Bring your hip boots. Our snow is melting faster and earlier each year.

When I lived in Nome we often trapped till the end of march. Even tho conditions would allow a little longer, like in to April, we quit by April 1. After that worried about catching a bear!
mt

Greetings trappers. Flew in from a few days out closing up the cabins for the summer. I have 7 trail cameras out and running along the line now. Got lots of pics of wolves, coyote and another wolverine. I'll share a few with ya








I howled for four days with no response. Got an inch of fresh snow which was great for tracking but only saw a couple lynx and coyote tracks. Lots of hares and caribou though. Fired up the back-up sled, a 2010 Polaris Trail Touring and put 18 miles on it out on the overflow on the creek. That thing is so stable to drive unlike those skandics with the pogo stick front ends. Not once did it want to tip over. The ride stance has little to be desired after riding the new sleds though. Put a few miles on the Rhino too out looking for some shed antlers.




The overflow has crept up onto my runway.

set up another burnt hide post with a camera. Here's how I did it.

Took AKNative and his oldest boy out and caught a couple pike. Good food and great company. Them little ones really liven up a trip.


Time to find a job and pay for my bad habits. Be safe out there and have a good summer.

Thanks for sharing JR! Pretty country and it looks like you have a lot of seed for next year! Nice looking pike! Would have loved to see the expression on that youngsters face!

The critters really like peeing on that stump!

Have you had luck with the bait burning method? I had a guy tell me about that a few years ago, tried it with part of a late season griz. I got a couple foxes off it and snared a wolf close to it. What is the advantage of burning over just letting it sit? Seems like the birds wouldn't bother it when burned, but birds usually attract other critters as well.

Good looking pile of fish.

Nice haul of pike.Love me a feed of boneless pike fillets out of the cold water.Perfect size right there too.

Great pictures as usual JR. the fellers look happy to be out fishing.

Good stuff j.r. thanks for sharing. Have a good summer, dont work to hard .

smalltimetrapper.... that is a burnt hide post that I set up last fall. Caught the first wolf of the season on it before the overflow started to creep up on it. It is under about 3 feet of overflow now and they still come by it a pee on it regularly. The new post I did was above the water and overflow line so I can work it all season

When I lived in Nome we often trapped till the end of march. Even tho conditions would allow a little longer, like in to April, we quit by April 1. After that worried about catching a bear!
mt[/quote]


We had to call it quits in February here this year. High water mixed with no snow meant i was spending more on fixing my undercarriage then i was catching in fur. Our worst year ever in the 6 ive been here.

Happy Summer Trappers. Been working back in the iron patch this summer. Gotta pay the bills. Doing a little photo shooting again after I got the camera fixed. She wasn't very water proof but up and running again. Flew out to the cabin and checked the cameras with happy results. I got many wolverine pics and lots of wolves. Still not happy with the picture quality of my trail cams but getting pics anyhow. Didn't get a single bear picture out at the cabin but did on the baits.






Personally didn't harvest a bear this spring but my buddies did their part and saved a few moose calves for me. The guys let me take part by doing the knife work on my days off. So thoughtful of them.



Couple of the big ones got away but will be bigger next season if they make it through the fall.


The calves are dropping and having some fun playing with them after work.



I was asked to come back down south to share some of my wolf trapping techniques with the trappers in Idaho and gladly accepted. Should be a fun weekend meeting a bunch of new wolf trappers and seeing some old friends.
Well be safe and have fun this summer. Trapping season is coming on fast.

Nice! Looking forward to seeing some of that fur on stretchers next winter. Crazy to think a little moose calf will grow to be a giant bull. Well I guess as long as those wolves don’t get them first.

Thanks for sharing JR! Those are some nice looking bears!

Nice looking pictures as always JR. Those are some impressive looking interior bears there. Hope to see you down in Idaho here soon.

JR - Its always a pleasure to see your pictures. That is probably the closest I will ever get to Alaska. Looking forward to seeing you in Rathdrum, we will have the bucket of ice cold beer again in our camp. Are you bringing any of your traps to sell?

Nice meeting you on Saturday, thank you for the presentation!

Greetings and Happy summer trappers. Been a busy summer so far. Had a great trip down to Rathdrum Idaho for their Rendezvous. Met a bunch of great guys, sold some #9's and shared some of my techniques with them. That was a really fun weekend and hope to do it again next year. Really proud of all 4 groups that came together to put on the event. Thanks to the behind the scenes volunteers who did a great job on set up ,keeping things running smooth, break down and clean up. Attended a few of the seminars and learned a few new things. Thanks for the invite guys.
Didn't get many pics as I was pretty busy BSing but this was a pretty good one of Justin Webb (Foundation 4 Wildlife Management), Rusty Kramer( President of the ID Trappers Association) and I after everything was done. Thank you guys, had a blast.
Back to work for a bit but had a few days off over the 4th weekend. The wildfires subsided enough to allow us to make a run down to Minto Flats. Took my Godson Tristan and the President of the ATA with me. Weather, fishing, partners, wildlife and scenery were all as good as you could ask for.











The view from the top of the cabin was pretty sweet.

Back to work in the morn. Trapping season is soon approaching so let's get our preseason work done in preparation for it. Getting a little giddy myself just thinking about it. Time to get some #9's built too, got a little behind the ball on them. Have a safe and productive rest of the summer.

Good to see your out and about! Thanks for sharing!

Lovely shots and video, JR. Glad you had a nice time in ID. I know that area well. Its great you take these movies for your history -a life documentary as you experience them.

Looks like another good trip to the flats JR. Glad to see your pictures as always.