Bobcat disappointment time in Illinois

Well Illinois folks the bobcat lottery has been completed. Please check your account for your annual "not selected" notification and thank you from the DNR for your non refundable donation.

My brother and I have applied every year since it began and have yet to draw a tag. My son has not drawn a tag in his 4 or 5 years applying for a tag. And my daughter has applied the last 2 years and failed to draw.

Like everything else in this state this bobcat lottery is a cluster.

I have 35 years in for a Park elk tag and well over 100 points for other tags that I never seem to get. LOL Luck no draw to trap cats here and no limit West River.

So who is getting the tags? Are anti's applying to keep trappers from getting them?

Anti's definitely flood the lottery and if drawn of course never use tag. Add that to the low number of tags available anyway and the odds are terrible for getting drawn. We dont even earn preference points for not drawing a tag. Some folks have drawn tags multiple years in a row. Some claim to have never failed to get a tag. Its just a mess. We have a limit of 5 otter per season, they could put the limit on bobcats at 2 or 3 a year and not even dent the population.

Just looked and the state said there was 6200 applications for the 1000 tags the dnr issued in 2022. And only 383 harvested. Which definitely shows the effect of antis because bobcats are all over here in Southern Illinois.

At least you have a chance to keep them. We have to let them go. We get 2 otter but seasion closes once 600 or so get tagged. After that the one's you have dead in your beaver sets have to be turned in.

It's sad you don't get any points.

Just like everything else in El-annoy.

I quit donating to that lottery. 5 dollars to get in drawing right? So they made 31,000 just in drawing fees

Yep $5 plus a $4 convenience fee so $9 total. So $55,800 counting the fee.

We really do have it good down here in Louisiana..

Convenience fee I forgot. What a joke lol. Convenient for someone but not the trapper. Waiting on otter tags can be frustrating also. Don’t remember what year it was but took forever to get my tags from the state and by the time I did otter had went down about 20 bucks a pelt.

Forgive me for sticking my nose where it doesn't belong but this is an outsiders prospective. What if you were required to have attended a trappers ed course and provide that number just to apply? Would that not weed out the anti's? I can't see them attending a day long trappers ed course just to apply. It's just a thought.

Does IL not require harvest surveys?

Randomly sent and voluntary is all I have ever seen. Other than when you check in a deer they ask if you saw any bobcats, turkeys, or wild hogs.

160user, it is going to take something along those lines or go to no lottery but a limit per hunter/trapper. But both of those make sense and this is Illinois where illegal immigrants can be police officers.

It was just a thought or suggestion to help you guys out. Like I said before, I don't mean to stick my nose where it doesn't belong but it was just an idea to throw at your state association as a thought.

Cutting edge wildlife management.
Not sure how you boys stand it.

Does the state require a trapping license to apply for the permit?

I quit apply after the first couple of years. First two years I knew a guy and his wife both got cat tags. Corruption at its finest. I didn’t know anyone else in the state that got a tag those years.
This year I applied since I knew a few people who had got a tag last year. I got a tag this year. Now to try and get permission where this spotted up kitty lives. The one with the collar will work as well. Both are in the same spot.

That collared one is going to have a terrible bald ring around the neck.

No problem at all. At any and all ideas or suggestions are great.

Nope, just the $9 total fee. No restrictions other than that.

Congrats on the tag. Good luck chasing them. A buddy of mine catches at least 2 a year and he rarely has more than 6 traps in the ground. Add to that with work he sets on friday and pulls on Sunday.

Here in central IL the cat population has exploded in the last 4 years or so. I’ve trapped for the college.
First year I could only find them 3 cats and I think two of those were the same one. The next year we had 11 on video in a 7 or 8 mile circle. Have two buddies who have legally taken two cats each. The permit system is a joke and not needed. Know of several released here each year as well.
Sorry for your luck. I know how you feel I was turned down 7 years in a row for a gun deer tag in the 80s. Same time my uncle who was a state trooper got tags every year as did every member of his immediate family.

I hear you partner, drew one tag in all the years they kept my money. Released 6 cats last year without even trying to catch one . It’s ridiculous but the politicians make the rules not the biologists

That doesn’t make any sense!!! You don’t need a trapping license to apply for a tag to trap a bobcat.

Some body in Springfield is missing out on a money making opportunity. IMO

Must have a current year hunting, trapping license number to apply for any tags . That's how alaska got rid of anti
Out of state applications that would never be used.those idiots thought they were saving the bears

Politicians run the show, several years back I knew a trapper who caught over 30 in the river bluff country called the CPO to release everyone and after that many the CPO was a little hot because he knows we should just be able to keep them

The ridiculousness of any sort of limit on any furbearer with the current fur market shows how far from reality and common sense that todays biologists are.

Yep and paying for a tag then a cites tag it ain’t worth it , I maybe wrong but I don’t think these are 200 dollar cats they don’t look nothing like Savells Texas cats

I have applied every year also.when I was seeing comments on different sites where people were getting tags couple years in a row I called down state and asked what kind of scam were they running.i told them if you got a permit then you should be the last one to get one in following years till people who had been turned down had a chance to get one if they applied the following years.the following year they did make it where you couldn't get one the following year if you were successful that year.i still don't think it's fair.if they give out 1,000 tags every year and 6,000 apply every 6 years you would get one hypothetical speaking.maybe have to to a point system like some states do for bear hunting.

I’ve talked with these idiots on the 500 cat quota that they want , my suggestion was forget the tag as long as you have a hunting or trapping license run it like the quota zone was ran for geese . Put it out say when 375 cats have been taken the season closes say in 5 days, they looked at me as if I was a blabbering idiot “ which I won’t argue with that sometimes “ said it can’t be done because they might harvest over 500 , we’ll what about the ones that get splattered on the road guess they don’t exist. That is when I knew it was a money grabber scam only has nothing to do with cats

The otter and cat tags are limited by the Federal Fish and Wildlife.

Until Illinois can get the Fred's to increase take limits on both we are stuck with 5 otters and one cat (if you can draw a tag).

There are plenty of both even up here.

And let's not forget, the tags are given to the states FREE by the FF&W.

Yoteguts I can't promise you'd like the land prices down here but you'd definitely like the trapping. As far as I know Mark June is the only Northerner that ever tried it and then moved back up north and we all know he marches to a different drummer.

Not true
The feds have no control over how many otters or bobcat that a state allows to be harvested.
They simply send the state however many CITES tags that they request

You are right as usual, money IS all they are interested in after all.

Maybe they figure $9 per unlicensed anti will be more money to them than the ones that would buy a license and apply. I'm sure they have done some number crunching to see what way has the most financial gain for them.

Good info on this post...spoke with several trappers about this while at the ITA convention yesterday(Friday). One trapper and predator hunter hit it on the head...."The wild fur prices are down who's actually trapping?" Open the season up stay wide and see what the numbers say...once a a cat is harvested have that person call it in and pay the fee...done. When the quota gets close, put the word out via email through IDNR website (or on sites like this one) and close the season IF necessary. Then go back and evaluate what happened and make the appropriate changes for next season.

I have never read or researched any of the Bobcat news in Illinois, but were they released in Illinois like they did the river otter or have they just made a comeback?

Seems like a lot of agencies confuse protection with management. Just because a species is protected doesn't mean it's managed. Sometimes it's all about how it "looks" to other interests.