Ode to Uncle Elton

What a great thread Randy, thanks for sharing.
 
Nice recap of your uncle's visit. A great memory for you and his family.

I trapped muskrats out of ponds in the 1970s in northern Missouri. Used #110 conibears placed just below the water line. The first skim of ice would trap the air bubbles revealing where the muskrats swam into holes burrowed into the pond banks. Set a trap there and set a couple of guide twigs to funnel the swimming muskrat into the trap. An adult muskrat skin stretched was around $8 which was also the price of a case of beer. I caught other critters using leg hold traps and even some beavers with #440s but muskrats were the easiest to catch, skin and stretch per $1 earned.

I live out west now but on my last trip to the farm I bumped into a guy who trapped when I did and says he rarely encounters muskrats anymore. Otters moved in during the 1990s but nothing else changed so not sure why the muskrats thinned out so much. Time keeps on slipping, slipping, into the future.
 
That story just made my day a little better.
 
Feel good story and excellent nuts and bolts for us non trappers.I liked every part of it,except the prospect of all that skinning.
 
What a great thing to do, Fin. The older I get the more I realize how important my younger relatives are.
 
Really enjoyed this post. Family taking care of family is the best karma,

Loved the description and pictures of the trapping. Here in the desert, I have zero knowledge. Thanks for the info.
 
Great writeup and an even better motivation behind it - that's what it's all about. I've always been intrigued by trapping but never knew squat about it, aside from what I've seen on here. Cool stuff, for sure.
 
Good stuff Randy. Most interesting thread tp read for quite some time for me. Hey, what are rats going for these days? I have not trapped them since I was a kid and back in the heyday they were fetching $8 each.
 
This is great stuff Randy.I think of Elt a lot when I'm trapping.I can only imagine how much fun he would have had now that its legal to trap wolves. The only tough part would have been convincing him he could only tag one.All the critters in Big Falls are a lot safer since he moved.
 
This morning was an exercise in extraction, given these temps. Every trap was froze to a point of non-working. Even the conibears on dry land had ice on them due to the moisture rising from the creek. When I got back from chopping the first sets out of the ice, this was the temp.

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It was a beautiful morning, even if it was ridiculously cold. A reward for being out there, even if being wet in these temps makes it a tad chilly.

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It is supposed to get -20F by Wednesday morning, so no sense in leaving the traps out this week. Season closes April 15th, so I might do some more in March or April, once the temps warm up and the water is open.

Elt just called me . He was really excited. The 41 muskrats they put on the fur auction yesterday got the highest average of all muskrat lots on the sale - $11.38 per rat average. I remember getting $4 for rats and thinking I had just hit the lottery.
 
This is great stuff Randy.I think of Elt a lot when I'm trapping.I can only imagine how much fun he would have had now that its legal to trap wolves. The only tough part would have been convincing him he could only tag one.All the critters in Big Falls are a lot safer since he moved.

Knowing Elt as you do, you understand how frustrated he is to not be able to trap as he once did. And, the excitement it provided for him to be part of this little trap line.

Now that you mention it, are we gonna get to see any pics of the wolves you guys caught the last couple years?

Most don't know this due to his modesty, but MNtaxidermist is one of the most accomplished outdoorsmen I know. He and his brother have been fulfilling their civic duties the last couple years and helping Minnesota meet their wolf quota. I suspect the guys here would enjoy pics of those.

And if you want to see mounds of beaver, like a mound of 100 of them, MNtaxidermist could probably produce that for you faster than anyone I know. I always threaten that I am going to head back to MN in April and tag along with him on his beaver lines. But, the idea that he might decide to skin all of those, and enlist my help in doing so, is enough to keep me away.
 
PEAX Trekking Poles

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