Trapping Adventures with Prune Part II

Prune

Four Pointer
[QUOTE="2LazyHound..hopefully it will dry out some.And this year there shouldn't be too many bloppers...never mind thats part of the adventure
 

QuietButDeadly

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Good luck an tight chains. Hope your coyote floats work great. At least you have a little sand down your way, easier to deal with wet sand than the mud I have.
 

Jammer

Six Pointer
Day 1 was pretty uneventful. We only set 8 footholds as we eased back into it. Tomorrow’s goal is to check what we got and set another dozen at a minimum. The numbers are low for us but we are setting after work. Vacation starts at end of business Friday so we’ll ramp up then.

Only a semi-misadventure today. We found an area with really nice coon sign so we went to grab the dp’s and realized we forgot the coon bait.

We are testing some new lures That we picked up at the convention this year. Hopefully we will have something dancing tomorrow.
 

Prune

Four Pointer
Yep have flats and posts....and all new lures that i haven't ever used ( 4 ).but have ole standbys at the ready, from the sign we seen the critters are there...oh and coon bait is loaded in truck now...and another 20 legholds ready for the dirt
 

Jammer

Six Pointer
Today's check was pretty quick. We did a little better than 10%. 7 of the 8 traps had some activity but only 1 of those 7 resulted in a catch. I had a trap dug up and the other 5 were near misses. Because the checks went so quick we were able to get 17 more traps set including a conibear and 6 dp's.

We also picked up a 65 ac tract to deer hunt. One of the farmers we trap for is tired of the deer eating his corn. His grandson is away at school and wasn't able to hunt this year. Just enough season left to tag out.

Here is the picture of our only catch. Not bad for a first night set. A 20ish pound male.
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Jammer

Six Pointer
The only thing that kept us from getting skunked today was a small possum or as Prune likes to call them, a Carolina silver sable. We had a snapped trap and a few others where the critters came from the back. With all the activity at the sets, I think we are a little rusty. I'm confident we will get it dialed in pretty quick.

Sorry for no pic of the possum but Prune refused to take one. Said he didn't want to waste the space on his phone. So here is a pic of a group of toms and jakes. It's amazing how fast the population increases when trappers manage the predators. We've seen the numbers grow steadily over the last 3 years on this farm.
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Jammer

Six Pointer
I had to work this morning so Prune ran the line before the rain came in. We had a couple snapped traps and other sets that were molested. Ended up with 2 coons and a red. When Prune pulled up to the red, a second fox ran off then ran back then ran off again. Sure wish it would have been in the second trap. Would have been nice to have a double. Maybe it will be dancing tomorrow.

Here are the pics
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Jammer

Six Pointer
Prune's truck has had a bit of an attitude lately so we took my truck today. That was a mistake! Apparently the 4wd actuator is bad and does not actuate. The front wheels have no power in 4wd. We found that out the hard way. It's always a bad day when you get stuck. Do you know what's worse than getting stuck? Getting stuck when the ground his hard but the top inch is slick and the front wheels don.t pull. Do you know what's worse than that? GETTING STUCK THREE DANG TIMES IN THE SAME DAY! It wasn't even the kind of stuck where the truck sinks in the much. It was the balding tires on a sheet of ice kind of stuck. It was the kind of stuck where if we had another person in the truck to help push it wouldn't have been an issue.

Instead it was the kind of stuck that the landowners needed to bring the tractor and pull me onto dry land. A $50 part had Prune walking in the rain to get up with the farmers for a tow.

The first time it happened the landowner came with his pickup......and he got stuck. He didn't switch to 4wd before trying to hook up the chain and couldn't get his front axle to engage. We got him out and then got the tractor to get me out. The second time (on a different farm) the landowner shows up with a Kawasaki side by side. I was actually relieved it didn't have enough ass behind it to pull me out. I never would have lived that down. He went and got the tractor. The third time as Prune was walking to get the tractor it started to downpour. Of course the rain stopped once he got back in the truck after putting the tractor away.

All of today's misadventures came with the prize of a possum...at the very first stop. We should have just quit there when we were ahead.

There is never a dull moment when Prune and I are running the line.
 

Jammer

Six Pointer
Well I didn't get the truck stuck today so that was a plus. Today's haul consisted of a single trash panda. Because of all the rain we freshened up all the lures and re-bedded the traps. In the last 2 days we have had half a dozen snapped traps that were clogged at the corner of the jaws. Hopefully it stays dry for a while.

He was trying to hide.
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Jammer

Six Pointer
Prune and I decided to spend a little time in the deer woods before running the line. We got in the blind right at 7 am and only had a half hour wait before a doe showed up about 75 yards out. As soon as she stepped out into the field, she looked straight up at us. After a few minutes she went back to feeding and moved further into the field. Another doe joined her so we just watched them for about 10 minutes. The first doe looked back up at us and started stomping. Time for her to die. When I shot she kicked and ran back into the woods. The second doe just stood there so Prune dropped the hammer on his smoke pole. She didn’t take a step.

As a bonus I found 2 nice bunches of oyster mushrooms while we followed the blood trail. I see venison in wild mushroom gravy in my future.

Once we got the deer loaded we started checking traps. The footholds were empty but we did have a coon and a big possum in dp’s. A couple sets had reds that dug from the back. They are about to be surprised with a backside foothold waiting for them.

I hope Santa brings you all that you wished for. Merry Christmas, y’all!
 

Jammer

Six Pointer
We finally had a good day. We have had a scent control problem lately. It seems like all the critters were more interested in digging up traps than going for the bait. It turns out that we have been using polyfill that came from a scented pillow. If we had caught every fox, coyote or bobcat that dug at a trap in the last week we would have had more than 30 critters already. We pulled all the traps today to get them cleaned up. Time to move to a new location with clean polyfill and get after them. We'll come back in a month or so and get them. With last nights rain we ended up having our best day so far. I think the rain kept the scent down. Our first stop had a young red fox that looked like it was recovering from mange. The fur on his legs and tail was just starting to come back in. We'll give him a dose of ivermectin and he'll be fine in a couple weeks. The second farm produced a nasty tempered gray fox and a squirrel. Did you just read squirrel? Yes you did. Had a back foot catch in an MB450 in a more or less pass through set. The trap didn't do a bit of damage to the leg but unfortunately for the squirrel I wasn't about to attempt a live release.

Here are today's pics.
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cowgirl

Four Pointer
Enjoyed reading about your adventures. I've really got into trapping this year with my husband. Caught my first yote and fox so I'm hooked. Plan to hit it hard since deer season is ending if it ever stops raining! We have so much mud it ain't even funny!
 

buckman84

Eight Pointer
We finally had a good day. We have had a scent control problem lately. It seems like all the critters were more interested in digging up traps than going for the bait. It turns out that we have been using polyfill that came from a scented pillow. If we had caught every fox, coyote or bobcat that dug at a trap in the last week we would have had more than 30 critters already. We pulled all the traps today to get them cleaned up. Time to move to a new location with clean polyfill and get after them. We'll come back in a month or so and get them. With last nights rain we ended up having our best day so far. I think the rain kept the scent down. Our first stop had a young red fox that looked like it was recovering from mange. The fur on his legs and tail was just starting to come back in. We'll give him a dose of ivermectin and he'll be fine in a couple weeks. The second farm produced a nasty tempered gray fox and a squirrel. Did you just read squirrel? Yes you did. Had a back foot catch in an MB450 in a more or less pass through set. The trap didn't do a bit of damage to the leg but unfortunately for the squirrel I wasn't about to attempt a live release.

Here are today's pics.
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The squirrel is funney! I actually caught one in a dog proof one time.
 

Jammer

Six Pointer
The weather has been terrible this season. All the land traps are in the truck . We have worked one beaver job and took out the lone beaver in the pond. He was just a dink 2 year old at 35#. Looks like we'll have about a 10 day run with no rain so we will be setting tomorrow on a few places we can't get on until deer goes out. We also have to work on some otters that are going to town on a stocked pond and a swamp with at least 3 beaver houses. Hopefully the real fun starts tomorrow.
 

Jammer

Six Pointer
With the rain moving out, Prune and I got about 30 traps set yesterday on a couple of properties we can't access until January. We had a few traps snapped and still in the trap bed most likely caused by deer. We did have a little first night luck. We had a double on gray fox and a female yote. All animals were caught with just gland lure and a shot of either fox or bobcat pee in dirt holes. The last two pics are the same yote. Look at the hold that Bridger 1.75 has on that foot. First step was the last step. The second yote pic below shows the importance of location. There were two sets of tracks that continued into the field following the tire tracks. There is another dirt hole 15 feet to the left of the pic that wasn't even investigated.
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YanceyGreenhorn

Still Not a Moderator
Ni
With the rain moving out, Prune and I got about 30 traps set yesterday on a couple of properties we can't access until January. We had a few traps snapped and still in the trap bed most likely caused by deer. We did have a little first night luck. We had a double on gray fox and a female yote. All animals were caught with just gland lure and a shot of either fox or bobcat pee in dirt holes. The last two pics are the same yote. Look at the hold that Bridger 1.75 has on that foot. First step was the last step. The second yote pic below shows the importance of location. There were two sets of tracks that continued into the field following the tire tracks. There is another dirt hole 15 feet to the left of the pic that wasn't even investigated.
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Niiiice look at that burn circle ??
 

Jammer

Six Pointer
Yesterday was a slow day on the line. We had a couple sets that were checked out but the critters didn't commit. We did have one coon that decided he wanted to take a swim. He pulled the drag about 30 feet to get to the pond. Here is a pic of how we found him.
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Prune

Four Pointer
Sevenoaks 3lb drag they dont go far...cats dont takem far either...helps keep location intact
 
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