Bruces Trapline

[bugs n bones]

Nice job on the cats bruce

[bugs n bones]

Bruce,

What size is your bobcat traps? I am thinkng about putting a couple out this month.

You cant go wrong with a set of briarpatch cages  your next best bet would be  camtrips made by mercer lawing

[Humptulips]

Bruce,

What size is your bobcat traps? I am thinkng about putting a couple out this month.

You cant go wrong with a set of briarpatch cages  your next best bet would be  camtrips made by mercer lawing

That is a camtrip in the picture. I do not like it.

[Humptulips]

Probably noticed I haven't been posting up many pictures. That is because the trap line has kind of flopped. I knew from the get go that beaver were in short supply hereabouts but I never thought it was as bad as it has turned out. Not having prospected my old line I did not realize how little was out there.
Beaver seems to be practically non-existant over a lot of the area I used to trap. The otter situation is not that great either. I figured I would catch otter if there were few beaver but otter sign is seriously short. Sad to see what has happened sice I last trapped it hard 12 years ago. I've been pulling traps and will keep at it on a smaller scale but I doubt there will be any big catches.
Caught this today, last one off the Promised Land. Pulled everything there today.

 

[Humptulips]

A mixed bag yesterday



Today it was slow. Sometimes it's hard to pay for the gas.

[Bigshooter]

Man you are putting a hurtin on those west side cats.

[3nails]

 What a great variety! We're still trying for our first otter of the year. It's nice seeing yours.

[bearpaw]

great photos, I love trapping photos... 

[Machias]

Nice Bruce.

What do you think caused the decrease in the beaver population?

[Humptulips]

Nice Bruce.

What do you think caused the decrease in the beaver population?

There is no doubt in my mind it is cougar. I see cougar sign everywhere. They are patrolling any beaver ponds with beaver sign. I see their tracks. Since 2000 no one has trapped a lot of this area and the few areas that have had any control work done there have been few beaver removed. I personally used to take  100 to 130 beaver a year out of this area and there were other trappers. I don't see anything else to blame it on.
Elk and deer populations are down to a shadow of there former numbers also. WDFW blames habitat and in some areas that may be a factor but in other areas the habitat is good and still no ungulates. I also hear people blame poachers, indians, and brush pickers for the lack of deer and elk but I doubt if they are out after beaver too so to me that is a red herring. I don't see any hair loss syndrome in the deer or hoof rot in the elk up here. That seems to have all been to the south. I don't think disease is a factor.
Years ago when I saw a cougar track on my trapline it was something to note. Now it is an everyday occurence. Cougar would not ever come to one of my bait sets then. They are in them all the time now. They are hungry and they are eating everything they can catch.

[Machias]

I bet you are right on the money.  Funny when the fur prices crashed we had coons and skunks and fox every where in MO.  Then the turkey hatches crashed and they couldn't figure out why.  We trappers were telling them the reasons, but they still had to conduct a study to determine it.  We could have saved them a boatload of money.  They came to the same conclusions.

[big wood]

bruce , those beaver look awesome. any advice on fleshing them like that. I have put up two know and dont know how good they are?

[Humptulips]

bruce , those beaver look awesome. any advice on fleshing them like that. I have put up two know and dont know how good they are?

I mostly clean skin my beaver. I do leave a little on, small bits. You can leave quite a bit around the legs. That seems to flesh off pretty good. Try and get the tail skinned clean as that is particularly hard to skin.

I skin on a table with a couple of cod hooks with the barbs filed off on shoe laces to hook in the beaver to pull against. Skin around 'till you get past the legs then hook the hooks in the legs and keep gentle pressure as you skin.

I use a pretty dull fleshing knife for most of the beaver but I use my beaver knife which is very sharp as a fleshing knife around the neck. The leather is very thick there and I actually thin it a little by scraping with my knife. You don't need to do that  especially when starting out.

You will get better with practise. I remember words about putting up beaver from the old fur buyer I used to sell to as a kid, Fred Hjort. "The first hundred are the hardest"

[Humptulips]

Boy, I sure haven't been catching much lately. Pulled most of my traps and they are sitting in the front yard. Been trying to find a few spots to set out traps but it's a slow process.
I did however catch a pretty big otter today, only my 8th. I took the time to weigh him, 26 pounds. Not the biggest I ever saw but a nice big one.



All done for the night.

[Bigshooter]

Nice.