Four Albany locals won second place out of 812 teams in the statewide February 2025 West Texas Big Bobcat Contest, held in San Angelo this past weekend. Ryder Wilkins, Laithe Leech, Will LeMay, and Jack Nail came home big winners after their 28.5-pound male bobcat earned them one of the top two spots with prize money of $32,380, with an additional $500 paid to Nail for the highest placing youth hunter.
Wilkins who shot the second place bobcat, explained they all four hunted together on his family’s land near Alpine due to the fact that it does not get a lot of pressure from people. “We called it in and I shot the cat on our second stand, only about an hour into the contest,” according to Wilkins.
The WTBBC is a 23-hour contest with all hunting required within the state of Texas. The official start time was Saturday at noon with an 11:00 a.m. weigh-in on Sunday in San Angelo. “We got to San Angelo and weighed in at 10:30 a.m., and then had to wait while everyone else brought their animals in,” said Wilkins. He added that the team knew they had a chance to place but thought they would be in fourth or fifth and were surprised to see them place second right off the bat…