Anticipation....

[Steve Gappa]

sitting here ready to run my few snares and traps, and as I was thinking- isn't that really why we trap?

Had a nice run yesterday, coyotes working- what will today bring?

Gilsvek said it best- the rollar coaster ride of a trapline...

[timbob]

Yeah, specially trapping cats out west on a short line- most days nothin on a 48 hour check- so even the thought of finding a fresh turd or track makes me wild with anticipation.

[wolfer]

I agree. It's the anticipation.

I've done a lot of prospecting in the Yukon gold fields. Same thing. Robert Service said it best...."It ain't the gold... it's finding the gold."

There is nothing that makes you feel more alive, than running a string of traps. (well, almost nothing ;D )

I would guess this is also the reason why I am still satisfied after running traps, even if I did not have a catch. It's 'the finding the gold...."

Robert Rourke said on time "I hunt in order to have hunted."
Well, I trap in order to have trapped. When I come back to the cabin at night, I've done it. And that is why I trap. Every day is full of interaction on the line, and every night is full of anticipation for that interaction.

All the nature lovers miss that fact. they've come to believe interacting is when they are standing by thier pickup truck hearing a wolf howl in the distance. Nope, interacting is when you know why that wolf is howling, and where he is going to go next. You KNOW why he does what he does. And that's how you find the gold.

Just my thoughts from a lot of years on the remote lines in Canada's north.

[mustelameister]

Anticipation comes in many forms. Sometimes anticipation is two-step. One anticipates the event, but at times there is anticipation within the event. Some of my favorites . . .

Sliding up to where a little dribble of a creek joins the river, and you've got a pocket and a blind set on either side of the junction. You look, and all four traps are missing from the top of the drowner system. Your eyes follow the cable down, and you can just barely make out the outline of something . . . held below. Ah . . . what a wonderful feeling. I love pushing that button over and over and over again.

Ice fishing, with 10" suckers on Beaver Dam tipups. You're kicked back against a big ol' Silver Maple, sunshine on your face, cold brew in hand, nice fire going in front of you on the shoreline of a back slough where nobody . . . nobody is around. And two flags pop at once. Ah . . . now that's anticipation.

Goose blocks out, winter flurries blowing hard against the back of the blind, you're hunkered down with the dog keeping warm wondering what the $#%@ you're doing out there when off in the distance you hear the geese coming, low on the deck, can't make 'em out yet, but they're coming up the river, headed for your layout, and now they see the spread, lock wings, and float towards you . . . aaaahhhhhhh . . . .

When I was a kid, running 800 hooks a day trotlining on Lake Onalaska with my brother, 3 feet between hooks, every 10 hooks a float, inbetween a weight. Every 10th hook baited with a bullhead pierced with a Herter's [glow=red,2,300]Genuine[/glow] shark hook . . . and as my brother grabbed the oars and I coiled the line into the tray setting the leaders into the cuts on the sideboards, I'd get that big tug that told you there was something big, really big, on that 10th hook. Hmmmm . . . .

Early November, you've made a couple of mock scrapes in the area of your tree stand, took the time the night before to gather fresh dirt from scrapes in a different area, took them to your stand, and distributed the dirt in your mock scrapes, so the aroma coming from these false scrapes was from a buck in a different area . . . in the tree at 5:00 am, about 6:30 you hear the sounds of a large deer coming through the woods, towards your stand. You lift the bow off the hook, make sure the arrow is good to go, and wait to see what comes down the trail . . . .

Anticipation is good for the soul. Without it, I might as well be dead.

[Steve Gappa]

well said

[pastortrapper]

The anticipation of reading the threads to learn more........in anticipation of taking the time to get set up for the next year. Anticipation, the driving force. Our season is over here, all I have to hold on to is the.......anticipation!