Well, I'm done for the season. Pulled the last of my traps today and started cleaning them up to put away. I think my new trap design turned out decent this year. I only managed three cats but I know several more were caught between jakeland, kit Carson and redi using my traps so I believe they are worked good. I'm thinking that painted cage traps need to cleaned and touched up with new paint yearly kind of the same way leg holds need to be boiled and dipped every year.
One tactic I used this year and plan to use from now on is to not let a cage sit in one spot more five days. Of the all the cats I've caught in the last four years, several were caught after just one night of setting the trap and the rest were all caught with in four days time. Seems like if there is a cat to be caught in an area, your will catch him within the first few days. I'm sure there is some that might be caught by waiting longer but I'm thinking you will have more cats to show when season is over if your moving traps a lot more often. My
anyhow
Plus I need a bunch more beaver meat ready for next season. Would have liked to do more prebaiting this year but I was really limited on what bait I had to use just for inside my traps.
Anyhow, had fun and looking forward to next year.
Also learned that there is sooooo many more skunks in the woods than I had first thought. Going to get a bunch of skunk traps ready for next year too. Seems like you can't have enough.
