Moonlight Cat 09-10-11

[Tomfish]

I took the wife out for moonlight fishing last weekend. We were trying for catfish up in that long creek arm with the power boat course in the ski arm. No bites at the entrance so we started creeping further back into the arm. It was really dark and we started to hear some weird animal calls... sounded like a woman screaming. We were about 15 feet from shore when we heard rocks falling and the brush moving around.

Sure enough, when we shined our lights on the shore there was a nice-sized mountain lion creeping in the weeds about 40 ft away. Maybe it was just curious - but it was definitely tracking us. My wife started flipping out so I started the motor and we took off.

Luckily we caught some fish during the daylight hours so technically we beat the skunk that day. We were trying to catch cats but that cat almost caught us.

[SDDave]

Thanks for the report, I left as they were letting people in that night, low turn out to say the least.
The sounds at night are hard to describe, you have to be there, sound of the bait fish popping the surface, splash of a fish... cougars breaking brush stalking people in boat.... whoa wait a minute... thats not good...
I know those things can jump about 40 ft and can swim you guys did the right thing of pulling out of there as fast as you could. The big cat might not have been hungry, everyday I see deer with fawns, lots of sets of twins, sure thats whats bringing the cats around, and there not shy of the daylight either, people who setup camp during the day are at risk from the big cats.... You should notify the park staff, call the main office and asked to speak to Lori Bennett, maybe this should be taken seriously.

[fishinone]

Interesting!

Those cougars are nothing to fool with but what a memorable moment.

You won't forget that fishing trip.

BTW, what did you catch?