# Nice Tom and Yoter



## SMITTY1233 (Dec 8, 2003)

Man its been a brutal season snow wise in Northern lower. After a few not great ones thought this couldn't be worse and it has been by far. Hardly any three of four day stretches since January 1st of consistent conditions has made it a real struggle. 

Long time buddy with a big itch to kill a cat has been hunting with me for a few years and it just hasn't materialized for him. I saw the snow coming in late thursday night into Friday and told him that I was headed up Friday-Sunday pending conditions. He said he had obligations on Saturday he could not miss. I looked around for a a few other shooters and never found one so called him back and said drive up Thursday yourself and hunt Friday and then drive home. This may be one of our last opportunities with cat season ending March 1st and the weather outlook who can tell anymore. He was in to make the 3.5 hour drive north and then back the very next day. 

We woke up at 4am Friday morning stepped outside to a fresh inch of snow and a snow coming down so hard you couldn't see very far while driving. My heart sank as I knew finding a track would be near impossible. We started our checks anyhow and about 630 am I saw a slight indentation of a track on the the road and got out and blew it out. Sure enough a nice tom track. It was impossible to tell where it left the road and soon we lost the track. I knew that area well enough to know a few walking checks where you have to hike a bit. I finished checking from the truck and a half hour before daylight started walking with a flashlight. Sure enough found him on the creek bed just SE of where I had originally found the road track except this time it only had a skiff of snow in it. I knew the track was good enough to head back get the hounds and get the other two trucks up in our area. Didn't take long and Red and Sally had the bobber up and running. He headed north hard and I had left my shooter in a pinch they like to go through when jumped. He was 1.9 miles out of the hunt when Red and Sally started screwing the cat down. I radioed him and told him to start walking and I was coming for him. Soon I had him in my truck and was headed to the last trail they had crossed before going up into the high hill country. I told him get on the line and start walking if I radio to stop make sure you stop and get ready as a lot of times the cat will run back down the line. About 300 yards in I saw Red tree on the Garmin radioed Jason and asked how far he was away from the dogs. He said 600 yards and I told him to start hoofing it he is 600 yards from killing his first Tom. I jumped out and headed in 200 yards into my walk he radioed and said the cat was treed. I told him don't let him down but don't shoot until I'm there. Soon after he had harvested his first Michigan Bobber and he was thrilled! 


Later that day the temps got into the low 40's and knowing they were going down below zero I knew there was no running on Saturday so I had planned to use Saturday as a scouting day. Woke up to a fresh 1/2" on top of a hard crust the dogs would certainly go through every step. Didn't even load the dogs and told everyone else in camp I'd be heading home after my morning checks. During my checks the back window of the truck decided to blow out (which made a real cold ride home). My good buddy Dan and I were figuring out how to put some plastic over the blown out window, slamming doors, puppy running around field, talking and loading trucks. I look out across the field at the cabin and there is a coyote standing in the field. Dan said I got my rifle right here. He shoots and hit the coyote. We try to run him down on foot but couldn't keep up going through the swamp. Didn't want to have to put dogs on that snow but didn't have a choice. Through Doc and Darla down and they soon had the coyote bayed up under an log jam. Walked in and finished him with my pistol! Good weekend in the northwoods!


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