Bylsma tells us his hunting partner shot a cat the first day, while he connected with a 31-pound male on day three of a three-day hunt. "This was a great experience hunting bobcat with dogs, and a lot of fun," he says. "Seeing the cat coming through the woods was awesome!"
"A friend suggested this hunt, and I did not know what to expect," Bylsma tells us. "But I can recommend this hunt with Bill, who is a very knowledgeable bobcat guide. He guarantees you'll get a bobcat."
We talked to Massey about his guaranteed hunts, and he assured us that the quality of the dogs he and his partner use make a guaranteed hunt possible. "We hunt both lower Michigan and the Upper Peninsula," Massey says. "We have three dogs that will either bay the cat on the ground or force it to tree more than half the time. The rest of the time, they'll pressure it into running in a circle where we can walk in on it and kill it as it runs past -- assuming the hunter can hit it. Some people have a helluvua time, even with a shotgun."
Hunters travel by track to the hunting area. Most years, according to Massey, they don't begin using snowmobiles and snowshoes until February. This year, they haven't needed to use either at all, as snow-depths have measured in inches instead of the usual feet.
"We don't shoot small cats. I'm a fourth-generation cat hunter and have been at this professionally since 1986," says Massey, who strings telephone lines when he isn't hunting. "We try not to kill females, and we've been at it long enough that we can tell from the tracks what we are looking at. In........(continued)
