Originally Posted By: 6mm06
Tried calling the cat this evening for over an hour. Totally dry stand, but he is still around I feel sure. Our trail cameras get him pretty often.
I've killed 19 bobcats in just over a year and I don't hunt them all the time. That doesn't make me an expert, but I do have some experience.
I live/hunt in north central Texas (WNW of Dallas about 90 miles). The location may impact the usefulness of this information: what works here may not work where you are due to differences in the environment (proximity of humans/housing, food sources, etc.).
Bird distress (particularly "woodpecker") has worked very well for me. I also use a $40 Icotec decoy which I just leave running independently of the caller. I used to use the decoy attached to the caller but it was a pill to activate it manually and I found that it worked just fine separately.
They roam large areas (some sources say 4-8 sq. miles, some say more). Long spells of calling have worked. Letting the call go for minutes and minutes has worked. I've had one cat come in on the call while it was running and I was bored and reading news on my phone...it knocked the top off the decoy and was just wandering around the call and decoy when I stopped reading and looked.
All my hunting is done at night.
FWIW. HTH.
