Good going ! Keep up the good work and keep doing the videos! It’s too bad that we have to explain everything we do

One thing that some do not understand-there is no limit on the total amount of fur you can catch except your physical ability.Quotas are trapline specific and are in the best intrests of sustainability of the resource.Like Jim said,you can talk with the fur tech to increase or decrease your quotas every year on a specific trapline.Trappers are normally not dumb enough to try to manage their fur resource based on the price of fur,it is based on biological evidence.
There is no limit on the number of traplines you can trap so trapline specific quotas do not limit the amount of fur you can harvest.
I have licences on 3 traplines right now,and could have licences on 20 if I had the ability to do so.Even in my hayday I would never be able to cover that much ground in a season.
Jakeland the fat thing is just a joke.

Why is nobody trapping those other 20 traplines? They need management.

One of the big reasons those lines are vacant is prices. Difficult to keep prices up with "fresh daily" pictures of marten hanging out of trees in foot traps. The antis have not been able to source "fresh" pictures like that from Canada in over 30 years.

I am not so nieve to think u can ever convert antis to sanity but the vast majority of the public can be, at worst, neutral to us if we show them we try to be respectful to animals when trapping them. Show a member of the general public a picture of a marten hanging out a tree in a foot trap vs. one in a new style Conibear. and no contest on what they will see as more acceptable.

Marten prices are down because of low ranch mink prices.

There are not enough people to trap them.They are poor lines compared to managed lines for sure.
And like Frank said because of the necessity to make money people are getting out of trapping,guys making $15,000 a month at the mine will only take a few animals and hunt moose because of time constraints but they will sign on people to trap those lines-they recognize that they need to be managed,but you got to feed your family.

Cross, I disagree with your statement. The majority of the non trapping public will only see an animal hanging. The difference in hanging by there head, and hanging by the foot will only be useful if someone explains the difference.
mt

I disagree Mr Dirt, when Mr. Putin invaded the Crimea it triggered the collapse of the last fur demand cycle. The fallout of that has been your typical supply vs demand model, without the Russia market wild fur struggles. To sum it up by just blaming ranch mink is oversimplifying the present market reality. I believe you are way smarter than that.

Until Russia starts buying in volume the fur market will not recover. I fully expect prices to drop again this year on all species except for coyotes at the auction level. You may find some niche markets but volume wise nothing good will really happen until you see Russia more active.

Ok, I understand the ability to buy on credit. But I am surprised you could go out and plop down a down payment and then pay 306 a month so soon after liking your buds Skandic. Trapping is currently 0 part of my income but the income I have is likely slightly better than average. While I could afford the 306 it would have a huge effect on other things I might want and future plans I have. Likely it doesn't do much to add to trapping income. Do you have a wife to OK this huge expense just cuz you "wanted" it?
mt

Could you educate us more on these "fur techs"? How do you become a fur tech? Do they visit the lines they supervise? Are they somehow smarter than the guys, like you and Gibb, who are doing the trapping? Are trappers in Canada unable to manage their lines for "sustainability? Do trappers pay any kind of extra fee to pay for these highly valued people that are better able to tell you how many you should trap? I guess in a semi-socialized economy/govt. the smartest people would be needed in govt., eh?
Ryan and Muskrat, your posts look like you mostly go where you want. Are you 2 on registered lines also?
mt

I sometimes ask myself the same question,I don't drink or smoke my only vise in life is trapping. Without a doubt my other job subsidizes my trapping addiction. I am also always looking for a deal and I bought this machine with zero down, no payments for the first year and bonus 4 year warranty, a special that Bombardier comes out with every spring in some format.to move inventory at the end of a season.
My wife of 40 years tolerate my addiction.
To be honest I think we all at this point subsidizes are trapping with our real jobs or pensions depending on what stage of life you are in.
Like I spent the afternoon setting a beaver house, like (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) am I thinking!!

I will leave this to Boco he has a gem of a fur tech in his district.
Not every province or territory in Canada has the registered trapline system.

I'm lucky. We got about 8 foot of snow. I couldn't find a beaver lodge if I wanted to.

We used to have registered lines but not anymore. we go by traditional family trapping areas now and a gentleman's agreement that nobody tries to move in on your lines.

Fur techs work for the ministry and with the trappers.Some are better than others.They are primarily involved with trapline transfers and making sure traplines are being managed.thru the furmis system.They also work in conjunction with the OFMF(provincial trapping organization) who is under contract with the ministry to deliver the licencing and trapper education and input furmis..
We have a real good one.Goes to bat for us with the biologists etc.The fur techs know who the bullshitters are and who are serious fur managers.
The fur tech will occasionally accompany a conservation officer when they do a trapline audit/inspection.

Jim are you going to the Timmins meeting on Saturday?I understand it is in conjunction with a tanning workshop.
I'm gonna head down and sit in on the election.

I was just trying to help you understand what it was. I hope I came across that way. Glad Monster Toms showed a pic so you could see what it was.

I will probably go up for it, see you there.

You just nailed it martenman: "The difference................" And that is what gets used to help put us all the way of the dinosaur in the battle for, what they call these days, "social licence" from the general public.

Agreed, and as I already said in words to the effect, there are other factors causing low price these days too.

BTW: I started trapping marten in 1977 with foot traps but, like everyone else around here, converted in the 80's. Same foot traps were still quite useful for muskrat floaters and mink on slide wires.

A prevailing topic of the groups was the humaneness of traps. For the most part
respondents were not aware that foot-hold traps could be made so as not to injure the trapped
animal. When told that foot-hold traps did not necessarily injure the animal, respondents
expressed skepticism toward the statement. Respondents recognized the conundrum that “kill”
traps, while humane in the sense that animal suffering was reduced, also had the problem of
occasionally killing non-target species. On the whole, the groups still favored kill traps over foot-
hold traps. The exception to this was so-called “drowning” traps. The idea of drowning an
animal in a trap was, in general, not accepted.