Blsum's 2017/2018 season

[Blsum]

Well here we go. I wasn't even really planning on doing much trapping this year. Well I guess things have a way of changing. Back in December I got a call from a guy for a nuisance job. I have tryed trapping for him before but couldn't make it happen. I just couldn't get a beaver to go into a cage for the life of me. Well this time I also had permission to trap by the dam. The dam is on the neighbors property and he finally had enough of clearing the dam. I will include pictures of the pile of brush he has built up next to the dam to show how much material he has cleared from the dam break. Well after several weeks of not catching anything I decide it's time to get a permit from wdfw.  I did leave some cages in some key locations and while they didn't connect on  any beaver they did connect with a few otter.  So far on the permit I've gotten 6 beaver. 48lbs, 42lbs, 40lbs, 29lbs, 27lbs and a 13lbs.

 I decided to go and check out a spot I trapped a couple years ago to see if I could catch anything out there. I didn't catch anything after the first check but on the next one I caught a nice 44 lbs beaver.

I've also gotten 4 otter so far this year. 11lbs male. 12 lbs female, a 22lbs female, and a 21 lbs male.

I decided to set a couple  traps next to where I'm doing the nuisance job. One for bobcat and one for mink. I didn't think I would actually catch a bobcat at this location but figured why not. So far I've only gotten 6 possum and one of the neighbors cats.

[Blsum]

Brush pile the land owner has built up from clearing the dam. You can see my rake next to the pile for size comparison

[Blsum]

Top pic is the 42 lbs beaver and the 22 lbs female otter. The second one is the 48lbs beaver. Then the two I caught that were in the upper 20's

[Blsum]

Nice 44 lbs beaver we caught

[bear hunter]

Nice to see the kids enjoying them self's trapping

[Triplej]

Nice work!

[redi]

Nice work. Great to see the kids involved

[Machias]

Awesome photos, great job with the kids!!  Nice otters!!

[JakeLand]

Great work  that one beaver got suitcased!!!

[Blsum]

Thanks guys. It sure has been a lot of fun. The kids enjoy when we catch stuff. I'm pulling all the beaver traps on Saturday and focusing on cats.

[huntingfool7]

Nice work! 

[Blsum]

Well I shut down the water trapping and ended up catching a pair of 22 lbs male otter. Once the kids and I finished shutting down the line we went and checked the cat baits I had hanging. Well 2 of the 4 have been hit and we're almost gone. So we set 2 traps at one spot that had cat activity at 1:45 am this morning. We set one trap at the other location. The last time the trail camera was triggered was on the 1st. But the bait has been eaten on since the last picture was taken. Plus there was a backbone and portion of pelvis from a different animal that was laying on the ground next to the tree. So we took the last of the beaver plus the additional backbone and a big chunk of fresh meat and baited the trap. Fingers crossed we have some cats on the board soon. I forgot to take picture of the cat sets but I will take some tomorrow. Hopefully with full traps.

[Blsum]

Here are some of the trail camera pictures I got at the bait sites. Not sure but it looks like there might be 2 at the one site. Possibly 2 at both actually but it's hard to say for sure.

[JakeLand]

Right on !! Your getting it done for sure

[redi]

Nice otters. Cool pics of the cats. Good luck getting them.