In visiting the line, always make your pack as light as possible, four or five pounds of bait, a hatchet, a few nails and staples and a small Stevens 22 cal. pistol is all you will be apt to need for one hundred traps. If you are a trapper by nature, you will know where to put the traps, close together and where there is a probability of making a catch. Some places I put a trap every fifty yards and some places one-half mile apart. Keep your traps freshly baited and do something with each trap every three or four days, if nothing more than to rub a piece of bacon rind or rabbit entrails from the top of the snow to the bait. A drag is good at times and in some places. Scent is good if bait is frozen.
When trapping weasel, writes a Northern trapper, I set my traps near small streams or in swamps, old ditches, beneath old roots and under shelving banks, near running water, and sometimes they may be caught in woodchuck holes. The white weasel and all other weasel are regular dummies, going headlong into a trap, even if they are in plain view. You don't need to cover up your trap at all unless you want to, as the weasel will walk right in to get the bait and click bang and you have your weasel hard and fast.
The best bait for weasel is rabbit heads, chicken heads and squirrels. The same sets will also catch mink, but the traps must be covered in that case unless you are making blind sets. I have caught a good many weasel in my mink sets and then again, I have caught them in old muskrat holes or dens along the banks of small streams and also near river banks in deserted rat dens.
White weasel or ermine are found in Canada and the New England States as well as all other states bordering on Canada, but rarely farther south.
These animals, like all of the weasel kind, are active in their search for food and are easily attracted to bait. They are the smallest of the animals now being sought after by American trappers for their fur. The No. 0 is used in taking this animal, altho many trappers prefer the No. 1 and 1 1/2 as they catch high and the trapper usually finds the weasel dead on his arrival.
My father was a successful mink trapper but only trapped when they became bothersome says an experienced trapper. He made mostly dry sets. He would look carefully at a hole in bank of stream or pond, then cut out a place for the trap, drive a stake in bottom of the trap bed, coil trap chain around it and set trap on top, then cover with finely cut grass, a big leaf or writing paper and lastly with the material he took off the top trap bed. Then he cleared all extra dirt away and put the bait in the edge of the hole or under the edge of a stick or stone, if there was one near the hole.
I went with him once and I said, "Some trappers stick the bait on a stick." He looked at me and said, "You young goose, did you ever know a mink to eat part of a muskrat and hang the rest on a stick?" He used bird, muskrat and fish for bait. If bird, he tore some feathers out and made it appear as if some mink had dragged the bait there and hid it.
For a mink that is not hungry, I find an old muskrat den or a runway through a drift pile is a good place. The great trouble with these two last sets is, the rabbits are liable to get into the trap instead of the mink. There are a good many ways to catch mink, and there are mink that will evade a good many well laid plans for their capture.
My most successful plan for catching mink is this: I get a hollow log — it needn't be a long one — and if it is open at both ends I close up one end, then a little back of that I put my bait. Now at the other end if the entrance is not slanting so that the mink would run into it easily, I make it so. I then put the trap inside, about a foot from the entrance. The mink will run into the log because he smells the bait, or simply because it is the nature of the beast to make the run of every hollow log he comes to. Finding the other end closed he will have to come back and he is sure to be caught either going or coming. Trailing bait along the ground and up to the back of the log makes the results surer, as mink are great on the scent.
About mink. One man said mink would not take anything dead unless he was very hungry. Now Brother Trappers, you all know a mink will take anything he finds dead and drag it into a hole if he can and when you find where a mink has dragged something into a hole that is a never failing set for if he is not in the hole when you find it he will sure come back to it.
Hollow trees in swamps are the favorite denning places of the raccoon, writes an Eastern trapper of years of experience, but in some sections he is found nearly as often in holes among ledges. If there is a rocky hill or mountain side on your line, inspect it thoroughly. The occupied dens may easily be told by the trodden appearance of the ground about the entrance and an occasional tuft of hair on the projecting edges of the stone. Here are the places for your traps.
Set your traps just outside the entrance, cover well with leaves and rotten wood, and fasten to a clog. We say outside the entrance, for if the trap be placed at a point where the animal is obliged to assume a crouching posture, it will be sprung by the creature's belly, and you will find your trap empty save for a fringe of hair. Even if the dens show no signs of recent occupation, a few traps can hardly be misplaced, for the raccoon, like every other animal, frequently goes on foraging trips long distances from his actual home, taking up temporary quarters in places like those above described.
Whenever there is a brook or creek in the vicinity of good raccoon ground, look along it carefully for signs. The raccoon follows the streams almost as persistently as the mink in quest of frogs, fish or clams, and his track may be easily found along the muddy borders, the print of the hind foot strikingly resembling that of a baby's bare foot. He is a far less skillful fisher than the mink, usually confining himself to such unwary swimmers as venture up into the shallow water near the bank. He seldom if ever I believe, goes into deep water.
If you find evidence that a raccoon is patrolling a stream, place a trap without bait at the end of every log affording a crossing place. The raccoon seldom wades or swims when he can find dry footing.
If you wish to trap the raccoon by baiting, you will find nothing that he likes better than an old salt fish skin that has been made odorous by being well smoked. It is not a bad idea to do the smoking near where you are to set the trap. Build up a little stick fire in the woods, hold the fish skin impaled on a green stick, over it until it is thoroughly heated and smoked through, and an odor will be created that will pervade the woods for rods around. And of course if this scent reaches the nostrils of any near-by ringtail that is sleeping away the day, he will lose no time after nightfall in tracing out the source of the appetizing smell, and endeavoring to make a supper off his favorite food. Mice, squirrel, frogs and chicken heads are all good baits, and they are equally good for mink.
Most trappers prefer the No. 1 1/2 Newhouse for raccoon although some use the No. 2 double spring. The Oneida Jump No. 2 and 2 1/2 are also good coon traps as is the H. & N. No. 2. The Stop Thief No. 3 1/2 is also used for coon.
Now I will tell you how foxes can be caught on land when the ground is frozen, writes a New England trapper. Take a large bait, entrails or anything that a fox will eat, and put it in some field where the foxes travel; put out with this bait three bags of buckwheat chaff. Don't set any traps until foxes begin to eat bait and walk on chaff. Then take a No. 2 Newhouse trap, smoke it over burning green fir boughs, and smear it with equal parts of oil of amber and beeswax; also, smear the chain and use leather mitts to set trap with, for it is no use setting unless you do. Bury the trap about a foot from the bait, and cover it with chaff. Make everything level and natural.
When you catch a fox, take him out with mitts on and set again if you haven't a clean trap to put in its place. Always set a clean trap if possible.
My way of catching foxes, writes a Georgia trapper is as follows: I get a lot of dry dust, put it in the hen house and let it stay until I get ready to make my sets; then I take what I can carry handily in a sack to where the foxes "use", dig a hole deep enough for my trap, place a piece of burnt bacon in a hole, cover it up with the dust, burn more bacon, letting the grease drop on and around the dust.
I fix a good many of these places but I do not set my traps the first trip. The next trip I carry my traps with me. If the foxes have found my bait they will dig it out. I then set my trap in the bottom of the hole, driving a stake down in the hole to fasten the trap to. Cover the trap chain and all with dust. I do not put new bait in the hole, but burn more bacon on top.
Try this, brother trappers, and watch results. Do not set traps where the bait has not been disturbed. Carry away all fresh dirt and handle your traps with gloves. In water trapping, form a natural surface over your traps and you will get furs.
I see different ways to catch the fox. They are all right but no person can tell another and guarantee success. The man or boy who sets right will get the fur but careless ones will not. I am going to tell amateurs and boys the secret of an old time trapper. He is alive yet and I guess had a few traps set (altho over eighty years old.) He told me the secret and said at that time he had never told any one but me.
First put out offal of butchering such as beef head; pick out a good place where foxes travel; at the same time, singe the fur on a rabbit or two and put near where you want to set trap; commence baiting early and go there often. Go past close to where you want to set a trap; don't tramp around much but go on thru, not leaving the end of your trail there; renewing bait and singed rabbit fur as needed.
When ready to set traps, boil them in ashes. Then after drying, fasten traps to bottom of a barrel and burn slowly a lot of rabbit fur under them; handle as little as possible. Set carefully and catch your fox if you can and you can if you are careful enough. He said he caught fifteen in one place that way in one winter. Fasten trap to drag so he can go away and not spoil set.
My best method is to set my trap in an old log road or path where there is no traveling done. We should set the trap level with the ground. The trap should be a No. 2 Newhouse which is the best fox trap made.
The opossum is not a cunning animal and takes bait readily. It is found in the Southern and Central States principally. This animal cannot live in the extreme north as they die from the severe weather.
They are caught principally in No. 1 Newhouse traps, at dens or places they frequent in search of food. Almost any fresh meat is good bait: rabbit, squirrel, bird, chicken, etc.
The trap can be baited when used at den but this is not necessary. Along their trails and in thickets they visit a piece of bait suspended a foot or so above the ground and trap under, carefully covered, will catch the opossum. They are also caught by building a pen of stakes, or chunks and stones placing bait in the back part and setting trap in front also at hollow logs where they frequently live.
No. 1 Newhouse trap is used a great deal for this animal, although the No. 1 Victor will hold them; No. 2 Oneida Jump, or No. 2 Tree Trap, are proper sizes to catch this animal.
The Tree Trap can be used to advantage in catching opossum as this trap is so made that it can be nailed to a tree or stump and baited.
The badger is a strong animal for its size, and also slow in its movements. The No. 2 is as small a trap as trappers generally use. The traps are set at the entrance to their dens, carefully covered and should be fastened to a moveable clog.
In setting for badger the trapper should carefully remove enough earth to bed the trap level. A piece of paper or long grass is then carefully placed on trap, and this covered lightly with the same material removed in making the excavation. This set is apt to reward the trapper. If care is taken in making this set a fox may be caught, as they sometimes frequent dens used by badger.
A Skunk is one of the easiest animals, whose fur is valuable that there is to trap. This animal is one of the first to become prime in the fall. Likewise it sheds early in the spring. When the weather becomes severe they den up, coming out only on the warmer nights. In the North they are seldom out after real winter begins, while in the South, they seek food more or less throughout the winter.
The greatest number are trapped at their dens which can be easily told by the long tail hairs found in and near the mouth of den. These hairs may be either white or black, but are usually both — one end white and the other black. These hairs are from three to five inches in length.
The dens can also be told by their droppings or manure which is usually found a few feet to one side of the den. Skunk "droppings" can be told by observing closely as it contains parts of bugs, grass-hoppers, etc., the skunk being very fond of these.
At such dens place your trap which should be a No. 1 Newhouse, No. 1 1/2 Victor, or No. 2 Jump. While catches may be made without any covering it is best to secret the trap carefully for a fox might happen along, or if near water, a mink.
The best place to put the trap is just at the entrance of den so that an animal in coming out will get caught also one going near to the den, but not entering as they often do.
Remove the earth sufficient to bed the trap so that after it is covered the covering will be on a level with the surroundings. Make a covering with whatever you removed. If there is grass in mouth of den, cover with grass, if leaves, cover with leaves, etc.
Another good set is to find where skunk are feeding, digging for insects, or their trails leading from one den to another, and make a cubby, placing bait in it, and setting trap. Bait should be rabbit, squirrel, chicken, bird, or in fact, almost any kind of meat.
Civet or civet cats are caught much the same way as skunk. This is the little spotted animal often called pole cat, and smaller than the skunk. Skunks have a spot on the head and two stripes while the civet has several stripes and these sometimes run across the body instead of along the back from head to tail as on the skunk.
This animal is caught much the same as the skunk, but being much smaller does not require as strong a trap and the No. 1 of most any make will usually hold this animal. Bait the same as for skunk.
The Ring Tail cat or Basarisk is found principally in Texas, although there are some in California, Oregon and Washington. They can be trapped by baiting with insects, frogs or mice. The No. 1 Newhouse, or No. 1 1/2 Victor, or No. 2 Oneida Jump are correct sizes for this animal.
The traps can be set about as for skunk or may be placed on logs and baited or the bait can be nailed to a tree that they frequent, the trap placed beneath and carefully covered.
Bear are caught after finding a place that they visit in search of food, by building a "cubby", made by driving old dry stakes in the ground so as to form a V-shaped pen. Then cover all except the entrance with green brush. This should be three feet high, about two wide, and about three or four feet long.
If a rock or old log is laying where the cubby is to be built it can be used for one side. The "cubby" must be built strong or the bear is apt to tear it down and secure the bait without getting caught.
The bait can be a piece of dead horse, hog, sheep, or most any animal, and the more it stinks, the better. Fish is also good bait.
Stake the bait back in the cubby, and set the trap at the entrance. Cover carefully. The trap should be fastened to a clog weighing thirty pounds or more. This clog should be several feet long and if a few knots are left on so much the better.
The Nos. 5, 15, and 150, are all adapted for black bear, while the No. 6 is especially designed for grizzly bear. It is the largest trap made.
In setting bear traps the Newhouse champ, described elsewhere, is much used. It is not very safe for a lone trapper in the forest to undertake the setting of a powerful steel trap without clamps.
Mountain lion are powerful animals yet they are successfully caught in No. 4 1/2 Newhouse traps.
If you find where mountain lions have killed an animal and left part of it there is the place to set a trap for they are almost sure to return in a night or two.
This animal is also frequently caught by setting a trap where deer or other game has been killed. The chances are good if there is a lion near it will smell the blood and be attracted to the spot as many hunters know that have killed game, dressed and left it until the next day, to find on returning that a lion had been there and helped itself.
In setting for this animal the trap should be fastened to a clog — never solid — as they are quite strong.
Here is where the steel trap reveals its superiority over all other traps, for the homemade ones cannot be used for water sets. Strictly speaking all the "water animals" that are valuable for fur are the otter, beaver and muskrat, although large numbers of both coon and mink are caught at water sets, as they frequent the streams, ponds and lakes, a great deal in search of food.
In the New England states, as well as some other sections, foxes are caught in water sets mostly at springs. They are generally trapped this way in the fall and early winter before freezing weather.
The beaver, as I know him, is a very shy and cunning animal, always on guard against danger, which makes it pretty hard to trap, unless the trapper thoroughly knows his ways and habits. My experience has been wholly confined to the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia and State of Washington, writes a trapper of experience.
The beaver lives along streams or lakes. On streams he builds dams, thus making a reservoir or lake. Sometimes he builds a dam at the outlet of a natural lake, thus raising the height of the water. After he has prepared his dam and built his home, he commences to gather food, which consists of branches of trees, bushes, and even small trees themselves. He always chooses tender, green ones. These he puts in the bottom of the lake or stream in his hut or lodge. If he be disturbed at any time he will stop work for several days and live off the boughs already gathered and sunken, and it is almost impossible to get him until he commences to gather again.
He usually does his work among young sprouts which grow along the bank of his lake or stream. Sometimes he will go a short ways up the stream and float the boughs down to his dam or hut, and then sink them to the bottom, so when the ice gets thick he has sufficient food sunk in the water to last him.
There are several different ways to trap him, but I only know of two or three, and will attempt to give them. The first thing is a No. 3 or 4 Newhouse trap with a long chain and big ring. Then the best way is to take some bait, (described elsewhere), cut some small twigs, one for each trap, and having found the dam of a family of beavers, put on a pair of rubber boots, or remove your boots, and wade up stream along the shore, or go in a boat to where they have been at work gathering the sprouts. Be very careful, and don't step out of the water on the land so they can see your tracks or scent you, for should his suspicion become aroused by any human smell the beaver will stay in his home for several days, thus making it tedious work to trap him. When you have a place selected where the bank is steep, fasten your trap chain to a strong stake beneath the water. Then fasten a heavy rock to your trap and dig a flat place in the bank a few inches beneath the water, placing your trap thereon. Then dip the twig into the "madcin" and stick the upper end in the ground, just out of the water, and leaning over the trap. Now your trap is ready.
The beaver comes out of his hut as it grows dark and starts toward the ground where he has his feeding place. As he swims along up the stream, his nose comes in contact with a familiar smell, and he will swim right up to the twig to investigate. As his foot touches the ground the trap springs and he at once plunges for deep water. The stone rolls down to the bottom and pulls him under and he drowns in a short time. He makes no noise to scare the rest, and before he has time to gnaw off his foot he is drowned. In this way you can catch the whole family.
Another way is to cut a hole in the top of dam and set the trap just below the top of water just under the hole. Just as soon as he comes out his eyes tell him his dam needs fixing. He goes at it at once, and all the rest help him. He gets into the trap often before the eyes of the rest, and they will leave the place at once never to return.
Another way is to cover the trap carefully in the path where the beaver goes from the water to his feeding grounds, but doing this it is liable to scare the rest of them entirely away.
The otter is a pretty hard animal to catch. When I set a trap in an otter hole, I cut a chunk of snow with an axe a short distance away and set over the hole, covering it all over with loose snow. That prevents it from freezing up for some time.
The best time to catch otter is in March when the first thaw comes. I have kept traps set all winter for an otter and then got him in the spring. The trap should be set a little to one side of the hole in ten inches of water. I caught an otter once in an otter hole so deep that I had to put in an armful of cedar brush, so as to make it the right depth, and when he came to slide around there he got a surprise, writes a Colorado trapper.
To trap otter cut a log about 18 inches in diameter and about 7 or 8 feet in length, then cut half off five or six inches of one end of the log. Now float your log with the cut end down. Fasten your trap chain to the side of the log. Float your log to just below the point of a stream or a little above an otter slide.
See that the log end on which the trap rests is below the water so as to give the otter a chance to climb onto the log to investigate the scent which should be "Oil of Anise" smeared on to a stick and set upright on the log. If you use good judgment in placing your log-float, you can count the "balls" on the otter's feet at every set.
I find where the otter comes out of the water, writes an Arkansas trapper, to dung, or slide, as some term it, and I take a No. 4 steel trap and set it where he comes out of the water and about two inches under. Great care should be taken in setting a trap for an otter, not to go too close to the slides. Have a pair of rubber boots and wade in the stream along the edge to where the slide is. Set your trap so as to leave everything just as you found it, as near as possible; if handy, set from boat. No bait is required.
Fasten your chain to a pole, say 6 or 8 feet long, leaving some limbs on one end to prevent ring of chain from coming off and wire the other end to a bush or something of that sort as far out in the water as you can so the otter can get into deep water and drown. Have a pole driven in the ground out in the water so the otter will get tangled around the pole. This will prevent him from getting loose, because he has no purchase to pull as he would have if out on the bank.
I "hung up" three one night last fall. When I went to my traps I found one otter that measured 6 feet from tip of nose to tip of tail. I found an otter toe in one trap, another trap being taken off by an otter, as the chain pulled loose at the spring. I was fortunate in finding the otter that got away with the trap four days later, tangled up in some vines about two hundred yards from where he was caught; he measured 5 feet and 11 inches.
An excellent way to catch mink is to take a fish, cut it in pieces and tie all of them except one or two onto a large stick and fasten it out about two feet from the shore in shallow water. Set your trap about half-way between the shore and the stick and have it fixed so that the covering will make a little mound above the water. Throw the other pieces of fish down on the shore and you will get every mink that comes along. Be sure that your trap is staked in as deep water as is possible, so they will not get away.
In setting any trap it is a very good thing to have rubber boots and stand in the water while setting. Some trappers say it is foolishness because they are not afraid anyway. Well, I have caught mink in an uncovered trap that was in plain sight and then again I couldn't get them to come near with the trap under water. Some mink are more careful than others and if you set for the wisest ones you will be sure to get them all.
I will give you a good mink set, writes a Minnesota trapper. Here is a trail along the edge of the water. Let us follow it until it takes to the water. In order to pass around a projection in the bank where the bank is so straight up that it is necessary for the animal to go into the edge of the water to pass around this obstruction, and in the edge of the water not more than two inches deep, level a place for the trap and press it down into the ground until the jaws are level with the surface, being careful to remove all mud from under the pan, giving it room for free action. Stake the chain back into the water full length and press it down into the mud.
After doing this get a handful of dry dirt, pulverize it and let it fall gently over the trap, thoroughly covering it at least for a quarter of an inch, even and smooth in all places. Now about eight inches on each side of the trap place a small weed stalk an inch or two above the ground and directly over the path and if you will put a few spots of mud on it just where it crosses the path to give it the appearance of being rubbed against, you will catch every mink that runs this trail from either direction, and without bait or scent.
When setting traps stake well out in the water, so that when the animal is caught he cannot get to land, and nine times out of ten when you visit the trap your game will be drowned. The trap should be in about three inches of water where rats frequent. If set 3 inches or deeper the trap is more apt to catch by the hind leg, which, being large, the bone is not broken so easily. For bait use white corn, apples, parsnips or turnips.
The idea advanced that the muskrat gnaws off his foot when caught is erroneous. There are times, however, when the trap has broken the bone in the leg and if the trap is a strong one, the animal frees himself by plunging about until the pressure of the jaws have cut thru the flesh. The flesh of the muskrat is not strong and when the jaws spring together, if they break the bone in the leg, which frequently happens, then the rat often frees himself before the arrival of the trapper.
It is a good plan when making the round of your traps to carry a stout club with which to tap game over the head, killing it, should it be yet alive when you arrive. The entrance of the muskrat's den is usually under water, unless the streams are very low, then you can often find them.
In the mouth of these dens is an excellent place to set traps, as game is passing in and out quite often and if traps are baited you are pretty sure to catch game in a day or two. Where rats have made a path from the water up the bank is another good place to set a trap. The trap should be set just at the edge of the water.
It is a good idea to cover up your trap, even when trapping for muskrat, for with continued trapping they become sly and learn to shun traps. Along the bank of most all streams green grass can be secured and this placed over your traps will enable you to catch game that otherwise would shun your trap. The trap should be baited, but the covering up of trap and chain will greatly help in catching game. The earlier traps are visited in the morning the better, for should the game still be alive there will be less chance of it getting free.
Now just a word about trapping coon in water. Set trap in water and bait with fish. Now the right way to use fish is to cut it up in very small pieces, drop some on the ground and some in the water and when Mr. Coon comes along he will find that fish on the ground and then go to feeling in the water and the first thing he knows he is in the trap.
Here is my most successful set for coon. Find a log with one end out of water, and one end running into the water. Place a trap on the log an inch or so under water. Cover it with wet leaves all but the treadle. Then place a few grains of white corn on treadle pan. Mr. Coon will as sure put a foot down to investigate as he runs the log.
I go around every fall in August and look for places to catch sly reynard, says an Eastern fox trapper. I look up all the warm springs back in the hills and dig them out and leave a stick or rail there for a clog. I leave it just where I want it, so that they will get used to it.
About the middle of October I go and bait every place, using a piece of chicken or muskrat about as large as a butternut. I place it on a rock in the middle of the spring or about a foot from the bank and put a stone half-way between that and the bank just under water. Then I take a stone, the thinner the better. You can find enough of them around a ledge where the frost has scaled them off. I lay it on the rock that is just under the water so it will stick out of water. It ought to be 2 inches across each way.
I use the scent of the skunk on the sole of my boots so as to kill the scent and handle the bait with a "knife and fork," never with my hands. It won't be long before the bait it gone when I am ready to set my traps, then I move the middle stone and put the thin one on the pan of the trap so it will just stick out of the water. Try this and you will get your fox. Scatter three or four drops of fish oil around trap.
When setting traps for beaver and otter in the early open water, writes a Canadian of experience, the greatest difficulty and annoyance the trapper has to contend against is the varying depths of the water caused by the melting of the snows during the day and the running down of the levels during the frosty nights. This, of course, applies more to rivers than to lakes, but as the rivers open so much earlier than the lakes it is on them the early trapping is prosecuted. It is most exasperating to visit one's trap in the morning and find by the signs that the beaver or otter had paid his visit and that the trap was out of order by being a couple of feet under water, or high and dry up the bank.
To avoid this close observation of the working of the water must be taken note of by the trapper. Weather conditions is a factor to be reckoned with. A rainy night and a cold frosty one have, of course, different effects, and must be considered with all their bearings by the would-be successful trapper. The best time to make a set or final adjustment of one's trap is as late in the afternoon as possible. Then one sees how much the stream has risen since morning, and calculate by his judgment how much it will recede during the coming frosty night. Or if rain has set in or is imminent before morning, how much further the rise will be.
With these daily and nightly variations of the water, of course, traps must be visited each morning and evening. It is therefore good policy at every early visit to make a level mark near each set, whereby in the evening when the trap is to be properly adjusted, the day's changes can be noticed with accuracy. Small streams, of course, fluctuate more than large rivers, the latter generally showing a steady increase in volume from the beginning of the break-up until the lake ice is all melted. There are many tributaries of large streams that one can easily jump across early in the morning, after a sharp frosty night, which are positively raging torrents at sundown. On streams with such wide variances in depth, trapping is almost impossible. At all events, a good deal rests on chance. One has to manage his trap with a large amount of guess work. Streams with a breadth of an acre or so move up and down with a greater degree of uniformity, and the trapper who pays close attention to the movements of the water and weather conditions can set his trap pretty accurately for business. A river such as I have mentioned last, whose feeders are a considerable distance up stream, generally falls a third of what it rose during the daytime. Thus, if you find that since morning the level has risen nine inches it will be safe to set your trap six inches under water. By this calculation there would be three inches over the jaws at the lowest ebb next morning, the night before being cold and dry.
I have caught both otter and beaver in traps set on a half submerged log, a place which makes an ideal set on waters that are liable to vary in height, as the log moves with the change of height and the trap is always in order. Another good place for a trap is on a floating island when such can be found, but these favorable places are not always obtainable. A beaver or otter will be caught in deeper water in the spring than in the fall. In the spring they swim about with more vigor and consequently displace more water in front of their breasts, their feet thereby, setting off the pan in what would at other seasons be too deep water.
A piece of castorum is the general lure used by most trappers for the animals I am treating of. In fact castorum is used for almost any animal. But a stronger "draw" for beaver or otter is a drop or two from the scent bag of the animal. The contents of this sac can be emptied into a small vial and carried about in the trapper's pocket to be used when required.
A small twig dipped in this and stuck in the bank back of the trap will cause any otter or beaver swimming past to come straight for the trap, regardless of consequences.
In setting a trap for these animals care must always be taken to douce all about the trap before leaving. This can be done from the canoe or boat by flipping water with the flat of the paddle. A difficulty in setting spring traps is the planting of a picket to hold the trap. The banks are generally frozen even for considerable distance under water, and driving a picket or stake is impossible. One good way to overcome this condition when procurable is to fasten the trap chain to a good sized flat stone. Have a wire from this to the shore tied to some willow or root, and if anything is caught, with the wire you can drag everything ashore.
When stones are not to be procured a young spruce can be cut ten or twelve feet long of a size at the butt that the trap chain ring will pass over. Leave a good tuft of the head branches, removing all the rest down to the butt. The ring thus being assured of a clear run down to the tuft, the trap is set and the end of the pole made secure to the bank either by a piece of wire or by a cord. If the latter, care must be used to tie close down to the prong and the cord carefully covered with mud or something else to hide it from rabbits or other animals that would surely gnaw, thereby endangering the loss of your trap and animal.
Trapping, like everything else, to make it a success, must have proper attention. A man who sets a trap haphazard and visits it only occasionally cannot expect to be very successful.
I use both the bait and blind set; the water set I think is the best, that is, in bitter cold weather when the ice is thick. My way of making, I call it the ice set, writes an interested trapper, is to take a piece of oil cloth or an old buggy top cover will do, and put about 5 pounds of salt in same and sew it up, having it about 2 inches thick. Don't make it too solid, leave it loose enough so you can work the most of the salt around the edges to bed the trap in.
Now puncture with a needle to let the fumes of salt through; cut a hole through the ice at edge of the water, scrape out hole to bed salt in; but first put a stone in the hole and bottom and side it up with stones to keep the mud from clogging the needle holes. Now you will wonder what the salt is for; simply to keep the ice from freezing the hole shut. I had nine of that kind of sets last winter and trapped 7 mink. The hole will never freeze shut. Always set trap under water.
Last winter I told my better half that I had better take my traps out of the run where I trap, as I couldn't make a water set, because they froze up over night. She said, "Why don't you put salt around your traps?" That put me to thinking so I got an old piece of oil cloth and got her to make four bags for me on the sewing machine; I put a sack of salt, 5 pounds in each one, and used them as I have described.
The marshy lands that are tributary to the Atlantic extend for hundreds of miles along the Maryland shore of Chesapeake Bay. These lands are sometimes entirely covered with a brackish water forced up by the tides from the sea, while at other times they are covered by the fresh water brought down by the flooded rivers from the higher lands of the back country.
Upon these vast extents of boggy wastes large numbers of fur bearing animals, mostly muskrats are annually caught, and many trappers make a good living from the fur and the meat which as "Marsh Rabbit" is served at the Bon Ton restaurants of the neighboring cities.
The water of these marshes varies much in its component parts at different places on the coast, caused by the varying quality of the streams which flow through them. This is plainly shown by its effect upon the traps used by the trappers of the different localities. While in some places the springs will stand apparently as well as in fresh water streams, in others they break very badly.
Formerly at one point known as the "Black Water" region the trappers often lost nearly one-half their springs in a few days trapping, owing to the action of this peculiar water. Just what the cause of this action is has not yet been fully determined.
The proper season to begin trapping is when cold weather comes. The old saying that fur is good any month that has an "R" in does not hold good except in the North. Even there September is too early to begin, yet muskrat and skunk are worth something as well as other furs. In the spring April is the last month with an "R." In most sections muskrat, bear, beaver, badger and otter are good all thru April, but other animals began shedding weeks before.
The rule for trappers to follow is to put off trapping in the fall until nights are frosty and the ground freezes.
Generally speaking in Canada and the more Northern States trappers can begin about November 1 and should cease March 1, with the exception of water animals, bear and badger, which may be trapped a month later. In the Central and Southern States trappers should not begin so early and should leave off in the spring from one to four weeks sooner — depending upon how far South they are located.
At the interior Hudson Bay posts, where their word is law, October 25 is appointed to begin and May 25th to quit hunting and trapping with the exception of bear, which are considered prime up to June 10. Remember that the above dates are for the interior or Northern H. B. Posts, which are located hundreds of miles north of the boundary between the United States and Canada.
The skunk is the first animal to become prime, then the coon, marten, fisher, mink and fox, but the latter does not become strictly prime until after a few days of snow, says an old Maine trapper. Rats and beaver are late in priming up as well as otter and mink, and tho the mink is not strictly a land animal, it becomes prime about with the later land animals. The bear, which is strictly a land animal, is not in good fur until snow comes and not strictly prime until February or March.
With the first frosts and cool days many trappers begin setting and baiting their traps. That it is easier to catch certain kinds of fur-bearing animals early in the season is known to most trappers and for this reason trapping in most localities is done too early in the season.
Some years ago when trapping was done even earlier than now, we examined mink skins that were classed as No. 4 and worth 10 or 15 cents, that, had they been allowed to live a few weeks longer, their hides would have been No. 1 and worth, according to locality, from $1.50 to $3.50 each. This early trapping is a loss to the trapper if they will only pause and think. There are only so many animals in a locality to be caught each winter and why catch them before their fur is prime?
In the latitude of Southern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, etc., skunk caught in the month of October are graded back from one to three grades (and even sometimes into trash), where if they were not caught until November 15th how different would be the classification. The same is true of opossum, mink, muskrat, coon, fox, etc.
Skunk are one of the animals that become prime first each fall. The date that they become prime depends much on the weather. Fifteen years ago, when trapping in Southern Ohio, the writer has sold skunk at winter prices caught as early as October 16, while other seasons those caught the 7th of November, or three weeks later, blued and were graded back. Am glad to say that years ago I learned not to put out traps until November.
That the weather has much to do with the priming of furs and pelts there is no question. If the fall is colder than usual the furs will become prime sooner, while if the freezing weather is later the pelts will be later in "priming up."
In the sections where weasel turn white (then called ermine by many), trappers have a good guide. When they become white they are prime and so are most other land animals. In fact, some are fairly good a week or two before.
When a pelt is put on the stretcher and becomes blue in a few days it is far from prime and will grade no better than No. 2. If the pelt turns black the chances are that the pelt will grade No. 3 or 4. In the case of mink, when dark spots only appear on the pelt, it is not quite prime.
Trappers and hunters should remember that no pelt is prime or No. 1 when it turns the least blue. Opossum skins seldom turn blue even if caught early — most other skins do.