I got a second season Bobcat tag for Northern zone in WI this year that starts 12/26. It's my first time drawing a Bobcat tag. I have over the years come across some cat sign here and there, but I was curious as to what kind of areas the guys who frequent the big woods of Northern WI, MI, and MN find the most Bobcat sign?

There is a fair amount of public land for me to trap in Northern WI and I'm trying to get a starting point by using topo maps and aerial maps before I make the drive and put boots on the ground and begin scouting.

I plan to use mb550s primarily as of right now, but I'm open to any other thoughts on type of traps or sets. Really any advice or tips of any kind that will help me fill this tag would be greatly appreciated.

It seems here I run into more cat sign at the edges of swamps and high ground. Especially beaver ponds, high ground.

You folks up in Wisconsin probably have some snow by now. My advice is to set on sign, find tracks and follow them to a good set location. It doesn't matter how great a set location looks if there's no cat in the area.

Find prey, find predators. Thick areas down here that hold rabbits, quail, and rats are good locations. Areas along a creek are good.
Think I’d recently read an article about y’all’s frozen creeks and crossings over them. Might be a good place to start. And if y’all have snow that would be even better.

Water, Water and Water. Did I mention you can find them by Water? Goodluck my friend, hope you fill the tag!

Quail??? Hadn’t seen any on my places in AR in years.

I'm in east central MN and have seen cat sign all over the place this year. Actually got me pretty excited for when the season opens! I was always told if ya find the rabbits you'll find the cats,and from what I've seen that's absolutely true! But don't forget they are a sucker for turkey dinner too!! And don't forget the beaver! smaller streams that have a beaver/muskrat population, even better if they have heavy cover right next to the water (well ice now), weather it's brush or tall grass. Cats seem to love walking frozen stream's, hopping on top of rat huts and sitting down while looking for lunch.

I spent some time in the Northwoods this week and did some scouting. Using all the advice you guys gave I was able to confirm that the cat tracks were on streams, beaver dams, and where the rabbits were.

Thanks for the advice guys.

If you were in north western Wi, I could put you on sign. I bird hunt there and have been finding lots of tracks. Like most are saying , low bottoms around water and thick cover. are good starting points.

Thickest cover u can find is a good place to start

Could even make a narrow trail with a brush saw I would think

Should be easy to find sign now. My property and a buddies in southern price county both have cats on camera. If you want to deal with the snow , they are out there. This was during the storm.

That's good to hear. I haven't locked in a location to really focus on just yet. Figured I'd start around forest county and work my way west. Going to try and head up this weekend to do some scouting. Should be easy locating sign now compared to when I was up there a few weeks ago and there was no snow.

Snow is part of the reason I choose the late season

Where I’ve been scouting around there are lots of rock structures and small cliff walls. Sign is pretty hard to pick up since we had so much snow melt the last couple days. Now today it’s all froze up and crusted over enough that I would imagine a cat would barely leave a track. Im curious, do cats like climb these rock structures to get up high similar to a house cat?

I wonder about that too- how often a cat can come through and not even leave a definitive print

I'm going to scout a clear cut this weekend. So far I've checked some places that seem to have good rabbit numbers but all I've noticed definitively is coyote tracks.

Cats love to stalk right up against the face of a cliff or Boulder. Overhangs are killer, and if you find a spot where a cliff face and another Boulder make a pinch point, set that sucker for sure. Sign is hard to come by in my area too, most places are too rocky or hard pan to leave a track and pack rats take all the bobcat scat to their nests as soon as they find it. It can be frustrating

If you are an accomplished mink trapper sort of think mink when scouting for cats. Up next to edges, squeezers and huggers, run logs. Like LT said, if you know where turkeys roost check that place out.