Want to Call More Mountain Lions? Call Them at Home
Identifying and calling near what I call cougar lay-ups holds more promise than blind calling.
After my last webinar on calling mountain lions Predator TalkCast with Mark Healy I had several requests to more fully explain what a mountain lion/cougar lay-up is and explain what it looks like. I’ll discuss that more in depth in this post.
First, let me start by saying that our success in calling mountain lions depends a great deal on this aspect of our calling system. There is a huge difference in areas that look good for lions and actually are good for lions–areas that are good for lion have actual evidence (tracks, scrapes, scat, kills, rancher sightings) that support your idea that an area is hot and has frequent lion activity.
A mountain lion lay-up is best defined as a location where a lion will spend its day resting (laid-up) for several hours while the sun is up. Normally, these areas are tall rocky outcroppings near long ridges that allow the lion to look out over its territory and provide security for the lion. These rocky areas are frequently covered in very heavy brush and have brush lined routes running to and from the major travel routes the lions use.
Dave Martens and I find these locations by walking ridge lines that have lion sign on them and looking for inhospitable places for a cat to “disappear” into for several daytime hours until the sun starts to fade and the lion comes back out to hunt. Here’s a photo of a lay-up to give readers a better idea of what they look like:
Mountain lion sign such as tracks, scat, and scrapes were used to identify this area as an area used for daytime “lion parking”. Are cougars laid-up here every day? No – but if you call near this location enough times you’ll eventually call when the cougar is in this lay-up. Timing is critical and you need to have the good fortune of calling on the day a lion is laid-up in that location. To achieve consistency calling lions you need to know where the lions tend to travel and bed down while the sun is up.
NOTE: Yes, it’s true that lions do sometimes move around during the daylight hours. We have found that to be more of the exception than the rule. Our most frequent times for getting trail camera photos of lions happens at night, dusk, and dawn.
Here is another photo of a mountain lion lay-up:
How did we get up here? It wasn’t on a horse or in a truck or on a quad. Finding lay-ups is mountain lion scouting at its finest—great exercise.
After reading this post, I also suggest reading a past post entitled Preseason Scouting – find it here: http://tinyurl.com/ntkoob
SIDE NOTE:
Look at the well-defined saddle in the background running along the back ridge. That is an excellent calling location and it is not far from these lay-up areas (the photo is deceptive and distance is hard to gauge). I will cover ridge lines and saddles in future posts.
I hope these photos of cougar lay-ups will help everyone gather a better idea of what to look for in the field. As always, your comments are welcome as are your questions.
Good Hunting,
Mark Healy
480-882-1210
Mark@wildlifecallers.com
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[...] have written other blog posts HERE , HERE, and HERE and posted scouting photos on our Wildlife Callers’ Facebook Page that talk [...]
Hey Mark nice info and cool pics. I would imagine alot of these lay-ups are on south facing slope to keep in the shade. Do you find it is better to call the lions up or down to you? Would you sneek in from the back side of the mountain or the bottom as not too be seen?
P.S. check out coueswhitetail.com and check out the pic the guy bowhunting this weekend took of three lions coming to a waterhole only thirty yds away. too bad for him there is now a season on lions in that unit.
Thanks Josh
Josh,
Thank you for an excellent question. We always try to call them downhill when possible. If a way exists for us to get below the lay-up and stay in the darkest shade possible we do. The exception to this is when we’re on a canyon rim and access to the lower areas don’t really exist. In this situation we get back from the rim and force lions, or any other animals coming in to move in from the rocky hideouts.
Your assumption about the shady side of the hill is true too. The lions that we’ve called during the day stayed near cover and in the shade whenever possible. When looking at possible setups, we pay attention to the shade and available cover for the lion to use when coming to the call.
Excellent link to those lion photos. I’m hoping someday I’ll have the opportunity to take one with a bow.
Regards,
Mark Healy
Hey Mark nice write up and photos.If you were to call would you call from the saddle and sneak up from the other side? Or try to call the lion down to the bottom of the canyon? Is this a norhtfacing slope? And is that one key to looking for lay-ups?
P.S.
Check out coueswhitetail.com and look at the photos of the bowhunter that had thrre lions come into a waterhole and drink at thirty yds. Too bad season wasn’t open yet.
Take care Josh Ebert
Josh,
There are two ways to call this particular area. If it fell into my late morning or early afternoon lineup, I would get into the canyon below the rim rock areas, get deep in the shade and tight cover and call from there. I believe the best way to call a midday lion is to get as close as possible to the layup and call it downhill.
If I was going to be on this stand at first or last light I would get in or near the saddle and call from there (depending on the view). In these two time windows, the lions are getting active again and will be moving back to their travel & hunting pathways. That long ridge where the saddle is located is a pathway. Calling in the saddle will give the caller the bast opportunity to attract a lion that might have laid-up elsewhere and is now up & moving.
On early and late stands I’m “broadcasting” more and during the day I’m trying to get in their living room.
I hope this answers your questions.
Thank you,
Mark Healy
Mark,
Neat photos! I’ve always heard, “Find the tallest, most rugged, most inaccessable mountain around to look for lion.” No first hand experience in that regard, but your photos exactly like that area!
Have you ever read “The Legend of Ben Lilly.” ?? You’ve like it. Ben Lilly was a bear and lion hunter — he always used four hounds — in the late 1800′, early 1900′s. He took Teddy Roosevelt bear hunting. And was said to have killed the last grizzly on Escudilla Mt. near Springerville. Bob C.
Bob –
Thank you for cheking out the site and making some comments. Hunter / caller participation is always encouraged.
Lions live in the ugliest stuff around – I suppose it makes ‘em feel secure.
I have not read the book that you mention above, but I will buy a copy and read it. While we’re on the topic of fun books, I will suggest a book by Jonathan Kibler called “Lion Tales”. The setting for most of the hunts is here in AZ and the stories are great. Jon currently lives in Roosevelt but will be moving any day now to Texas (if he hasn’t left already). AZ is losing a cougar hunting legend.
Thank you again for stopping in!
Mark Healy