# Sticky  What gave you the trapping bug???



## PsEbUcKmAsTeR17

As my dad and I sit here on the forum side by side at our dinner table talking about his (quick) response to Joe about what gave him the trapping bug, we came up with an idea and wanted to see what gave all of you the trapping bug. 

Im sure all of you have seen our story and know all about it. For you who havent here is the basic story and outline.

This is Smoknngunns story....

"Jeremiah had been reading this forum for a few weeks and talking to me about trying some trapping, so I started reading M-S and looking at the pics with him. After a week I was really thinking hard about trying it too. 

The morning I came home from work, checked our game cams and had two pics of a grey fox in our food plot was it. With in a half hour I was in the truck and on my way to buy trapping supplies. A couple hours and a couple hundred dollars later I was boiling traps in the driveway.
My wife thought I had completely slipped over the edge. Little does she know that had happened years before.

We caught that fox a couple days later. I'll never forget as we walked down the trail to our food plot hearing, "Dad, We caught a fox !!" 
The excitement and enthusiasm in his voice made everything come together.

The grey was laying curled up and sleeping. As we approached closer, it started to do the chain dance. As he ran back to the house to get his mom's camera, I watched that beautiful fox and thought to myself, "Hmm, not much to this fox trapping."

It didnt take long to be humbled. After many, many, *many *empty trap checks, deer snapped traps, pull outs from poorly bedded traps, and numerous other rookie mistakes, to realize, _oh yes there is_ ALOT to this fox trapping.:lol: We learned much more from the fox we didn't catch than from the ones we did.

After lots of questions asked and answered, a trapper rendezvous or two with some of the guys here and some hands-on help from a very experienced guy (named Joe Rye)from this forum, and much more trial and error, I am to the point I'm at today- still learning- but trying to pay it forward."

Looking forward to your stories.

-Psebuckmaster17-


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## LarryA

I was 8 years old. It may have been a while ago.

I wanted to be a mountain man making my living trapping beaver. I did not really have any knowledge of trapping other than what was in my school books. Then I found several holes and digging in a middle of a fallow field and did not know what tracks were in the dirt. A buddy told me his big brother had a trap we could borrow. I set it, and the next day we had a very fiesty muskrat.

That was it! I really wanted to be a trapper after that. I didn't have anyone to show me how, but I learned. I bought many of the old trapping books sold in Fur Fish and Game. By the time I was in High School every one knew me as a trapper and hunter. I caught my first **** when I was 10, and my first two red fox when I was 14. During my college years, I paid for my winter semesters with fur money.


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## old school

I have always been an outdoorsman, as far back as I can remember I was learning about hunting and fishing. My dad raised us kids handling guns and safety... one thing he never did, was trap. I grew up down the road from a buyer in lapeer, and grew up knowing a guy from dryden that was a trapping fool. I always found it interesting to listen to him tell stories about how many fox, rats... he got. My older brother got into it with him a little bit, and he showed him how to trap but my brother never stuck to it. By the time I was old enough to go out and do it, I lost touch with the idea. Recently my dad was talking about getting a few mounts done for the cabin, so I thought hey, maybe I can get the animals for him. Thought it would be cool to get the mounts from animals behind our hunting camp. I started searching the forum, reading, asking questions, and I was on my way to ottisville fur sale to see how it all works. As interested as I was in getting furs to mount for my dad, the sale and the people there got me more interested in trapping as a whole. I have the time now, so I am starting to put some time in. Its like it was something I loved to do and didn't even know it till years later. Only being a couple weeks into all this, I haven't caught much, but it doesn't matter. I caught a **** after night one and 2 skunks last night, and I will get the k9's going its just a matter of patience and time. Its something I already know I will keep as a hobby and somethingelse I can pass on to my boy. Thanks everyone for the help in lighting the fire in my new hobby!


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## timberdoodle528

Mine is pretty short and simple, as I'm still very much a rookie..

We had (HAD!) a muskrat problem in our pond. After getting some help, I was able to get a board set through the ice. Missed one the first time I checked, but I got one on the 2nd check! I pulled that board out and that muskrat was just about the prettiest thing I ever saw. LOL It was like shooting a 130 inch buck. Had a grin on my face that lasted the entire evening... My son, eventhough he's only 2 1/2 still talks about trapping muskrats. I can see that it will be something we do together someday. He likes rats just about as much as I do!
Next year... I'm upping my game and going after canines!! I can't imagine anything more exciting or rewarding than getting a nice fox or coyote. I'm really looking forward to the challenge. 

I'm hooked, there's no going back. I can see this is something that I will probably enjoy more than deer or rabbit hunting. And that's saying a lot. Helps to have such nice people here willing to help out beginners too.


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## Moose57

I started out when I was about 17. I did alot of bird hunting back then and my motivation was to help protect the Pheasant population as well as the other small game I hunted. For years after alot of the birds were gone I got out of trapping. But this year I only had one deer fawn on my property here in Jackson. And after talking with my neighbor who is Hunterjb6 on this forum we decided to let the yotes know we really dont care for them killing all of our fawns. Its still a learning as we go process but its a matter of time now. Looking back I caught alot of fox back then and sold them to a fur buyer down the road from where I lived. I use to get 75-125 bucks for a fox back then and I didnt even have to peel it! So now most of you know how old I am... I think my best year was over 25 fox. Towards the end of my trapping days back then while checking fox sets I had handcuffed what I thought was the fox of a lifetime. As it turned out it was a very mangy coyote. Knew something was different when it looked at me. Back then we never heard very much about coyotes, and back then even just seeing a deer track was big news. Yes this was southern MI, Wayne county area. So for this year so far its been alot of ****, 1 red, 1 grey fox, a few grinners, and my favorite today a shunk. Which I think is the 3rd for the season. There has been a few lucky yotes that have just missed the pan. Its been fun learning again and trying to get the yotes. My neighbors boy is into trapping in a big way! Just ask hunterjb6, he will tell you all about it. But its nice seeing a young kid getting into trapping, so many kids now days just sit in front of the tv with the video games. And im sure its fun for them, but trust me its a whole different story walking around a two track in the woods or checking sets from the road with binos and seeing the look on a kids face when they see a fox or Mr yote doing the 100 mph, 2 step around the catch circle! So to all the older guys here, take a kid trapping! Just one more note, thanks to all the guys here sharing tips, thoughts, ect. There is alot of info on this forum to get anyone started. All you have to do is look or ask...
Gary.


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## FREEPOP

Got hooked about 4 years ago looking at pics on this site and seeing more canine tracks on my rabbit hunting property than rabbit tracks. It was quite a battle to hook up on them, now I'm doing better and putting a few on the stretcher.


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## SNAREMAN

I got started at a early age (7-8)thanks to a dad/family that love the outdoors.My dad 's uncle was a long time trapper (bounty fox/coyote as well as fur trapping)so since I was'nt old enough to hunt,dad figured it would be a good way for us to spend some time in the outdoors.We did'nt run a very big line,some rat /**** sets along with a few fox,mostly on state land around our home in s/e mi.As I got older trapping started to take a back-seat to hunting,and after awhile I stoped all together.I started doing alot of predator hunting in the mid 90's and that started me thinking about trapping coyotes as well as hunting them.Well,thats all it took to get the "bug" :lol: It's gotten to the point now that other than a little deer hunting, my free time is spent trapping,just can't seem to get enough of it  Really don't miss the hunting much,think i'm "hooked" good this time


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## Seaarkshooter

What gave me the trapping bug? Seeing Freepop's success.

What's taken away the trapping bug? Just seeing Freepop's success. 

The only thing, so far, I have removed from my traps is Smokunngun's two fingers. :lol::lol::lol:

Sorry, Mike, had to do it. :evilsmile Glad to see your okay. Even more glad it wasn't me in that four coil #4 duke. :yikes: Whew!!! I would still be there, circling in my own one handed catch circle. :help:

In all seriousness, I was taken in this past week by the commaraderie of new friends and the look on my wife's face in sharing trapping time together. So much, in fact, that the next 30 days could only be filled with multiple stinkers or grinners and I would be happier than a pig in mud. Okay, maybe not the stinkers. But, I hope you know what I mean. I feel blessed. I am hooked.


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## 9

My 1st year was when I was 8 years old, which means in the early-mid 50's. The men from both sides of my family are/where outdoors-men that learned their skills not on the Internet nor by having somebody teach them, they earned and learned their skill-set the hard way and I'm no different. Most were extra-ordinary deer hunters, fishermen, and trappers so the outdoors came naturally to me. 

It was passed down to me from them of the importance to see instead of look and to always wonder "why" but you were expected to learn those skills on your own. Nobody was going to take you by the hand and lead you anymore then show you how to catch an animal. You either learned it on your own, or you didn't. It was all "cool beans" to them and many years ago as I reached adulthood I understood and appreciated what they did for me. It was the biggest and most important lesson I could ever have been taught. I will always be indebted to their wisdom and outdoor experience.

Interestingly, my dad wasn't a trapper, though trapping was very prevalent on his side of the family. My Mom who is 84, after asking how I was doing trapping last night when I called to check on her, she mentioned that she remembers holding the rat's hind leg while her brother made the opening cut many nights while setting in front of the old wood cook stove! My interest was tweaked and pushed over the edge into trapping by my reading of Jack London novels, Boy's Life and other outdoor magazines.

I did have one of our family's friends who was a rat trapper on the Pine R.(Midland Co.) take me with him one day. He told me that he'd shown me all there was to trapping rats and the rest was up to me to learn on my own. He said he'd skin, flesh, and stretch the 1st rat for me then the rest were mine to do on my own as well. At the age of 8, that's called "tough love" and "quick-step mentoring" today pardner! He passed away this past spring and I'll always remember the day he took me on his rat line. Who would have guessed or believed that a half a century later, the second time I'd be on "his line", I'd be trapping mink for MSU!!!

I've purposely left a lot( about a book's worth) of the trials and tribulations that I've went through on my 55 year journey to get to this point in-time of my trapping skills but I wouldn't trade a minute of those years for it to have been any different then it was. I figure I'm a better man and trapper for it!

Possibly this writing will explain to some why I seldom "tell" somebody a direct answer to a question they've asked but rather guide them to "discover" the answer themselves.


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## D&D

Well as you all can see I jump in with all feet forward. I have always fished and hunted since as far back as I can remember. and when I say I hunt and fish I mean I hunt and fish. The guys I hunt with are the same way and when we talk to people and they say they hunt we always smile because they talk about just deer hunting and by then we have already killed abunch of geese,ducks, woodcock, grouse, turkey and you get the picture we are 365 a day sportsmen, well since I had my son (the other part of D&D) he loves fishing and going with me hunting. well early this year he starting using my live traps and he caught a grinner and a **** and starting talking to me about trapping so I bought a couple traps and we were up north for the new year and we set a few. well we caught one muskrat and his face has not stopped beaming since. he has a chart on his wall showing what, when and how and with what kind of trap we caught it on. we are at 2 grinners, 2 *****, 2 rats, and 9 squirrels. and we are going after a fox now. needless to say I,we are hooked it has been great time spent with my son. this is a fantastic sport and we cant wait till next year.

Thanks for listening Dave K.


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## griffondog

Started in 1968 and my father took me out for the first time. Didn't start catching a bunch untill I was 11 or 12. Started running a rat line with Lee Roy Turner back then and It's been down hill since. I had my hair in a pony tail back then and it took old Lee Roy a couple years to figure out I was a male.:tdo12: Had to tell that story at his funeral.

A pic of my uncles.

Griff


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## hunterjb6

Well it was quite some time ago and I was probably about the same as my boy is now 11. A good friend of mine called me up and said come on down this afternoon and come check my Dads trapline with me. I said sure so I rode my back about 2 miles down to his house and we started off. So we headed down to the river as he had laid out a pretty long beaver and mink line. So I still remember to this day when we got to the first couple of sets on the river, he told me and my buddy to stand back as he would chip away the ice. I remember asking him, how will we know if you got anything? "and he said once we get the ice chipped out of this hole and we look down in the water, if we got something, all we will see down in the water is brown fur" I remember just standing there as he chipped away the ice, all I wanted to do was to look down in that hole and see a big woppin beaver":lol: as he was chipping away the ice, I started to get that feeling, you guys all know what that feeling is. When you driver around the corner of the 2 track, or you can't wait to bust the ice out of that hole to look and see what's in that 330.
And you finally get all the slush out of the way and.....:yikes::SHOCKED:!!! Yahoo brown fur, and that is exactly how it happened! He pulled that 40lb beaver out of that hole, and I was like holy smoke, he is huge!! Well I suppose when you are 11 a 40lb beaver looks like a small elephant.:lol: 

After checking the line that day, I believe we pulled out 4 beaver, 2 mink and 10 rats. (I still remember it like it was yesterday) So I asked his dad how much money he was going to get from those furs, and he said " ohhh.... probably a couple hundred dollars or maybe a little more ." I looked at my buddy and went holy crap!:yikes:
That was it after that day me and buddy devised a plan on how we were going to be millionares!!!So the plan was to work on the neighbors farms this next summer and make some money and buy our own traps and by that time the following year we would have our own trap line 5 miles long on the river. So that's exactly what we did!! For the next 3-4 years we trapped every winter on our own line. Then we ventured into **** and fox. It was unbelievable how much ground we covered back then, but it had been truly some of the best years of my life. Although now as I have gotten back into because I had given it a rest for quite a few years and really concentrated on the deer, turkeys and some good ole steelhead, and salmon fishing. Now my boy is 11 and I have been blessed with he wants to walk right in my foot steps. This is his first year with his own traps in the ground and now what use to be my excitement of chipping away the ice and looking for the prize in the hole, has changed to taking him out on the line and driving around the corner....not looking towards where the set is but looking over at him sitting next to me when he flies off of his seat and says " Dad we got one..we got one!!!! That my friends is priceless! So sure, I had the bug and I still have the bug, but what I guess I'm most proud of is that I have passed the bug on!!!







THE SMILE.......


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## Beaverhunter2

Reading about Mountain Men, watching "Daniel Boone" on TV, and my first muskrat (at age 9) sealed the deal!

John


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## CaptainNorthwood

What got me into trapping? I was finishing up my degree and working at a ranch 3-4 days a week and we had a huge problem with coyotes on the ranch. I think I got on the forum a little and bounced around reading what I could and decided maybe I would try and trap a few yotes and figured I'd be filling up the pickup bed with all these coyotes we had. Didn't quite turn out like that. Actually I never caught one that fall and then decided to change my quarry to *****, then rats, then mink, then beaver and finally back to coyotes. It was a blast and I decided to jump in with both feet (or fall in :lol I had multiple water mishaps that first year. It was a lot of fun and I became addicted faster than ever....salmon fishing was a very close second. I haven't got to do much trapping the last couple of years because my job has me on the road so much I don't have much free time and its a real bummer but I am thankful to have a job in this state. I just wish I had the time required to run a good canine line and thats what I really miss. Its nice seeing you guys put a hurting on them though.


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## 9

> I don't have much free time and its a real bummer but I am thankful to have a job in this state. I just wish I had the time required to run a good canine line and thats what I really miss.


"Windows of opportunity", that's what trapping boils down to all once you join the workforce and accept the responsibility to provide for your own. Some years the windows are open wider then other years and some years, they're closed tight!


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## CaptainNorthwood

Seldom said:


> "Windows of opportunity", that's what trapping boils down to all once you join the workforce and accept the responsibility to provide for your own. Some years the windows are open wider then other years and some years, they're closed tight!


I hear you there! Yeah my window has some window weights on it right now and a really really big window weight arriving sometime in the middle of June.  If all goes as planned that little window weight will be telling stories of how he/she got into trapping and the outdoors.


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## kgiovann

I love reading these stories. Mine is more a story about getting bit, going into remission and then getting bit again. As a kid I always liked the independent characters in books like Crow Killer and The Nick Adams Stories, but I lived in Detroit for crying out loud! The edge of the earth was the Franklin Cider Mill, right? Since there were no youth hunts and few people bow hunted in the early seventies, hunting and trapping was something I could only dream of doing when I was older. I remember looking forward to the phone call from my dad from deer camp each Opening day. I was probably 13 when the fun began - We moved to the burbs. I think I caught more colds than critters at first, but after making every mistake possible, I caught onto the basics. Freshman year away exposed me to roommates who didnt understand our hobby, so I had to go underground. Under the cloak of darkness I would slip away and set a ditch or two during the season, but I looked forward to getting home each Christmas and back to the swamp! I was busted once that first fall when my mini freezer in our dorm room failed during a long weekend away and the rat I had in there created a stinky mess. I used better judgment in the following years and picked a roommate who once hung a deer he shot from our second story campus apartment balcony  until the complaints got too bad. 

Marriage, babies and a job that prevented me from running a real trap line kept my instincts at bay for a while, but it never did kill the spirit. My wife could never understand why I would take my eyes off the road while driving, to gaze at wetlands or a river, quietly planning how I would set the place. Id like to know how many of us arent guilty of that? Or walking next to a pond while golfing in July looking for sign instead of my golf ball. I wish I could find the picture a buddy once took of me wearing a suit and hip boots during a season when I did manage to get 2 or 3 traps out in the sewage pond behind our office building. We moved to Europe for 2 years and I got by on seeing fashionable women in fur coats and wondering if I might have nabbed one of the critters that was keeping her warm. I guess it proves the point that you can take the boy out of the country, but you cant take the country out of the boy! 

Now Im making up for lost time. My son is taking an interest big-time and while we started the season late with 4 old traps, the list of things we need next season runs 4 pages! Go big or dont go at all! The furs in the picture below will be hanging in a new fur shed next fall. That tack room is wasted space anyway. Paul claims hes the only person whos worthy of wearing that trappers hat to school. Theyre back in style in case you havent noticed. This year has been like a homecoming for me, and I view this forum as an on-line trappers anonymous chapter. *Hi, Im Ken and Im a trapper!*


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## Jigin-N-Grinin

kgiovann said:


> I love reading these stories. Mine is more a story about getting bit, going into remission and then getting bit again. As a kid I always liked the independent characters in books like Crow Killer and The Nick Adams Stories, but I lived in Detroit for crying out loud! The edge of the earth was the Franklin Cider Mill, right? Since there were no youth hunts and few people bow hunted in the early seventies, hunting and trapping was something I could only dream of doing when I was older. I remember looking forward to the phone call from my dad from deer camp each Opening day. I was probably 13 when the fun began - We moved to the burbs. I think I caught more colds than critters at first, but after making every mistake possible, I caught onto the basics. Freshman year away exposed me to roommates who didnt understand our hobby, so I had to go underground. Under the cloak of darkness I would slip away and set a ditch or two during the season, but I looked forward to getting home each Christmas and back to the swamp! I was busted once that first fall when my mini freezer in our dorm room failed during a long weekend away and the rat I had in there created a stinky mess. I used better judgment in the following years and picked a roommate who once hung a deer he shot from our second story campus apartment balcony  until the complaints got too bad.
> 
> Marriage, babies and a job that prevented me from running a real trap line kept my instincts at bay for a while, but it never did kill the spirit. My wife could never understand why I would take my eyes off the road while driving, to gaze at wetlands or a river, quietly planning how I would set the place. Id like to know how many of us arent guilty of that? Or walking next to a pond while golfing in July looking for sign instead of my golf ball. I wish I could find the picture a buddy once took of me wearing a suit and hip boots during a season when I did manage to get 2 or 3 traps out in the sewage pond behind our office building. We moved to Europe for 2 years and I got by on seeing fashionable women in fur coats and wondering if I might have nabbed one of the critters that was keeping her warm. I guess it proves the point that you can take the boy out of the country, but you cant take the country out of the boy!
> 
> Now Im making up for lost time. My son is taking an interest big-time and while we started the season late with 4 old traps, the list of things we need next season runs 4 pages! Go big or dont go at all! The furs in the picture below will be hanging in a new fur shed next fall. That tack room is wasted space anyway. Paul claims hes the only person whos worthy of wearing that trappers hat to school. Theyre back in style in case you havent noticed. This year has been like a homecoming for me, and I view this forum as an on-line trappers anonymous chapter. *Hi, Im Ken and Im a trapper!*


 
Great story!!!!
You should write for a magazine or something. 
That was enjoyable to read.


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## seaarkshooterwife

Bug?..hmm....I would say the enthuasiam on my husband's face when he talked about all the animals we could catch...I caught his glee. 

OKAY..Lets be honest for a minute. It really wasn't that. 

It was his promise that anything we catch in the traps I get to 'shoot'um dead' and then dissect their head for various reasons...(yes, I am a nurse) :evil:... I am hooked!


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## PsEbUcKmAsTeR17

Good stories guys. Its always fun to read these.

I know there is more out there, come on guys, keep em coming.

Dave, Joe, Wild Bill where you guys at.

-Psebuckmaster17-


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