I just wanted to start a thread where people could post there stories from the trap line.
Be it funny, sad, painful, or even educational. Post photos &/or videos of the event if you can. When I first started trapping I wanted to hear everyone's stories.

Here is a good question to ask for the start. What got you started in trapping?

Myself, I come from a non outdoor sports family, I had to self teach where and when I could. After coming back from the army I started fishing again and picked up hunting. A few years later not looking too hard I got onto the Inland Fish and Game for Maine's website and found a outdoors based church near by who hosted all of the safety class' and programs.
Now I run my own ADC business out of central Maine. I love to trap, I m a disabled vet. I m told I m the cheapest guy in state to work your ADC issues. ;-) When you don't rely on this for your income its easier to help the people who cannot afford the costs.
James

I was always intriqued by trapping, but never had any experience with anything other than trouble animals, trash raiding coons, groundhogs under sheds, etc. No respect for the animals, just needed to get rid of them without the time a stakeout would take.

I moved on to where I had a "thing" for catching a bobcat. They are interesting animals and it was a challenge I took upon myself, like any other hunting or outdoor challenge. After studying, buying equipment, and learning what to look for, and why, I started the season. It took me a month of trial and error, early morning cold effort, dealing with non-target possums almost daily, but I finally got him. Not huge, and not well spotted, but a mature 22-23lb cat.





What got me next was another incidental catch, a red fox. It hit me when I saw him, I didn't know what I was missing. I'll be targeting both this season. Hard work, and a real mental and at times physical challenge.



I doubt I'll ever make money at it, but it is something new to learn about the outdoors, and so far so good.

Ah thank you Dave! I forgot to add some photos.
My first time trapping and also first time doing ADC work as well was a beaver problem at the shooting range I m a bored member too. It was a free bee but I got to keep all the beaver. I took the beaver to a friend and mentor of trapping. I let him keep the beaver for helping me out and teaching me much in the way of trapping.

This next one is of my first payed job.

The little guys home

I also started trapping later in life myself, around 32 years old and found myself in a situation where I had the area and time to run a trapline. Always was interested in it but just didn't have the time or place. What really got me going was coyotes! Something about them really interested me, probably since I had never harvested one hunting and only seen a few here in WI. Well now I live in the SW part of the state, and there pretty thick down here. The first year trapping I took the trapper education course and concentrated on dry-land. My goals were to get a coyote and a fox. My now wife, then girlfriend, bet me a dollar I wouldn't catch anything the first night, but wouldn't you know it I caught a fox the very first night in a double-dirt hole set I read about on trapperman. It took me another month to pick up a coyote, but I got that one in a 1 1/2 coilspring on a blind set where a game trail went over a riverbank. I remember setting that trap and thinking to myself..'when that coyote jumps over that bank edge, he's going to step RIGHT HERE...'. One of the proudest moments in my life was walking up to that last trap on the line and seeing that male coyote fighting that chain. I skinned, fleshed, streched and dried both of those and has them tanned...still have that dollar bill I won from the wife too!

Next year I wanted to try water trapping and concentrated on beaver in the area, along with coon and the ever present possum (a few feral cats were caught up in the mix too). That year I caught a 64lb beaver and also trapped under the ice with baited snares. That was REALLY enjoyable trecking out on foot with a sled, chipping through the ice to check your sets and pulling out prime fur. Couple years ago (3 or 4) a friend of mine asked me to help him out getting rid of some beaver that were killing a bunch of his trees just outside of a small town near here. In 4 days I caught 6 beaver with 3 different sets (connibear, #4 longsprings, and snares) which included a 73lb female (largest to date). They haven't been back since and he's a happy camper.

Last couple years with a small child, job, the WI Nat'l Guard, and a home gunsmithing business I haven't had time to set a single trap, but I've been seeing quite a bit of coon and coyote sign right behind the house and should find the time to set a little steel this winter, if only a few coyote sets I can see from the house... One of the few truly enjoyable hobbies I've had that puts you out in the woods at a very personal level with the game you're after. I still obsess over the coyote though, enjoying winter late-night hunts with a friend and a predator call...nothing like a coyote charging in on a full moon night with a fresh snowfall...it's almost as rewarding as out-smarting them with a bit of bait in a hole and a perfectly bedded trap.

I was in the third grade when I started trapping I remember the first muskrat I cought I carried it home and asked mom what god would say about it. That was 60 some years ago and after I was married it paid for Christmas. Trap stealing was rampid at that time in the 60's and one night I had 200 some stole and 24 of them were new jump traps that I had just dyed and had them hid under a brush pile till I got them all set. After that the higher dollar and box traps turned me away from trapping.Setting traps for fox and mink using your skills was what trapping ment to me ,not the money or wipeing out every rat in a creek with box traps. Still some the best memories in my life.

Please let me insert a pet peeve, and I really hope nobody takes offence. It bugs me when somebody talks about "harvesting" a critter. It sounds like an attempt to dodge the reality. I always think it is the kind of word that is more likely to invite criticism than turn it away, the same way running from a dog is more likely to provoke a chase. The kind of person who causes trouble because they are city bred and/or can't stand the thought of killing will be against us no matter how we say it.

Domestic animals get "put down" if we don't like to kill them. If we want to kill them because we are going to eat them, they get "slaughtered". Varmints and game get "shot" because that's what we're trying to do. I think we are better off using "shoot" and "kill", because honesty is less vulnerable than weasel words. I speak from the experience of being embarrassed by trying to sneak by with weasel words.

quote:

Originally posted by sunrise:
Please let me insert a pet peeve, and I really hope nobody takes offence. It bugs me when somebody talks about "harvesting" a critter. It sounds like an attempt to dodge the reality. I always think it is the kind of word that is more likely to invite criticism than turn it away, the same way running from a dog is more likely to provoke a chase. The kind of person who causes trouble because they are city bred and/or can't stand the thought of killing will be against us no matter how we say it.

Domestic animals get "put down" if we don't like to kill them. If we want to kill them because we are going to eat them, they get "slaughtered". Varmints and game get "shot" because that's what we're trying to do. I think we are better off using "shoot" and "kill", because honesty is less vulnerable than weasel words. I speak from the experience of being embarrassed by trying to sneak by with weasel words.

Matt

Don't make it so hard on yourself "chipping" through the ice for beaver. If the ice is thick and you have a lot of sets you will kill yourself.

Get an ice auger and a chain saw. A bit more to carry, but if you have a sled it works well.

My most memorable experience trapping was years and years ago when my very good older friend Carl (may he rest in peace) showed me how to trap coyotes in winter when there was lots of snow. Before then I was making all kinds of goofy sets with very little success. Then he showed me what he did and after that it became much easier to catch critters when there was a lot of snow.

1. Find a fresh coyote or fox track. (driving down country roads works good)

2. approach the track and dig to one side on one track so you have a hole underneath the track.

3. Place the pan of the trap directly underneath the track. make sure the trap has a drag on it.

4. cover up the hole with snow.

5. carefully backtrack, filling in your own tracks and brushing them off so that it doesn't appear that anybody was there. I use a coyote tail on a stick.

6. Make some kind of mark so that you can identify where the trap is set.

7. Have patience. Coyotes and Fox very often walk in their same tracks over and over again in deep snow. When they return and step in the track that has a trap directly below it they will break through and hit the pan of the trap.