Just curious as to how many of you guys in the northern states have tried bobcat pens with snares? I’m debating trying this next season since I live in snow belt country in the U.P. And maintaining traps on the ground can be a pain when it snows constantly. Thanks in advance.

Is a snare even legal on cats up there? Private land?

In Wy I made cubbies. they kept some snow off the trap. the shade kept it powder better. I used 5 longsprings. Bed easy and reach up through a lot of snow

Well, I’m an idiot apparently. Snares are not legal in Michigan for bobcat. Looks like a little research should have been done on my part. Thought they were included with fox and coyote. Why am I not surprised in this liberal state.

What about jaw spread? Those beaver traps do help.

I use pen set when the snow piles up with snairs or traps I don't like to cover the pen , it works better with two or more openings and big enough a cat can turn around comfortably the traps you set on top of Sage or evergreen bows or realy any thing to keep the trap from freezing down I us an oversized pan made from roofing shingles not covered. For a snair I use 1/16 7×7 cable at a pen set , 8" loop 8" of the snow. I like bobcat meat bait with some caster smeared on sheep's wool on a stick 12 inches of the snow , the cat is staring straight through the middle of the loop at the bait this way. This is a deadly bobcat set with both traps and snairs.

The first time I saw a pen set demo, it was put on by Keith Gregerson. He told me years later his best year he caught 250 cats on the MT WY border, most of them in pen sets.

Can anyone post a picture of a pen set, I have no idea what it is.

Trapper Inc has some good lynx pen set videos. They helped me improve on my old covered pen sets for snairs especially. If it wasn't for our extended snair check and my late season coyotes snair lines. I would prefer traps over snairs for this set . Surprisingly I've caught quite a few coyotes at this set. Especially with a light snow covering.