I want to start by thanking my wife for not complaining about the amount of time I spent for my quest to fill my cat tag.
I wanted to fill my tag by calling in a cat but it wasn't meant to be. I trapped this 24 lb female on Valentines day in Cameron county.
My friend Jeff and I have been watching this cat for a long time. I have hunted for it many times unsuccessfully until this weekend. Since this was the last weekend that I would have to fill my tag, Jeff and I formulated a plan. We would arrive at camp around 4:00 pm and I would set some traps while he was out hunting coyotes. Shortly after dark I was to pick him up and we would go back for dinner. After dinner, we would go out and try to call my cat. I set a whopping four traps out in prime cat country, steep and brushy. I set two of the traps on a path that the cat has used many times before, tracks told me so. The other two were also set on past sign. That evening yielded no coyotes or cats. The next morning we checked the traps while it was breaking light. We had to hurry and get back to camp because we had a friend coming up with his dogs. Hopefully the dogs would help me fill my tag.
The first two traps yielded nothing and my hopes were dwindling quick. We were blind to the third trap as we walked up over the hill until we were right on top of it. Well that was almost a costly mistake because the cat lunged forward as I was very close. After screaming like a girl and celebrating that I had a bobcat in my trap, I wanted to complete the process. Jeff insisted that we get some pictures while the cat was in the trap. I explained to him that if that cat got out of that trap, I was going to shoot him. There would be plenty of time to take pictures afterwards. Needless to say, he only took three pictures. My last trap had nothing in either so we pulled all four traps and headed back to camp.
I set the cat on the gate of the ranger as wayne came driving up to camp. I felt bad that he drove three hours to try to get me a cat and I already had one. We took the dogs out anyway with the hopes of getting a coyote or fox. I have a ton of respect for those guys that run hounds. That is really, really tuff in the hills that we were in. All in all it was a fantastic experience and I wouldn't change a thing. I filled my tag on the very last day that I could hunt.
