I would like to extend my trapline to include gray fox sets. However I can not ever remember seeing one in my area, central southern Minnesota, anyone from this area able to confirm whether or not this part of the state would have a decent enough population size to target one? I really only care to catch one, bucket list kind of thing.

if you have plenty of woods you should have greys. Target them in woodlots or big woods.

Really the only place we have woods are on the river bottoms

In the 60 s and 70.s we had lots of them Then came distemper and parvo slow coming back. In South and SE

I haven't seen a grey in 10 years. This year I saw one two days in a row, in the same place, while deer hunting.

Year back I caught them in along or near The bluffs of the Minnesota River, From New Ulm to Henderson, South along and near the Cobb,

I live and trap around the Alexandria area and the first grey fox I have ever seen was hit on the road last summer north west of town. The snares have sure produced more coyotes than fox this year around here anyway. Last year I was catching 3 fox to each coyote.

Well unfortunately I think it’s a general rule of thumb that if you have coyotes you don’t have fox. We have a cabin up in Grand Marais and there are a ton of wolves and fox, very few yotes, guessing the wolves kill the yotes and leave the fox alone.

Yes I was thinking about trapping them along the Watonwan River, not sure if there are many around though, never hear of anyone seeing them

We run into pockets of them, have a family that runs the woods we bow hunt and a few places where they cross the road you'll find one on the shoulder once a year in the spring. Not enough to target around me, seems like there are fewer and fewer.

The Watonwan river was my childhood trapline! I ran 3-4 Mile line upstream from Garden City for muskrat, mink, coon, beaver and fox. What part do you trap?

What a great area to grow up trapping in. All the rivers in Southern MN converge in that area to dump into the Minnesota River. The Blue Earth, LeSueur, Maple, Cobb, Watonwan all converging south of Mankato. Beautiful river bottom country.

Yes, and it got me into a sport I still enjoy greatly! Rats sold for .50 a piece back then!

I grew up near Lewisville and went to school in Madelia. The Watonwan River flows through the south edge of Madelia. Nice place to grow up in.

I never caught any greys in that area, but a friend of mine did catch one along the Blue Earth River near Amboy. This would have been late 80's/early 90's. Personally I don't see that area as being much for grey fox country with the exception of some of the river bottoms as you mentioned. It does sound like a few more red fox are showing up around the area again. That's nice to hear.

I live by Alxandria too and was surprised to catch a grey this year. Caught two years back when I was in high school and never knew we had them. Fun creature for sure!

My trapping partner was from Amboy. We were pounding the Reds pretty hard back in the 80's/ early 90's. When we were catching around 100 reds a year we would pick up 5-6 greys. Mostly in the river bottoms, Blue Earth and Maple.

I live in Madelia and spend time on the river east and west of town, I spend most of my time dry land trapping east of town and water trapping the creeks and drainage ditches south and west of town. My range is about 8 miles east and 3 miles west

I love in Rochester and now trap mainly in Northern MN. Did love that little river though

Just curious...who was your partner?

Are there many guys trapping around there these days? When I was a kid there were a few. I graduated from Madelia High School in 1995.