Bearpaw Season - Fall 2014

[bearpaw]

Another wolf kill as far as I could figure. There are cougar in the general area too but I hadn't seen any cats moving (hunting) during the time I found this kill. I also found where a wolf had chased a mule deer across the road twice a couple hundred yards apart, about a half mile from there I found one piece of hide and one leg. I was in a hurry that morning so I didn't follow the wolf and deer tracks, I can't say for sure the wolf caught the deer and that this was the same deer that was being chased by the wolf, but it all happened the same day in that part of that drainage. I saw tracks from this wolf a few times in that area, as far as I could tell it was the only wolf in that area last winter. I'm hoping it moves on to look for a mate! Better yet, I wouldn't mind hanging a tag on it. 

The tracks on the left are the wolf tracks, deer tracks on the right!

[bearpaw]

This was a terrible winter for lion hunting, I cancelled most of my hunts due to a lack of snow. The few hunts we did we ended up doing more fishing and praying for snow. There were a few snows and we tried to take advantage of them.

We turned the dogs on this big tom at first light, there was only a skiff of snow and the hounds followed it over the top of two different mountains, he was really covering ground. I figured 150-160+ pounds, he was a dandy with a long stride, double stepping, and dragging his feet even in the skiff of snow.

In the bottom of the second canyon we ran out of snow, the dogs were still following but much slower, then suddenly they were moving a different direction. I went to the bottom of the canyon and met the dogs crossing the creek, I could see female tracks in the mud, apparently they got crossed up with a female track that was warmer and started following her. I leashed them up and hiked up and across the canyon trying to find the tom tracks in the mud, but no luck, finally after looking around for a while I had to give it up, I still don't know where the tom went?

The sun came out and our skiff of snow at the mid elevations melted that afternoon, we tried to hunt but it was pretty tough, we had better luck fishing in the late afternoon the next day and then the lady hunter had to go home before we got another snow. At xmas I was home for the holiday and another hound hunter we know killed a 175ish cat with a 15 7/16 skull in the same general area. I think it was probably this cat.

[bearpaw]

We had some old crusty snow in some areas and every time we got a skiff of snow we tried to take advantage. I found a medium track early in the morning and wasn't sure if it was a big female or young tom. My gut was saying I better look for a bigger track so I left it and continued snowmobiling looking for tracks. I found a female track but no tom, so finally about 8am after not finding a better track I decided to take a chance and hoped it would be a young tom.

The dogs struggled, I had to help them through some bare ground and through some areas where the skiff of snow never made it down to the ground through the trees. The cat hardly left any marks on that crusty snow in many areas. The tracks had circled and the cat had crossed the road several times. After a few hours all the dogs made it over the big ridge and out of hearing and off my tracking grid. I circled around the mountain, I went out to the valley, but I couldn't hear the dogs or get a signal from their collars.

My hunter was an older fellow that probably had one good hike in him, so I told him I would hike into a big canyon and if I found the dogs with a cat and if it was a good cat I would come back after him. Otherwise I would just try to get the dogs and bring them back to the truck.

I rode as far as I could then headed out on foot up an old cattle trail into a huge rocky canyon. I hadn't gone far and I could hear faint hounds, I picked up the pace thinking I better get in there as quick as possible so I could get back to the get the hunter as quick as possible. The dogs were a couple miles up the canyon, they all made it and had a feisty old female treed. It was disappointing that she wasn't a young tom like I hoped, but i always enjoy catching any cat, so it was still good up until I reached for my leash in my pack! For some crazy reason I forgot to take a dog leash when I left on the snowmobile, that's like the ultimate sin for a hound dogger! 

After getting one dog out of the tree I pulled my belt off and leashed up two of the four dogs with my belt and headed down the mountain. I made it maybe 80 yards and the cat jumped over the other two dogs and they headed after her. My two dogs on the belt went nuts, one got loose, I figured he would help the other two so decided to get the one dog back to the snowmobile and then would get a leash or rope and come back for the other three dogs.

As I walked down canyon I could hear the dogs tree the cat again, so I knew she didn't get too far. I was almost out when I met my son, he didn't have any luck where he was hunting and had come looking for me. He went in and to get the other three dogs and I headed for the truck. Brian said the dogs had treed the cat again in about 1/4 mile on the other side of the canyon. So it was a very good day for the dogs, considering the poor tracking conditions I was proud of the job they did.

Unfortunately that skiff of snow melted and much of the crusty snow melted, hunting got even tougher. Brian treed another female but we didn't shoot it either, we left it in the tree. So overall it was a poor cougar season for us. At least we had a great year on most of our other hunts. I guess on the bright side, cougar hunting should be good this next winter if it snows more, we certainly didn't kill them all last winter. 

[bearpaw]

Winter Trout Fishing
There is some pretty good fishing in the right places and the limit is liberal, if you like eating trout (and we had a couple trout feeds) you can keep 25 brookies and 6 rainbow one place we fished, another place you can keep two trout of any specie. You know the cat hunting is not too good when cougar hunters are wearing sun glasses and fishing in the winter!