About 71 years ago.
I peddled my bike down to the lake got In my 12' boat fired up my 1 1/2 horse Elgin and started setting and checking rat and mink sets. There were very few coon In the county at that time.

Technically about 25 years ago as a little kid throwing duck guts in cages for coons and skunks on the duck club. But that was just for egg eater control for the pheasants and ducks on the property. I started actually trapping 3 years ago.

When I was 10 or 12 me and my buddy went to the local gun shop and bought 2 #1 Victors s and set them in a pond. It rained for a week and we couldn't find our traps under the flooded pond. So we went back to the store and bought two 1 1/2 vics and set for coon. Every day we caught one we'd sell it in the round and get more traps. I'm 53 now and I can remember those few weeks better than most of the years and all the fur since then..... funny how those memories are so vivid.

I was 11 or 12 , I'm 44 now

When I was 10 or so

I started in 2012 at age 56 when I retired.
sure wish I could have started earlier.

absolutely love it. i love deer hunting and fishing, but when you head out in the morning to check your trapline you have no idea whats going to happen.
I have seen things that very few people will ever see.

Muskrats and coon back in 67, 5th grade got in trouble reading a trapping book in class and not paying attention(at all)!! Was obsessed with trapping after going with an older cousin to run his traps. First muskrat I caught got eaten by a mink.

I started when I was 10 or so, I’m 60 now, where did the time go?
Would go with my grandpaw on weekends,he was 65, he was a very efficient Trapper
He did wear a 330 Home one day, grandmaw had to take it off him..
Learned a lot from those two...
If I could just turn the clock back sometimes...

1961.Muskrats,coons and possums.

Man I stared maybe when I was 8 with my Dad. We put on 107 miles a day. We caught about 17 to 21 mink per year. We caught a few rates and 25 or coon. Dad only set a trap or two per location. He did not gang set like these days. We started late Oct and ended before deer season so around 19th of Nov. I trapped Fox in the field where we spread the coon carcus's behind the barn. Man I could catch the fox.

This will be my 42nd year of trapping,started when I was 11.

Somewhere around 48 years ago. I was about 14. 62 now.

Earliest memory was in November of 1963.

About 5 years ago. Still finding my way and groove. Sometimes tough to be self-taught. Ive had success that ive had trouble duplicating. Mainly want to get consistent with the yotes. Other critters im ok with. Not a big question-asker, or poster, but more of a reader. The more i fail the more motivated i get. I need a trapping pal.

Are you close to the Twerker,hes looking for trapping partners.

I'm guessing it had to be about 44 years ago. I know I was 12 when I shot my first deer with a bow, and pheasant with a .410, and I know I had caught coons and rats before either of those events.
Wow, 44 years? At least I'm not old though.
Jim

Unfortunately not, at least 3 hrs without checking a map. Id get along too well with him. Prolly for the better.

37 years ago. I am 48.

Not sure how old I was probably 8 or 9 keeping coon out of the sweet corn with cage traps. I used to sleep in the field with my pellet gun and dog when I'd here the trap close we'd go let it out and tree it by edge of the field and shoot it. Those were great times! Dad was a BIG TIME trapper in my eyes at least but he worked nights and didnt trap near home would be gone a month or more out of state trapping. So I would use his traps and figure out the tricks myself. I remember him talking about a hole in the dirt you'd put bait in to catch animals but no details so I would make a shallow dirthole put some tuna or other food in it and set the trap on the ground with the pan covering the hole mostly caught skunks but it was a good childhood. Really started learning how to trap as a young adult after dad passed and I was looking for a connection to him and the outdoors. Now it's an obsession.

I helped a buddy of mine on a small multi species line for rats, mink, and coon one season when I was around 14. Didn't actually start trapping myself until I was 20. Been trapping almost 10 years so far and last year got into instructing trapper ed as well along with hunter ed and bowhunter ed.