Trapping...by Riley

First batch to take to the fur buyer...

8 coons and 3 coyotes.

Combing out blood and dirt.

Second trip to the fur buyer...

15 coons.

This was the worst season in the past 4 years. I was trapping in a promising, new area with plenty of coyote signs, but after a week they disappeared. It took a bunch of gas to run the trapline. I caught plenty of raccoons, but they were selling for only $1 this year. The majority of them were accidental catches in coyote and bobcat sets. Coyotes ranged from $2 to $20. Unfortunately, no big cats!

Trapping 2014-2015...by Riley

Right before we left on our Christmas trip I got permission to trap some prime property: over a mile of wooded creek bottom with pasture and farmland around a mile from the house. A couple weeks before season started I began baiting coons with fermented corn in a wooded corner of grassland approximately 1/3 of a mile northeast of our house. When season started I emptied the feeder and set 3 dogproof coon traps baiting them with corn.

I also made a coyote set across the road to the south in a pasture along with a coon set in the dry creek bottom running through the same pasture. During the first 2-3 weeks  I caught 7 coons and 2 coyotes at those 3 places.

After we got home from back east I began trapping solely on the new property around the middle of January. In the remaining 6 weeks of season I caught 1 bobcat, 3 coyotes, and 11 coons all on the half section with the creek running through it. The bobcat was caught at a hollow log cubby set.

2 coyotes were caught at dirt hole sets, 1 was snared,1 fell for a flat set, and another stumbled into a trail set. 

All but 1 of the coons were caught in dogproofs; the other wandered into a coyote flat set.

Overall I had a pretty good season except for having the golf cart engine die towards the end of season. Season total: 1 Bobcat, 5 Coyotes, and 18 Coons!