Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2023 i The Trapper

THE TRAPPER TRAP • MANAGE • EXPLORE • New and proven trapping strategies and tips• Fur-handling secrets from longtime trappers• Updates on local, state and federal laws affecting you• State trapping association reports to help you stay current• Choose your subscription: we offer print, digital or both (ALL ACCESS) PREFER A DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION, OR WANT TO PAY WITH A CREDIT CARD? YOU CAN ALSO RENEW, OR GIFT A SUBSCRIPTION! HEAD TO OUR WEBSITE AT: WWW.TRAPPERMAG.COM/MY-SUBSCRIPTIONS WITH THIS FORM, WE CAN ONLY ACCEPT ORDERS PAID WITH CHECK OR MONEY ORDER. FOR PROMPT SERVICE, SEND THIS COMPLETED FORM AND PAYMENT TO: MEDIA 360, LLC. ATTN: THE TRAPPER SUBSCRIPTION, P.O. BOX 548, WAUPACA, WI 54981 1 YEAR 8 ISSUES $18.95 US . . . . . . . . . . . .…

A good friend of mine that has long since passed away once told me, “If you have a hard time finding location for coyotes, just make it using large baits.” Those were words of wisdom I have never forgotten. Bait, or draw stations, can and will put more coyote fur on the stretchers. They will also help the Animal Damage Control professionals that find themselves in a tight spot with finicky or trap-shy coyotes. I am not sure how many baits I have used in my lifetime, but it’s been a lot, and I was never disappointed. A bait or draw station can be as small as a skinned beaver or as large as a dead cow. I have also made them using skinned coyote carcasses. Skinned coyotes are not…

Outside of beavers, and we covered them in the last issue, raccoons likely do the next most damage to deer habitat. At the same time, along with opossums, skunks and coyotes, raccoons can and frequently do lay waste to the many nests of birds and fowl that we care about. Want to see acres of food plot corn or an entire generation of turkeys wiped out from a property? An overabundance of raccoons can easily achieve just that! What follows is the overall approach that I’ve found works best for solving this exact issue. DIVERSIFY By far the biggest change in trapping since I learned as a kid has been the introduction of the dog-proof 'coon traps. There are a bunch of great reasons their use in raccoon trapping has…

My first encounter with an ermine was one I’ll never forget. I was 9 years old, and my dad had a side business doing cabinet and wood work in our garage. He had a large pile of scrap lumber that would pile up in the winter behind the garage. Being a young boy, I would often tinker with the endless toys that a pile of wood scraps would provide. One day the rear garage door flung open and my father yelled, “Get out of here!” Out came a weasel, as white as the driven snow with a black tip on its tail. Into the woodpile it went. Between the woodpile and the garage is where it remained for most of the winter, until my dad finally caught it, and put…

Trapping season is coming to an end very soon and a lot of fur is already in the shed, harvested and sold, or skinned, stretched and dried waiting for the next local or international auction, or waiting to go visit the local buyer. Every season that has gone by since 2013 resembles Groundhog Day — time passes and not much changes. Trappers remain in the field, having fun harvesting animals they enjoy studying and pursuing, and most have accepted the overall low prices we are getting for the fur we catch. We are now entering 2023, the first international wild fur auction is scheduled in March 2023 at Fur Harvesters in North Bay, Ontario, and we keep hoping the wind turns in our favor. There are a few signs of…

Being driven to succeed is vital to any trapping game plan, as anyone who lays out a line knows. Dealing with brutal weather conditions, difficult situations and often dismal returns would make members of other sporting pursuits close up shop. Dealing with all of this sure requires serious drive. But what about those trappers who for whatever reason become overly enthusiastic, maybe even obsessed with one fur bearer? Only too well do I know when this fever overcomes a person, and for this steel stringer it’s fisher first to the last. MUSTELID ASPIRATIONS My trapping partner (and patient wife) has said for decades that I need to get a self-help group started for trappers who are obsessed with Pennants Marten. Sure, it’s funny, but if you know the feeling of…

I started my trapping career in the mid-1970s, around the age of 15. At that time, my town was a small Ohio rural town surrounded by family farms. My good buddy Tom lived just a few houses down the street. Some of our best adventures took place at a farm owned by Tom’s uncle, and this is where we both got bit by the trapping bug. We trapped a deep drainage ditch and set traps in the water for muskrats and learned by our mistakes. We would talk one of our parents into driving us to the fur buyer so we could sell our catch on the carcass. The smells and all the fur hanging from the rafters mesmerized me. The fur man quickly figured we were city boys, and…

2022. I think at one time I had an over/under like that. Twenty gauge on the bottom and .22 on the top. The firearm is an appropriate analogy because 2022 was a kick in the pants for Miz and me. It started out bad right after the first of the year. That’s when I plan to go south to trap. Th rough the curse of the Internet, I determined that my trapline there was flooded and unapproachable. I was sad that I couldn’t leave, and Miz was mad that I wouldn’t leave. January faded into February. I still had a window of opportunity because the season runs until February 28. On February 5 we were coming off a snowstorm here in Ohio. I shoveled the walk, but it was still…