121 Miles Upstream

Well, things have been slow here, mostly due to weather...and partly due to gas prices. A tank of gas in the snowmachine costs about $75.00. Gets you about 9 miles per gallon or so. Anyway it looks like I'll be working as a sub for the next two weeks, and so the action may be slight, because the weather for the next 24 hours is supposed to be INSANE! ..and now I'll be trapping nights and weekends only until Christmas break. Right now it's white-out conditions and 35mph+ winds steady. Roof is creaking on the house.....not stuff I'd like to be out in at night.

At any rate, I finally got out with the duo from TrapperMan: Family Trapper and Trapper Max:


Went out to harass some beavers with those two and man what a learning experience. Was a full day from 7:45 AM when I warmed up the machine and headed about 20 miles to St. Mary's to meet up with them, until I got home around 9:10 PM. Sideways blowing snow throughout the day, at times visibility was about nothing. Got some frostbite on my nose that I didn't feel until the ride home. The skin is peeling but not as big an area as the last time. :) At any rate, we kicked out some sets alright, even though I probably slowed them up with all my questions. Pitching in was nice though..felt good to be doing it right instead of not knowing, like my fall beaver exploits. We set entrances to the houses. Which may sound simple. It's NOT.

First, you find a beaver house that is active. (fresh feed visible) Then, you walk around the house hitting the ice with a pick/chisel/spud bar. When you break through the ice with the pick and a geyser of air/water bubbles forth, you have struck gold! The travel of the beavs from lodge to feed pile makes the ice thin in a line, and hence the easily breaking ice. Then you have to chop a hole in the ice big enough to get down under the water and find the entrance hole (s) in the lodge. That done, you set the trap (330 Conibear) onto a pole and lower it down, placing it over the hole.


Push slush into a mass all around the pole to hold it upright and in place, and do the same with blocking poles, if necessary due to the individual set.


Cover the hole with cardboard and then a layer of snow on top of that to insulate, and off you go to find the next hole and do it all again. Did I mention this involves a LOT of chipping ice/shoveling snow?... :)

To put it simply, the method is highly successful. Here's an extraction:

That's what it's all about BABY! Marten Bait extravaganza!!!

And the coolest thing about the catches is this: When you pull the beav out of his/her watery domain, you roll it around in the snow/cover it up:


The snow is so dry that it sucks up ALL the water off the beaver, and he is then BONE DRY!


Works like a magic trick. Cool Stuff! The results from 13 sets were: 5 Beavers and one Female otter! Put them back in and wait another two days... Back with more trapping when the weather breaks...