Caging bobcats

It took ~7 years, but I drew a bobcat tag. 1 approach will be to use the 2 cage traps I bought. Season starts 12/26.
Does one need to be concerned with a cage freezing up in the winter?
Is it important to do much to conceal the cage? They came dipped from the manufacturer, so they aren't shiny steel.
Do you try to put a layer of dirt or bark over the bottom of the cage?
I'm also curious how you like to display the bait. Thanks

Dirty Dog you covered it well.
I have covered my cages with asphalt shingles with good success keeping out snow. I like a swing door so I extend the roof over the cage opening if expecting snow. I also like using a rub type lure and good bobcat urine in my cages. I like to partially hide the bait to tease the bobcat.
Buy Mercer Lawing caging bobcats DVDs. Then If you find the cat. I mean really find where a cat lives not just speculate on a likely location. Go find great cover, tracks and scat if possible. You will catch them. .

15x21x48" are the size of my cages.

I'm thinking about using large chunks of tree bark to cover the floor of the cage.

Easier. It's what I did when I caged a fisher.
I'll keep your advice in mind though.

I like to level up the cage where it's going to set , then dig a shallow hole just beyond where the pan will be and that's where the bait and lure go. I'll then set the cage over that and get it brushed up good , cedar boughs are my favorite but anything can work. I've used shingles, dry dirt and peat moss at different times to cover the wire floor. One trick that I think helps eye appeal if you have snow is to spread peat or dirt out fan shaped in front of the cage besides covering the wire floor, that really stands out. I hang an attractor that my granddaughters & I make in the back of the cage. It's furry and has google eyes that move, it's on a swivel so the breeze moves it. Take a double fist size wad of grass with a few feathers mixed in and toss this "nest" in the very back. I put a stop stick across the inside of the cage just past the pan up a few inches. Scatter some feathers in front of the cage and going into it, squirt cat urine that you've saved in front and going into the cage. Hang a feather or tinsel on a swivel out from the cage if you choose. If there are any cats around you'll catch them.

I like to leave a bucket with a lid stashed with extra dirt and feathers somewhere around so I don't have to carry everything each time. Brush loppers are very handy when setting up. It doesn't take much time to set them up like this after you've done it a couple of times. Buy Mercer's Caging Bobcats dvd, that will be the best money you spend trying to learn how to catch them in cages. Most of what I do came from his ideas.

Is it pretty important to conceal the cage well?

I got to see Mercer's bobcat demo at the Ks convention this year and when it comes to cats and also cats and cages that guy knows is stuff. I'd pm him with any questions I have or as mentioned buy his videos .

I use old dried cedar needles, natural and works for me.

What did he say about the importance of concealing a cage? I'm trying to figure out how good I have to blend in the 2 cages I bought.

AJE - based on your questions I am thinking your giving the bobcat way too much credit. In my experience bobcats aren't wary or scared of cage traps or most any other man made stuff. It's not about out smarting them or tricking them like a coyote. It's about causing them to become interested in the inside of your cage. Do things that create interest and the natural reactions to those things cause them to further investigate inside the trap - not outside.

My opinion covering the cage serves just two purposes - keep the cat from getting close enough to your lures and things inside to satisfy his curiosity and keep the weather out. I suppose you could add hiding it from humans but has nothing to do with hiding the cage from the cat.

Be sure to set your cage facing down slope. You want the thermals to move the scents out the front of the trap and hit the cat in the nose.
If your lucky he will follow them in. I think a lot of times when we have a miss and you see the cat tracks along the side of the set it's because the lure odors are blowing out sideways. Thermals almost always trump the daytime winds once the sun starts to set.

Good luck. Cats are cats. You can do everything right and nothing seems to work and do everything wrong and can't keep them out.
Some customers send me a pic of their first cat a few days after they receive their products others sometimes spend a whole season with no luck.

ML

A question. Are the shingles for putting in the bottom of the cage so the cat's feet are not on the wire? If so, would it still require dirt on the shingle?

I would certainly defer to Mercers advice on caging cats. He has caught more than his fair share of them in cages. I don't use shingles but I do put a black garbage bag over the cage top before I brush it in. Helps keep the inside dry. I also put a layer of dry dirt, maybe an inch thick, to cover the bottom cage wire.makes for a nice inviting place for the cat to investigate after you add the feathers, lure, etc inside.

I buy a bale of hay or straw and line my cages with it and also use it to cover sets. Moss works great if it's kept dry and you have access to it. I tend to cover the tops of my cages with a plastic bag and then boughs to keep the snow out. It helps keep them functioning in winter conditions.

I went out with a researcher here in Cali once. We used to have some real pro trapping people in the department. This guy had busted his hump and came up with funding to do a population study. I sold them a crap ton of cages and gave them a little schooling. Like most projects it started out a little rough. Biologists, often PhDs I have been around get into their vocation because the love nature and the outdoors.
They soon find that they spend most of their time under artificial light so when they actually get field work they want to do it themselves. They went to school to be biologists not trapper and their projects would be better if they hired us trappers more often.

All that to say that they called and reported bobcats making toilets in front of their cages. I went out with one of them to try and help. Asked her to show me how she makes the set. Well she was squirting bobcat pee in a spot just in front of the cage. Sometimes even leaving a turd.
I asked her to think that through and answer the question"how does that cause the cat to be interested in the "INSIDE" of the trap. How does making a fire hydrant in front of your trap cause this wild animal to want to enter the trap? Just makes them want to mark the spot like that last cat did.

I used to go round and round here in Tman years ago with a guy who said to mist the front of the trap with bobcat urine to hide your human scent.
1) turned your cage into a fire hydrant
2) if you think bobcats are scared of your scent you need to trap more bobcats.

Not saying for one minute that urine leading into the trap won't work. Just saying I would be happy to trap for pink slips with someone leaving distractions outside the set.

ML

Thanks for the help. Just bought 15 of Mercer's traps. Thought I would try something different. Our winters seem to be getting wetter and thought it might be worth a try. Digging out muddy frozen footholds gets old day after day. Hope it will be easier to keep these in working order................

To answer the shingle question, When setting here in western Colorado during wet/freezing conditions: I will level the trap bed and put a shingle down, set the cage on the shingle then sift dirt on the bottom of the cage. This will help prevent the cage from freezing down hard to the ground. Next put a shingle on top and brush in. This will help prevent icicles from forming from the top when freeze/thaw conditions happen.

Thanks Monster Toms. Makes sense.

For me in this country of heavy snow my cages are pocketed in thick young pine patches mostly. I clear snow then lure under and set the cage in. I use some sand on the bottoms, maybe mixed with the natural duff. I buy the sand in bags, mason sand at Home Depot. Most has been plenty dry even for setting my 650's.

Osky

That masonry sand is cheap. I would think it still freezes without wax though

Ttt

Lots to think about here.

I need to buy a cage trap or two for bobcat one of these years I think it would be fun to do something a little different,plus with our climate up here it would be easy to release females and kittens.

This season I have caught two young cats and released them. We have a lot of snow so I simply packed it with my feet, set down the bait cup, then cage over. I wiggled the cages in a bit and snow came up thru the bottom which I then tamped down by hand to sort of match the packed snow out front. Cats walked in fine it seems.
I did try putting a sprinkling of used house cat sand inside back behind the pan for that smell. Nothing outside. Did this help, not sure. I did not find any tracks from a bigger mature cat coming around that might indicate a more wary/aged cats refusal.
For me a longer limb maybe 6’ on top back of the trap coming forwards and up a bit, overhanging the front maybe 3 feet a dab of long call on that end. Then teepee it up with whatever pine bows on the sides up and over and the back. Now with winter here the thaw is not really an issue.
My cages have swinging doors so I have to extend the front “tunnel” to make sure snow does not blow in. Here I see the most cats as incidental visitors on my canine bait piles when they are located in tight groups of young bushy pines or deep grassy swamp edges so that is the type of cover where I put the cages and the smell does more than the visual I believe.
I have conversed and learned a lot from Mercer and others, I am still a newbie to this caging so to speak.
I run MB650’s for foot holds and have not had any of them not come up thru masons sand. I do keep it a very thin skim over top of those traps, cats don’t care.
I do wish Minnesota would stretch the trap check time on cages. They are a blast to use and so easy on the cats wether released or not. I have seen in this country in January where there will be 2 bigger cat tracks running together. I don’t think they are actually running together but males starting to follow females prior to breeding. With a longer check time I’d like to do a double cage set, letting hopefully the first caught a female lounge a day or two and draw in the male.

Osky

Not sure how exactly how to find it, but there is a thread that is 33 pages long titled: How do I get a Bobcat to Commit to Cages-Bob Small.