NW Nevada lion and coyote hunting

[dirtytough]

Pulled a big game tag for NW Nevada. Along the Cali border.

How’s the lion and coyote population there? If there is a decent population I might bring my predator stuff when I’m scouting in August. From what I can tell I don’t need a license to hunt coyotes. I do need a tag to hunt lions though. And it looks like you can’t night hunt in Washoe county?

Any corrections and/or comments?

Thanks.

 

[RockAndSage]

Congrats on your tag, those are good zones. Regarding mountain lion, yes, you do need a tag, but they're OTC. I always get a tag even if I have no plans on hunting cougar, just in case an opportunity presents itself, either when scouting or if something came into a predator call. They have set population management goals in each area, and the season is a full year, so you're supposed to call NDOW before you hunt a specific unit to make sure it hasn't been closed from the harvest limit being met there. If you do get one, you're required to present the head/hide to NDOW, where they put a seal on it.

Regarding the cougar population in NW NV, we've got plenty - and plenty of younger ones. California prohibits lion hunting, and this pushes a lot of them east to us as they mature and get away from their mothers, and get pushed out of territories by older lions. I haven't scouted or hunted Washoe in a few years, but I was up deer and antelope scouting east of Pyramid Lake a few weeks back, and came across 3 distinct, separate sets of cougar tracks within 3 miles of each other - 1 massive (likely) tom's, and a more moderate sized set with a mature juvenile paired up together, which I'm assuming was a mother and an older juvenile of hers. Deer sign was almost non-existent. Bear in mind, this wasn't an intense trip to cut sign - I was mostly glassing, with just a couple of hours total in different spots on foot looking for possible places to set up some game cams. The tom's tracks were on a road, and the paired up set was at a spring. But there was a very notable lack of deer and rabbit sign, in places where there should have been plenty of both, given the feed, cover, and water around.

As to coyote, there's tons. They're listed as unprotected in NV, so you're correct - no license needed. And no, no night hunting permitted in Washoe. Definitely bring your predator gear, you should have no problem getting into some 'yotes.