Got up at 0300 this morning to check a variety of wolf, coon, mink, beaver, coyote and otter sets. Long story short, the last spot I checked was a beaver creek I'm trapping and have some coyote and mink sets in the area as well. So I pull up to a spot by a gate in a wildlife area and there is a guy and his wife standing there, kind of looking like either duck hunters or maybe trappers. Normally I avoid obviously checking sets where people can see what I'm doing and that I'm trapping, but I needed to get to work and get my traps checked. So I hop out of the truck and grab my setters and bucket. The guy greets me and asks immediately if I'm trapping and I reply that I am just checking some beaver and mink sets. We get to talking and turns out they are looking to catch 15 or 20 beaver this year so his wife can have a blanket but he says they'll go somewhere else since they don't want to step on my toes since I'm already trapping the area. I tell him nonsense, that it's a big area and that I don't mind sharing a spot at all. I tell him where I have already trapped and taken a few beaver out of, as well as where I'm about to pull my sets from. I also inform him that further down the creek there are two beaver colonies that I have not trapped yet this year and that they wouldn't be stepping on my toes at all if they wanted to trap them. He says that sounds great and that he and his wife will do that. Before we part, he tells me he owns a creek not far away and he's trapped beaver out of it this year, but that he gets otter and mink running the creek as well as coon and sometimes coyote and I'd be welcome to trap it this year. I guess once in a while it pays off to talk to people you run into on the line.

Good for both of you. Kinda people I like to be around. Good story

No doubt... better than the types of people that steal your traps.

Eric did you ask if their members of you're trappers association if not it sounds like a good couple of people for the group.
Allan

I did and they are not. She just got into it and he is showing her how to after not trapping for 20 years. I gave them my number and told them when we have our monthly meetings, even though I don't make most of our meetings.

Love it when we all work together. Good on both of you!!

I had a POS steal one of my dogproofs today. He was trespassing and hunting deer on private property. But I got a photos of his license plate and the Warden says he will go and pay him a visit soon.

Good deal for all of you

At least you got photo evidence. I've had 3 traps stolen so far this year and one trap cut into about 2 dozen pieces with a pair of bolt cutters. On a positive note, if I have to see people on my trapline I'd like it to be the ones like I met this morning.

That's Great

a good day for both of you

hats off to both parties,i love competition and welcome it about anywhere i trap.it makes me step up my game in my mind and we need every single supporter we can get.

Very nice! That's how those conversations should go! Much better than some I've had with others around here in past, wow.
Jim

kinda a sign of the times in our gig.heck i've pulled my traps and showed younger and more inexperienced trappers where to set and why.success is key to improving our numbers in my eyes.now if it was like the 70's probably wouldn't be the same but if your given lemons,might as well make lemonade.

Great story, thanks for sharing.

Man that's awesome! Perhaps it is due to the lack of money, relatively speaking, to be had through trapping. Kinda like filtering the quality of people one runs into.

Take the money and greed out of anything and most people won't even bother doing it. Those of us that love this stuff are a bit of a different, albeit dying, breed.

Hopefully my season goes like this too. We shall see soon enough I suppose as mink and rats open tomorrow here.

welcome,what part of pa if i may ask?

Sounds like a great start to the day. Hopefully you get some nice fur from your new spot and she (they) get their blanket. That's a win-win for everybody.

Sounds like a Canadian run in...

That's great to hear... Man I've had some doosies over the years and usually it doesn't workout that way... I had an old man spitting snoos at my truck, stealing traps, calling the warden cuz I got a bycatch mud hen in muskrat trap, checking my traps for me, stealing my fur, people telling me I'm on their turf (public land no less) even though they haven't set it yet and I'm in the process of making a set, uhg... I hope that's the way of the future it makes a stressful day otherwise... I like to keep a very low profile at least as low as possible hit fast, gang set and move... I don't look to catch every animal just the cream as it should be in my opinion.

Good Deal all around