# Whos ready???/ Stories....



## PsEbUcKmAsTeR17 (Oct 5, 2005)

Lately I have been thinking alot about trapping and cannot wait... With trapping season just a few months away and the way the weather is changing/ getting colder I was wondering who else is ready? Also I thought maybe a way to pass time till things start to pick up on here maybe we could tell stories of favorite trapping memories or stories!!!

Hope this goes somewhere!!!

-Psebuckmaster17-


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## PsEbUcKmAsTeR17 (Oct 5, 2005)

I guess since I started this thread I would make the first post!!! 

My story is from November 6, 2005. Although things started before this.

One day I was sitting at home, had nothing to do so I got on the computer. I was looking for hunting stories and came across this forum. I was looking at the archery forum and the picture forum, then I stumbled across the trapping forum. I started reading about trapping and looking at the pictures and got quite interested. I started talking to my dad about it and told him about the forum and things like that so he checked it out. A couple weeks passed and nothing really came about, I said one night "So dad what do you think about trapping, are we going to start." He replied " Well I dont know, and Im not sure." I figured nothing was going to come of it, and got a little bumbed out. One night I came home from school and my dad said I bought something today, and I thought cool he bought some traps. We go in the house and he shows me a trail cam he bought, then needless to say I was really bumbed out, but I thoght hey this is still cool. We went out to the food plot behind my house and put it out. For about a week or two we were getting some pictures of some deer and then we got our first buck. Then one day I am at school and had nothing to do so I get on the forum and my dad had sent me a PM. It said I am on my way to Gander Mountain to buy some traps and there was a picture of a Gray Fox picture on the trail cam. I was so excited I wanted to leave school, but I didnt. I got home that day and he was boiling them and getting them all ready (what I called it then, now its called MODIFYING your traps.) The next day (Saturday Morning) we went and set 6 #1.65 Bridgers. All night we couldnt stop thinking about checking traps at one point I think we even talked about going and checking them at night. However we waited until morning. We got up around 8 and went to check our line. As we walked out there there were some crows in the big dead tree in our neighbor's yard. They flew off and my dads attention must of stuck on them but mine went directly across the field to the gray fox sleeping in the trap. I said "DAD WE GOT A GRAY FOX" I was so excited and the fox jumped up and we just watched in amazement. Needless to say from that day we were both hooked.... Not only did we catch that gray fox but a opossum too...

Here are the pictures....

The one that got it all started....










The fox...










Close up of the fox...










Me...










The opossum...










Hope you enjoy...

Looking foward to other stories...

-Psebuckmaster17-


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## trapper_max (Jul 23, 2007)

great story pse.
mine is about a mink that i caught a little before christmas. i was kinda expecting to catch something in a set that i had a little farther down on my line that runs a long a creek. but as i aproached this set i could smell something musky. i walked around the corner and there sat a feisty female mink in a #1 victor longspring. i was so excited! she is the smaller one int the picture. i live on a busy road and my dad checks the culvert set and there was the bigger buck mink there.(i took over the whole line after a while:lol


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## FixedBlade (Oct 14, 2002)

What, no close up of the possum? Great catch.


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## trapper_max (Jul 23, 2007)

my pic didnt work. here it is


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## mhodnettjr (Jan 30, 2005)

The weather is getting colder????? Must just be my county thats in sweltering heat and drought right now.

You always are good for drumming up some old pictures with these threads PSEBM.

Mike

Here's one of my favorite pics from last season. (Could hardly get Jena to come out to the garage and take the pictures)


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## trapper_max (Jul 23, 2007)

im guessing that jena is your girlfriend? she dont hunt er trap?:lol:


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## Northcountry (Feb 4, 2004)

mhodnettjr said:


> Here's one of my favorite pics from last season.


 
Great bunch of furs, Mike!

Looks like that grey will be ready to turn in the morning 

That pic represents alot of skill and good times, I know!

Good luck with whatever you pursue this season.


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## mhodnettjr (Jan 30, 2005)

trapper_max said:


> im guessing that jena is your girlfriend? she dont hunt er trap?:lol:


Man I have been trying to get her to go out and enjoy the outdoors with me but she has been pretty reluctant. (So I just leave the house...spend all my time in the woods, and pretty soon she gets lonely and is willing to tag along) hehe the ole reverse psychology

More than that were the fresh beaver and rat carcasses on the floor. she says skinned critters look like aliens :tdo12:


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## trapper_max (Jul 23, 2007)

at least she comes along sometimes. i got an eighteen year old brother who dont hunt or trap, but he eats all game that wwe bring in and drives me 2 my line(sometimes):lol:


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## griffondog (Dec 27, 2005)

Back in the late 70's catching a coyote was my search for the holy grail. My senior year in high school I took a week off to trap coyotes up north. One of my farmers had a farm in West Branch and got me permission on all his neighbors land. One week of trapping and 15 red fox and no coyotes was I Bummed out. I knew I was cursed and God Didn't want me to catch a yote.

NMU was my choice for college and my traps came along with me. On Oct 15 I was laying steel all around Marquette. I had classes till 2:00 pm the next day so by 2:01 pm my dorm mate and I were on the line. Around 5 oclock I was a wolfer and had trapped my first coyote. 

On the way back to the dorm we stopped at my favorite watering hole in Ishpeming and had a couple of drinks with the locals. Within a hour the coyote joined us at the bar for the rest of the evening. It wasn't till the next day that I figured out maybe they were making fun of me.



Griff


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## Northcountry (Feb 4, 2004)

griffondog said:


> It wasn't till the next day that I figured out maybe they were making fun of me.
> 
> Griff


:lol: Hehehe...great story!!!


As for me, my favorite trapping memories would have to be my first catches of each target specie. Its that rush of emotions you get upon discovery...surprise, disbelief, astonishment, awe, satisfaction, pride and all that.

One of my favorite memories is my first red fox.

It was my first trapping season and I was concentrating on canines. I already had a few coyotes and grey fox on the stretchers, and this is all I had hoped for or expected...since red fox get driven out by these more aggressive and dominant canines. And besides, I was trapping state land woods...not farm country.

Each morning, in the pre-dawn darkness before work, I would drive the rolling backwoods trails with my highbeams on, watching my GPS for a hint that I was approaching a set location. My sets were roughly a half-mile apart, give or take. Some sets required a short hike while others could be checked with a light from the trail.

The GPS indicated that a waypoint was coming up, and I remembered that this particular set was on the plateau of small hill. There was a faint game trail which followed the ridgetop and crossed the two-track. I made this dirthole set a few yards upwind of the trail.

As my headlights rolled up and down with the terrain, I caught a glimpse of a deers white tail bounding off. Definetely nothing unusual about that.

But as I continued further, I noticed that the white tail wasnt moving off and out of my lights, but instead was just bouncing a swirling in that one location. Wierd.

Within seconds, my high-beams tilted down and shone onto my first red fox!!! :yikes: It had been his white-tipped tail that I had been seeing off in the distance! To say I was shocked and surprised would have been the understatement of the year! 

It turned out to be a real big male...and to this day, the biggest one I've ever caught. He made his living right among coyotes and greys so he had to be big and bad. Fact is, I caught a coyote in the very next trap down the line that morning, only a few hundred yards from this red....


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## PsEbUcKmAsTeR17 (Oct 5, 2005)

Great stories and pics guys...

Keep them coming... 

Only 55 days until October 15th at 12:01 Ill start my line!!!!

-Psebuckmaster17-


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## target-panic (Jan 9, 2006)

griffondog said:


> On the way back to the dorm we stopped at my favorite watering hole in Ishpeming and had a couple of drinks with the locals.
> 
> Griff


Hey Griff,

I grew up in Ishpeming........................Did that watering hole happen to be Jack's Tee-Pee...........or the Congress ??? Should I name a few more?
There's a bar on every corner ya know..........eh.

Great stories everyone.......


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## 22 Chuck (Feb 2, 2006)

As to weather "cooling off"--it may have today but until now-not.


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## PsEbUcKmAsTeR17 (Oct 5, 2005)

I mainly ment for the two days last week we had cool days, cool winds, and rain...

Reminded me of cool fall days, mainly because of the geese flying in the rain...

-Psebuckmaster17-


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## griffondog (Dec 27, 2005)

Target

That was 28 years ago but I think the name of the bar was Woody's. Seems to me there were 21 bars there or was that the next town down the road.:evilsmile


Griff


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## target-panic (Jan 9, 2006)

Griff,

I believe Woody's is still there.............Negaunee has several bars also. Not much else to do up there when you get 400" of snow a year!


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## TrapperJohn (Jan 14, 2001)

I started to get things around this weekend. Started the old task of cleaning and dying traps.

I had hoped to make plans to catch a couple of firsts this year. Martin & Fisher are on top of that list. Dec was to find in the UP me making sets in hopes to capture one or both of these critters. But plans of that got pushed back till Dec 08 at the the end of July when I dicovered I hit the elk lottery here in Michigan. As this Dec will find me scouting and preparing for the Dec hunt. 

I'll just have to hit the line a bit harder in Nov now!


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## FREEPOP (Apr 11, 2002)

Got a 125 lbs of steel the other day from F & T. Thanks Sean 

I hope to get a first this year, grey fox, coyote or beaver.

I've treat a dozen 110, 160, 1/2 doz 220 and two dozen #2 cs with F1. I have a dozen #1 cs and a half dozen 330 to treat yet. Will finish that up with some supplies from the MTA convention, along with some baits and lures.

My favorite catch last year had to be the mink I got. I found a dry drain tile and put a muskrat leg in it. It took a week or so and I finally connected on him. It was special because my grilfreind was with me and the day I found and set the place, I told her we'd get one there. The day I scored I was freshening some canine sets and she was walking the dogs away from the traps. She got to the set frist and when I walked up, she told me we scored. She was very happy about it. This year I'll let her set that spot.


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## Rustyaxecamp (Mar 1, 2005)

I did an inventory of what I have yesterday, so I know what I need to pick up at the MTA convention.

I am looking to pick up some 1.5 cs, 160's, maybe a few more 110's and 220's.

Once I get it all together, I will make a trip to my buddies to dye it all.

Looking to get my first mink, weasel, ****, maybe a canine.....

Might set for a marten while in the UP too.


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## 9 (Jan 17, 2000)

Yes, every year at this time while I'm out scouting, I recall great memories of trapping seasons gone by. Over 50 years worth and too numerous to post here. One of my favorite memories though, are those of my two sons during their early years when learning how to trap. Though during that time of our lives I was almost exclusively trapping fox, I took the time to teach the two boys how to trap rats & ****. The photo of my two sons I've posted is the results of my oldest son's first trap check of the year he went it alone. He did his own scouting, trap setting, checking, & skinning/stretching (I helped with the **** fleshing) by himself. Everybody was pretty darn proud that day. He's 40 now and the youngest is 37 and neither trap today.









Recent memories of mine are those of working and mentoring a bunch of young scientists, both male and female the past several years while working on a toxicology project. Trapping mink, rats, fox, coyotes, and teaching the skinning of same. As well as designing traps and systems in order to live-catch Great Blue Herons, Belted Kingfishers, etc. for the project.



































She did a perfect job! No big eyes on this pelt! The young lady is now heading up a study for the USI concerning the toxicolgy of ingested lead shot on Mourning Doves in thier state.


























Nobody got hurt and the Gizzard Shad was hand-fed to the babies.


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## PsEbUcKmAsTeR17 (Oct 5, 2005)

Sweet story and sweet picture...

My favorite picture is the double on the gray and red fox...

Keep them coming guys were almost there...

-Psebuckmaster17-


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## Dave Lyons (Jun 28, 2002)

Seldom,

Great pics and story. Only wish everyone in the trapping community knew just how much you are helping trapping teach these soon to be wildlife managers. You have my VOTE for Trapper of the Year.

I have no pics. But my story starts in late Nov. I got a call from a private community in the North!! South of me know. Anyway that had beaver problems. I had never trapped beaver before so I got on to asking a friend about beaver trapping I already had the traps. So my girlfriend (My wife today) and I took off on this expedation. We arrived and meet up with a few of the landowners. They said the dams and lodge or downstream from here. Well after a mile downstream I stopped and had my girlfriend with the traps stop, and I would call for her when I find what I needed. After another mile downstream I found good beaver sign in fact one big beaver floating downstream right in front of me. I called out for my girlfriend as I scouted(the pack-basket was loaded with 6 330's) Without hesitation she carried them to me and we set up the location. Next trip yielded one beaver and the job was done. Never has been another beaver there since. 

Now I only trap beaver if I get paid to trap them or I can check the traps from my truck.

Dave


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## PsEbUcKmAsTeR17 (Oct 5, 2005)

Come on guys I know there are more stories than this...

Where are you Dave Duncan, CaptainNorthwoods, Joe R, Multibeard....

-Psebuckmaster17-


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## Kevlar (Jul 21, 2004)

After stopping in the "trapping forum" for several years I decided to take the plunge and give it a shot at trapping. I bought a few 1.5 cs's and a few 110's. Made a few sets last year and got some really nice trapping spots really late in the trapping season. Ended up with a few ***** and a few rats. Best part was having my 5 year old with me the whole time trapping. Most of the time duck and goose hunting he couldn't go with me. But trapping he can come every time. Spent basically a entire year reading books, watching video's walking rivers scouting and getting gear ready for this season. We built a fur shed on the back of my buddies barn. Built tables installed electric and propane heat. Mounted drying fans and organized the shed. Spent a small fortune on stretchers, traps and gear. 

Took the first 7 days of trapping season off. Plan on having a reallly good time this season.

Kevlar


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## SNAREMAN (Dec 10, 2006)

My favorite from last season is when I started after the beaver's.My 5 year-old step-son tyler and I were setting on one side of a small river.I decided to cross the damm to put a few set's on the other side,I told tyler he was too little to go with me and would have to wait on this side.I guess I got to close to the edge because the damm just kind of 'gave way' and in I went up to my neck in some VERY COLD water:yikes:Tyler laughed at me all the way home:lol:


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## PsEbUcKmAsTeR17 (Oct 5, 2005)

SNAREMAN said:


> My favorite from last season is when I started after the beaver's.My 5 year-old step-son tyler and I were setting on one side of a small river.I decided to cross the damm to put a few set's on the other side,I told tyler he was too little to go with me and would have to wait on this side.I guess I got to close to the edge because the damm just kind of 'gave way' and in I went up to my neck in some VERY COLD water:yikes:Tyler laughed at me all the way home:lol:


 
Too funny!!!!:lol:

Maybe you were right Tyler may have been too little but maybe you were just too big...

-Psebuckmaster17-


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## Joe R. (Jan 9, 2002)

PSE, 

Well since you called me out I guess I can post a story or two. Don't have any pictures to go along with them, but hopefully you enjoy them anyways.

First I should start with the story of how I even got started trapping. It all started back in the early 80's towards the tail end of the last fur boom. My father and some of his friends had been out deer hunting across the road from the house. Being a young lad of about 10 years old I always use to sit by the picture window and watch for the shine of a flashlight beam coming down the hedgerow that signaled that my father and his companions were coming in from the days hunt.

Well one particular evening my father poked his head in the door and said "Come here kid". At that age I never was called by my name unless I was in trouble for something. When I stepped outside I was expecting to see a deer they had harvested during their hunt. To my suprise though there was a beautiful red fox laying in the drive way when I stepped outside.

I don't recall much of the story that surrounded the harvest of the fox. I do remember that I couldn't stop admiring the beautiful fur on it though. The next day when my father returned from the morning hunt he announced that we were going to the fur buyer to sell the fox.

On the way there we found a **** that had been freshly killed by a car that morning. My father pulled the truck over and threw it in the back with the fox, and we proceeded to head down the road to the fur buyers.

At the time J.C. Moyles had a fur buying operation in the town of Corunna which was only a few miles from my parents place. If I close my eyes I can still picture the sight of that place in my mind. As you walked through the door there were literally hundreds of **** and skinned **** laying in the front room along with several muskrats, and few mink and fox thrown in the mix as well. The building had an odor that only a fur shed can have. An old wood burning stove stood along the one wall. A wood box full of wood stood to the one side and a pile of **** fat lay on the floor on the other side.

Several people came through the door that day while we were there to sell the fox and ****. If memory serves me right we received $50-$55 for the fox and $30 for the ****. My eyes got as big as saucers when my dad split the money between me and my brother.

I decided that day that I was going to be a trapper. Even though my father had given the money to my brother and I it took a lot of convincing for my parents to allow me to use it to buy some traps. Finally my father took me into Owosso one day and we purchased my first traps at Shippee and Smith a local sporting goods shop that is no longer in business in Owosso.

My purchase that day consisted of 4 brand new Victor #1 longspring traps that I was planning on using for muskrats. I couldn't stop playing with those traps all the way home.

Once home I went to work making some stakes. This consisted of whitling down some spit up 2x4's so that the ring on the trap would fit over them, but wouldn't slip over the top. After that I was ready to hit the ditch behind the house, but my parents weren't ready to let me go it alone just yet. I had to wait for the following weekend when my father wasn't working so he could take me out and show me what to do.

At the time my father wasn't a trapper, but growing up on a farm in the eastern U.P. he had trapped a little as a kid. So one weekend found me and my father walking along the ditch looking for places to set my newly purchased traps. A couple of the traps were set on muskrat slides where the rats were going up the bank and into a cut bean field to feed, and the last trap we set was on the ditch bank were the rats were climbing under some tree roots to feed.

I don't reacall exactly how many days went by before I actually made a catch, but I do know it didn't come right away. I do remember the first catch though, and can vividly remember everything about it. The day was cool and crisp with bright blue skies as me and my father checked our empty traps. That was until we got to the last trap set at the tree roots. There in the trap sat a muskrat held firmly by the tail in that brand new #1 longspring.

After dispatching the muskrat we took it home and I received my first skinning lesson. After the rat was skinned stretcher was fashioned from an old cedar shingle and hung up to dry.

From that day on my parents figured I had enough lessons and I was allowed to roam the line on my own. If memory serves me right I caught a grand total of 6 muskrats that year and the buyer payed me $8 apiece for.

From that season on my father didn't spend much time on the line with me. He worked construction so the days were long, and that left me alone on the trapline much of the time. Altough my father didn't go on the line with me much after that first week or so he would still sit and talk with me about the line when he got home, and always had a smile on his face when I made a catch. Although he never said it I know he was proud of me.

Now things have fast foward quite a bit. I've stuck with the trapline over the years. Some years I've trapped more then others, and now that my father is retired he spends a considrable amount of time on the line with me now. I can honestly say that the lines I have run in the last five or six years have been my most enjoyable so far. Having my father on the line and in the shed every night while I am skinning will forever be burned into my soul. I think he gains a lot of satisfaction sitting back in a chair in the fur shed while I skin the days catch knowing that he has raised a hard working son that loves the outdoors. That satisfaction is two fold.

I'm forever grateful that I grew up in the era that I did when young boys were allowed to roam the fields and ditchlines and explore mother nature on there own, and that I had parents that encouraged such activity. I still have the original four traps that were purchased well over 20 years ago. They are retired from the line and hang on a nail as constant reminder of my youth and my upbringing as a trapper.

Joe


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## David G Duncan (Mar 26, 2000)

PSE,

Thanks for keeping the forum up and running with your new threads!

Stories, stories and more stories is about all an old trapper like me has to offer.

Wonderful story Joe! I hope you don't mind me doing some minor editing to break it up in paragraphs, so us old guys with poor eyes can more easily read it.

Like they say, a picture speaks a thousand words so I will simply post this photo of me at about 15 years old, with some of my catch from my schoolboy trapline.

I managed to catch 10 mink that year and over 135 muskrats, so I was a very proud young trapper, with a big fur check to spend on Christmas presents for the family that year! The buck mink sold for $18 each, which in today's dollars would be more like $200 each!










Note the raccoons, back in the old days the raccoon pelts were stretched open.


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## mhodnettjr (Jan 30, 2005)

Joe

Thanks for the great story. I too treasure the time that I spend with my pops in the outdoors. That story could soften up the roughest of the tough guys.

Dave

I still smile everytime that I see one of your pictures from years ago. I hope to see you again this fall for maybe a beer and some trapper talk.


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## PsEbUcKmAsTeR17 (Oct 5, 2005)

Joe and Dave,

Thanks for the stories, I love the (dont take this the wrong way) seasoned trappers stories..

Keep up the good stories guys...

-Psebuckmaster17-


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## mheard (Jan 15, 2007)

Love the storys. Joe R, you brought a tear to my eye. I miss my Dad real bad still, and he's been gone three years Sept 1. Keep em comming.


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## BlackCoyote (Sep 11, 2006)

Joe awesome story...Shippee & Smith has some memories for me too. I also got my first traps there and my first backtags for hunting.


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## PsEbUcKmAsTeR17 (Oct 5, 2005)

BlackCoyote said:


> Joe awesome story...Shippee & Smith has some memories for me too. I also got my first traps there and my first backtags for hunting.


 
Lets here the story.....

-Psebuckmaster17-


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## Liv4Trappin (Feb 22, 2006)

I will add a story of mine from the very first time I began trapping. I was about 12 yrs. old and had a very large interest in trapping water animals. Nobody in my family had ever trapped before, and I really can't recall how I got interested, but when I did, I was hooked.

I lived with my mom and stepfather in Comstock Park and would ride down to a small creek that flowed behind a bowling alley. I knew there were alot of ***** down there, so I sent in for a trapping catalog and convinced my mother to order me two 1 3/4 Northwoods cs. She also bought me one 110 duke conibear. It was like Christmas day when my box of traps came in the mail and I couldn't wait to get them down to the creek.

I also rented a book by Bob Gilsvik from the local library and read how to make a pocket set for ***** and mink. On my first real trapping endeavor, I came up with a plan on how to get everything down to the creek on my bicycle. I had my two 1 3/4's in one hand, my 110 in the other (which my stepfather had to set for me before I left), a small garden shovel, about 4 ft. of fishing line, one fish hook, and a piece of cheese!

After ditching my bike behind the bowling alley, I would head down to the small creek with gear in hand. First, I found a small sapling and tied the fishing line and hook to the end of it. Then I would put a small piece of cheese on the hook and catch a couple of creek chubs from a small hole.
Using the chubs for bait, I made my first three pocket sets. I bedded the coilsprings underwater and then chained one to a tree and the other to a large grape vine. The 110 guarded the third pocket.

After a sleepless night, I headed down to the creek on the bike and made my first check. The first coil was sprung, but due to the solid tree, I had a pullout. The 110 was next and it too was sprung, no doubt a ****'s hand was the culprit. Onto the third set I went and I remember looking down in the water and my trap was gone! At first I thought it was stolen, but then I heard something in the grass on the other bank. I looked up to see a very large boar **** staring right at me! He had pulled the large grape vine over to the other side and was just sitting in the shredded grass. I sat in awe for the next hour (so it seemed), I had done it. After dispatching the ****, I gathered up all my gear and rode home with a large **** hanging over my handle bars and a grin from ear to ear. I too still have my first traps and they sit in my fur shed hear at my home. My mom still thinks I'm crazy.

Mike.


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