Cougar up the Trask. Not fun for Jennie

[Jennie@ifish]

I fished way up the Trask yesterday at a favorite hole, with Bill. As I usually do, I find myself wandering a bit too far from where we started. I just start looking upriver, and keep saying, "Oh! Just around this next bend will be great water!"

Anyhow, I had just found that great water, and began to fish. One cast, and I got this terribly eerie feeling that someone or something was watching me.

All it took was one turn of my shoulder and a quick look to see that indeed, something large, furry and golden brown was watching me. I have never been so afraid in all my life. Here I am, no gun, no nothing, and there is a cougar, doing a low moan growl right behind me. He was no more and maybe less than 20 feet from me, standing in the brush, by a log.

All of the sudden, a TV program that I had heard ran through my brain. They said, "If you've spend a considerable time out in the forest, you have been watched by a cougar." OK, it's happening...

Then, it said I should make lots of wild noises, and wave my arms and make lots of commotion.

I couldn't move an inch at first. I was frozen solid, my rod tip in the air, and my bobber furiously beaten and pulling, downstream in the current.

Finally I let out a scream, backed up two slow steps, while reeling in. The cougar did not move.
It was like he was as frozen solid as I was.

I began walking away, slowly, as he watched me. Then, I just turned and flipping ran as fast as I could, back to where Bill was, screaming and flailing as I ran.

I'm sure it was quite a sight, as the first log I attempted to jump with my waders on, turned into a nose dive into the wet grass and rocks. I got up, and still no cougar behind me. I continued my rapid pace, thinking surely my heart couldn't withstand this, and I was gonna die, either from my heart ailment, or a cougar attack. Which one, I didn't care, I just knew I was done!

But I wasn't! I got to Bill, three or four corners down, and I collapsed, knowing Bill had a gun.

Bill, having never seen a cougar in the wild, was all excited, and... (get this) wanted to go see it!!! WHA? OK, you go, I'll stay here. I thought about going to sitin the truck, but I figured everything would be fine, and besides, I was collapsed on a rock and couldn't move.

With Bill gone, I realized that this stretch of water was much better than the stretch I had traveled to, and began to fish. I still kept a vigilant ear and eye out, though.

Nervous, I cast a couple times, my heart still racing. Out of the blue, I heard this terrible, screaming baby type growl... "REOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!"

IT WAS BILL and I thought I was going to kill him. He thought it was funny. I DID NOT IN ANY WAY THINK IT WAS FUNNY!!!!

Anyway, he didn't see the cougar, but he did find an elk carcass that had been dumped, and freshly ripped. The meat on the legs were peeled back.

Bill said, "This means to me that the cougar was probably desperately hungry. They wouldn't usually eat this kind of trash" OH GREAT! A desperately hungry cougar was looking at me!!!

Anyhow, please, all ye ifish hunters: If you want to know the exact location of this cougar, PLEASE go kill it! I like fishing there!

I promise you, I will never go there alone, again! I have in the past, fished there all by myself. I need to either pack a gun, or quit!

What an experience. I am so sore from sprinting an Olympic torture track, and still ticked off at Bill for causing more nightmares last night.

He, Bill, is in the doghouse, big time.

Mean school boy type stuff.

Now let me just get back at him for a minute. For some reason, Bill hates and is frightened by lizards, salamanders, snakes and such. I'm headed to the local pet store today. I think there may be a lizard or a salamander coming to a tackle box near Bill, soon.

Please go forth and cleanse my fishing area of cougars, OK?

I thought Cougars were blonde, like in the zoo, but this one was a darker brown tipped animal. I had no idea they were so huge!!!

Every time I think about it, this happens on my face. :depressed:

Jen

[ 01-18-2004, 06:23 AM: Message edited by: Jennie@ifish ]

[Jennie@ifish]

Why didn't the cougar go after me, do you think?
I thought they usually attacked. I mean, come on, I gotta be better food than a rotting elk carcass!

[sturgn]

I think he would have attacked, but he was to busy laughing............. :tongue: Sounds scary, I wish I could have seen it.

[billc_sbio]

Jennie,

I once knew a guy who had a "pet" cougar...it had been one of the trained ones once used in the Cougar automobile commercials.

He kept it at his motorcycle shop as a night "watch dog". It had been declawed but still had its teeth.

Sometimes I'd take friends to go see it.

When it started playing, it often got fairly rough. One thing we always had to remember was that unlike a house cat or pet dog, you couldn't just say, "No!" and hit it! If you hit it, it thought that just meant to intensify the roughnesss! That cat often got out of hand and several times I had to back out of the room, using a chair as a block between the cat and myself, just like you see in the circus!

All I can tell you is that if an adult Cougar gets hold of the average person, unarmed without a gun or knife IN hand and ready to use, there's a really good chance they won't survive it! Those cats are SO strong, fast and cunning, most people don't have a clue!

[Rauly]

Jen I think he was just watching you fish or maybe he didn't think he could tackle something that could scream like that. Glad your alright.

Rauly

[SLEDDER]

Very glad you are still with us!!

[Jennie@ifish]

When I was little, my parents had a friend with a pet cougar. I was about 5 or so, and I thought it would be a grand idea to go play with it, while it was chained to a tree.
I was alone, and went out to pet the nice kitty.

The nice kitty wanted to play roughly, and it attacked me. It didn't hurt me badly, but I did get cut up a bit.

I think I've always been afraid of them, since!

I was always getting into trouble like that. On the way to a family vacation in Nevada, my brother was telling me how to properly hold a snake. So, immediately upon arrival in Nevada, at a friend's home, I walked down to a pond. There was a long, 3 or 4 foot snake there. I grabbed it, and held it just like my brother said, behind the head. I walked it up to the house, and walked in the kitchen. "See, Mom? This is how you hold a snake!" Immediately, that snake turned it's strong head around and bit me!

I think it was a water snake. I got sick, but not too bad. I still remember my Mother screaming!

Anyhow, I am OK, but I am curious if that cougar is still around. I don't think I'll go check, though! :smile: ...and I don't grab snakes that way, anymore, either. It doesn't work! :smile:

Jen

[Water Ready]

Glad you didn't make the back page of the small print section of the paper! A good alternative to packing a gun with you, is mace or pepper spray. Not as bulky, and works. Also won't have to go look for a wounded animal. Doesn't matter where you are anymore. They are always watching :shocked: Bring back the Hounds!

[Rusty]

Wow! Jennie, what a frightening experience! I am glad you are OK .

I believe you were "spared" an attack because Mr. Cougar had something more tasty on his mind and was just defending his meal. Normally a cougar, or bear for that matter, would see your running as a challenge and take off after you. But thankfully this did not happen.

I've been big game hunting in Oregon for 35 years and have never even seen one!

Rusty

[Bait O' Eggs]

Put on some good smelly bait, cast a hook to it, and see what kind of drag your reel has :shocked: I can see it now, record Cat caught on a Lami rod, Shimano reel, 12lb Trilene, Owner hook.... And dont forget the color of lip stick that bagged the cat. [img]graemlins/lurk.gif[/img]

Mistake #1 running from it. Fleeing prey will trigger the chase instinct. :shocked:

Raise your arms to make yourself look bigger, make big scary noises and get in the water if you have to [img]graemlins/idea.gif[/img] (never seen a cat that liked getting wet)

Probably a good thing the cat already had meat on the ground and was just trying to defend it.

I have only seen 2 cougars and neither of them hung around very long :depressed:

[ 01-18-2004, 08:29 AM: Message edited by: Bait O' Eggs ]

[Gus Orviston]

Nice adventure... you could become our equivelant of the croc hunter...jennie the cat chaser....Oh that was chased by the cat wasn't it. [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img]

Probably running wasn't such a good idea, hard not to I am sure. I saw a cougar about a month ago up on the Tucca. He wasn't lingering long, I stopped in his tracks, eeeerie.

I recall many years ago a guy in washington was jumped by one while riding mt. bikes or hiking. Scary but it wasn't so good for the cat, the guy was a wrestler for UW, upper weight class, the guy was seriously in shape. The cat bit the guy in the pectorals while in a head and arm!! Once the cat broke free he had realized he had wronly sized up the meal and took off.

Anybody else remember this story...

gus

[Miss B Haven]

Hmm... no cougars for me (thank you very much).

I did see a Lynx at our place in Mountaindale and that was bad enough. Didn't realize how big those guys are. I thought they were kinda like an overgrown house cat. This kitty was about the size of a Rottweiller though! What was really amzing is how it covered about 200 feet of ground in what seemed like a couple seconds and about 4 strides. :shocked:

[dla]

That cat is a problem if it stood it's ground over a kill. When they lose their fear of humans like that they need to die of high-speed lead poisoning.

[MikeT]

Jen,
Glad everything turned out ok. What a great adventure!

Go easy on Bill. I knew what was coming even before I read he had done the roar. Must be a guy thing....

Mike

[Jennie@ifish]

I bet when I turned to run, the cat did too.
It all went so fast, I can't recall seeing it run, but the fact that it didn't chase me pretty much makes me think that.

J

[Boedy]

Jennie send me a map to the area. Have some time off this week and will go take a look. Anybody want to go over and hunt this bad kitty with me Monday or Tuesday?

[ 01-18-2004, 10:06 AM: Message edited by: Boedy ]

[Jennie@ifish]

I don't do anything unless you say, "Kitty please?"

:smile:

OK, Sledder sent these to me. YIP! That's the bad, bad, kitty!

Beautiful pictures, though. Still, when I looked at them, I did this: :depressed: This really scared me. Can you tell?

[Boedy]

Kitty Please :smile:

[Jennie@ifish]

I just went fishing out on the Kilchis alone. I think I'm ruined. I kept looking all around feeling "that" feeling.

No kitty.

However, the people at the Idaville store say that one has been spotted in the last week, by the road in front of my house.

GREAT.

I need to learn to use a gun. Or, I'll get some mace. Wonder if it will fit in my pocket, with my shrimp? :smile:

[kayakfisher]

Send some info as to where it was please...pm if you wish.

m.

[Jerry Dove]

Kitty, Kitty, Kitty. Hey Jen I don't blame you for running. These things are big and more of them every day, check sunday Oregonian on feeding elk. Less Calfs every year. But then the bleeding hearts voted no more dogs hunting Kitties any more. I think I saw the same cat last year. three of us were drifting the upper Trask when all of a sudden we all felt like something or some one was watching us. Now before any one has a chance to make some smart comment about me needing to be watched, we looked up and saw the kitty seting on a rock bluf just above us. Boy can my nephew row a boat when he has to. Saw one at ODFW awhile back, killed up Kilches, bib, big, big.

[Jennie@ifish]

I sent it to Boedy.

Jen

[Gus Orviston]

STEW,, LOL, I can't believe I missed the obvious. 2'11" maybe.


gus

[B-run]

We had trouble with one that kept following us down the Deschutes last fall.
When we arrived at the launch, it was hanging in the camp ground.
Turned the info into the OSP, they have a report form for tracking.
Turns out it was a problem cat that killed some farm stock in the Dalles area prior, it was tracked down and shot a week later.
You may want to report it to ODFW and or OSP, they will look into it, it may allready have a record.

[Boedy]

It wont for long :grin:

[Dinikin]

I wonder if wearing a mask on the back of the head would help any?
As I heard that in China where they have tiger attackes that what people do. Since tigers only attack the back, that mask confuses them

[Buck]

Jennie - this is probably a repeat, but you may not know how lucky you were in this situation. Running away like you did is exactly the worst thing you could have done. Cougars are supreme predators and running away at a fast speed prompts the predatory instinct and they will often give chase and try to bring you down just because you ran. Additionally, a general rule in the woods is that if you see a cougar, it's because the cougar is stalking you already and doesn't necessarily mind being spotted by you. Cougars are highly secretive and can approach so quietly that even the best of us hunters may not hear them. I knew a guy in NE Washington who was hunting grouse and just happened to hear a very small twig crack behind him. He quickly turned around to see a cougar crouched ready to spring. He yelled loudly, but the cougar stayed crouched. When the cougar started to spring, he pulled the trigger on his pump shotgun (loaded with 8 shot for grouse) and the cougar ran down the hill. After regaining his composure, he contacted the state biologist and then returned with a buddy and his high-powered rifle. As it turned out, the cougar was dead almost 200 yards below where it was shot, but he will never forget how close he came to biting it and he was armed and ready to pull the trigger! I pulled up the following information that may help someone else who has a cougar encounter:

If you encounter a mountain lion while out enjoying our beautiful outdoors, you have two choices; either scare it away or kill it. If your choice is to frighten it away, don’t run. This only excites the animal and triggers its natural instinct to chase. Avoid this at all costs! Make yourself look very large by waving your arms while looking for large sticks and rocks to protect yourself. If the cat paces or crouches, it is getting ready to attack. Throw rocks and sticks to frighten the cat. Cats also hate noise. Make a lot of noise by yelling and keep doing so while repeating the other two steps. This will usually scare off a cougar. Hound hunters know good and well that a dog which does not bark or make a lot of noise is a dead dog. If these three steps do not work and the cat pounces on you, strike the animal square on the nose with the palm of your hand, as hard and often as you can before you join the food chain. This is very painful to the cat for the nose is one of the most sensitive parts on its body. I am sure you have been hit in the nose before and can recall the pain. Pepper spray is also a good idea. Be sure to spray them in the nose and eyes.

[winterkill]

This topic reminded me of a question I have been meaning to post on this board.

Over the last 2 years I have seen a big increase in the amount of bones I find in the woods. I am not talking about the stray bone you occaisonaly see in the woods, I'm talking about finding whole skeletons in one spot. In the last 2 years I have seen 2-3 WHOLE Cow elk skeletons and 1 three point buck skeleton. The buck skeleton was the only one that still had a little bit of slimy residue on the bones. All of these skeletons I have found in about a 5-6 square mile area. I think that it is due to cougars, but since I don't know that much about hunting felines I would like some input. Another reason I have been thinking it was cougars is because of a rub/scrape on a tree that is also in this area. The rub/scrape is on a fir tree maybe 15-20 inches around. It was low down near the base and the bark wasn't totally rubbed off the tree, it was more in tatters like a cat would do. However I showed it to my dad, my brother and another member of our hunting party who thought it could of been a spike elk (There are other elk rubbings in the same area). If somebody could actually confirm or deny whether it is a cougar I would appreciate it.

I have never been cougar hunting, but what I have been reading about the cougar population makes me want to buy a tag. Especially if I have one in my back yard. The problem is what to do with it after I kill it. I don't want to just waste an animal which is why i don't have a tag. But if somebody wants to give me some help with the kitty's I would almost certainly get a tag.

Ian

[24 on/ 48 off]

Glock.

'Nuff said.

--spud-- :smile:

[periwinkle]

Despite the seriousness of your situation your writing skills made it into a very humorous story.. Shame on Bill (he he) So has he had a lizzard experience yet?

Hummm, I'm wondering, were your waders 'damp' on the inside? :grin:

[TGFwriter]

Jen-
I have a graphic photo of a bear attack in Alaska if you want me to email it to you. I don't think you would enjoy it however.
Just look at how long it took you to see your first cougar in the wild. The chances of you seeing another are very slim.
I am glad you are ok too but what a unique expereince you have had!
Maybe you are in for a lucky springer season!

Originally posted by Bait O' Eggs:


Raise your arms to make yourself look bigger, make big scary noises

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">So that would make you look...what 3 feet tall? :grin: :tongue:

LOL sometimes you make it jst too easy Roy

[Dr Strangelove]

Glock seconded.

[Holehog]

Hi Jennie, Glad to here your still with us. I have read that when a lion encounter occurs that the last thing you should do is run, it triggers preadetor prey reaction of the lion to persue. I have also read that you should posture and look as large and loud as possible, maby the screamming scared the lion off. Anyway it turned out well, but what a scare!!!!
I would like to locate the critter if you are serious, send me a PM.

Best regard,

HH

[Boedy]

Went up there today and had a look around. Didnt find the dead Elk Jennie was talking about but I know I was in the area. Didnt lay eyes on mister tom but It sure would not have surprised me to have seen one up there sure is pretty country.

[skein]

Boedy,

Could be he's done with the elk carcass and gone looking for something a little fresher. I've got an electronic caller with a pretty good fawn bleat if you want to borrow it. I don't have to time to join you, but I could meet you somewhere and hand it off to you.

Most of us, I think, would like to see that cat gone so Jennie could relax and go fishing again. (Will she ever relax). And it wouldn't hurt to take a 30 or 40 kills-a-year predator out of the area.

Good luck to you.

Skein

[Boedy]

It sure is a nice area I may just head back over Wednesday depending on work and try again. Lots of Elk up there and I am sure that there are alot of cats up there maybe we should get the Ifish Cat hunt back on and plan a hunt in that area. Could cover it pretty well with a few groups I think and we would sure be doing alot of people a service if we could take a few cats out of that area.

[mcknerkneykak]

I'm a couger a-wishin'
That the lady a-fishin'
Would run and I'd chase her
To catch her and taste her
And be glad to accomplish my mission

#1 Whatever you did-- it turned out allright.
#2 As a rule cougers,coyotes, and bobcats are darker in color west of the Cascades
#3 This Bill guy sounds like he has a warped sense of humor.(I don't even know him and I like him.)

[OceanBlue]

Jennie! I'm so glad things turned out okay for you and that neither the cat, nor your flight harmed you. Double shame on Bill for scaring you again!