2014-2015

Oh that's what they look like! Thanks Cameron !

Took some time away from trapping to hunt sheep with my son. He harvested a nice ram.

Cameron2, it looks like the cat had a good defensive stance figured out, glad you were there and not me! Nice picture, thanks for sharing. Congrats on the ram hunt, looks like a nice one. Memories of the hunt with your son will last a lifetime.

Here's a photo of the terrain where we sheep hunted. One photo shows the mountain where we spotted the sheep, and the other shows how we had to go around the back side of the mountain, climb it, and come down on them for the other side of the mountain.

Man that looks like one heck of a hike!! Heck of a sheep as well congrats and I am sure it was an awesome experience for the both of you. I hope when my girls grow up that they are half as interested in the outdoors as I am.

I didn't think it could get any steeper than the first photo! Wow, the back side is crazy! Congratulations!

BucksNBows isn't playing fair. I happen to know he caught a potential sale-topper cat the other day and he's not sharing any photos. :-(

I was lucky to have Bucksnbows come out with me on my line and help a rookie out.   It was sure nice of him to spend a day with a guy he hardly knows and help me on my line. Not many guys would do that. I learned a lot and he brought me good luck. Thanks buddy.

So B n B is giving free travelling trapping instruction now? Do you happen to know when he's making a swing through the southern part of the state? I can promise him no snow here . . . . no cats, but at least there is no snow.

Lol! I helped him out with some truck problems and he offered help me out. He is definitely good luck I havent caught anything in a while.

It was a good time for sure. He is in some great looking country. As we all know it can look great and suck to high heaven. We both had fun and man that guy can hike! Gave him some tips on that too!

Great job, huntandfish! Nice cat, the country looks like some I chukar hunted in while in college. Nice color on the cat Did you catch the coyotes on exposed sets? It looks like they were in catty country. Bucks if you have truck problem in north eastern nevada call me up, I'll take you trapping too!

Copy that teach! Good luck to everyone.

Coyote were caught in exposed sets. Both coyotes and the cat had hardly any fat on them, which is weird there are chukar everywhere and quit a few rodents and rabbits. Makes the fleshing easier though.

huntandfish, have you and your boy set out any muskrat sets yet?

Not yet teach! The river and everything else practically dried up this fall, not sure if many muskrats survived. I am going to take them out in a few weeks he has been wanting to go out anyways.

Pulled my entire line today and I couldn't ask for a better last day. Lots of stuff at home to take care of.
Nice Female cat today. 41" on Otties small cat stretcher.


Also hit #30 on coyotes today so all and all a dang good day. Little sister and her boyfriend tagged along for the second half of day.

Great job, nvsage. I can't believe that coyote cleaned up so well from just tumbling it! Good year indeed!

Yep it sure does wonders!!

Nice job nvsage!

Thanks Leo... If the cat had only half the belly that Tom of yours has. Looks like a sale topper for sure man.

Pulled all my traps today. Big fat 0. Moving country. Wish me luck.

Bucks, good luck with the new country. Hopefully you can get around with all this rain. Elko cointy got over 3" in the last 72 hours in some places. Good for the moisture, bad for setting new country until it freezes up.

We have got some rain too but not quite as bad as U. Should be ok.

Nice catches guys! I've been to busy lately to keep up on here, so here are some pics from the last couple checks.

These are the result of a Long Tail. I wanted to cry.
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The face looks small because that is all that was left. The skull was eaten and basically the only thing left was the scalp of the face and the feet.
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Santa came a day early with this one.

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I know how ya feel on that one!!! Darn longtails. We get them in certain areas and either move or set bigger traps! That way they remember bad time around traps! That one will start checking your line for u!

I set new cat country last Wednesday, I had this big tom waiting for me today! He walked around a set I had under a juniper tree two times, then proceeded to walk thirty more yards to an exposed walk through. It was awesome I followed his tracks in the snow to the scene of the crime!


I also have some coyote sets still operational with all the cold weather. Picked up three dogs today as well, here are two of them.

Nice work teach. I got some country set today. Seen some antelope and 17 bighorn sheep. 4 good rams. Also something I didn't want to see. A big tom lion track.

Nice job teach! I pulled my line Saturday. I set a couple of coyote traps closer to home just so I have some traps out before I figure out what to do next.

Awesome job guys! I had my first check of the season today with nothing to skin at the end of the day. I figured I may have cleaned the cats up on my line but the first canyon I checked had fresh El Gato tracks around three of the four sets I have in there. Well I have one more chance before I pull on the first and come set something up small and close to home with everyone else. Good luck to all of you.

huntandfish, it is a terrible thought not having traps out in December. I'm glad you found somewhere close to catch some k9's! They are addicting aren't they? Nowhere as fun as was
walking up on a growling tomcat, but a challenge.

Bucks, I HATE seeing long tail tracks around my bobcat areas, it's only a matter of time before they eat a bobcat . It's been my experience that wherever there are sheep, there are mountain lions. The last time I set by sheep I saw fresh lion tracks every outing..... and no cats.

Good luck moneyspots on your last check before joining the masses!

Man I have only had my line pulled for a week and all these pictures have got me itchin to get back out there and catch some more of those stink dogs!!!

Great pictures of the cats as well guys!

Teach and Leo.... you guys better be carefull this coyote trapping this is addicting and doesn't pay real well either lol

Go get em Matt! Hope the new country pays off for ya man.

Just got about 2" of snow over here so I bet the critters are on the move now.

If a big snowfall comes and pushes the cats to lower elevations, and the snow melts will the cats move back to higher elevation or will they stay low? Got a foot + on some of my better sets and was curious if I should keep em going or move on.

Well, if I caught half as many cats as BucksnBows I could answer this question, but I will just say that its my experience that heavy snow will move cats down in elevation (generally small cats and females first, with the big toms the last to leave), but once they are down in lower elevations, they don't run right back up to high country just because there is a break between storms.

Its a bit like sheep or deer and water. They beat up the feed near water sources during the summer, but once cold weather/winter comes, they move to other areas to get the feed that hasn't been impacted by their summer concentration on the water. Cats are the same. They enjoy going down to the benches and even the valley floor if that's where the rabbits and game birds are concentrating.

Cameron 2 u said it best! Except how many cats I catch! Checking tomorrow will see???

Finally caught something today!!! Nope not a cat that I have been waiting for. MY FINGER RIGHT AT THE NAIL!

Bucks, if it makes you feel better I did the same thing yesterday  Take a needle and heat the point  up to glowing red and gently push it through the nail, it feels so much better to relieve the pressure!

Last check of 2014.

you are really putting up yhe spots "cameron2" keep it up!

Nice way to end the year Cameron2! Hope the rest of the season goes well for ya. You said at beginning of season it was slow on the fox.... Things ever pick up for you to hit your usual?

I finally thawed out my K9s today and put them up so they will be ready to sell at the first bobcat tagging.

I have good info on the cat market (if you want to call it good) and it is all pointing to a 50% decrease from last years prices (also hearing 2 good dogs will pay the same as one good cat). I'm sure you guys have been hearing similar info, and I am wondering what you think about selling your cats this year? I am leaning toward putting up only one of my best with one of my worst cats to see what they will offer, and if its OK then I'll put the rest up for the second tagging. I haven't got much money committed to this season and could really care less if I sell my cats (of course I would if the prices were in the range of the last couple seasons). I realize it could be several seasons before the market comes back if at all. Just curious of your thoughts guys. (I have stored cats before for several years. It is really simple to do and they came out just like the day I stored them).

If you have a minute or eight, check out this clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06VzxxDTnB8

Moneyspots, I've read the same information. I think I am tagging and freezing my females and casty cats for sure. It sounds like select cats with good clear wide bellies will sell okay. I've already put up a casty 43" tom, it will be interesting to see what I'm offered in Elko on the 20th. One thing about the market like it is....I don't have a ton of competition on the trap line! The way I look at it, a bad day trapping always beats a good day at work so I've already been paid for my time!

Leo, that cat you caught should do well in Fallon. Nice put up and great belly, better than anything I've caught this year!

I'll be curious to see and hear about what everyone's held over cats look like in a year,two,three or ten years from now.
I keep hearing you can hold over pelts and they say nothing looks bad on them.
Never ever had any luck holding cats or coyotes over for a year. Water fur animals no problems but not long hairs. Good luck with it all.

Dawgz, I called in a bobcat in 2004 win my father. We were both crunched for time so after sealing it, I wrapped it up and froze it in a one gallon ziplock filled with water. For a variety of reasons I didn't put the bobcat up until the fall of 2012 when I caught some other cats. I sold that 40" casty tom for over a thousand dollars in Fallon in 2013. Nobody could tell any difference from that 8 year frozen cat to the other cats that I caught that year. I have actually seen cats that were frozen the identical way over a decade old and they looked as good as any fresh cat. Just my observations...

nevadateacher I have a very similar story to yours and that is exactly the way I stored my cat with great results. The secret is to keep the air off of it and I bet It would stay good for a thousand years.

Maybe it works? Who knows. I would think you would have to add water after a while to keep it from freezer burning. Still interesting to me.

A nice cat, for a desert dweller.

Dang things always come out sideways!