot of the local cats in areas that had water all year, rivers small contiuous streams, good springs.

I have found these to be excelent places to expand from my normal lines, to get a jump on some numbers.

Later as the snow comes I see them traveling more, looking for new food sources, or love!
 
This desert where I trap is so dry that I have in the past carried a water bottle with me and filled my lure pocket with it (water) before adding my lure and placing my trap over it in an attempt to prolong its life. A lure stick thrown in the trap or hanging from the wire dries up from the arid fall winds here in just a couple of days.

The Bighorn sheep folks here give me many trail cam pics of bobcats on their drinkers every year. In this country bobcats seem to frequent the water sources all summer and then by October very seldom. Trapping the exact water source is not a tactic that works here but working the general area certainly does as the water source is the center of life for many species in a desert.

A few years ago at a campout in AZ I was quizzing veteran trapper of some forty years for some advice on trapping there as I was planning my first trip. Hanging on every word from his mouth and making as many mental notes as I could my mind came to a screeching halt when he said, "if you come trap here make sure you set every waterhole because a cat has to drink everyday" I had never heard that and do not believe it to be true but having a grand total of 3 weeks experience in AZ who am I to say. Perhaps I misunderstood him.

ML
 
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mercer,
even if you don't believe a cat has to drink every day... in fact they do "have" to drink... so even if it's every third day..you still want a trap waiting for his arrival, correct???
what the water does is draw that cat to an "exact" spot!!!. use that!!!
 
Disreguard last message. Not sure what happened to rest of message.

Usually first two weeks of season I only target water sources and trails going to them.
Then packrat nests and known rabbit hide outs.
 
I do not believe that a bobcat has to drink everyday, 3rd day or even weekly.

I believe that there exists places with bobcats who have never drank liquid water in their lives other than when it rained.

It is difficult for most anyone to wrap their head around how vast and arid this desert country of Nevada and California is if they have never been here.

If water sources were a key here in the desert than I would think that in the 60 years or so of modern trapping the trappers would have figured it out and it would be standard practice and it simply is not. If water was a key than I think of all places it would be in the desert.

It simply makes no sense for a bobcat to travel 10-25 miles to get a drink and then walk back home. I have killed a bunch of cat 10-25 miles from water holes.

I have only read a few trapping books and I don't recall them talking about water holes for bobcats?
ML
 
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I'm with u Mercer on there drinking.

for me it is just to easy to trap mountain ponds and dugouts in the prairie and canyon country.
I personally think cats in my area are working water areas for food more then drinking.
I know of one tom that i caught last year that was a duck killing machine. used to find his carcasses along a rim rock next to pond.

plus i catch alot of my off catches at water sources.

coons, badger, red and grey fox, ringtails, and a few swifts.
 
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