Best in my mind are ones I grew up with around here...and watching them bring in their hauls to the local buyer when I was there with my tiny little catch...
Ken Kreshel (coyotes, cats) (Kenny caught more cats around here than anyone I knew of at the time, I hung on his every word when he talked about cats)
Scott Albert (pickup loads of coon, coyotes) (never saw a guy make so many trips from his truck and into the buyer's back door to bring in his coon catch, NIGHTLY)
Jim Miller (a solid 1,000 coon a season guy back in his hey days) (bought a new truck one year with just coon money, wow)
Dennis Vicars (500 beaver a season, pickup loads of rats, back in his hey days) (500 caught, fleshed, put up, that's work!)
And I wouldn't even be still doing this today had it not been for those guys warping my thinking, and their influential impact on my youth...kept me out in the woods trying to do like they do, and not out late downtown somewhere getting into trouble. Those guys taught me the calm, serene, and peacefulness that comes along with a lot of hard work and success in trapping. I learned to save my pennies and buy trapping equipment instead of spending it on things young boys shouldn't be buying, thanks guys!
And hey along with those names above, I have to mention my uncle Fred. He just showed up at my place one day and brought me a whole pickup load of stuff to jump start my zany hobby for years to come. that thing was loaded down with dozens of jugs of dry dirt, nice wooden adjustable coyote stretchers and a wad of wire coon stretchers, rat floats, rat stretchers, bait, lure, knives, fleshing beams and wall mounts, water and dirt trowels, aprons, gloves, hip boots, hammer, sifters, gambrels, and a sizeable cache of traps and other equipment. Said here you go, I'm quitting and you seem to be the only one interested in carrying on the tradition in our family. I had just called him about a real nice big coon I caught when I checked traps that morning. We didn't have cell phones back then. Later that morning he just showed up and gave me the
motherload from his personal fur shed. I will never forget that. I remember hauling everything in from back of his truck, and then he said so lets see that coon! And then he showed me how to skin and flesh it, put it up for me. I didn't know what to say, coolest gifts I think I ever got in my whole life! Fred I still have almost all of that equipment too, may not be best by today's standards but it means oh so much to me and my sons.
And I will thrown in two others I wouldn't hesitate to vote for, both from the more "modern era" and that are also from these parts, both are on here posting occasionally, and both have been a huge influence on me and my boys with our line...and both put up impressive numbers each season, too, though they don't typically post pics much or say so.
Cougarw, and 1crazytrapper
Jim
