So on New Years day my son and I were working on our house in Cle Elum and about mid afternoon we decided to go out and do a quick set for coyote or bobcat, it was about 2:30 so we knew we would only have time for 1 or 2 setups. There is a section of state land just outside of town so we decided to head for there as we could get 2 sets in if needed. The old dirt road goes right through the middle of that section so we parked just at the edge, just before parking we met a truck coming out with 2 hunters wearing orange, I thought they must have branched antler elk tags. We left the truck and walked about 200 yards to a spot that I have called before, we dropped off the road about 20 yards and set up looking north were we could see about 150 yards through scattered timber. My son set up against a good sized fir tree and I set up against a small blow down we were about 25 yds apart. I set my fox pro and mojo critter in a small opening about 20 yds in front of me. This looked like a real nice place to set up, but I usually say that to my self, we had good visibility, some thick brush for bobcats on both sides in the bottom of the draw and about 6" of fresh snow from earlier that day. I looked at my watch and it was 3:45 so I new we would only have time for that set, I did 3 sets of howls about 1 minute apart and waited, several deer moved out of the brush below us and moved off quickly I turned the fox pro on to a rabbit distress and let it go for about 5 minutes then I changed to a higher pitched rabbit call and let it run for about 5 minutes. I was just ready to change sound again and did a last sweep of the area and nothing yet, as I looked to my right something told me I needed to look behind me and I never do that because in all the years I have been calling I have only had 2 coyotes come from behind (that I know of) so I slowly turned my head an sitting on the edge of the road is a lion, just a mere 17 yards away, from the angle I am fairly sure he was looking over my shoulder at the mojo critter so I slowly turned back around and got my sons attention to look up the hill, but from his angle he could not see the cat because it was behind a tree. As I turned around again he was now focused on me because of all of the movement and I knew it would be a good idea to have the business end of the rifle pointed in his direction as I am sure he was looking for a late afternoon snack, I think he figured out that I was bigger than what he had heard screaming and stood up wheeled around and headed back into the timber following his same tracks. As I stood up my son says what was it and I said it was a lion and he gave me that yeah right look (you know the same one your kids give you). So we both headed up the hill to the road still about 20 yds apart, I went right to where the cat was crouched and my son came down the road and met me, there low and behold was a fresh set of cat tracks.........That is the first time I have called in a lion and wouldn't you know it was 1 day after the season closed. But still a great day of calling
