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13 Articles

RECRUIT THE NEWCOMERS

During the decade since we’ve had a viable fur market, there’s been a new group of players gradually entering the game. These new kids on the block are mostly deer, turkey and pheasant hunters who had never shown much interest in trapping. But after the 2013 fur market crash, many trappers hung up their steel. Those of us who stayed with it got the chance to prove, just as we’d always claimed, that we truly didn’t trap just for the money. But we also learned another hard truth about ourselves. Maybe we didn’t just trap for the money, but as it turns out, it was the money that determined how hard we trapped. Yeah, we “stayed at it,” but we didn’t stay at it all that hard. Using my own situation as…

BOTHERSOME BOBCATS: HOW TO KEEP 'CATS AWAY

Encounters with bobcats are on the rise. As people move into bobcat territory, the animals have no choice but to adapt to these new and unfamiliar environments, and sightings are increasingly common. These occurrences frighten many people who are not familiar with bobcats. Even people that have been around bobcats for before can become a little apprehensive around them. In most cases, bobcats will not attack humans, but domestic pets and livestock are at risk. Not only pets and livestock, but local wildlife is preyed upon by bobcats, too, of course. It is no secret that turkeys, deer, upland game and other furbearers are a favorite food of felines. As conservationists, we owe it to all animals to protect them from bobcats, to feel safe in our own backyards and control…

BOTHERSOME BOBCATS: HOW TO KEEP 'CATS AWAY

I’m trapping in a 40-acre wildlife area on the southwestern shore of Lake Erie. We are mostly setting feed beds. We have willow saplings for stakes. All of this is hip deep in water. But there is an embankment along the levee that protects the marsh. Our base of operations was a jon boat stowed with stakes and traps. I donned a pack basket, threw in a few traps, grabbed some stakes and headed out along the levee. I hoped to find some muskrat dens in the bank, but I couldn’t. It pays to be able to read a little sign. We had been wading through hip deep patches of floating wild buckwheat. Wild buckwheat does not sprout under water. This area had been dry through the summer and was now flooded,…

PUSHING THE CURVE

I’m honestly not sure where I heard it first, but I’ve found that there is a ton of truth to the old saying that the second we stop learning we get nothing but worse. Unfortunately, I see it repeatedly in hunting and trapping. It’s almost like we go through growth cycles. In the beginning, we fully realize there’s a ton of stuff that we don’t know and we do our best sponge impression. Then, we taste some success and believe we know way more than we really do. That’s where I see a bunch of hunters and trappers get stuck. However, those that come to grips with the ridiculous amount of knowledge that we don’t possess yet, tend to once again embrace what they don’t know and get back to learning,…

PUSHING THE CURVE

AUCTION SEASON ON THE HORIZON

The first international fur auction of 2024 will be held soon — March 22-24, 2024, in North Bay, Ontario, Canada, by Fur Harvesters Auction Inc. (www.furharvesters.com). The first international auction sale of the year usually sets the tone for fur prices, and many country buyers use this as their barometer to establish their own prices in the areas they cover. Historically, there were two big auction houses, both in Canada, but with the fall of North American Fur Auctions, only one of them remain. Fur Harvesters Auction therefore sets the tone for prices, and there is seldom much discrepancy between what skins at FHA will bring versus what country buyers will pay. The end of March 2024 will thus have many buyers attending, now that COVID-19 is “under control” and that…

AUCTION SEASON ON THE HORIZON

BEAVER TRAPPING: IT’S NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART

The old saying, “Any trapper that traps beavers has to wear a size 48 parka and a size 6 hat,” has been around for quite a while. Well, I guess I have to wear that badge because I like to trap old chisel tooth. I think it is the habitat that beavers occupy and the challenge they represent. Trapping beavers is just plain hard work. Traps and equipment are bulky and heavy. Foothold traps need to be the appropriate size, and that’s not to mention all of the accessories needed to utilize them, such as stakes, drowning cables and wire. Conibears require stabilizers and extra equipment, and are also pretty bulky. All of that gear is heavy and I guess that’s where that old saying comes into play — that a…

BEAVER TRAPPING: IT’S NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART

3 SETS FOR FISHERS

Out of all of the animals that I pursue on the trapline, fishers may be the most fascinating. It’s widely understood that fishers prefer thick coniferous or hardwood forests, but they’ve slowly made their way into habitats once considered unappealing to them. They are now common in farmland in Minnesota, Wisconsin and even my adopted home state of North Dakota. Each state has their own rules and regulations regarding fisher trapping techniques. Here in North Dakota, we can use snares, body grips or footholds. The season is short at only seven days, opening around the end of November. There is a small but devoted clan of fisher trappers, and each uses slightly different techniques to hang their tag on the elusive long-tailed critters. LOCATION No matter how terrific of a set a trapper…

3 SETS FOR FISHERS

BEAVERS: RESIDENTS, TRAVELERS AND GHOSTS

That river just seemed too perfect not to have beavers in it. Yet, as I stood on the bridge of this remote forest road, I could not pick up any sign of beaver presence, anywhere. No muddy trails, no chewed sticks, no old mud pies, not even old sign of beaver activity. But this river had it all: slow moving water about 4 feet deep, nice curves and good trees along the shore, and I wondered why there was no beaver sign. So, I grabbed a 330 and a jar of beaver lure, and walked along the best looking side. Around the first bend, still no sign, so I turned around, but when I got to 20 yards from the bridge, I decided to make a set anyway. This was early…

BEAVERS: RESIDENTS, TRAVELERS AND GHOSTS

FINALLY, A WOLF!

My snowmachine emerged from a band of alders and continued onto a frozen swamp, 200 hundred yards wide at its narrowest section. Ahead, three eagles and a smattering of ravens took flight, flushed by my snow-machine like pheasants in front of a Labrador retriever. Their flight exposed a red and brown circle in the snow where I had dropped a pile of bones and scraps a couple weeks earlier, the leftovers of hunting season. I slowed near the bait pile, and leaned over my shoulder so my son August, on the back seat, could hear me. “Hey buddy, see anything besides bird tracks?” We both looked out over the white moonscape, where three feet of snow hid the knee-high dwarf birch and willow that grew out of the swamp below. We could…

FINALLY, A WOLF!

Ask anybody that knows me, and they will tell you I am an avid trapper. My trapping does not last just the few months that I can have traps in the ground, it is something that I work on all year long. During the off-season I spend time finding new land to trap, preparing equipment, purchasing equipment, scouting ground, etc. When trapping season starts I spend 10 to 14 hours a day, every day of the season running my trapline and putting up fur. I am still young in my eyes, and I do not expect anything to slow me down or get me off the trapline until the last day of the season arrives and the last trap is pulled. This past trapping season started off as it normally does. I…

Association News

Email reports to Chris.Berens@Media360LLC.com Colorado Trappers & Predator Hunters Association www.coloradotrapper.com President, NTA Colorado Director, NRA Representative Dan Gates, P.O. Box 128, Canon City, CO 81215 719-275-4077 or 269-7972, Dan@ColoradoRidACritter.com Vice President Adam Warren, P.O. Box 734, Dove Creek, CO 81324 970-739-9404, adamwarren64@yahool.com Secretary-Treasurer Karen Gates, P.O. Box 193, Canon City, CO 81215 719-276-4260 or 719-275-4077, office@coltpha.com NW Regional Director Kevin Herrman, P.O. Box 1862, Basalt, CO 81621 970-379-5976, kherrman@advantagebuildersco.com SW Regional Director Christy Bryan, 2375 Road 1.7, Dove Creek, CO 81324 970-739-6437, skylinetaxidermy77@gmail.com SE Regional Director Ethan Gates, P.O. Box 750, Canon City, CO 81215 719-371-6401, ethangates21@gmail.com BOARD OF DIRECTORS Sept 1st 2022 – August 13th, 2023 NE Regional Director Naomi Yates, 38921 Poudre Canyon Hwy, Bellvue, CO 80512 970-420-4250, naomiyatesgtb@gmail.com Wildlife Commission Liaison Dan Gates Fur Auction Manager Greg Ashmore, 38967 County Road 24, Hugo, CO 80821 (H) 719-743-2552, (C) 719-760-0539, ashmore@esrta.com Western Stock Show Booth Manager Jim Hooks, P.O. Box 51, Kremmling, CO 80459 jameshooks09@gmail.com Raffle Manager Kacy Herrman, 1635 County Road…

Association News

TRAPPER CALENDAR OF EVENTS

BROUGHT TO YOU BY pursuitchannel.com FEB 3: U.P. Trappers Association 19th Annual Trappers Workshop for kids and beginning trappers in Hermansville, MI. Free trapping supplies for all kids attending. Trapping demos. Fur buyer. Supply vendor. Kids will be getting trapping items to take home. Contact Mike Lewis at (906) 774-3592. FEB 3: Foothills Trappers & Fulton Montgomery Trappers Annual Fur Auction at the VFW in Herkimer, NY. Doors open at 6 a.m. and sale starts at 8 a.m. Contact Neal Sowle for more information. FEB 10: Indiana State Trappers Association Fur Sale, Miami County Fairgrounds, Peru, Indiana. Must be an ISTA member to sell. Lot numbers can be purchased prior to the sale date. Fur buyers from several states. Food, trap raffles, 50/50 contests. Come out for the fun and enjoy the largest…

OH DEAR, NO DEER

I sometimes come in conflict with other user groups in the field. Mostly dog hunters, although the fellow who hunts his rabbit dogs all over my trapline just lets the dogs loose when they get caught and leaves my trap where the stupid dog found it. Rarely do I encounter any competition from other trappers. I was scouting a very large farm tract, in midseason. I smelled this fellow’s set before I found it. At the base of the highway grade, just inside the fence line, was a cage trap with a very ripe dead chicken in it. Honestly, I had no idea anyone else was trapping within 10 miles of me. The trap was equipped with a tag, but the address was questionable. I didn’t worry too much. The trap was…

OH DEAR, NO DEER

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