Quigley Cripple, tied by Terry Miller.

Remember back to 1960? Me neither. I wasn’t even a twinkle in my daddy’s eye in the rear view mirror of that ’56 BelAir convertible yet. But in 1960 there were only about 200 cougars in the state of Oregon. Something had to be done. Prior to 1967, cougars were classified as predators and were unprotected and sometimes killed in bounty programs. The Oregon State Game Commission gave the animal game mammal status and subsequent protection in the year of the Summer of Love.

That same game commission that protected the mountain lion; the agency that brought them back from near extirpation in the state, has overseen the recovery of the cougar through the advent of Measure 18 in 1994 (which banned hunting with hounds), up through today, with scientific management, using scientist/biologists to monitor and manage cougar populations. Today, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates cougar numbers at more than 6,600 animals. That’s a wildlife success story if I ever heard one.

Consistent with the department’s mission to “protect and enhance Oregon’s fish and wildlife and their habitats for use and enjoyment by present and future generations,” the commission directs that a management plan is in place, and the current management plan was published in 2017.

Plan objectives try to keep the population from falling below 3,000 animals.

As long as that baseline is met, ODFW manages cougar and human safety and pet conflicts to protect human life.

With a high number of cougars, we have more conflicts than we used to. An example is the attack of a cougar on a teenaged girl walking her dog (a Great Pyrenees), on a street in Reno, Nevada.

A hiker was killed by a cougar on Mount Hood a couple of years ago.

The conflicts are too numerous to enumerate, but another objective is to resolve livestock damage complaints.

One of the questions that frequently comes up is why the Oregon State Police and/or ODFW do not tranquilize problem cougars and relocate them to remote areas? It’s a good question.

I stopped in at the Bend ODFW office and spoke to Andrew Walch, the district biologist, on a snowy day after a summer and fall that saw several human safety conflicts in the Bend area.

According to Walch, ODFW policy is that if a cougar has been deemed a threat to human safety the objective is to find the individual cougar in question and remove it, usually by lethal means. If a cougar has exhibited threatening behavior, it will be a problem again.

Cougar trap and transport has been used and tested by collaring animals and tracking their movements and has been found to create other issues by placing an unfamiliar cougar into conflict with lions with established territories.

The other issue is the difficulty in tranquilizing an animal.

Walch was quick to point out that “sightings” and reports of cougars come in on a weekly basis.

These are documented and followed by safety and statutory advice given to the person making the report.

“It is only after a repeated loss of wariness to humans, daylight sightings near houses, livestock damage or an acute safety threat that ODFW will take action,” Walch said.

“The vast majority of reports result in advice, and the cougar moves on.”

I have never had a cougar in my sights in four decades of hunting. If I had, I would have written about it before this. But I have used a tranquilizer gun at an elk research facility in Colorado. Tranquilizer guns are finicky and expensive and difficult to shoot with precision. There are not many tranquilizer guns available and not a lot of serum either.

It took most of one day to get close enough to tranquilize an elk, then I had to wait for it to turn broadside and I had to be within 20 yards and shoot it in a large muscle group. After we darted the elk, we had to wait for the tranquilizer to take effect. We took a blood sample, injected the animal with the antidote and it wobbled to its feet. If the elk is hard to get to stand still, a cougar is orders-of-magnitude more difficult.

Human safety conflicts with cougars do not happen at moments that are convenient for education, as some have suggested, nor are the responding agencies trained or equipped to deal with a cougar. Depending on the situation, the call could happen at night or in a snowstorm and the officer responding might be a city police officer, a wildlife biologist, a state trooper or a sheriff’s deputy. And the first priority is to protect human life.

In general, public complaints about cougars have declined across the state except in the Coast/North Cascade zone. Complaints involving livestock top the list. The majority of complaints are not verified and do not result in control efforts. If action must be taken, it is usually through some combination of law enforcement, wildlife services, ODFW or ODFW agents.

Research supports the idea that juveniles have a higher degree of conflict and that females with kittens are more likely to enter urban environments.

Complaints appear to lessen as communities learn how to live with cougars and when hunter harvests are increased.

Cougar numbers were so low in 1960 the big cats were thought to be in danger of extirpation. Using ODFW’s numbers the population has grown from 200 to over 6,400. Scientific wildlife management brought us here. Yes, individual cats come into periodic conflict with humans, pets and livestock and a few of those encounters are resolved with lethal means, which is supported by science. This is what success looks like.

When trout are rising, sipping Callibaetis, a cripple fly can out-produce anything else. Cast to a rising trout, give the bug a slight twitch, then let it rest. Faced with a Callibaetis mayfly hatch in late May and June, a lot of anglers tie on an Adams, but there are better choices.

The Quigley Cripple imitates a mayfly stuck shedding its shuck. It’s not going to fly away as the trout rises to take it. Better yet, it doesn’t look like the fly everyone else is throwing.

Use the Quigley Cripple on slow-moving water whenever mayflies are dancing on the surface. Put a little floatant on, but don’t expect it to ride too high. This one works best when it’s hanging through the surface film. It’s the moment when a mayfly is most likely to be sipped by a cruising rainbow.

Tie the Quigley Cripple with tan thread on a No. 14-16 standard dry fly hook. For the tail, use marabou fibers or wood duck. Wrap the abdomen with brown marabou or ostrich herl and create the thorax with super fine dubbing. For the hackle wing, use deer hair and trim to leave the butts over the thorax. Finish with a sparse grizzly hackle.

—Gary Lewis, for The Bulletin