Bearpaw Season - Fall 2021

[HntnFsh]

Wow! Incredible story and pics. Should have got one with the foot in the cats mouth!

[Rainier10]

Man you are having a crazy cat season.  Guys treeing their own cats, cats biting boots.  I thought our trip was exciting but it was nothing compared to this year.

Thanks for the updates.

[bearpaw]

I tried to talk Michael an ex-marine from New Jersey out of coming cat hunting, the snow crust is so hard humans can walk on top. He said he couldn’t change plans and hoped the good lord would provide, today was the first day of the hunt, Brian figured on hiking into some good areas and hoping the dogs would strike a fresh track and get a chase going, as luck would have it there was a heavy frost or slight skiff this morning, just enough that you could see some tracks in certain spots. Brian happened to spot something along the road so walked back to check and could faintly make out a good sized lion print, they spent an hour trying to figure out where it went, finally one of the dogs found it and even though it was going into a wolf infested area, the track seemed fresh enough to give it a try. The dogs caught the cat pretty quickly but it was a very steep hard and icy slick climb for the hunters, it took 4 hours to get to the tree, Brian said most hunters would not have made the climb, good think Michael was a tough guy. The good lord was definitely watching over Michael, as a result Michael tagged this big tom, Brian said there was a bright light shining from the heavens for them to even find the track! Proof that miracles do happen, congrats to all involved!

[bearpaw]

Man you are having a crazy cat season.  Guys treeing their own cats, cats biting boots.  I thought our trip was exciting but it was nothing compared to this year.

Thanks for the updates.

Yeah you never know what can happen.

FYI- This last cat went into the same big area that you tried hiking for that one big tom that we didn't get.

[Rainier10]

Man you are having a crazy cat season.  Guys treeing their own cats, cats biting boots.  I thought our trip was exciting but it was nothing compared to this year.

Thanks for the updates.

Yeah you never know what can happen.

FYI- This last cat went into the same big area that you tried hiking for that one big tom that we didn't get.

When you said wolf infested I wondered if it was the same spot.    That was a great area if it weren't for the wolves.  Glad you were able to get the cat and get the dogs out without any run ins with wolves.

[bracer40]

Great outcome and beautiful looking cat!
Would love to be a part of a lion hunt someday soon.  Thanks for sharing Dale!

[bearpaw]

Got green measurements back on one of the cats, he will easily make the book, he has to dry a little longer before entering, and we are still waiting to hear the measurements on the biggest headed cat that was taken with a long bow, and a couple of the other big toms. We really had an exceptional year for big toms this year, found more big ones than usual.

Here's another nice tom treed a couple weeks ago, probably 140ish, we didn't have a hunter for this cat so we left him. One of my guides saw another huge set of tracks last week, said it's a bigger track than anything we chased this year.

Season is winding down now, weather doesn't look to good for more hunting, but its nice to know there are some more cats and some big ones out there for next year.

[bearpaw]

It’s been a pretty dry month without much fresh snow. There were a couple small storms but our hunters who were on an “on call” basis couldn’t come hunting. We finally had a small storm in the forecast and one of the hunters could come but he got held up and didn’t make it until three days after it snowed. We hunted a couple days but only saw a couple tracks, one fresh track but it was on private ground where we couldn’t hunt. On Sunday night a small storm came through part of our hunting area, fresh snow always gets game moving. I headed to where the storm went through, a long drive but the first drainage we snowmobiled into we hit fresh tracks of a tom. He had crossed the road several times and it appeared he tried to follow some older female tracks with snow in them. It appeared he gave up and headed out a different direction.

At dawn we started the track, I was hoping the dogs would jump the cat in some nearby rock bluffs the cats really like, but three dogs got messed up in the rocks and only two dogs found where the tom left striking out for higher country. We collected the three dogs and followed the chase as best we could.

It appeared the tom was beelining for a different area, I figured he was headed to look for another female, I’m sure the Tom’s know where all the females live. Finally the two dogs were within good hearing, we let the other three dogs loose to join the race. The two front dogs jumped the cat it made a circle and treed, two of the three we released made it to the last little part of the chase.

We got as close as we could with the sleds and then Tyson, Zach, Tariq, Tariq’s brother and Tariq’s friend headed to the tree on foot in waist deep snow. I took my sled up on an opposing hill and listened and watched, I could see approximately where the dogs were treed. I was tempted to follow the guys but I’m just getting over three weeks of sickness and didn’t want to do a lot of heavy breathing in the deep snow, so I watched and listened.

Tyson went to the dogs and confirmed it was a good cat, about 80 yards away part of the dogs had a female treed, the tom had found himself a female. Two or three dogs would go back and forth between trees, but once Tyson got there he called all the dogs to the tree with the tom.

Zach was bringing in the hunters and as they came into sight the tom jumped, he only went about 100 yards and the dogs put him up another tree. This time he stayed in the tree, but was hard to see, Tariq made the best shot he could but the cat hit the ground and took off, Zach and the group followed but the deep snow was taking its toll on everyone.

Now I could see the cat on the open hillside about 80 yards ahead of the guys, it sat down watching his back trail, he could hear the hunters struggling their way along. He would move and just stay out of sight ahead of them, but finally they got a shot, but missed, the cat moved again.

I called Zach on the radio and told him to try and get above the cat and force him to stay in the same canyon, if he got over the ridge into the next canyon I was afraid the hunters would wear out in the deep snow and not be able to get there. I told the hunter to keep following the cat tracks and shoot again when he saw the cat.

I’m watching all of this from a big mountain across canyon, the cat had stopped and was hiding by a small bush, Zach was getting more above the cat and had the cats attention, I hollered at the hunters to try and go another 20 yards on the cat tracks and they should be able to see the cat and shoot, they were about wore out but made it a ways and spotted the cat which was still looking above toward Zach. This time Tariq had a good shot and drilled the tom, he rolled over and I saw his tail doing the death twitch.

We tagged the cat, got him down to the trail and i shuttled guys back to get their snowmobiles one at a time. We got some photos and headed out, the hunters had a great time and said they had good stories to tell when they get home. Tariq’s brother is coming back for another hunt next winter, we look forward to it, they were a very fun group.

[pianoman9701]

Beautiful cat, Dale

[bearpaw]

When we are out hunting, this is what we are looking for, it’s like hitting the jackpot on a slot machine, a gold panner would call this paydirt!

[Machias]

They earned that one!

[bearpaw]

Got a copy of the official score sheet on that bigger cat that Matt got (the subdivision eviction cat)!

Not the biggest we’ve ever taken but the best cat we’ve taken in a couple decades. Congrats to Matt!