[mossyman]

I remember when I was a kid going to check traps with my PawPaw and having a blast doing it. Last year was my first attempt to try my hand at something I had a lot of memories of growing up. I caught 15 *****, a couple possums and 3 beavers.

This past Saturday was the first time I set out my 9 DPs but I’ve been running 3 beaver traps for about a month between two locations. So far I’ve caught 4 *****, 1 possum,1 otter and 3 beavers. I need to get more traps but I’m not doing too bad with what I have now.

It’s a lot of work, especially putting in the beaver sets, but it sure is fun. Maybe next year I’ll dab a little into coyotes/b

 

[mossyman]

Just a possum and a rat this morning…not the first time I’ve caught a rat in these.
Had a beaver stroll through last night but he avoided my conibears..I moved one of the traps to a more narrow spot so hopefully I’ll get him in the next day or so.

 

[mossyman]

Well moving the beaver trap worked out for me last night! I doubt it was the last one but I pulled everything out because I mainly need a break! I’ll start back in a couple days. This week has been pretty good-5 raccoons, 2 possums, 2 beavers and a rat. I’ll take it!

 

[mossyman]

I took last week off from trapping but I set them back out Monday. I had 4 raccoons and a 50.7 lb beaver this morning…the biggest one I’ve caught so far!

 

[mossyman]

Two days ago I set two conibears in a small channel running from a beaver pond to a creek. Checked them for the first time today and had this guy.

 

[mossyman]

Just two this morning…I feel like I should’ve had two more but one trap looked like it had been picked up and thrown and another had tracks all around it but for whatever reason he didn’t stick his paws in it. I tripped the traps as I won’t be able to check them tomorrow and I don’t like leaving them more than a day without checking them. I’ll reset them either Sunday or Monday.

 

[mossyman]

With all the rain we’ve had I could only get to 7 of my traps to set them. Checked them this morning and I had 3. With rain in the forecast it may be slim pickings the next couple days.

 

[mossyman]

Enjoying the pics Mossy. You have put a hurt on them.

Thank you..my goal is to catch 20 out of this spot. If I can do that before the season closes I’ll move on to another location.

With trying to catch raccoons and beavers at the same time it’s a lot of work but extremely rewarding when you walk up to a set and find something waiting for you. This is only my second year trapping so by next season I’ll have a lot more traps and different varieties to see what does and doesn’t work.

 

[mossyman]

Surprisingly they didn’t move much last night…only had this one. He had dug a hole and had his head in it when I showed up. Looks like he had been trying to free himself by chewing on his front leg. I think I’ll pull them tomorrow, take a couple days off, and try somewhere else next week.

 

[mossyman]

Had a little bit of everything today. Caught two raccoons, two possums, an otter and something I’ve never caught before in a trap..a loggerhead turtle! I went ahead and pulled everything out..gonna take about a week off and head to a different spot to close out the season.

Ended up with 18 raccoons, 4 possums, and 5 beavers out of this one area. Hopefully that will help the turkeys out this year!

 

[mossyman]

I left a few beaver traps out on another property and had a beaver and another turtle this morning…not quite as big as the other one though. I turned him loose in a creek so hopefully he won’t be back.

 

[mossyman]

Had a big female this morning…she was carrying but I won’t post pics in case some of y’all are a little squeamish..

 

[mossyman]

Caught a male otter today in the same set I caught a female earlier this week. Not sure what happened as he almost made it through the trap but it caught him in the lower midsection. He must’ve been hauling the mail through the water I guess.

 

[mossyman]

Made a trip up to West Point to the Duke Trap HQ to buy some traps and sell a few things I had. I got $40 for a bobcat, $30 apiece for two otters and I had 1.32lbs of castor which brought $46. I was surprised I got as much as I did!

 

[mossyman]

I put out a couple drowning sets since the beavers in this one area are either getting leery of my conibears or their population is dwindling. After being out for two days I caught this young male last night…solid back foot catch.

 

[mossyman]

This morning I pulled traps on a property I’ve been on for about a month…had a possum and a turtle. A friend of mine called me about a beaver issue he’s having so I put 3 traps around the beaver lodge and one in a hole in his pond dam. Had two beavers at the lodge with one on a drowning rod..first time using those and it worked pretty well. The male weighed 42 and the female weighed 50.