Cat Chasing in British Columbia

When: Jan 11 to Jan 19 2012
Where: Tatlaloyo Lake (near Williams Lake) British Columbia, Canada
Outfitter: Skinner Creek ESL Guest Ranch – Doug and Julie McMann
www.skinnercreekhunts.com

Game Hunted – Cougar (2x), Lynx (2x), wolf
Game Taken – Lynx (1x), treed one cougar
Guide: Doug McMann (chilcotin hillbilly on AR)

Background
I am by no means a mountain man or a serious, hard core hunter of “animals in the north country”. I just like to have a good time with good people and with my family. I had seen, like you, many reviews of good cougar hunts with “chilcotin hillbilly” (Doug McMann) on AR. With my last son graduating college this year and with a month off at Christmas, I contacted Doug and set up a hunt in January for cougar and lynx. Little did I know that I would soon be moved from the US to Cairo Egypt with my job.

I had no expectations other than Doug was the kind of guy I like to hunt with. I have no experience hunting with hounds or from snow mobiles or in the snow for that matter.

How We Hunted

My son and I arrived in Williams Lake and made the trip to Tatlaloyo Lake with Doug to meet his bride, Julie and children – Colton and Courtney (Emilie to some). They operate a guest ranch where Julie boards non English speaking kids from around the world in the summer to teach them English and Doug guides for cougar, lynx, mule deer and black bear. They live in a neat log home overlooking the Canadian Rockies. The guests stay in cabins on the property. Julie does the cooking and we share meals with the family each day. While we were there, the McMann’s were hosting a young lady from Taiwan, Cynthia, who was a fanatical hockey player and fan. You may see her name in the Olympics someday as a lady hockey star from Taiwan.

Doug and Julie's Home



After the snow we needed


View from the House


More Views


Local Ice Cream shop-


The Post Office


Nearby cabin on land we hunter


Hunting lynx and cougar with hounds is much the same as hunting buffalo in Zimbabwe or bongo in Cameroon. You ride the roads looking for fresh tracks to follow. In Canada, you ride in 4WD truck or on snow machines if the snow conditions are workable. Further, the hunt is very weather dependent. By this I mean that fresh snow is a “must” for seeing fresh tracks. Frozen or crusty snow hides the tracks and makes locating the animals difficult. The ideal weather is about 20F with fresh snow daily. We had those conditions on only a couple of days. We successfully tracked, treed and shot a lynx in those conditions.

A warm day before the cold showed up

When a fresh track was found, Doug would look it over and decide whether or not to follow it. If the track was good, the dogs were put on it to see it they got excited. If fresh, the dogs howled and took off. If not, they stood around looking at us like we were wasting their time.

A Fresh Track


We had good and bad luck on this. When we arrived, the weather was above freezing and had been for several days. This caused some bears to come out of hibernation early. On our first day, the dogs picked up scent while riding in the truck, we put them out and off they went. It turns out that they followed a grizzly bear for about 9 miles before we could call them off and gather them up.

The dogs never quit a track-



We learned that if the track was a cougar, the cat would likely tree quickly after been jumped. Cats do not have the lung power to run a long distance. They seek protection in a tree quickly to get away from the dogs. The lynx would behave similarly but would likely try to elude the dogs in thick blow downs or dense thickets. If unsuccessful, they seek a tree as well.

Doug used a GPS on each dog to follow where they run to make recovery of the dogs easier and location of a treed cat quicker. Based on how the dogs moved on the GPS, Doug could determine what they were chasing and if a cat were treed or not.

The GPS told us where the dogs were and how far they had traveled-


On our hunt, we chased two hot lynx tracks treeing and taking one lynx. We located one set of cougar tracks that could be followed and successfully treed a healthy female cougar. We killed the lynx and passed on the cougar.

The cougar we treed -






Look up in the tree behind us-


The Lynx we took -



Our biggest problem was the weather. We needed regular snow falls to help with finding fresh tracks and needed temperatures above 0F but below 32F. The snow needs to be deep enough to run snow machines on but not so deep the animals move out of the area. We were severely hampered by brutal cold weather. For four days, we had daily high temps of -20F (-34C). This gave the dogs a lot of trouble and hampered our ability to move around.

The best way to travel in snow -



The daily challenge was shown on the thermometer


It got a bit cold for a boy from Oklahoma




On our last hunting day, we encountered a pack of wolves but did not connect on a long shot. Wolves are plentiful there but not easy to see. They are very “man wary” and do not sit still long. Doug set several traps for them but so far had not connected.

Impressions

1. I expected hound hunting to be easy. Not so. Hounds can only follow what they smell. If the weather does not cooperate, the hunting is very tough. I experienced weather problems in Cameroon last year with no rain. No rain meant a lack of fresh tracks to follow which made location animals very hard. The same is true when hunting cougar or lynx. No fresh snow means few fresh tracks. Ultra cold weather means the dogs cannot scent fresh tracks as well.

2. I expected cougars to be localized and easy to fine. Not so. Cougars travel great distances in search of food and breeding. This area is normally a prime cougar area due to a large deer population. This particular winter, the deer were not in their predictable wintering grounds. The snow was intermittent and had the deer holed up in other places. Thus, the cougars were scarce. We found two and maybe a third fresh cougar track – each were females. We did not cut a big tom cougar track.

3. I expected lynx to be easy to tree. They are – provided you have snow conditions that allow the dogs to find them. We saw plenty of lynx tracks but the cold or lack of snow hampered the dogs. The one lynx we tracked and treed required about 5 miles of running for the dogs and 2 miles of hiking in 6” to 18” snow by us to locate.

4. The skill in this type of hunt is getting the cat in the tree. The shooting of the cat is a non-event. Getting the cat treed is key. Doug’s dogs know their business and are a “lock” to tree a cat if they can get a track to follow. On our two best tracks, we treed cats.

5. We could have shot the female cougar. She was in good health, looked to weigh about 120 lbs., and had a prime coat. However, we were looking for a tom, a big tom, a bruiser of a tom – something over 150 lbs. and big. It was not to be on this trip.

6. Looking for tracks is hard work. We put on a lot of miles in the truck and used the snow machines as much as weather allowed. Using the snow machines was fun and I really liked it, but it is not as easy as you would think.

If I Had This to Do Over Again

1. I would likely plan for 12 to 14 days if 2 cougars were the target. It takes time and good weather to find a big tom. But that still does not guarantee success, but it helps.

2. I would take extreme cold weather gear and be sure it will handle -25F. We had adequate gear, but not perfect gear.

Kids headed to the bus stop in the cold


3. I would book a spring bear hunt and have two tags. The weather is better and the bears are in prime condition.


Summary

Doug and Julie run a fun operation. They take you into their family and you spend a lot of time getting to know them. I could not have asked for a more hospitable couple. The only problem I had was Courtney- their 11 year old daughter. I challenged her to a Pente Tournament. Pente is a board game that requires strategy and deft planning. She beat my brains out 5 out of 6 nights. We played the best of 11 games each night and I was severely thrashed. I humbly bow to the champ. My son played video games with Colton (15 years old and a serious snow machine/moto cross racer) in the evenings.

The Champ and the Chump


Doug and Julie have hosted Tred Barta in the past and are preparing to host him on a winter lynx hunt. As you know, Tred suffered a spinal stroke and is paralyzed from the chest down. He took a black bear last year with Doug and his dogs. They have adapted a cabin for Tred and his wheeled ATV chair. Doug and Julie go the extra mile to make you feel at home and be a part of their lives. My son and I truly enjoyed being with them.

Hunting is hunting and nothing is guaranteed. I would like to have a couple of cougar skins to show for our effort but it was not to be. Doug did everything he could to locate a track, but the toms were elsewhere this time. I would expect that Doug is 50% or so on getting a big tom but some years he will be higher and some will be lower. Lynx are more abundant and can be taken if that is the focus.

He is just starting to offer spring black bear hunts with dogs. From what I can tell, this should be nearly 100% successful as bears are thick in this part of British Columbia. You can take 2 bears each spring if you like.

If you have the desire to hunt cougar – go with Doug. He knows his business and has a great area. There is no certainty you will kill a big cat but you will have fun and an adventure.

Doug and Julie - Thanks for a great time and hospitality!!!

Everybody I have taken on hound hunts who have not hunted with them before say two things.

1. It is a lot harder then I thought.

2. It is a heck of a lot of fun.

Amen to both comments...

More people should do this! I assume the cougars move around a big area. Hope you get one next time.

Thank you for the report

I feel as if I was there

yes I agree hunting with dogs are hard work and not for the infirm

do it while you can

Thanks for sharing your report & picture

I'm going to BC for Lynx / ML xmas this year, can't wait!

Excellent report.....thanks, and congrats on the hunt.

On my list within 5 years.