Lions, moose, lazy hunting and no shooting-- I'm blessed

[Okanagan]

Wal, I ain’t shaved since last Thursday, which is the first clue to this yarn.  Wife is gone back east to see grandkids.  I took Friday off and today is a holiday so it is a four day weekend. 

Yesterday at first light I was glassing vast snowy clearcuts for moose, driving from one vantage point to another to look over big country.  Then I came on three fresh lion tracks in the road.  It was a great calling set up right there, but it was Nov. 11 and lion season opens Nov. 15 in that area…  I followed them anyway.

All three looked to be the same size, a smallish medium.  After I followed them a quarter mile I finally decided that one of them was slightly bigger and it walked a little different pattern than the other two.  Momma and nearly grown cubs.

They left the road into reprod (planted) trees grown thick together and about 20 feet tall, every branch loaded with 2 inches of fresh snow.  Zipped up tight and parka hood up, bull through.  After 250 yards they went into fairly open old growth timber, working their way up the edge of the reprod.  They went up a gently stair stepping ridge with superb calling set ups. 

I’d hoped to find a kill soon and when I didn’t after a quarter mile, I set up and called with a hand call for 12 minutes.  A circle farther showed no sign that they had come back, so they were likely out of hearing range of the small closed reed call that happened to be around my neck. 

Spotted a moose an hour later and stalked it but it was a cow.  Fun day.

[Dave]

Sounds like a lot of fun!  I'm guessing that you'll be back in there once the season opens?

[Okanagan]

Yep, I love hunting lions and messing around to see what they are up to, but I probably won't go back there.

That area actually isn't very good lion country and that's the first time I've seen a track in there.  Also, snow will soon fall so deep that hundreds of miles of roads in that area will be closed to all but snowmobiles and I don't have one. 
 
Cougars move so much and cover so much country that the odds are poor to find one in the same place again.   There are exceptions of certain places I've discovered where all lions in the area seem to pass by and leave a mark.  There are four places I know of scattered over 300 miles of country where lions cross a road in the same place.   But a man could wait a week or a month before the next one crossed.  Most lion hunters, especially the guides, wait for a tracking snow and then drive as many miles of roads as possible in good lion areas looking for a fresh track crossing.  Then you have a lion located to START hunting. 

Once all the big game seasons are over on Dec. 15 I'll hunt lions whenever I get time to get out.   Meanwhile, when I get a day to hunt it will be for freezer meat deer, and go for lion only if good opportunity presents.

Cougar season is open year round in several regions of BC, including the one where I live, with a limit of two.  Where I was after moose yesterday is a half day drive from home and has a more restricted cougar season.

I gotta retire so I can hunt more, go hunting the minute a good tracking snow falls, and play with grandkids.




 

[coyote101]

I gotta retire so I can hunt more, go hunting the minute a good tracking snow falls, and play with grandkids.

I highly recommend it.  As far as I'm concerned, it's everything it's cracked up to be.

Pat

[FinsnFur]

 Code!...you reading this?

[code]

Yes I am .

[KySongDog]

Sounds like a great day no matter the outcome.   

I gotta retire so I can hunt more, go hunting the minute a good tracking snow falls, and play with grandkids.

I have to agree with Pat.  Highly recommended.