West Texas Trapping...bobcats & lions (pic heavy)

Been home a couple of days now and it's starting to sink in finally

We had an amazing trip to a ranch in Comstock, Texas. My buddy had worked and previously trapped the place about 6 years ago. With terrain like I'd never trapped before, to say running footholds was tough is an understatement. Dirt of any kind is hard to come by.

The ranch has quite a few well preserved Indian rock art paintings as well. I visited 'Halo Shelter' which was really quite interesting. It's believed to be between 2000-4000 years old.


We had a pretty good line out and catching plenty of greys, skunks, coons, and opossums. Finally our 5th check my buddy Shannon hits a nice tom bobcat in a finger right off the Devil's River.


Even though it was more than just a little scratch, I manage to snap a remake picture.

Little complication with the catch pole on dispatch and he hit me with a left hook that could have been way worse than it was. No stitches, but probably would have been a good idea.

Now it's looking good healing into a nice trappers scar. Lol!

We continued to have good luck with the coons and greys, even two ringtail in the Bridger #3's.


On February 1st, early in the morning, we come up to my first Val Verde county bobcat. An old mean grandpa of a Tom.



I remake my set and we continue checking.


We head out of the North Canyon of the ranch and up to a top road we felt good about lacing with traps. Sure enough, Shannon has a nice female bobcat waiting in a Bridger #3 he set.


Our only 2 cat day in what would eventually be 9 checks. We were very happy to say the least.


We are on our way to check the High Fence area of the ranch when I really needed to take a pee break. I urge my buddy to stop, and I get out and away from the Ranger a about 20 feet to give room and some respect to the lady on board while I completed my errand. I just get my overalls in clipped and my buddy is scream whispering 'Mountain Lion' as he's grabbing his .204 Ruger. He had spotted a mature mom who we later discovered was on a fresh grey fox kill. She darted downward into a canyon, losing altitude and gaining distance quickly, not giving a shot. For the young lion with her, the top ridge seemed a better route, exposed and in the open. She started out at about 80 yards, moving fast right to left. Shannon made two shots with the second narrowly missing over the back. The lion pivots and starts to head toward us and he anchors it with a perfect headshot. Never have I felt such a relief as when I saw that cat stop moving on the cliff side.




We were all over the top with excitement. We try to glass while Shannon heads to the cliff edge to try to see the mom he had originally spotted, but she had escaped.
We get the lion kitten (Texas Parks biologist estimated 9 months old) to the Ranger. Shannon tells me to make my best mountain lion set in the road near the largest cedar tree we knew could hold one. I set a Bridger #3 in a nice bed and send it.

We finish checking the line. Come back to the camp house and start celebrating. We go to the J&P's in Comstock and continue celebrating and carrying on with the locals. We head out at around 9:00 from the bar and get back to the ranch finally around 10:00. The gameplan had been to attempt to predator call the mom back in at night in the same spot we killed the first one. We roll up to the spot, and my trap is missing from its bed. In the cedar, small and young as it may be, was a trapped Texas Mountain Lion. My first and hopefully one of many.



One happy Texas trapper...


What an unbelievable adventure. I know the ranch owner will be glad to have us back next year, and that's always a good feeling as well.

Great story and pics. Congratulations!!!

Y'all are doing something right. Great adventure, Congrats and thanks for
taking us along!!

Congrats

Thanks, great pics!

Will

That is awesome!

Looks and sounds like you had a great trip. Lucky that cat didn't get you any worse. Huge congrats

That's cool. I would love to catch a l lion some day.

great pics! you were lucky on the cut..[close to the eye]

Darn good writeup.

Great story and pictures. But I got to say that's one sweet mustache! You're lucky that cat didn't hook the inside of your nostril or mouth.

Yep, close call.

He was instinctually trying to blind me I believe.

Hahaha! Thanks! As for the stache...Its a Kingsville, Texas thing, got to have one if you want to be somebody lol! Got lucky for sure he didn't hook me, just a quick punch.

Well, at least your buddy didn't spill his beer to help you...lol

...and with a 5 foot catch pole...im wandering how that cat got a hold of you.

Would never dream of letting a little scratch topple an ice cold Lone Star Light. You can WANDER all you want swamp wolf, just try to get home before the rain

My buddy was running 8 foot extension cables girth hitched to trees, you can probably figure out how sporting our dispatches were lol! We will be using drags next year with about 5-6 foot of chain.

Well at least that scratch is not getting infected enough to confuse your spelling ablilities...lol.

Btw...did y'all see any illegal aliens trying to cross the border?

That Husky bag makes a great trapping bag..eh?

Great pics.I thought you said you caught some fox,Oh wait,I did see a fox in a couple pics.

Lol! Yep, you did. Kayla is a good one, wonderful cooking and no problems with dispatch either! Shannon is out of his league with that one, so he better lock her down quick! Lol!


We did catch some grey fox...





And one javelina





I like the husky bag a lot. It's definitely working out as a great trapping bag. No illegal aliens trying to cross while we were there, that we could tell. They do find them out on the ranch about 3-4 times a year. The terrain is rough, but allows for lots of hiding spots.

Wow, I have a big ol' dose of Lion Envy! Two questions......did you save the meat on those lions, and what did the Grandad Bobcat weigh??

Great Adventure and pictorial! Thankyou guys so much for sharing this with us! Just what I needed !!

Wish I could make it!

Excellent, looks like everyone got lots of critters and had fun. Thanks for sharing.

Very nice cats congrats

Come on ole hand.....you got to be quicker than them wildcats...not a bad idea to start a knife fight or two with some Mexican banditos in the off season to hone your reflexes lol

Both lions are frozen whole, yet to be skinned out, but I'm not eating it. I'll probably debone it and use as bait in cat cubbys abd coyote dirtholes.
The grandad bobcat was definitely on the decline at just over 25 pounds.


I try to to give the people what they need. Thanks


Jeremy you know you ALWAYS have a spot on my line. As long as your cages can catch bobcats lol!


Even without the known "ok" outcome, that's a chance I'd take again. Bobcat in hand. And a scar that has a story behind it I can't wait to tell. Lol! In hindsight, I'm pretty glad I wasn't quite quick enough in that rock crevasse that day. Thanks for the congrats. Figures.

Finally ! Someone else from Kingsville! My brother, parents, and most of my relatives are still there, i moved way the heck up by Chicago for work, but Texas will always be home.

Good to know ya. I'm native to Corpus Christi, but I'm enjoying it here a little west.

Do the lions ever turn up in trappable numbers in the country over to the east more, or are they only "common" in the west end of southern Tx.??

I would say no. Not in trappable numbers. They're pretty concentrated to the western part of the state. But there are sightings around Austin recently from credible eyes. So they may be moving that direction. When the Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist came to get the tounge samples, he said most lions were coming from the area where we were to Laredo.

Excellent story, and pictures. Really makes me miss running the lines and setting steel. Cannot wait until retirement to hopefully get back into it.
Thanks for sharing.

Man you are in an awesome area for fur. All I can say is DONT WAIT! Have a little fun now too!

Ttt cool ole zthread

Congratulations on the Cats
Ouch! On the nose slapp

great pic. and story , thanks for sharing

Ttt

Very cool, always neat to see how folks trap in different areas. Always thought it would be neat to trap in a different state for different animals, I trap in snow so trapping without it would be weird lol. Every area has it's challenges no doubt so pretty neat to see how trappers overcome those challenges and connect.

Pretty cats, nice catches, and thanks for posting. Makes most of us jealous......jk