Why and how you trap.......

[packerfan]

Lee.......The morel market is out of control. I'm glad I jumped in when I did. I now know most of the larger players in the game. It's a game of SPEED. How fast can you move a large number of PERISHABLE fungus, while keeping them FRESH. Who has 'em.....who needs 'em......every 24 hours......for 2-6 weeks. I started hunting/buying in Kansas this year. It was a good year for me. Now I'm growing shitakies and making coon boards. I'm "semi-retired".........whatever that means.

[mtcbrlatrap]

I won't be retired yet when this trapping season starts but I will be able to bank some comp time and thus will plan to run the line quite differently this fall. At least that is the emerging plan. This year in WI we only have a one week dry land opening in our area before water sets so laying out lines and priorities will be different.
My first 15 years from about 1980-1995 I did what was my multiple species line from early November to about December 1st. I would catch some rats, coon, canines, mink and other fur bearers.
From about 1996-2005 I put more emphasis on my water line and got more rats and a few more coons and mink. Canines decreased.
From 2005-2010 I started earlier with a ROW line for coons and then did rats in November and a few canines in December.
Starting 2006 them again 2009 and 2010 and 2011 I did 3-6 days in the north for rats and gave up the early coon line and basically started my coons when the water sets started where I live.
This year I plan to use a 4-wheeler and do more dry land coon trapping further into my permission areas for coon and canines. I also plan to run more water if I get the permission. I am gearing up with more DPs to have more flexibility when setting out my line. Canines will be targeted more just because I have quite a bit of land that I can trap canines on.

Bryce

[mostinterestingmanintheworld]

I trap because I'm a trapper. I'm not sure why I am, was I born that way? Influenced at an early age? All I know is that trapping is what has rung my bell.

It has to make some sense though, when cat prices dropped in the 90's I didn't catch many, I hunted big game in Montana and Alaska and did the recreation thing..

One of the things that attracts me to trapping is that it makes more sense than hunting and fishing. I like my hunting and fishing as well don't get me wrong but I'm not going to do that stuff when cat prices are high.

[braveheart]

I don't care what animal I go after it is just fun.After you get a system down and 1 or 2 sets over and over.Then it becomes a numbers game to push toward a goal.Like everything it is what you put into it and it all boils down to work ethic.

[Jarhead620]

I was introduced to trapping way back in the mid-forties by Dick Daniel a boyhood pal. Dick went on to serve as the President of Illinois Trappers Association for over twenty years. He was tragically killed in an auto accident on his way back home from the NTA office when they were located in Bloomington, Illinois. I remember sitting on a log in the woods and shedding some tears after I got the news. I still think of Dick when I'm running traps or putting up fur.

I've trapped every season since those early days except for one winter I spent in Korea with the 1st Marine Division. I've trapped mostly in Illinois, Missouri, and Virginia and a lesser amount in California, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, and New York. Most of my trapping has been for 'coon, red and gray fox, beaver, otter, 'possum, striped skunk, and muskrats, with a few, coyotes, bobcats, kit fox, marten, spotted skunk, badger, and weasel thrown in. I haven't caught fisher,wolf, lynx, or wolverine . Maybe I will make a run for some of them one day. I better hurry though, I'm not getting any younger.

Larry

[mostinterestingmanintheworld]

I went to Alaska several times to experience the wolf, wolverine, marten thing. Damn glad I did. Would have been nice to run my own lines but what the hey, I was there for a while.

[claythomas]

I'm goin' to See Paul Trepus this December in BC, to run his line with him. Even though I pay him to do this and can't actually set a trap or snare due to provincial law, I really don't care.

Probably never gonna get a crack at a wolf, wolverine, or lynx so I think it's well worth the $$$ to hang out in the BC bush and see and get my hands on some new critters.

Also doing some investigating for a later bear and/or moose hunt with my boy. BC is just plain AWESOME if your a sportsman.

Why trap? Just a hunter gatherer by nature. Not big time by any strech. Have 2 kids a wife, and take a week off to trap. Fur check last year was $630 and torched around $340 worth of gas. It's all good! LOL

[thebeav2]

I spent 7 weeks In the Canadian bush on my buddies registered trap line. The brush cop said that It would be OK for me to set and check traps since i wasn't taking anything home.
What blast caught 2 wolves 6 Lynx and a bunch of Marten and some fisher and two cross fox.
The best 7 weeks of my life.

[trappincoyotes39]

clay what is this experiance costing you may I ask?

[claythomas]

TC,

I believe the total is $2495 and that covers virtually everything. Also I get to bring home two or three hides like a wolf, lynx, marten combo. If we should happen to catch a wolverine though, I would have to buy that for $350-600.

While there he also offered to get a bate pile going if I was interested in shooting a wolf. I'd like to crack a wolf, but the going rate is a bit pricey in my eyes.

The real shot is the arse is gonna be the cost of the plane ticket, being that it's the first week of December just after Thanksgiving.

Paul's got a website for further info.

[thebeav2]

WOW
I'm glad I have friends In Canada. It just cost me gas money to and from Ontario.
We trapped from the snow machine and four wheelers and had boat line. And even ran a buddies line by dog sled.

I did bring home a marten and a lynx and a wolf. And they didn't cost me anything until I had them tanned. I would like to catch a wolverine but I don't think that's going too happen. Although my son In Law has caught one In Alaska . But I think I'm a bit long In the tooth to brave a Alaska winter just to catch one.

[fishdaddy]

i just like to trap i wish we could trap bear here

[crawfish]

Started out trapping in the 1980 for an outdoor hobby. After working for the man for 28 years and after serveral bad injeries i'm now disabilled. I have to trap to make ends meet in the winter month. When spring rolls around I work my honeybees. Harvest and sale the honey. Come Sept I start gearing up for the comming trapping season on Nov 1st. Thank God a man can still work and live off the land to help
provide for his family. The kicker is I enjoy every hard minute off it.

[monttrap04]

I trapped fairly hard this year. Not at the marathon level some of you do, but as hard as I could while still maintaining a good level of performance at my job and trying to keep my wife and five kids happy. Towards the end I was getting a little burned out from being tired constantly and getting "the look" (all married men probably understand what I am referring to) from my wife. I told myself this spring that next fall I was going to do more elk hunting and just enjoy myself versus working so hard maintaining a viable trapline.

Unfortunately, this spring I rounded up a gig for my kids to earn some college money trapping ground squirrels. I have had a pile of fun running a bunch of #0s with the kids (they have caught over 400 so far) and it is getting me stoked again for this coming fall.




If the NAFA sale goes well this weekend I may not be able to squeeze in any elk hunting this year


I guess for me it is just in my system and I can't get it out. I do it till I am tired of it, then I do it some more until I am excited about it again.

[MikeD]

Trapping the Forgotten American Heritage

(Authors note: I started this story more as a rant than anything else. However the more I toyed with it, the more I liked it and breathed more of my experiences into it. It was published in “Fur Fish Game” in August of 2004 as “Trapping the American Heritage.”)

My friend Mel once asked me “Mike why do you trap?” To which I replied, “I don’t know how not to trap. I have trapped for as long as I can remember and probably before that!” I then started thinking about why I trap. My mind drifted back to my youth spent trapping with my Father and Grandfather.

I remembered as a young child running traplines with my Dad and Grandfather (Pop). I also remembered the names of other trappers who trapped in the same areas that we did. Men like Arnold Favinger and Jack Bonney the raccoon and fox trappers from up in Lenni, Bob Currey the raccoon trapper who let my Father trap foxes on his farm, and Jack Murphy, the long lining trapper who would catch three to five hundred raccoons a season.

Back then you could go into any of the numerous small grocery stores similar to, Ahearns, or the Frogtown Country Store or into any local bar like Martins, Eddie’s, or The Hilltop and ask the name of a local trapper and get three or four responses. People would not only tell you, whom you were looking for, but also what they could catch, and where to find them. Now you’d be lucky to find anyone who knew a trapper at all, let alone where to find them and what animals they specialize in.

To me it is a sin to let this great American heritage fade away like a wisp of smoke. Think of all of the great outdoorsmen and adventurers of the old west that were trappers. Men like Jim Bridger, who helped map out the Oregon Trail, as well as many overland stage routes, and Kit Carson, the famous Indian scout who knew the desert southwest like the back of his hand. These men and others to numerous to name helped map out and settle this country. Their in depth knowledge of the land and waters is what guided them through the wilderness. They had no maps or atlases, all they had to go on what their own knowledge of the land and what they could gather from other trappers and hunters. By running their trapline in the wilderness they came to know and love the land, much like trappers today.

In this day and age it is hard to find a trapper, unless you belong to a trapping organization such as the National Trapper Association. America has more outdoorsmen per capita than probably any country in the world, but only a small handful of those are trappers. Trappers not only have to defend themselves against the anti trappers, but sometimes even against other outdoorsmen, like hunters as well. Trappers have long had their back to the wall, between ever increasing cost of equipment and gas, lowering fur prices, and the ever present antis, some trappers have hung it up and quit. Traps now gather dust in old barns, outbuildings, and musty basements.

My generation was just old enough to catch the tail end of the great fur boom, when fur prices were high and everyone seemed to trap. The boom lasted till I was about twelve and then the fur prices dropped, and dropped and dropped, till by the time I graduated high school, you could hardly give wild fur away. My brothers and sister and their generation never got to experience the type of things I did. Trapping taught me so many things about life and the wild world that I don’t know what I would have done without it.

I learned planning and preparation from watching my Dad and Pop. Every year before the opening day of trapping season, you could find us in the field under the big walnut tree. There would be a large cauldron of water and walnuts boiling over a wood fire (we later went to gas) to dye the trap in. The walnuts were personally gather by my brother Matthew and I by either picking them up off the ground, or shooting them off the branches with our BB guns. The traps were arranged in piles on the battered sheet of plywood that Dad and Pop had supported on sawhorses every year. Dad would check the pan tension on this one while Pop was checking the springs on other. Only after careful inspection were the traps put in the dye to obtain the proper shade of black. When the traps were dyed properly, they were removed from the cauldron and allowed to dry on a rack. Then Pop would put the wax on to melt. After the wax was melted the traps were dipped in, till they stopped crackling and popping. Then they were removed and allowed to dry. Pop and Dad did this many weeks before the season so that when the season opened they would be ready.

I learned about truth, honesty, and fair play from two different instances I can remember. One morning while checking traps with my Dad, we came to a small creek, and I could see there had been a catch made. “Hey Dad you got a coon” I yelled to him. He walked up the creek, looked at the coon and said “Son that coon isn’t in my trap; my set is up around the bend.” He walked back downstream, and I looked longingly at the coon, knowing it was worth 35-40 dollars. Dad later explained to me that he hated when someone stole his traps or fur and how he despised thieves and would never be counted among them.

One cold November morning I was checking traps with Pop, down in the Darlington Valley. As we were walking down the train tracks we could see three people in the distance. They saw us and waved and we met about halfway down. It was Arnold Favinger, Jack Bonny, and a young kid. “Morning Charlie” Arnold said to Pop. “Morning Arnold, morning Jack” Pop replied. (All local trappers pretty much knew each other back in those days.) “Say, Charlie did you shoot one of my coons yesterday, down under the trestle?” Arnold asked. “Yes I did, it was only held by one toe and I didn’t want it to escape on you” Pop replied. “I appreciate it, but was wondering why a thief would shoot my coon, and then leave it for me?” Arnold said laughingly. Arnold later told me when he and I trapped together that he never feared losing a trap or an animal when he and Pop trapped the same area. Pop unwittingly showed me fair play, and how to establish and honest reputation for yourself.

I also learned that you have to take responsibility. I can remember one year my Dad hurt his foot at work and could barely walk, but he made sure his fox sets got checked every single morning, even if it took him twice as long. I can remember Pop driving through a blizzard to pull his traps just so they would not be operating when he would not be able to reach them.

I learned a few things about honor as well from trapping. I can remember every December 23rd we would either pull or snap all of our traps. “Nothing should die on Christmas” Dad once said to me. I still carry this tradition with my children; all traps are sprung or pulled on Christmas Eve.

Another thing I can remember is a single set of fox tracks on a frosty trestle bridge. I saw them many times as Pop and I walked over that bridge to check his sets. “Why don’t you ever try to catch that fox Pop?” I asked. He just looked at me grinned slightly and said “Someday you’ll know why” and continued on down the tracks. Later I did know why neither he nor Arnold, nor Jack ever tried to try to catch the fox that left the tracks on the trestle. I wish I could tell you but it is something you have to discover for yourself.

I was taught a lesson in respect every year. Although Pop and Dad had been trapping some of their farms for a decade or more, they still stopped by the farmhouse in early October to renew permissions with the farmer. It also gave them a chance to ask questions on where the farmer had seen foxes or coons, get to know the dogs again, and find out if any areas were off limits. The farmers appreciated that we stopped to ask permission and talk again and that we did not take their permission or land for granted.

The greatest thing trapping has taught me, is appreciation and knowledge of the outdoors. I can readily look at a field, creek, pond, river, or woods and know where to look to find whatever animal I am searching for. I have learned how to read just a small piece of track, or identify a single strand of hair I may find in a fence or tree and determine what left it. I now know that no matter how much I know about trapping and animals, that there is always something new to learn. Every fall I am still amazed at the myriad of colors of the woods, the bright burning reds of the maples, the glimmering yellow of the oaks and beeches, blazing through the valleys like an arboreal forest fire. I love to listen to the slow, soft murmuring of the mink stream, which sounds like a distant conversation I can’t quite make out. I chuckle on days when hunters look outside and decide the weather is just too nasty to venture forth, and I am out tending my traps. I love to walk in the falling snow, and hear it sizzle past my ears, and marvel at how the rest of the world seems to have been silenced by the beauty of the snow covered woods. I’ve seen sunrises so beautiful that they are beyond my power to describe. And, even though I have witnessed more sunrises I can remember I still on occasion stop my truck and watch the spectacle of it again.

Trappers are out in the woods and water every day of the three to four month trapping season. They spend hours in and around their location, and know it better than any hunter of fisherman ever could. Trappers know every bump, rock, pool and sandbar on the creeks they trap. They know every saddle, draw, cow/deer path, and trail on the lands they trap. They know a foxes bark from a coons, and can tell you how far away a coyote is just by hearing the howl. Trappers are among the most observant people in the world. Because they have to be, in order to be any good at their sport they have to be. I had always just taken my powers of outdoor observation for granted, but my children helped to bring this trait to my attention. My daughter Teagan (8) walks through our neighborhood and woods like a modern day Osa Johnson (famous woman African explorer). She amazes her friends by pointing out to them rabbits and squirrels, which they cannot see. She also identifies bird songs, squirrel barks or tracks in the snow to her amazed friends. When her class goes on and ECO- trip (an outside field trip) the teacher and students call her the “resident expert” in identifying animal tracks, droppings, sign, and calls. My son Jamison (12) says on field trips he sees many different animals, but for some reason none of his friends can see them. “I keep saying it’s right there, just to the left of that tuft of switch grass” he tells me. And, his friends can’t see the tuft of grass let alone the pheasant that just strutted by it.

Trapping is one of the few sports every member of the family can enjoy and participate in. No matter how old or young everyone can be a part of trapping. My youngest daughter Charly (3) helps Teagan and Jamison collect the walnuts to dye the traps with (much like I used to). The older kids run traps with me on weekend and days they off of school. They are learning to develop the skills to pick their own location, and the ability to read the tracks and other signs. They tough it out despite the sub zero temperatures, the wet feet, the snapped finger, just to catch something. The smile on their faces when they do make a catch is incredible. Even Pop when he had long quit trapping still participated. Most days he’d have me and my partner show him the catch, then heckle us for not catching enough, and ask where we got which animals and in what kind of set. Even when he was losing his battle with dementia and Parkinson’s Disease and didn’t know me from the imaginary people he saw, when I said trapping, a light came to his eyes and they seemed to clear, and for the briefest of moments he knew me, and we talked about trapping. It was the last conversation I ever had with him, and I’m glad it was on trapping.

I hate to see this heritage die a slow death, so I try to keep it alive in my children, and hopefully my grandchildren (when I have some). Someday I’ll be just a shadow following my children on their trapline, much like I feel I am followed on mine at times. When that time comes maybe I’ll meet up with Pop and we’ll try to catch that trestle fox.

[yotekiller]

I don't post much, just look and read to learn......But, I started trapping at the age of 35 because i met a local trapper and was truly impressed with his knowledge of animals and his woodsmanship and i wanted to learn it like he did..... and i believe trappers are the best woodsmen there are.

And I just like to catch animals, even mice LOL

[motrapperjohn]

Set my first trap when I was 13 after finding some in my Grandpas chikenhouse. He had some coon getting in his old house he used for storing grain in. Set one trap and caught 2 coon the first check, me and Grandpa walked in early the next day and coon went running everywhere. I had caught the old sow and the kits were running everywhere. Well not knowing anybetter I grabed the first coon that ran past me and of coarse it was screaming and I was screaming as it was scratching the heck out of me but I wasnt letting it go so grandpa said put it in a feed sack which he had handy. We dispatched the sow and that ended the coon in the grain. My uncle ended up making a pet out of the young one and he ended up living to 15 years old. I have trapped every since, missing only a few years chasing girls and only a year while in the Marines. Put myself thru trade school and went to my first trappers convention in Mason city Or might have been marshalltown, Ia in 81. and got my first paying ADC trapping job at that convention also. Met Sheda at the convention, he swapped me 2 doz 1.75 victor coils and 1 doz 1 1/2 coils for a #3 newhouse with a handforged spring on it.
Back too the topic. When I started, money had nothing to do with it. Many years I trapped coon we could get more for the meat than we could for the hide. I remember when beaver was bought by the pound. Always when asking permmission for my first out of state adventure out west people would ask how much you charge I would say Nothing I just like doing it, and they would give me the funniest looks. I finnaly wised up after someone told me most wouldnt set a trap for less than $50 a head for beaver. So I started telling people I would take donations. Not to many places you could go and trap and have fun and make 3 grand a week plus your fur. Mostly I would say its the love of nature and being close to it all and the thrill of seeing new places. Money would have to be on the bottom of the list even though its payed a lot of bills over the years I would think I would still set traps even if I had to walk to do it

[trappincoyotes39]

Mike and montrap and motrapperjohn YOU all have it figured out bar none!

I used to be 110% all about the catch and the glory and putting in long hours doing IT!

ADC was the ultimate I got paid but would have truthfully done it for less and many times WE all did as any ADC guy that has the burning desire donates many hrs just part of it! The pay is to buy milk and pay bills, but the challange and the satisfaction is #1 for sure. No doubts, anyone who puts money before the Quest well just not the same in my book.

Burn out is real but we need to ALL look at the fun aspects and at times scale back, kids are my deal RIGHT now teaching as many as possible about the great sport of trapping.

I have rekindled my fire for bow hunting and shooting yet trapping and coyotes still is a daily thought process, just the disease I guess? As one gets older the passion changes from large catches and such to times of fun and teaching.

Don;t get me wrong I still plan on a 24 day coon bonanza and mixing in some coyotes but seeing the wonderment in my youngest eye's when things work out as I say and having fun with my wife calling coyotes seeing the look in her eye's when a coyote comes bounding in is the same type of satisfaction as I used to get for myself.

Damn it sucks getting old LOL.

[seldom]

I wasn't going to post this because it may be a little to deep for some but nevertheless, I wrote it 12 years ago and it's just as valid today for ME as it was when I wrote it.

Why I Trap

I do it for myself! I do it for my senses pure and simple! Recognizing animal behavior and trapping skills are a cure for me of what I see as the typical disassociation of modern people today, as we increasingly become tourist in our own bodies. I continually fine-tune my trapping skills not because I expect to be lost in the bush, but because I know it’ll help me find myself again in today’s wilderness of instant/quick gratification and a politically correct society. And, because of the way it binds me to my essential native self, weaving me back into the fabric of nature where my heritage comes from. It allows me to see rather then just look, it allows me to listen rather then just hear, and it allows me to feel rather then just touch. In addition, I practice trapping to avoid the slide into thoughtless, habitual behavior so seemingly prevalent today and to prevent the dulling of my animal senses that connect me to the so-real world of today.


Seldom
2000