Ten-Year Dream Fulfilled

From the owners of Maine Hunting Today, comes a Legend, a truth, an inspiration, and an experience like no other. Read "The Legend of Grey Ghost and Other Tales from the Maine Woods."

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10 YEAR DREAM FULFILLED

By Blake Lanoue

I went out one Sunday with high hopes of calling in some dogs within one of my favorite areas inside of unit 9. The 90-minute drive from my house is always worth it. I was very disappointed however, to find that all of the roads that I usually travel up there were closed! I assume they were closed because all of the bad weather and the Forest Service didn't want people in there tearing them up for the local rancher to deal with. Not to be discouraged, I started to driving around looking for a good area to try out my new caller. I found one spot that looked good. As soon as I got out of the truck, I realized that the wind was blowing about 20 miles per hour and in the wrong direction for this set-up. The exact same thing happened again on my second attempt to make a call. Because I needed to be back home at a certain time, I decided that I was just cursed this day and started towards home. What a bummer!! I was so jazzed up about trying out this new caller that I had built. I drove all this way and didn't even get to turn it on!

As I got closer to home, I noticed a spot right along the highway that I thought looked promising and I decided to make a stop to check it out. The wind was good and I still had some time so I loaded up and started walking. The terrain was super thick, but I was determined to get in at least one chance to make a call. Then all of a sudden, the terrain gave way to a very large canyon with near-vertical rocky cliffs on both sides. Immediately, I thought of the elusive bobcat and quickly got set up.

This is where the story gets good. I placed the call about twenty yards from the edge of the canyon and about twenty yards to my left. I sat right on the edge of the cliff under a very large Juniper. The plan was to get a cat to come up the cliff and walk in front of me on the way to the call. I let the first set of calls go from my caller. The sound was echoing off all the walls and sounded great. After a minute or two of silence, I started the call over. Then it happened. I was looking to the right when I slowly reached down to turn my caller off. When I looked up again, there he was staring in my direction. He had come in from the opposite side of the caller. I now had this cat looking for the caller, which I luckily had just turned off, and I wasn't ready for a shot. After a few minutes of staring at each other, he decided that I was worth having for lunch and he started directly towards me. By this time, I was a wreck!! Not only had I just called in my first bobcat, I had a cat coming right at me - at VERY close range. When he stepped behind a rock I had a split second to get into position and raise my rifle. When I looked through the scope he was thirty yards away!! I wanted to take him then, but I was shaking too bad to risk the shot. I took a deep breath and relaxed just enough. By this time, he was crouched down low and his eyes were fixed right on me! Because he was crouched so low, I had only a head shot or a spine shot. I didn't want to ruin the pelt, so I waited for him to make a move. When he was a mere fifteen feet away, he turned slightly to his right and I let him have it. The shot was true and he went down quick. Now I really started shaking!! I literally had to put my gun down, stand up and slowly walk over to my call to calm myself down. I was pumped!! When I finally made it over to him, I just sat there thinking about everything that had just happened and about everything I had to learn before getting to this point. My dream had finally come true!

This cat was a young male that weighed in at only about 25 or 30 pounds. Nevertheless, I will have this memory till the day I die. I must thank my wife, who the night before, encouraged me to get out and try out the caller that I had just spent so much time and energy building. She has always supported my addiction to calling predators and for that I am grateful.