I have gotten no hunting done the past 6 weeks but I am getting excited for the bear hunt which opens on April 13. I am running the dogs more to get them conditioned for the bear hunt. I have sold 4 of the puppies but have 8 yet to sell.

Spring Hunting and Puppies
I think spring is coming but at times the weather says it's not. I caught a good lion about a month ago on the Wahweep but decided not to take him. The dogs did great work in the ledges but a couple of them got some scratches and needed penicillin. I 'm getting excited now to start the bear hunt. I've got to give the dogs more exercise to get them into better condition. Most of my spare time now is spent gathering cattle from the winter range. I have two litters of puppies some promised and some for sale they were born January 17th and January 31. The second litter is registered out of Scout and Chloe, the other litter is out Scout's son Cub and Lucky, a granddaughter of Scout and Chloe. They are super bear prospects. Call me at 435-679-8707 if you are interested. I live in Tropic, Utah.

Finally, some snow and the lion hunt is on

We had a good snow storm November 30 through December 1. Dale Mcquillan and I drove a whole bunch of roads on December first without finding any cat tracks. The following Saturday the weather was about the same- snow flurries following a day of snow mixed with rain. In the afternoon we found tracks of two lions that had crossed the road but they had snow in them. We had no idea how old they were but estimated they were made the day before since mud had been tracked into the snow in place. There was only one way to see if they were runnable so I put Sam on them. He could smell scent but did not open or indicate they were very hot. He kept moving up the draw but did not bark so we left him and took the rest of the dogs on a road that we expected the tracks would cross. The tracks had not crossed that road so we went back and took a signal on Sam. He was farther up the canyon but not very far so we drove another road that circled the head of the canyon on the other side.
Near the head of the canyon we cut another snowed in lion track headed toward the canyon. After examining the track and deciding against turning dogs on it until we saw what Sam was doing I took another telemetry reading. After tuning in and determining the direction I faintly heard sam barking and a minute later was getting tree signals. I took 2 pups out of the box and headed in the direction of the bark. When I got the edge of the canyon I could tell it was a tree bark so I radioed Dale. He unloaded Joe, a Plott dog he had recently purchased in California, and brought him to the canyon rim where he turned him to Sam's bark. To sum it all up I tallied my first lion of the season. Sam had done an impressive job but I wish I had given a few more dogs some practice.

Winter is here, but where is the snow

The mountain lion season started November 21 but I didn't get to go hunting. The hills are dry and the weather is super windy. I'm hoping for better hunting conditions next weekend. The bear season hasn't ended but nobody told the bears. We haven't found a runnable track since the first weekend in November. The bears were hard to find this season but we did manage to find a big boar for my son, Bryant and two good boars for friends who had tags.