How do you go about not giving yourself away by the public and keeping a low profile to avoid trap and animal theft?

Mink

No big stickers in the window of my truck that say,s I,m a trappernut.

if by CHANCE, i dont get done before daylight, or some other reason im out in the daylight, like setting up places and what not, ive been known to do a head dive into a hedgrow or weedy area to hide from on coming traffic.

doesnt matter if its a 4wd truck, or a mercedes, i duck and cover.

i don't worry about it. where i trap is behind locked gates 90% of the time. other than that there's not many people in the woods down here in Feb except for the few small game hunters.

We try to check before sunrise. Also try to hide what we’re doing from passersby when possible. We don’t wear pack baskets as I feel that would be too much of a giveaway. At locations were we have sets a ways off the road we put dispatched critters in garbage bags to carry them back to the truck.

i tend not to carry trapping baskets .... or anything for that matter when im workin on or very near to a high traffic area ... lure is carried in my pockets along with side cutters ... my shovel i use like a walkin stick or will keep it tucked tight against the blindside of the traffic ....as far as pulloffs ... many of times stop just short or above the trap location .... or right at it ... pendin on the situation ... sumtimes the vehicle can help block what ya doing ... many of times ill just park across the road from where im settin ... people are curious by nature and ya will notice that the majority of the people will GAWK at the vehicle and be lookin in the opposite direction that ya workin ... as far as packin critters back to the vehicle ... if its sumthin small as in a rat or mink ill tuck em in my oversized jacket pockets ... or keep them tight to my leg as i walk ... larger critters such as beaver, fox, yotes, etc ... ill wait for a break in the traffic and make a dash to the vehicle ... another thing that i believe helps alot is run ya traps at diff times ... start at one end of ya line one day and run it the opposite way the next day .... just change things up ... that way people going and coming from work wont see ya all the time pulled off at locations ... hope this helped out a bit .... good luck

Its hard alot of times park where you can't be seen if possible use drowner locks to get them off the edge of the road too.

I carry a roll of Tissue with me just in case a passer by sees be heading into the woods, after a few weeks its harder to give peeps the slip as your vehicle is just offf the road in the same spot most of the times, or I'll run my sets just after sunset, maybe carry a fishing pole, and try to keep my sets away form the public eye, off the beaten path.

AKtrpr

Blaze Orange Stocking Cap

"I'm a Pheasant Hunter"

I am with Waylon on this, 90% of my sets are behind locked gates now with land leasing the way it is here in La. On worry I have is with tresspassers

LOL, we do that too when we don't have a bag or just don't feel like messing with one. Listen for cars coming and when its quiet my daughter makes a run for the truck with the fox. If a car comes she drops it and we stand there nonchalantly chatting like nothings going on. That probably only works a few times and by now I’m sure we’re not fooling anybody.

The best way to go unnoticed is be noticed. A very good friend of mine taught me this a few years ago. He works for a company that lays pipe. He told me to get a yellow light for the top of my truck and a flor. green vest and know one would even slow down to let you cross the road. AND MAN DOES IT WORK!! People see these guys all the time and don't even look at them. Twice last year State Troopers slowed down when they saw me coming out of a drainage, waived and kept going. Before they would have stopped to see what I was doing under that bridge. I carry my catch back to the car in a black canvas sack. Just acked like your supposed to be there. People notice sneaking behavior.

There is a term something like "Situational Camoflage". That being that people see what they want to see. Many trappers might as well have a sign on their truck that says TRAPPER in foot high letters. Muddy, piled full of buckets and tubs, blood on the sides and tailgate, and equipment exposed in the back.
As stated a truck with a beacon on top, even if it doesn't work, looks like a service utility truck of some type. A truck in a field with hay bales, or fence posts visible is a farmer.
A truck anywhere with a shovel leaning against the back is a work truck.
But, a guy at a gas station in hip boots, head lamp, hunting knife and a smell of skunk is a trapper no matter what he says.

I'm pretty lucky.My trapping land is about 90% behind locked gates as well.I live in a small community and everyone knows everyone,even me and what I do.I've gotten phone calls letting me know I caught something.This year after checking one area at 7am,I get a phone call about 1 in the afternoon,the guy was a friend of mine that had permission to bird hunt on that piece of land,he called to tell me I had a coyote in a trap that I checked at 7am that morning that was empty,lol.Coyote came through after I checked.When I trapped mostly public years ago,it was a different story,alot of people that hunt those areas weren't locals and it was a headache at times,I got so good at hiding traps where people might come across them that the animals didn't find them either.If your on location dryland trapping,theirs going to be hunters coming across your sets one time or another and the bird dog usually is the one that finds it for them.

That's a pretty clever idea.

blak yote, I'm blessed to live is such a place my self, unfortunaly it's growing up.

Some times i have to trap beaver in lakes that are in town that has homes all around it and man i hate them jobs. I check after 9:00 AM when most folks are gone to work and try not to go in there on weekends. When fur trapping in the winter i to like being behind the gates. And if all else fails you can walk around with a roll of toilet paper and i have did that when i had traps next to the road before. Nobody stops when you got the paper.

i've never tried to "hide" what i do. wouldn't do me any good anyway. everyone in town knows me because of the baitshop and the fact that i trap full time through the season for several large farms in the area. i've driven the same old white van for 13 years, so everyone knows it's "grumpys" van.

had one of the "checkers" at the grocery store tell me, "grumpy, you stopped in at the gas station earlier today, didn't you?"

i said, "yeah, but how'd you know"?

she laughed and said, "i smelled a "skunk", and i knew it was you"!

sort of hard gettin' around that. so i just do what i'm doin' and don't worry too much about it anymore.

the grump.

I don't hide the fact that I'm trapping but I don't publish the fact either.

I'm trail riding when I check traps and training another horse by ponying it all with me.