Bobcat Trapping

[leechmann]

Heres a picture of a few cats my son and I caught in the last few days.

[ortonville]

those are nice lookin cats.we have traped 25 coons and right around 350 rats. not sure on that number as i have not counted them in a while. and with my brother being layed off he adds to the freezer every day. looks like you did ok on beaver to? can you shoot bobcat in minnesota? have lived here all my life and have never saw one i guess i have to get out of bigstone county. i would love to shoot one and get a rug made to hang on the wall

[icehousebob]

Ortonville, I ran a trapline along the Stoney Run just southeast of you back in the early and mid 60's. Very early one morning, I watched a bobcat taking a muskrat out of one of my sets. When he saw me he didn't stay around long. There were a few in Big Stone county but they were hard to see and I never set traps for any.

[leechmann]

Thanks Ortonville, Yeah, I think we are blessed with a real healthy population of bobcats in Central MN. I cat lots of them early in dirt hole sets, that I set for fox. I've had to let several of them go over the past 5 years. I guess every area has an up side. I would love to have a few big rat slews like you have down there. I also love to pheasant hunt. Looks like your having a great season. Good luck, hope you get a $10.00 average on those rats. Take Care.

[Cooter]

Congrats on those cats!!! I've only hunted em with hounds although we have a guy in our group who's gonna try trapping if he gets a tag next year. Congrats again, those are dandies and bobcats are one of the neatest animals I've ever hunted. Later.

[leechmann]

Just got in from checking the trap line. My son and I caught two more cats tonight. The sad thing is that the Timberwolves found them before we did. They killed the cats and shredded the fur off of them. What a waste.

[ortonville]

ya there is a down side no matter where you live. so can a person hunt them or not? would it be possiable to call them in like a coyote? we caught a lot of coons in the stoney run area this year the warm weather has made for easy trapping coon. and the best thing is iam helping out the pheasant's by gettig the egg eating son of a guns.leechmann if a person can hunt them maybe you could help me out for a pheasant hunt trade ?

[Swamp Scooter]

You can take them with a gun but only after Nov. 25th. Not sure if they need a special tag though.

[PRWoody]

Excellent photo. You are one great "trooper" when it

comes to trapping.

Woody

[mtheis]

Those are beautiful animals. Congrats to you and your son!

I would love to have a mount of one of those in my work area!

[leechmann]

Ortonville, Yes you can hunt them. They will come to a squealling raddit call. It's not real productive though. I would hate to promise anyone that I could call one in. I know that in this area, by the time you called a cat in, you would have 10 timber wolves out there, trying to stalk you. Trapping seems to be the method of choice.

[leechmann]

So Woody, since you know who I am, who are you ?

[Dragonfisherman]

I am with leechman, trapping is the easiest and most productive. Don't get me wrong though not everyone is going to be successful for a while though if you start trapping them. It takes a while to pattern them and learn the ins and out of cat trapping. We have 11 cats and hopefully have a couple more after today's snow. It took us years to become consistant in catching numbers of them, but we know have a good grasp on catching them. I feel that they are the most exciting and rewarding animal as every location and cat has it's own characteristics that you have to adapt to. Also, I believe there are boys down in Staples guide cat hunts with hounds.

[leechmann]

Well we got a nice new blanket of snow. That will give us one more chance to see where those cats are. One week left. Time to get out and try to catch a couple more. Good luck everyone.