Please support trapping and trappers by joining the NTA, MTA and your local association. Keep trapping alive in Maine and the U.S. Thanks for your support.
This past pre-season, I was pleasantly surprised to find that when I went to get permission from various land-owners, I found that there were a few new trappers in the area, and they had beaten me to the land. Glad that there were new people in the area, but mad that they beat me. I went and found some new areas, and drew up some ideas for sets and locations. Every thing was all set to go for the first day. All of my traps were long since adjusted, tools were all ready, lures picked out and everything was packed to start the next morning.
I got up early and headed out to make some sets. I worked for about 6 hours along a small creek about a mile long before I sat down for a break. I looked back along the stretch of stream, and thought about all the fur I was going to catch! I seemed as though I had made dozens of sets. I never noticed the weight in my pack basket. As I was coming back out and counting my sets I realized I had only put out about 13 sets. I realized what every other rookie figures out eventually! If you don't know what your doing, or have done it very little, it takes a while to get thing done! That night at home, I sat back and figured that I spent about twenty-five minutes on each set (trail, baited body grips, and a couple of pocket sets.) I guess the biggest slow down was cutting my stakes at the sites, and I took care of that that night at about 10:30pm!
Every day that I had extra time, I put out new sets. After work I'd head to another location and set a few more before checking th e ones already in. By the following Sunday, I had all of my traps out! Setting all those traps out was great. I was catching fur left and right! I was going crazy, putting up all the fur, remaking sets, moving non-productive sets. What fun!
Out of all my catches I made this year, 3 stick out in my mind, more than the rest. The first was a 13-inch long tailed weasel. I caught him in a body grip. A 220 no less! Under water at that! What an unlucky critter! Then there is the beaver I caught in a 220. I made a few underwater bucket sets for some Otter I had seen. I never caught an otter but decided to try something out come beaver season. Instead of fish in the bottom of the bucket, I put some freshly cut poplar branches in the back. Because a 330 would not have fit the bucket, I put the 220 back in. I was very pleased two days later when I caught him. And last, I would like to attest to the holding power of Duke coilsprings. There was a 47-pound raccoon that was tearing up my friend's garbage every night. I set a couple of the 1.5 Dukes out and caught him the next day. Holding power? The raccoon had pulled the stake and dragged it to his little hole under the barn. If the stake had not of caught there, I would have missed him. He was probably in the trap for 4-6 hours, but if he could pull the stake and still be caught in the trap, I think that's an O.K. trap. By the way, that was my first raccoon . I was really surprised at the amount of fat on him! What a pain he was flesh!
All in all, it was a good season! I met my goal of beating last year (that wasn't hard, I only caught 16 animals last year.) I caught two firsts, a raccoon and a weasel, and learned a great deal! Thanks to the NTA, MTA and the Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, and all trappers, past and present, for keeping my right to trap alive.
