I had the chance to get out and have some fun and even do a little testing on a larger size gopher trap we are now making. I went up to the Willamette Valley in Oregon to trap some Camas pocket gophers, which is the largest species of gopher in the US, and lives only in the Willamette Valley. A very pretty area with lots of picturesque grass seed farms, and lots of gophers and moles.

For comparison to the 1 lb 2 oz Camas gopher above, here is a pretty large male California gopher. About half the weight of the Camas gopher.

And below is a tree squirrel also for comparison.

Great pics Steve. I checked out their website and the pics on there as well. I wish we had some of those here in Missouri as I would enjoy catching something larger than the Eastern Mole.

How long are you in the area, Steve?

Hey Sam, unfortunately I am already back to the daily grind here in California. Man it's nice up there.

Steve,

Do you have a larger trap available and for sale now?

These large gophers can really drag traps off that aren't real secure too, like little bulldozers.

Dang I would call that a dirt beaver! !!

Steve, do you find the different species behave relatively similar? No special precautions when trapping 1 species vs. another?

PWC, yes we have it available now, I just don't have it up on my website yet. You can email me at steve@traplineproducts.com if you want to get some.

Terrier, they behave more or less the same, but the bigger gophers are harder to catch, even if you have a bigger more powerful trap to use on them. And I am not sure why that is, was trying to figure that out. I did some gopher trapping in Mexico a few years ago, and I noticed those gopher took a full day or even two days to get to the traps, where our california gophers are usually trapped within a few hours of setting the traps. So I see some minor differences in behavior, but nothing too noticeable.

There are a couple of species on gophers in Central America that can get up to over 2 pounds in weight, so twice as big as the Oregon gophers, and 4 times as big as our CA gophers. Haven't trapped any of those guys yet.

Steve, your little gopher trap works pretty good at times on the moles here. Even the large mole trap you sell is at times a bit on the small side for the Townsends.
What is the jaw spread of the new trap and the length from jaws to trigger?
Camas gophers can be fast just like your bitty ones down there but at times it takes days for one to come back to an open hole and sometimes they never do. I have found out that if I do not get action in a couple of days on an open hole set it is time to dig out a main tunnel and set two traps or three or four. Also baiting them works pretty well but not with peanut butter.
Cinch traps are the ones that seem to work the best, big they are. Modifying the Chinches to a push/pull trigger and cable tying the bait on the trigger gets the young ones a bit better. They are a bit spendy but next time I buy some I will get some from you as you has a good price on them, may get some of the larger Trapline ones to try also.