Teachermans 2012-2013 Trapping Journal

[oldleclercrd]

 

[TeacherMan]

Great day on the line, just got home! We increased our line to about 50 beaver any coyote sets. That's about as many of those sets as I'm putting out. Now the long wait until Nov. 10th and everything else to open. Going to go put in 50 marten boxes next weekend and wire traps up so they are ready for opener. I think we'll put in a dozen new snare pens for lynx also. Very much ready for everything to open!

We only got a couple beaver today that took way to long to chop out from under the ice with my ax! I forgot chainsaw gas no yotes had touched our bait pile but several fox are hitting it. Can't wait to lower snares to their level.

On the way home tonight I spotted a nice red fox running the river so I was able to put one .22 mag bullet behind his shoulder at 100yds and piled him up. Hunting season is open for them.

Hopefully animals move little more this coming week, if anything else it will just be nice to get back out there again next weekend.


My local line will start up Nov. 10th and I'll have more K9 pics to post. I'll post pics of today tomorrow I'm done for the night

[Special T]

 

[quadrafire]

Is there much competition in the area you are trapping. Do you have to label all your sets with ID. How far from civilization are you.
Sorry for all the questions, just trying to paint a picture in my mind. 

[rasbo]

good times on the line,,,I have been away awhile,I was thinking you were moving back to wa state

[TommyH]

got to follow this one!

[Lunchbox1981]

This was one of my favorite topics last year I look forward to following again.  Best of luck and I vote for show us the x-rays.  But I like seeing stuff like that.

[TeacherMan]

Is there much competition in the area you are trapping. Do you have to label all your sets with ID. How far from civilization are you.
Sorry for all the questions, just trying to paint a picture in my mind. 

There is a ton of competition in my area! Everyone up here traps, I've got students in everyone of my classes that trap every weekend with there family. You have to be willing to hike or go a long distance in on a snow machine.

You do not have to label your traps in AK, another interesting fact there is no trap check time. Snares are a very key tool up here and the extreme cold temps keep your animals well preserved. It was already -8 on my line Sunday.

For now the Northern part of my line is a little over 200 miles from my doorstep. Very remote country in broken tundra with willows and spruce. Cats, fox, coyotes, wolves, marten and wolverine are our target once we stop beaver trapping.

Hope this helps paint a better picture, its beautiful country, the animal density would really surprise most people, its low! You have to put in a lot of miles and the average trapline has about a 5% success check rate off the rd. system. This means we should get around 4 animals a check 

[TeacherMan]

good times on the line,,,I have been away awhile,I was thinking you were moving back to wa state

I tried Rasbo, I tried! Its all about the money. I had a great teaching job lined out but my wife couldn't get one and we couldn't take over a 50% cut in pay. Since we bought a house. We are hoping to live it up for 4 to 5 more years then get back into a Western state. AK is nice but way to spendy to get out and see family. We are coming down for Christmas break this year and its costing over $1,000 a ticket    because they know they can get it. 

[TeacherMan]

This was one of my favorite topics last year I look forward to following again.  Best of luck and I vote for show us the x-rays.  But I like seeing stuff like that.

This is my buddies arm from this week 

[TeacherMan]

You can see how his arm was cut in half! He still has over 100 lead pellets in his arm. It will do more damage getting them out than its work they said 

I've got some day of pics that are really good but very graphic.

[TeacherMan]

I'll have to get a pic of the fox I shot yesterday from my partner, he got it on his phone. A few set pics from yestereday and a pic of the new #9 Brawn (9" jaw spread) I picked up for when I find that fresh wolf kill 

The first pic the snare is really hard to see because I dip my blind trail set snares white. Look for the swivel in the brush and follow it out.

[quadrafire]

Hope this helps paint a better picture, its beautiful country, the animal density would really surprise most people, its low! You have to put in a lot of miles and the average trapline has about a 5% success check rate off the rd. system. This means we should get around 4 animals a check 

Thanks for that info. What is fuel cost up there? that could make for some expensive beaver.

[TeacherMan]

Hope this helps paint a better picture, its beautiful country, the animal density would really surprise most people, its low! You have to put in a lot of miles and the average trapline has about a 5% success check rate off the rd. system. This means we should get around 4 animals a check 

Thanks for that info. What is fuel cost up there? that could make for some expensive beaver.

Figure we are getting around $60 a beaver up here and $5 a rat it adds up fast. Cats are around $250, fox last year averaged $90 (expecting that to be down this season to about $50), Marten $100, and wolves I sell taxidermy skinned for $600+, our weasels I also sell to taxidermsits for $20 plus shipping and they go all day long. I run about 50 weasel boxes, flying squirrels on the taxi market $30 ea and the XXXL wolverine I got last season I traded for a rifle that I since traded for a .500 S&W with a box of ammo plus a Leupold 20-60x80 Spotting scope, case and tripod  With that said gas in Wasilla is $4.19 a gallon and I take a 6 gallon jug with me. I drive a Jeep Rubicon and it gets about 19 mpg but only has a 15 gallon tank.

With all this said I put aside a couple $K at the beginning of the season so I have gas money 

[quadrafire]

Man that sounds like fun. I loved trapping as a kid for rats/beaver/coon. Such excitement to come up on each set, wondering if it would be tripped.
Thanks for sharing, so those of us that can't can still relive it a bit.