For you guys 25 and older and have been trapping for several years... Can you give me a tip on trapping that I may not of heard of before? I've seen lots of videos, read lots of books and magazines, and I'm dedicated to several trapping forums... but in my never ending quest for new tips and tricks, I'd like to see what you old farts (like me) can offer.

Don't you young guys feel left out. I'll make a post for you as well.

~ADC~

Set your trap where the animal will put his foot.

(Credit to Pete Buist, lol.)

Jim

Use a walking stick when in the water to find the deep holes before you step into them.

Before bedding your trap......take a trap stake and drive it down about 8-10 inches then pull it back out.Three or four of these will drain water if your weather turns wet.

I like to use twist ties from plastic bags to tie up my coni safties keeps them from falling back on or helps me keep from leaving them on

at the beginning of each season let your kid wear your waders first! They will let you know if there is a leak in them when the ice water comes in!

On dirt hole type sets once you have dug your hole to the desired depth go to the upper rear area of the bottom of the hole at the ground level. At a sort of a wide V shaped angle.

Run a rebar down at the opposite angle of the dug dirthole to meet the bottom of the dirt hole where your bait or lure is placed.

This will vent the dirthole causing a draft air flow situation which will create a better scent drift of your lure or bait due to the much improved air flow.

Only wiggle a large enough hole to create a draft of the hole. Not much more then a 1/2" -3/4" or so wobble hole is needed.

I have not had any dig attempts at the rebar hole yet to my knowledge. The animals always have keyed on the main dirthole disturbance as their focus point.

I have had great success with this presentation and have kept records showing a 78% greater catch on double sets made in this manner. The set with the draft point has produced regularly over the other dirthole. Some were baited and some lured it didnt seem to matter.

Take younger person along under pretense of teaching trapping but have him or her carry your bvrs out from the bvr pond way-way back off da road...LOL....

Take younger person along under pretense of teaching trapping but have him or her carry your bvrs out from the bvr pond way-way back off da road...LOL.... and when you get home feed them real good on bvr steaks and then show them how to flesh first beaver and then let them do the other 29 for practice... Practice makes perfect you know!!!!!!!

Have all your springs set of your larger conibears before season, thats saves alot of time. Also make sure you have enough money put back to run a line on. A lack of money now days can slow a line down in a hurry.

Always have a few of your least-favorite lower-cost traps in the truck. When you see a set that looks really good but you're concerned about theft, use one of them. You'll be surprised how often you make the catch- and don't get ripped off! And if you do lose the trap- that's what it was there for. A few extra catches will cover the cost of several stolen traps.

John

try and let some one know the general area you will be at. In case you dont make it back and always carry a lighter or matches. Ya never know when you might have to spend the night in the outdoors. Or get wet in freezing conditions. Safety first.

In a boat or just any where you are away from a road or people. Put your cell phone in a Vinyl Bag .The kind that the guys on Jet Skis use. WEAR it around your neck. A wet cell phone will do you NO good. Here I speck from experance. It should have cost us our lives. Now even in summer my cell phone is in one of these bags and it's around my neck.

Write down in a notebook trap locations and types of sets so if something happens someone can go pick up your traps . We aren't geting any younger and more suseptable to the bugs going around .


I also finally started using Paul's idea after floating my hat SEVERAL times .


Drifter

Many have shown up in ink here; however, some are subtle mentions that get disguised in threads when slipped in off the path of the main topic.

There are really probably few "little known" tips left on the trapping shelves in hiding, except for a few that foolishly remain "secret" yet and are under the witness protection program for all eternity. Most tips surface as variations of a theme that has been on stage for many years.

I just commented on the use of egg shells on an adjacent post here today. No big deal. First time that I have seen the topic mentioned before in the two years I have been in cyberspace.

Will be sitting in this class waiting to see who else raises their hand. I am still trainable, and enjoy adding new knowledge to my learning curves.

Jonathan

If the location is good enough for one set it is good enough for two

WOW! You all are great! Keep them coming! Thanks!

~ADC~

Well here's one that I'll bet few of you have heard. I learned this back in the early 60's. (That's 1960's) I'll try to be delicate in describing it.

Back in the 40's guys in the west, and maybe elsewhere, used what we today refer to as tampons, as an attractant. These were "previously owned" tampons. A lot of them were cloth still and it would be tied on a nearby bush to act as a call lure. Apparently at times a fox or coyote or whatever would actually make off with the cloth. This gave rise to an old saying that found it's way into everyday speech, not just trapping lingo. The saying: "Well if that don't take the rag off the bush "!! Which would translate into....'well I'll be darned" today. Obviously married trappers had an advantage over single guys.

Ken you are one unique man...LOL

my tip: double and triple check the safeties on your coni's, make sure you take them off before walking away!!!

Ken I don't think the single younger guy's are any less advantaged.........ok I won't finish this. lol