Yes thank you Michigan is very restricted in cable use but I find your post interesting
Years back I followed 2 coyote thru a dense swamp maybe 2-4 in. of snow the smaller of the pair jumped up and walked on every blowdown they came across whether it was a small log laying on the ground or up 3=4 feet in the air seen this behavior in most animal species

Great set Eric Now you got me thinking last few or more seasons have had lots of rain water everywhere

Great stuff...thanks for sharing!

Super great information Eric! Thanks a bunch!

Thanks again, Eric!

Thank you!

Mink snares work great in water adapting Erics methods, has increased my take over the years, cheaper in high trap theft areas.

This is not a fur trapping set but is how I do groundhogs (or as we call them here, woodchucks) that are not living in a hole under or near a house. I use a small diameter cable either 3/64 or 1/16, snare length about 24 inches, with just a loop end (no swivel). You can use a lock or use a tied knot type lock as in the first 2 pictures. The key is to fasten the snare to a stick about 18 inches long, I use a piece of 14 gauge wire to fasten the snare to the stick, leaving a long enough tail to double as a snare support. This is twisted on about 6 inches from the end of the stick. The stick is only stuck in the ground only enough to give a solid "set" to the snare when the woodchuck is caught. Then he pulls it loose and takes the stick down his hole. It wedges underground, woodchuck expires, end of problem. Of course he smells bad down there underground, that is why you do not do this by a house, especially if the holes go under the house, cause the smell will seep thru the foundation.
This way I do not have to handle and dispose of any woodchucks. I do not have to take them out of 220's after they have been in them for a day in the mid-summer heat.
In the last few years I have started to do the same thing with summer beaver complaints. I fasten the 4 foot long beaver snare to a brick. The caught beaver will head back to its lodge or bank hole, tangle there and drown. I find that by catching 1 beaver this way all the rest of the beaver will move out most of the time. So by killing only one beaver I can usually solve the problem. I just don't like to kill a bunch of beaver when the pelts are worthless if I do not have to. Now I want you to know I do not charge farmers for beaver removal, rather I trade them beaver control for fur trapping rights to the farm. I have more places to trap than I can get to. Jeff, a local farmer summed it up best when a member of the gun club that rents his farm complained about me trapping " I can make a call and have a different gun club rent my farm in 2 minutes, there is no one else I can call to keep the beaver from flooding my corn. QYB".

Thanks for the new ideas!

This will be the last "Set of the Day" so we will go with what I have been doing for the last 11 summers, snapping turtle trapping. Snapper trapping is as much fun as fur trapping and if you can find a market for them, can be a profitable endeavor. Even if you just want to catch a few for your own use it is fun to see how big a turtle you can catch. Now that NJ has forced us to be housebound (I was stopped 2 nights ago because I was driving on the roads at 8:10 PM, 10 minutes after curfew) I have watched almost every turtle trapping video on YouTube. 99% of them are a joke, using some of the worst contraptions for catching a turtle ever made. If the turtle market holds up this summer I plan to make a YouTube video on snapper trapping.
Snappers can be caught in many types of waterbodies, lakes, ponds, rivers and swamps but if I was catching some for personal use I would go to a good freshwater stream. Picture 1. The fresher the water the better the turtle tastes, just like some fish taste better in the clear water of spring vs the late summer muddy water conditions.
The stream does not have to be deep or very wide (I have stuffed traps full of snappers in streams only 3 feet wide), the trap set in Picture 2 is 12 inches high and is only about 2 inches under the surface here in the deepest part of this brook (snapper's head can be seen above the water as he stuck it out of the top breather hole). Picture 3 is an average catch of 4 snappers. Bait was the backend of a carp, bait is only good for 1 night, once it gets sour the turtles do not want it.
Many guys use jugs and hooks on a line for turtles. This method works but most turtles swallow the hook and will die of infection when released if they are undersized or you have caught more than your states daily limit. Use of a trap allows you to keep the turtles you want and release unharmed the ones you do not want.
The last 2 pictures are just catch pictures. The net trap (made by Beaverfoot ) has 15 snappers, total weight 332 pounds. I had to hook a rope to my truck to drag this one out of a muddy ditch in order to get the turtles out. Bent up the frame some. The other picture is another of my cage traps with 13 snappers.
Trapping turtles in summer or fur trapping in the winter always take a few moments to marvel at the world around you and be glad to be alive.

Thank you Eric for sharing all that you have.
Mac

Thank you for making these "Set of the Day" posts.

When I first started turtle trapping, I was surprised how many times I had multiple turtles per trap. I never had as many as your pictures though.

Eric, do you think pvc pipe would work for the front and back support on your cage traps? Again, great stuff, thanks for posting!

Hat's off to you, Sir!

Thank You!

Thanks for doing these sets of the day. I've learned a bunch.

This is one of Eric's mink snares. 1/16 7x7 cable, whammy fits 14 gauge wire, steel nuts for stops. lock must be positioned at 12:00 with a 2.5" to 3" loop.

This is one of Eric's mink snares. 1/16 7x7 cable, whammy fits 14 gauge wire, steel nuts for stops. lock must be positioned at 12:00 with a 2.5" to 3" loop.

This is one of Eric's mink snares. 1/16 7x7 cable, whammy fits 14 gauge wire, steel nuts for stops. lock must be positioned at 12:00 with a 2.5" to 3" loop.

This is one of Eric's mink snares. 1/16 7x7 cable, whammy fits 14 gauge wire, steel nuts for stops. lock must be positioned at 12:00 with a 2.5" to 3" loop.

This is one of Eric's mink snares. 1/16 7x7 cable, whammy fits 14 gauge wire, steel nuts for stops. lock must be positioned at 12:00 with a 2.5" to 3" loop.