Anybody got tips on trapping bobcat in the northern 48? Sets and how you make them, habitat, bait/lure, trap size, misc. tips etc.

Majority of that isn't what I was looking for. I asked about the northern 48. I'm not looking for tips on trapping in the west, Oklahoma, Kansas etc.

Cubby, walk threw or tebone set! #3 Bridger, Montgomery, Montana or MB 650. John Graham sells, Tomcat & Badlands-bob and a good gland lure, for bait a rabbit, muskrat carcass, chicken or fresh fish! I like stepping sticks so they step right on the pan and/or little rocks (pebbles)!

If you have anymore questions feel free to pm me, cause there's some guys that are amazingly better than me BUT they don't share everything, I'll share what you need to know! ! I have some experience with cats.

Kid,

I've been having some success trapping cats around beaver dams. Found lots of tracks on the dam and surrounding area. I used dirt holes with some white boa as an attractant, as well as beaver meat.

Oh Ya And Check Out The Land Trapping Archives!

NorthernOutdoors - You are right, there is a dearth of material on trapping bobcats in the eastern US, I especially notice the lack of stuff on the NE US from lake states to New England. The stuff (basically all of it) out there on trapping cats in the western US is basically worthless, unless you happen to have some rimrock in Aitkin county that no one else knows about!

I have found several things to be very effective. The biggest is beaver ponds like trapmando says. All predators use the waterways as travel routes once they freeze over. The canines will tend to use the "bigger" creeks and bobcats will use any size, right down to those canals made by beaver that are only 8-12" wide. My experience is that once the amount of clear (as in no brush), frozen ice gets less than 2-3' wide, the canines are as likely to take off through the brush to high ground as they are to continue following the ice. Not that they won't use the smaller waterways but it isn't dependable like cats are. The only thing that prevents me from catching cats on beaver ponds is my own creativity and willingness to try new things.

The other thing that will get every predator's attention is a beaver carcass. Whenever I put out a beaver carcass I always take an old snare and attach the carcass to a live tree, stump or even an earth anchor. Wolves really like to take off with 'em; fox, coyote and bobcat don't seem as enthusiastic. It's also important to put the carcass in a tight spot. What I mean is that you shouldn't plop it on the middle of a beaver pond or a grassy opening. Hanging it in a tree is also not great for catching cats. I have done that but as soon as the cat sees it they tend to lose interest and move on.

My preference is to find an area that I know or think cats are traveling through. Find a brushy spot or maybe the top of an evergreen that has snapped off. Something that gives you a spot to stash the carcass in. If you can't find something good then make a cubby of sorts over it. Take the carcass and tie it off to something solid. Feel free to cover the carcass with grass, leaves, branches, etc much like a cat would. I put some of Lenon's bobcat lure in the cubby. I'll make or enhance trails around the cubby and set either snares or conibears there. I'm not afraid to use lots of blocking to get the cats where I want them. The combination of the carcass that they can't see and the heavy guiding makes the cats investigate in a pattern that you want them in and makes most canines avoid the set which is good for wolves.

Clark

After a few months of scouting I did find it! Not... Do bobcats ever go by gravel pits?

I'm sure they do but it wouldn't be the first place I would look to trap them.

Clark

Bobcat are very easy to catch, they are not a suspicious animal in any way I have noted. All one needs is the proper general location, proper set location and a lure that will most always appeal to their fickle nature. Trapping techniques vary from region to region but here in my region ( Upper Michigan) there are three kinds of sets that are deadly on bobcat depending upon the weather or/if and how much snow we have. In dirt trapping there is no better set than a flashy looking dirthole with a 4" diameter hole and lots of dirt lured with a very musky call lure. Cats love to rub musky odors on their fur as a cover scent for hunting and stalking. The second set is the scent post set lured with a bobcat urine/gland/passion scent. Scent posts can be made in either dirt or in the snow and cats will not pass one that is big, visible and lured right. The third set is a cubby constructed from brush, evergreen boughs, etc for use in deep snow and snowy weather. Cubbies must be large enough that the largest cats in the area would be able to easily enter, turn around and come back out as cats do not back up and are reluctant to enter tight places where they can't turn around. Trap is set just inside of the cubby entrance with guide sticks on each side of the trap to narrow down their entrance over the trap and to be protected from snow. I prefer the #3 trap, not that smaller sizes won't hold most cats but a wider jaw spread is an advantage as cats in my area can go over 40 lbs and some have very huge paws. Generally a chunk of meat bait such as liver, beaver meat, muskrat, etc is placed in the rear of the cubby for eye appeal and the musky type lure is smeared around the upper rim of the cubby just beyond the trap. A simple way to make a cubby is to lean some poles against a tree like a tepee and wire them to the tree so they don't blow over. I take a staple gun along and then staple evergreen boughs to the poles to close it in for weather protection. Bait is hung on a nail pounded into the tree. Cubby should be at least 4' high and 2 1/2' in diameter for best results. Bobcats are found wherever one would find rabbits and ruffed grouse during the month one is trapping. Generally that would be at or near cedar/tamarack/conifer swamps and thick evergreen or thick brushy cover areas. Cats like to hunt small game while slipping quietly along the edge of an easy going route. The places to make sets would be right along old logging roads, pipe and power lines, abandoned railroad grades, etc that pass through these thick cover rabbit/grouse areas. Sets for example made along a pipe line would be right close to the brush line, 6' to 10' from the edge as that is where the cat will be slipping along hunting the edge. Other cat routes that come to mind are field edges that border thick cover and mossy ridges that pass through thick cover always remembering to set close to the edges of cover.
Asa

What traps do you guys like best?

Being you are going to trap both fox and bobcat a good all around trap is the MB 550. I use them just 2 coiled in dirt trapping and 4 coiled in winter trapping to give them more zip in snow and frozen snow crusts. I haven't had any problem holding the largest coyotes and cats while fox had minimal paw/leg damage with the thick jaws on the MB 550.

Cats are cats no matter where you find them, You need to do your part and read all the pages of the post Monster Toms provided. He traps the Rocky Mountains and has more rugged country then you gave the thread credit for. Get out and follow a cat trail in the snow and you will be able to take what you learned and apply to what you read in that thread and you should be able to get a cat. There are several posts in the ARCHIVES that will help also. Good Luck. Tom

Clark "heavy guiding makes the cats investigate in a pattern that you want them in and makes most canines avoid the set which is good for wolves."

I hope more in the northern forested regions weigh in on this discussion. I am a Minnesotan new to trapping since January. I spent two months worry on how to let a wolf go. For good reason, my trail camera's showed wolves were the most common visitors to my bait piles, and they barge right in with no circling. Hopefully the new season changes that.

Found your post helpful. I will try beaver runs for sure. The cat population is surely up right now in our area, along with the snowshoe hare. I saw tracks were one went all the way through a road culvert- 30+ feet! I have to think that is uncommon?

Best advice for figuring out cats. I need to do it again because it's been several years and I'm trapping new territory.



Thank you, I hope the information helps you next winter. I have caught cats at a large culvert before that connected two beaver ponds. It was a 2-3' diameter pipe of about 30'. The problem with that location is that next year the pipe was full of ice! Had to move off the road and trap the beaver runs.

Clark

I agree cats are cats...But I have yet to find a nice walk thru set between a rock wall and a juniper bush here. Lots of good advice here. With any set you make in this part of the world, make sure your trap will be working- no matter what the weather brings. Just have some kind of weather proofing , be it plastic bags, wax paper, setting in pine needles under big pines, something. Also, with cubbies- set another trap further out for that cat that won't go into the cubby. Also nice for when a red squirrel, rabbit, weasel, whatever plugs one of the traps!

Find the bunnies and you should find the cats. I like bird remains for bait. Grouse seems to work well.

"But I have yet to find a nice walk thru set between a rock wall and a juniper bush here"

Cut a few branches or pick up some dead ones and make a choke point.

Look for cat toilets at outcroppings of rocks and the upper sides of ledges & cliffs.
They(like all cats) like high places. In the flat terrain build large cubbies along the edges of bogs and old beaver meadows. Land owners usually allow the use of dead trees for this - plus it will give you something to do during the non-trapping months. Build the cubbies about 4 foot high and 3 foot wide and about 6 feet long with both ends open. This length will keep snow off the traps when placed inside each end a couple of feet. Hang the bait from the center of ceiling, use cat gland lure, and on a tree right by the cubbie (during cold weather) use some strong skunk scent (melt petroleum jelly and stir in some pure skunk works great). Some remains of my grandfathers and my dads cubbies are still in the woods (I am 70). I have built new ones in some of the same locations.
These sets will also take fisher, and in late winter some fox & coyote will get hungry and make the mistake .
If legal where you trap, a 220 up on a leaning log with bait will on occasion take cats, although footholds work best - at least that is my opinion.
Also, watch for cats cross logging roads during the summer & look for tracks in the snow - they come thru the same locations every 10 to 20 days where I trap. Set your traps accordingly.

I've yet to find a single choke point in the middle of an alder swamp or cattails. The pictures that I see from out west, which are probably of the easiest and most obvious sets, make it all look too easy out there. It would be nice to have some bare dirt that showed tracks. Around here some mud is your best bet but that is a temporary and space limited thing.

This is a great topic and I wish more guys would contribute, especially when it comes to taking cats in the snow.

Clark