Having trouble keeping cat treed

[TonyLee]

I am just getting my hounds on bobcats they have hit a few but having trouble keeping them from bailing out of the tree I have always just coon hunted so not to sure what to do any advise would be great I heard somewhere that a dog that watched the cat more could keep it in the tree and thought bout getting a fiest or a cur that treed more by sight to run with them but just not sure thanks for the help in advance

[Mike Leonard]

Day or night Tony?

Nightime cats can really be the pits on jumping. Ofcourse daytimers do it to but I have had more trouble at night it seems.

One night on Ashely Creek years back I jumped this tom bobcat six times at night and he crossed the creek several times ofcourse as you Vernal boys know it usually ain't much for water. Well old Gunsmoke finally played him out and I shook him out myself that time and Gunsmoke throttled him. Now here is the strange part. I carried him back towards the top of the bank sorta behind the old golf course and by the time I got to the truck he was stiff as a board. No not frozen just rigormortise I guess from all that running and jumping but he was stiff.

[TonyLee]

they have been at night which now too this is the first cats they have ever been on there coon hounds making the move over to cats and eventially bears is the plan

[irondave]

sounds like a little brindle could fix your problems

[onalimb]

Speaking to people that have hunted in the west, mid-west and east, the western bobcats jump a lot less than everywhere else. Our females get itchy in a tree, but i've seen a lot of toms asleep when I've got under them. It might have to do with our country being steep as hell, and usually hunting in deep snow, but I'm not sure. All I know is the stories I read from other places don't sound like the cats we have up here.

[Big Horn Posse]

Just another reason bobcats are the toughest critter to run. They like to jump tree and I have found hunting them here in the canyon country they can lead your dogs into some of the nastiest ledges. They will get into little holes in the rocks and go where no man or dog should attempt to follow. I have said time and time again "I hate bobcats!" Dogs seem to like them regardless of my hatred for them, thus the reason I have been known to swear a time or two or three when they are running one in the canyons here.

[Hunter]

Tony Lee I can't answer your question but I can put you on several cats come season if you want to contact me. I usually see one every other night or two driving to my haunts. The only way that I have ever seen a cat at night in a tree (that was trashed by some coon hounds) was after it jumped half a dozen times and we figured out what it was we started turning our lights out LONG before we got to the tree and snuck in like we were sneaking up on a deer. It didn't set long when we hit the lights either. I've killed two cats while grouse hunting. The dogs treed them and they sat there with me walking all around them until I knocked em out. Course it was daylight. Anyways, contact me if you would like to have acouple places to chase em in East TN.

[Vance M.]

If your dogs are treeing bobs then they are doing good. Be real quiet when you are walking up to the tree also keep your light off if it is night time

[TonyLee]

I am 99.9% positive that thats what they are treeing but I am new to the cat game I started just droping them where I thought there would be a good cat track and after a week or so they started treeing something then as I would get close to the tree whatever it was would bail dogs would go into a squaling fast bawling fit for a few seconds then run it another 30 -45 minutes and then the same thing would happen again so def. no coon and from what I have gathered from the last 10 or 12 years coon hunting that was what I was figuring and hoping for that matter

[Pops]

the cat jumps because the dogs aren't fast enough to catch him before he gets to the next tree. you might want to consider something w/ sighthound in it. they'll leave the other dogs like they're sitting still and lay teeth on the cat making him tree again and stay there or stopping him to get stretched.
i know a guy in SC that catche A LOT of game (all kinds including whitetail) by his curs trailing and jumping and his longdogs running it down.
if you want my personal experience w/ ferals PM me.

[uncle Brisco]

i have run cats down there were you are, a few times, and in like 13 years i seen 1 cat stay treed at night down there and it was about as big as a Pepsi can,with out knowing you i bet i casn guess excactly whats going on,your dogs got plenty of speed to put them up,your cats will flat not go up unless they are pushed, but at night they can't see the cat,and i'll bet you got some of the best tree dogs around,that was my biggest problem when i lived down south my dogs treed like the cover of Fullcry, feet on the wood looking at their tail chopping at over 100per, that cat was never their, the stupid treedog treed so hard they would'nt see it jump, your best bet is to find a dog that will tree while holding eye contact with the cat,squirel dog style, and if it will come out from under the canapy of the tree and tree( just like every comp hunter hates) it helps, i started hunting a lep with my hounds and my stay treed ration almost tripled,i would get to the tree and my meatheaded walker would be hammeringon an empty tree and the lep would be 60ys away watching the cat jump tree to tree, but he would look right at the cat and i swear he would hold cats longer than any hound i ever hunted, after 2 seasons my walker started to tree less hard and back of the wood, this is a tough game and in all the states i've hunted in southern cats are the absolute hardest to tree and hold than anywere else in the nation as far as i'm concernedif yer looking to take the cat get you a good 410 because even if the dogs hold it WILL jump when you get close so be quiet and be ready to bring the hammer down on the wing, you may get one shot,i got a lot better on quail after shooting jumping cats,lol

[houndsnmules]

Bobcats see better at night then the dogs do. I believe they use it to their advantage when they are hunted in the night. They can pop up a tree and catch their breath for a minute or two or they hit the tree quickly and their are off again. Try running them about 4 in the mourning. I have had a little better luck getting tried then. One study I read said cats see 25-50 percent better then dogs do at night. As a general rule the more reflective an animals eye is the better they see at night.

[Hipshooter]

Go to the running type dog, one that trees by sight & not by the wood.
You won,t have any slick trees, to look at.
These dogs will more than make up catching on the ground, over what trees they missed.

[Gary Roberson]

In my country, bobcats tend to move to the outside branches on the tree and look for any reason to jump. Most coonhunters want their hounds hugging the tree; if all of the dogs are knotted up under the tree, they will help push the cat out. I want dogs that find the cat and get out in front of him, thereby help to hold him in the tree. In other words, I want a dog that goes out and plays centerfielder. Puts himself in a position to catch the cat out of the air if he jumps. If a dog trees in this fashion, it will sure help keep him in a tree.

[Gary Roberson]

Mike
I know what you are talking about on the dead bobcat stiffening up really quick. I was raised in South Texas where we had a tremendous bobcat population and still do. One year, I remember we caught 80 bobcats and caught about half of them on the ground without ever treeing. Most folks think that they would really tear up a bunch of dogs but that is not true. It seems by the time the dogs run a cat down, he is "charley horsed" so bad that he can't fight like you think that he would. An old time cat hunter told me that bobcats have more lactic acid in their system than other critters and that is why they "tie up" so badly.
I hunt with a buddy down there who typically catch at least 150 bobcats a year. About a month ago, he caught 7 in one day. At least 50% of the cats he catches never tree as well. By the time we can wade into a thicket and retrieve a cat it will be stiff as a board. Normally a couple of minutes.