I dread the day I can't get around in the woods anymore and I sure can't move like I used to. Find a kid to show the ropes. I've been doing that for years and get updates from grown men that I once took out as young boys. Even a ride in the truck or sharing your knowledge at your kitchen table.

You mean you want to give up all that fun because it feels like work? Come on we are talking $10 maybe $15 beaver. What youth wouldn't want to get in on all that fun? Might have problems selling them traps? You would here!

Trap weasels. After watching Sam Woods take a white weasel from a trap and put it in his pocket, I thought that this was for me!

Try putting a beaver in your pocket.

Youth don't need help, they gots utoob.
Darn know italls.

Good point!

Good call Actor! Beaver trapping is tough at any age but especially so as a senior citizen. Keep the fire going and trap low impact fur bearers like muskrat, weasel etc. on at least a limited basis. God Bless on your decision!

Chris

skunks--the money in the east is in skunks i tell ya.

or after ya pick up the traps,stop and pick catch up and another buddy or 2 and we'll sit around and lie to eachother and road trap.

I just dumped a skunk in the garbage the other day.... it was kind of Christmas present to the garbage man.

Garry-

If come up and help ya but there's no such thing as as a straight road from me to you.

I have a good friend that is a very good all around trapper. His feet and legs bother him something terrible. He cannot walk hardly any distance and his legs cramp up bad.
This year he caught more bobcats than other critters. He caught a lot for Maine. He traps them like he traps canines. If he cannot hit them in the head with the truck door, he is not setting.
Hang in there.
Mac

Age and wear and tear are brutal realities for many of us as our bodies don't have the strength, agility and recuperative capabilities that they once did. I have changed several of my activities over the last 15 year such as walking and hiking instead of jogging, snowshoes instead of X country skis etc. As to trapping I am cutting back on certain aspects but not being in a hurry and pacing myself I find that my line(s) or traps set are not as far below the number when I was younger and more aggressive. Sometimes hast makes waste. I will get better at managing a line with my 4-wheeler so I can cover more area with fewer foot steps. Also trapping rats on the ice our out of a canoe has issues but when you can't wade the muck easily anymore changing methods helps out. The one thing I don't want to do yet is quit as once one quits moving then one is not going to move much anymore.


Bryce

Like I have been saying for a number of years …"It isn't the number of years, it is the number of miles, and it isn't just number of miles. It is whether you walked those miles or were dragged. It is the miles dragged that are finishing me off."

Garry-

i tried throwin a 45 lb beaver up on a 4 ft bank 3 times yesterday and i'm pretty sure i'm still feelin that 3rd throw.and no,the first 2 weren't practice either.

I had back surgery at age 76 last fall. Problem solved. I had to skip this season to heal. Now next fall it will be a few rats if anything. Be careful with waders as if you get them filled with water it might be fatal. I just enjoy the fall days out in the creeks. Forget the money, $2 mink ,$3 rats.

I sold all my traps 2 years ago. At 63 yoa I just cannot do anymore water trapping. I did keep all my coyote cable restraint equipment and gear along with my power skinner. I can use my ATV on the lands that I snare coyotes on. Problem with my area in southern Wisconsin is that the majority of coyotes I catch are junk.

I go go go at 65 it kills my body and I pay the price I just need a few more naps and hot showers to keep going, I wake up looking like the guy that rings the bell for the first 1/2 hour then I ease into the day.

Beaver have got to be the most physically demanding animal to trap. And water trapping is more demanding than land trapping. Have you thought of running a small canine line all at places you can drive right up to the set at?

Everything in the beaver swamp is trying to kill us. Eventually it will if we aren't smart enough to leave it in time.

I have had 2 back injuries... the was way back in 1945 and the second one in 1976.... I had some problems with both injuries at the time, but after a couple year only had minor problem. I just brushed the problems off and kept on going. At the age of 66 things became more painful and harder to do, but I kept on doing what ever it was. By the time I was 70 they started going down hill a lot faster. In a month and a couple of days I will be 79, and I guess me is hand. I can't rewind my clock so, here I am.




The only vehicle I have is my van and most of the farms around here don't have many roads running through them, at least ones I know of.

Garry-