My Nevada 2020-2021 trapping Journal Update 12/6

[backcountry_sassn]

Time to start this years Journal. It’s a little earlier for me to start, but I had a nephew come to town the beginning of the week and he has always wanted to check traps so I took my boys out on Saturday to make a dozen coyote sets so we would have something to check with my nephew. We lucked out because the first trap we checked had a coyote. It was a small coyote from this years litter caught in a Bridger #3 on a drag. The other 11 were empty but it was nice to have something for my nephew to see. It’s the time of year that the big spiders start migrating and we were able to play with one. We are pulling them all this Saturday then waiting for the cat season to start on November 14th.

 

[backcountry_sassn]

Pulled our one week coyote line and caught coyote number 2. Had a couple sets with a coyote trap within an inch of the pan. Most likely missed because of the trap wobbling. Also missed a couple kit fox, and one grey fox. The grey fox would have been released because the season doesn’t start till November 14th but the kit fox would have made it home to the stretchers.

 

[mevertsen]

Subscribed!

 

[RobertD]

Keeping an eye on this one. How bout those kit foxes? Pretty nice pelt on those guys?

 

[rustednuts]

Last year’s was great following along this year.

 

[backcountry_sassn]

Keeping an eye on this one. How bout those kit foxes? Pretty nice pelt on those guys?

They are soft but really thin skinned. They don’t use them for garments. They are used as a novelty item so the price stays pretty consistent at $15 a piece. Sometimes a taxidermist will pay you $50 for one.

 

[RobertD]

They are soft but really thin skinned. They don’t use them for garments. They are used as a novelty item so the price stays pretty consistent at $15 a piece. Sometimes a taxidermist will pay you $50 for one.

Neat, they do look to be thin skinned.

 

[backcountry_sassn]

11/14/2020 Opening day for bobcats and fox:

Today was opening day for bobcats and fox. Since Nevada doesn’t have a tag or quota system for bobcats, they lengthen or shorten our season based on population trends from data collected from trappers. They then set the season for 2 years and reevaluate to determine the season the next two years. Dry weather has put a damper on the rabbit population in the northern part of the state, plus high fur prices the last few years has impacted our cat numbers enough that they determine to take two weeks off the beginning of the season and two weeks of the end. They took a month off our cat season a few years back and all the Negative Nancy’s said it was because of antis and once we lose weeks, we won’t get them back. Well that of course was a lie because cat numbers shot up and our season was again lengthened to 4 months. I believe that same thing will happen. Shorter season and way low prices should take a lot of pressure off the bobcats.

I got everything loaded up in the side by side and went to my normal beginning of the season trapping area. It was nice to have that sweet smell of skunk and bobcat gland in my nose again. Here’s my first set of the season.

When it comes to sign, I didn’t see much fresh cat sign. I’m not to worried about that because it seems to be the MO for this area. I never see much fresh cat sign but still get a good number of Toms. I think my ratio for the area is 1 female for every 5 toms I catch. No idea why, but it’s has been very consistent since I’ve been trapping it. I was able to find fresh tracks which is very rare with our rocks ground. It looked like two adult cats walking together. Normally when you see two adult cats it’s average sized litter mate toms. The females like to be alone with there kittens since the biggest predation on kittens is Toms. And then the really big Toms seem to be alone because no one wants to deal with their grumpy attitude (the kill a lot of kittens and young adults).


Now when it comes to fox, I’ve seen more sign today than I have ever seen in this area and this area has always had very strong fox numbers. They are fun to catch but get annoying fast because they are always plugging your cat sets. Even with that, they always give you something to skin and put up so I won’t complain.

I was able to get out 37 sets. I’ll take Tuesday off of work so I can get another 20 sets out and check the ones I got out today.

 

[backcountry_sassn]

Had a pretty good first trap check. I was hoping for more, but the first check you always expect something in every trap haha. Caught a grey fox in the set in my last post. Ended the day with 4 grey fox!

Checking took a lot less time than I thought so decided to make the most of my day off and put out another 19 leghold traps and made a snare pen with cable restraints. I’ve never used cable restraints before so I decided to try them out. They are just like a snare, but don’t have a cable lock on them. This was the animal doesn’t choke itself out like they do with a snare. I check every Saturday and Tuesday, so the last thing I want is a kill snare. Animals don’t preserve very well in our hot weather. I had some bobcat stomachs sealed away in a bucket all summer. I found a very brushy area and dumped the contents in the center. I then hung cable restraints on every path and opening leading to the bush. Hopefully I can fool a coyote or two with this idea!

My son had school so he wasn’t able to come with me. We are both excited to be in the mountains again on Saturday!

 

[wisconsinteacher]

We can use cable restraints in WI. We have 24 hour check law on them. I don't know if I would want a longer time period with coyotes, they will chew on that cable until they are free. I went from 7x7 cable to 1x19 and that helps a lot on chew outs!!!!

Awesome trap line!!!

 

[backcountry_sassn]

We can use cable restraints in WI. We have 24 hour check law on them. I don't know if I would want a longer time period with coyotes, they will chew on that cable until they are free. I went from 7x7 cable to 1x19 and that helps a lot on chew outs!!!!

Awesome trap line!!!

That was my worry. Figured I would give it a shot. I only have out 6 on a snare pen like set up and 2 on trails. If anything bad happens like a chew out or choke out, then I’ll pull them all. There is a lot of vegetation where they are set. Someone mentioned on Trapperman that if there is branches around to chew on, they tend to chew on them instead of the cable.

 

[wisconsinteacher]

That was my worry. Figured I would give it a shot. I only have out 6 on a snare pen like set up and 2 on trails. If anything bad happens like a chew out or choke out, then I’ll pull them all. There is a lot of vegetation where they are set. Someone mentioned on Trapperman that if there is branches around to chew on, they tend to chew on them instead of the cable.

I'm not sure about that. Our laws don't allow vegetation to be in the catch circle to avoid any entanglement. We can only use them from Dec 1 to Feb 15. I like using them in tall grass so I can blend them in. If conditions are right, they are a great tool.

 

[backcountry_sassn]

We were able to pick up 3 more fox. One was recently killed by a cat (vampire like marks on the back of the neck), and another was eaten and buried by a bobcat. So we only had two to skin. Still was fun. Hopefully the cats come back through. A bad sign was a hiker found some of my traps. First they leave there Wendy’s garbage in the wash next to their expose poop pile, then put sticks in 3 sets. Some people!!!!

 

[backcountry_sassn]

So I have t updated this journal much since I’ve also been posting the videos of my trap checks so I thought I would update it. We’ve been lucky and still haven’t been skunked this season. The fox have been saving us. After 5 trap checks with no bobcats, we decided to start moving the line to an area I’ve never set before. Our plan to to slowly move the sets we don’t get excited to check to the new area and then once all the traps are moved, we will move the oldest sets to an even different area. Kind of play leap from with the traps. In the past I have left my traps for the entire season because eventually cats will move through which has proven to be true, but it greatly decreases your year totals and kind of sucks to check the same sets over and over. Moving the traps throughout the season does a couple things. First, can get you on the cats instead of waiting for them. Second, your newest sets are always exciting to check.

So I was able to convince my son to let me pull a dozen traps. 3 of the planned traps to pull ended up getting stolen before we pulled them. Really sucks when that happens. So we moved the 9 traps to the new area. A week later we finally got our first cat of the season in one of the new sets. A very large Tom. Only an inch off my longest Tom but he was definitely the heaviest cat I’ve caught. Had to put the adjustable stretcher all the way out to fill out the slack from his girth.

We moved another 7 sets yesterday, and will move another 6-10 next Saturday. The new area has a lot more cat sign and best off all we have found zero trapper sign! Hopefully this means the cat trapping will pick up!

 

[kansasdad]

Best trappers assistant ever!

Thanks for sharing your craft.