Re: Bernie's Book
[Re: HayDay]
#7166440
02/02/21 04:20 PM
02/02/21 04:20 PM
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 5,152 Northern Minnesota
BernieB.
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 5,152
Northern Minnesota
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Glad you are enjoying the book. It was actually written in 1996 and reprinted in 2005. I sold the rights to all 4 of my trapping books to Keith Winkler in 2001.
In 1996, the dog-proof trap was not even a twinkle in anyone's eye. It has seriously changed the game for a lot of people for sure.
I first wrote about the fish stick set in my Space Age Coon Trapping book which came out about 1991 I believe. I had learned about the set when on a two week trapping trip to southern Iowa a few years previously. I believe Mike Sells was the primary inventor of the set. Tom Monroe and George Scalf were trapping together at that time and they were using the set and acted as if it was a big secret, which in a way it was at that time. They reluctantly showed it to me; and at the time I was a pro trapper and did not have any inkling about writing about the set or writing about anything I was doing for that matter. I was keeping things close to the vest.
By 1991, I had made some minor modifications to the set, learned a lot more about it. Because the fur markets had crashed I went to college and got a degree in journalism, and started selling magazine articles to all kinds of hunting, fishing and of course trapping magazines. When I wrote my first book, I felt that enough time had passed that it would be okay to publish the fish stick set and the way I was then using it. I covered the set in my book. Big mistake.
I lost those friends over that deal and George Scalf never talked to me again. They really felt betrayed. Publishing that set without consulting with Mike, Tom and George was one of my biggest regrets in my life. At a trappers convention a couple years later, I met a guy who had read about the set in my book and had made a significant improvement to it. I believe his name was Scott Sauers or something similar. I used his modifications and it really improved the set. In fact I think I had 150 of them made up and caught a pile of coon and mink in them.
By the time 1996 rolled around, I wrote the Farmland Fur trapping book and I toned it down a lot on the Fish Stick set. I had gotten burned 5 years earlier and I didn't want to do any more damage, so there is not a lot of info in that particular book about the set.
Another interesting aside to this story is that after I sold the rights to my books to Keith, I told him I had been considering doing a book just on the strategies of long-line trapping. It would not be a book about sets and species, but just about how to be efficient and really make huge catches. I had records of catching 50-60 coons in a day and 300 in a week, and many of these concepts could relate to any species of long-lining. Keith told me to write the book and we agreed on a flat payment he would give me for writing it and he would publish it. Incredibly, I had to write that book TWICE. The book originally had lots of photos of me with big catches, and was very upbeat and motivational. The book was nearly complete and almost ready to be submitted to the printer when on November 8, 2000 my office burned down in a fire. I lost everything, 14,000 photos, magazines, books, not a scrap of paper was saved. At the time I was the editor of Wildlife Control Technology, The Fur Taker and a couple other small magazines. I lost all of the photos and stories that had been sent in for future editions of the magazines. I hated that people sent me their treasured photos and they were destroyed while in my possession.
So I just packed up and moved to Minnesota as I was more involved in the fishing business all the time and this was a good place to be. Frankly there was a lot of emotional pain from that fire and the loss that I had a hard time getting over. I was shell-shocked from what had happened and I had to sit down and write the Numbers Game book all over again from memory. All the photos were lost and the book didn't turn out as well the second time around. The book has no photos in it.
So yes I'm still kicking and I'm glad people are still getting enjoyment and information from all the things I wrote those years ago.
Last edited by BernieB.; 02/02/21 04:24 PM.
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Re: Bernie's Book
[Re: HayDay]
#7166501
02/02/21 05:21 PM
02/02/21 05:21 PM
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Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 4,817 central arkansas
the Blak Spot
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 4,817
central arkansas
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"Farmland trapping," one of the books i wont sell.
the just shall live by faith
member FTA, ATA, EAFT 1776 - the year we told a tyrant we weren't to be under a dictator Caveat ater macula
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Re: Bernie's Book
[Re: gman]
#7167529
02/03/21 01:57 PM
02/03/21 01:57 PM
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 5,152 Northern Minnesota
BernieB.
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 5,152
Northern Minnesota
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I lost those friends over that deal and George Scalf never talked to me again., I felt that enough time had passed that it would be okay to publish the fish stick set and the way I was then using it. I covered the set in my book. Big mistake.
Sorry for being critical Bernie-but that was a rotten thing to do. I understand the hard feelings it caused.They shoulda been consulted first.Water under the bridge now... I forgive you.
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Re: Bernie's Book
[Re: HayDay]
#7167662
02/03/21 03:57 PM
02/03/21 03:57 PM
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Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 3,521 Kentucky
ky_coyote_hunter
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 3,521
Kentucky
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First I'll say I like Bernie's books, and have picked up some good info from his efforts....
Now, about this fish stick thing....Nobody owns a set....J. Curtis Grigg and Donald Bierman both touted the hidden bait set, with a vertical wooden stick, with a head or catch carved into the top to keep the fish from being pulled off, then some grass wrapped around the fish to hide the bait from thieves....2 traps were set on opposite sides of the stick.
Sometimes just a grass ball was wired to a stick with fish oil squirted in the grass.....I have also seen exposed bait fish sticks back in the 70's.
So while the set in Bernie's book detailed a more durable stake, and a better method of attaching the bait, the set concept is by no means revolutionary or secret.
J. Curtis Grigg made these bait sticks up by the hundreds in the off season, the only difference I see is maybe a higher catch rate with improved fish sticks, and the wood stakes are considered disposable.
Last edited by ky_coyote_hunter; 02/03/21 04:17 PM.
Member - FTA
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