Cat Hunting in Special Permit Area's

[Machias]

"The intent was never to divide hunting types and/or take away from one another. "  Honestly no one thought that's what you were trying to do.  It was a good honest question and I think the majority of hunters feel like you do.  I completely understand. 

I believe they excluded boot hunters because they were certain, X number of cats would be killed in the dog units and they are afraid of going over the quotas.  Getting the general hunting populace to call in everyday would be a nightmare and probably unlikely to happen.  Heck last season we still had two guys kill females in areas they should not have been hunting.  I try not to get fired up over this topic.  I guess I have a hard time understanding why folks, who do not complain about similar season exclusions, are upset that hound hunters get a few weeks/areas to themselves.

[WACATHUNTER]

I understand as well, maybe when they open up permits to all I could get you to take me!!!!!!!!!!!  J/K 
WACAT

[Machias]

 

Seriously, the next time I draw your more then welcome to come along anytime.

[WACATHUNTER]

I would love to!  Thanks.
WACAT

[Machias]

I would like to ask the guys who track and call, by the way I do a bunch of calling myself and have for many years.  Lets say your allowed to hunt in the special permit areas.  You hike your @$$ off tracking a cat, you've litterally gone miles upon miles, your getting close, you just know it.  Then BAM a pack of hounds come streaming past you, baying up a storm and tree the cat up the next drainage.  You hear snowmobiles racing to the spot and BOOM.  Huge tom taken, lots of photos of dogs and hunter taken and you come trudging up.  I bet you'd be so fricken pissed at those houndsmen you could explode on the spot.  Next scene, you set up and start calling, it's the 30th stand you've had this winter but your feeling good cause you've found a pretty fresh lion kill near by and you know he's in the area.  You start wailing on your call, dang you sound good in the quiet mountain air.  Waaaa Waaaa, what the hell is that racket?  Pack of baying hounds comes running through your set up and bam they have that cat treed just a few hundred yards away.   

I remember when I used to bear bait.  Baiters would get all kinds of ticked off if the dogs ran a bear off "their" bait.

Keeping us seperated probably saves us from some serious confrontations. 

[Hornseeker]

I always felt bad when we'd accidently screw up a baiters setup... 9 times out of ten we had no idea there was a guy baiting there...we'd just get a strike while driving the road and turn loose..only to discover the bait later... now and again a guy would get pissed...didn't do him any good though.....

[klickman]

I would like to ask the guys who track and call, by the way I do a bunch of calling myself and have for many years.  Lets say your allowed to hunt in the special permit areas.  You hike your @$$ off tracking a cat, you've litterally gone miles upon miles, your getting close, you just know it.  Then BAM a pack of hounds come streaming past you, baying up a storm and tree the cat up the next drainage.  You hear snowmobiles racing to the spot and BOOM.  Huge tom taken, lots of photos of dogs and hunter taken and you come trudging up.  I bet you'd be so fricken pissed at those houndsmen you could explode on the spot.  Next scene, you set up and start calling, it's the 30th stand you've had this winter but your feeling good cause you've found a pretty fresh lion kill near by and you know he's in the area.  You start wailing on your call, dang you sound good in the quiet mountain air.  Waaaa Waaaa, what the hell is that racket?  Pack of baying hounds comes running through your set up and bam they have that cat treed just a few hundred yards away.   

I remember when I used to bear bait.  Baiters would get all kinds of ticked off if the dogs ran a bear off "their" bait.

Keeping us seperated probably saves us from some serious confrontations. 

Having been on a few cat hunts w/o dogs I have to say I would be pretty bummed if a bunch of dogs beat me to a cat I had been tracking all day.  We have to keep in mind that these cats need to be harvested.  Believe me, you don't want to be in the predator control problems we have up here in AK. 

Mixing the two user groups doesn't sound like a good solution.  Unfortunately giving a user group privileges that not everyone can have is when people get upset. 

KLICKMAN

[billythekidrock]

Then BAM a pack of hounds come streaming past you, baying up a storm and tree the cat up the next drainage. 

Still happens in the Winston unit. And yes, I know it is not open.

[billythekidrock]

WE didn't cut ANYONE out of ANYTHING!!  Sheesh, listen to what I'm saying WE did not make these rules.  It has nothing to do with us wanting the few guys that call or track out of the woods.  I don't have any problem with you being out there, but were talking about three weeks that your not allowed to harvest a cat. 

Read what I am saying, and what I am not saying. I never said you cut anyone out. What I am saying is that it couldn't hurt a hound group to lobby for the boot hunters in the permit areas. Extend an olive branch and maybe some of those pissed off boot hunters will help when it comes time to vote.
It would also help if the legit hound hunters cleaned up their ranks. For that matter we all need to be doing more in all aspects of hunting and fishing. Believe it or not, but we are on the losing end of a battle that will eventually see us losing our heritage. Might not be in my lifetime, but my young son will see way more restrictions and feel more lose then I already have.

[jackelope]

Just thought I would inform/vent/get some feedback on this topic.

well...you will surely get what you are after....this will be a 3 page thread quick i bet.

 

[Machias]

"It would also help if the legit hound hunters cleaned up their ranks. "  Agreed, but I'll have to ask for all hunters and fishermen to help me out as in two years of running lions I have only once ran into another houndsmen out running the roads.  If anyone sees a houndsmen breaking the law, hammer them.  I would say that really goes for all user groups.  As a group we have to clean up our fellow sportsmen's acts. 

[clindsayrun]

Okanogan is now closed to cats.
On Jan. 1 it will open to special permit holders. There have been some hound hunters out and about though. Warden tracked some and only came up with blood. Took samples for DNA.
The S.O. and Wardens have been looking all over for these poachers.
Some bear poachers are supposed to be back in action as well, only after the gall bladder.
Keep your eyes open if you live in the Okanogan Valley. Might earn yourself some preference points.

[Ridgeratt]

You mean like when all the hunters of this state stood together in the fight to keep hound hunting for lions, bears and bobcats,  or bear baiting, or trapping.  You mean united like that?

I would like to ask the guys who track and call, by the way I do a bunch of calling myself and have for many years.  Lets say your allowed to hunt in the special permit areas.  You hike your @$$ off tracking a cat, you've litterally gone miles upon miles, your getting close, you just know it.  Then BAM a pack of hounds come streaming past you, baying up a storm and tree the cat up the next drainage.  You hear snowmobiles racing to the spot and BOOM.  Huge tom taken, lots of photos of dogs and hunter taken and you come trudging up.  I bet you'd be so fricken pissed at those houndsmen you could explode on the spot.  Next scene, you set up and start calling, it's the 30th stand you've had this winter but your feeling good cause you've found a pretty fresh lion kill near by and you know he's in the area.  You start wailing on your call, dang you sound good in the quiet mountain air.  Waaaa Waaaa, what the hell is that racket?  Pack of baying hounds comes running through your set up and bam they have that cat treed just a few hundred yards away.   

I remember when I used to bear bait.  Baiters would get all kinds of ticked off if the dogs ran a bear off "their" bait.

Keeping us seperated probably saves us from some serious confrontations. 

Having been on a few cat hunts w/o dogs I have to say I would be pretty bummed if a bunch of dogs beat me to a cat I had been tracking all day.  We have to keep in mind that these cats need to be harvested.  Believe me, you don't want to be in the predator control problems we have up here in AK. 

Mixing the two user groups doesn't sound like a good solution.  Unfortunately giving a user group privileges that not everyone can have is when people get upset. 

KLICKMAN

I hope I was able to get the quotes stuck in here.

First of all the sportsman even thou they may disagree as to the choice of hunting methods did stick together when we were give "GAME MANAGEMENT" by referendum with I-655 several years ago. The state passed this by a vote that if you follow politics was passed by a county on the west side. Just by the shear population numbers can control most of this state. I was working over there and remember seeing a ad on TV. It had a lady holding a cub on her hip like a baby. She said something like "please don't let this happen to his MOM. Next scene was a hound pack on a bear. For a "Non-hunter" this was a graphic scene.

As for having a houndman ruin my set it happens the same way I can be hunting in deer season and having someone else shoot a deer I was watching! It's just hunting and if your not on Private land that's just a chance we take. I still have my bait barrels hoping that by some misguided they may get to be used again.

But adding a new thought to this thread!! You have something new to think about. Now while your running your hounds in the woods we have a new player.

The only confirmed wolf kill is in the Stevens county and that was last year on a calf about 10 miles from my place. This fall I was talking to a school bus driver that heard wolf howls off his back porch in the morning as he was leaving. I ran into the game warden the next day and asked him about the animal. He told me that they had been tracking this animal for 4 or 5 years. I asked if he was radioed and he said they had been tracking him During the elk season I was up hunting one morning I had a snowball white Shepperd in a clear cut below me. Had the biggest cobalt blue band around it's neck. and half the size of the male. He has a pad that's 4x3. My guess is the people that have the radios on them are as knowledgeable as you are with them.

If you do a ruff size to weight the size. I'm not sure that the adage it's not the size of the dog in the fight and the size of the fight in the dog. Will hold up.

I my self don't care to chance running my bird dog's down some of the ridges we hunted for Blue's anymore.

This post was not intended to upset or distance anyone just to make us think!
Thank you for listening.