Anybody trap anymore?

[SBMF 2015]

Back when my kids were little I ran a little trap line between 50-100 sets. Raccoons were my main target.
The bottom has been out of the fur market for years. I enjoyed it, but $4 coons don't pay for the gas let alone my time.
Coon hunting and trapping used to be part of winter around here. Everybody knew someone who did it.
I was getting my hunting license the other day and kinda got the itch to maybe make a few sets this fall so I went ahead and got my trappings license too.
Anybody else going to try and catch some masked bandits this fall?

 

[Dave]

I ran a long line in the 80's. I probably still have 300 traps out in the shed. Anymore it is just nuisance beavers and coyotes. I should put more effort into put a dent in the coyote population. The only thing worth trapping here is bobcats. Our cats are worth big bucks.

 

[Silver]

Not anymore. Used to do quite well many years ago trapping marten. Could get upwards of $200 at one time. I skinned way too many beaver for poor pay to want to do that again. Castors were better and easier than hides. Lynx were really good money for awhile but of course they were few and far between when the prices were up over $1,300.

 

[504RP]

I use to trap a little back in the 70's. I know a retired game warden who is probably in his early 70's who is probably about as good of a trapper there ever was. Does a spectacular job Skinning, fleshing and stretching hides.

Traps Bob Cats,Coons,Coyotes,Mink,Beaver,Musk rats, Oposum. He found a Market somewhere that he ships his pelts too. He is big into the trappers association and helps out on some kind of week long trappers training to teach anyone wanting to learn how to trap make sets, a lot of vendors are there selling trap's, scent lures, fleshing blades etc…, they have a lot of young kids and there parents attend it.

They have different stations set up to teach how to make sets for trapping like Bob Cats and drown sets etc…, They usually put this on at the same place on National forest that has a main lodge and surrounding log cabins also owned by the forest service. It's a really good resource for old and young trappers alike.

It's about the time of the year they have that going on. It's kind of a coincidence that this was posted. I was talking to a friend of mine who lives next to the Arkansas President of the Arkansas trappers association. Used to work with the guy.

 

[Mountaintown Creek Ranch]

It was my first real paying job. I did it for 5 years. I was able to buy my first car. It's funny you posted this for some reason I looked up the price of furs just last week. I was shocked to see that people were still trapping. I figured all the liberals had done away with that.
$30 for a beaver sure was worth a lot more when I was a kid .....and $3.50 for a mink, the last one I got I sold for $45 in 1976ish. Made all my money trapping muskrat, used to get $7 a piece.

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[Mountaintown Creek Ranch]

All winter.....Muskrat skinning every morning before the bus came.
Back then there wasn't a trapping license or if there was it wasn't required in my town.

 

[SBMF 2015]

I never got rich, but I did make enough extra money a couple years to pay for the kids Christmas presents.

I still get a catalog from F&T. Flipping through it and walking out to the shed where my traps are hanging. Just kinda getting the itch to make a few sets this fall.

 

[coachg]

Wish you were close . We have some prime trapping land . I live trap coons to keep them out of my sweet corn . Use to relocate them but the population is so big I give them a 22 to the head . There are 5 ponds and a creek that runs through my father in laws farm . 4 ponds and 2 creeks that run through my son's place . No one coon hunts anymore so they are abundant !

 

[coachg]

I only caught 5 in my sweet corn this year , think I caught 9 last year . All boars both years . Caught some garbage can bandits where I mow for folks in an upscale subdivision on the bluff . Caught 3-4 last year . All sows .

 

[Logan52]

How times have changed. As soon as I got a license to drive I ran a trap line. Never mastered dirt hole sets for foxes, the big money makers around here around 1970. I caught foxes where they had an opening through a fence. Mostly caught muskrats and mink in water sets. We also caught possums, coons and skunks in baited sets. My first year in college I even ran a line along Tate's Creek north of Richmond, KY. Do not try that today.
For years I would dream at night of running a line and every set had a muskrat in it, much like the dream of walking a plowed field for arrow heads and finding a pile of them in a spot where they just kept getting bigger and better as I scratched around in the dirt.
My trapping career ended when we lost a home made boat and nearly a hundred No. 1 long springs in a flood on Kentucky River.

 

[M.Magis]

I still trap every winter with my youngest. I trap coon whenever the opportunity arises, they're worse than rats IMO. We trap a handful of coyotes each year, and last year we started trapping otters. I knew we had them around but had never actually seen one. Apparently they're way more common that most realize, we caught 3 or 4 within a week, with one set.

 

[kenny thomas]

River otters have taken over the streams here. I would pay someone to trap them.

 

[Dave]

A sorry old picture of me with one day catch in about '84 or '85. It was 5 beavers and 73 muskrats. That location I was able to rent a freezer locker. So I just pulled the hides off and put them in the freezer to stretch at a later date.

 

[TCRanch]

There was a guy that used to come out every year, starting in December, to trap beavers. Haven't heard from him in a long time, so assuming it wasn't worth it anymore.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

I trap nucience beavers pretty much year around. Hides aren't worth anything to I just let the other wildlife have a snack.

 

[J Hoy]

River otters have taken over the streams here. I would pay someone to trap them.

What does a river otter do to you to make you want to kill them in such a horrible, inhumane, despicable manner? They don't bother livestock as far as I have ever heard. I guess you haven't noticed that people have taken over all the land, streams, lakes and everything else?

 

[BFE]

They will wipe practically every fish out in a pond then move on.

 

[Mountaintown Creek Ranch]

I remember when conibear traps came out. What a game changer they were. My brother was trying to set a 330 or 440 I can't remember but end up getting his arm caught in it. It was a life-changing event for him and put a mark on him that lasted a long time.

 

[coachg]

What does a river otter do to you to make you want to kill them in such a horrible, inhumane, despicable manner? They don't bother livestock as far as I have ever heard. I guess you haven't noticed that people have taken over all the land, streams, lakes and everything else?

They will wipe out all the fish in a pond . They start with the largest and work their way down . Cute looking yes but not a friend to my grandchildren who like to fish in Paw Paw's ponds . They follow a stream up from the river and hit every pond that runs off to that stream .

 

[SBMF 2015]

I remember when conibear traps came out. What a game changer they were. My brother was trying to set a 330 or 440 I can't remember but end up getting his arm caught in it. It was a life-changing event for him and put a mark on him that lasted a long time.

I use a few Belisle 220 and 330s that extra bend in the jaw's makes it impossible to get your thumb out of them. I've never been caught, but I've heard some horror stories.