Thats quite the view from that cabin.
Love those big pike. Reminds me of fishing Minnesota, Ontario and Manitoba.
My wife and I were just talking about Barrow tonight. It's somewhere neither of us has been. But we can't shake loose for an adventure till October, and I think that is supposed to be the snowiest month up there.
I think it would be fun to get in on a whale hunt in some way shape or form. I'm a whale magnet, and I think they'd love me for it haha.

Decoy.... I was suppose to come down to ID and to Iowa but cancelled due to the covid and work situations. Wished I could have made it.

I was going through some pics and found these from the end of the trapping season. Had a little issue with the overflow hauling in a load of freight. Came out a little late so Eric and his buddy broke the trail ahead of me. Was smiling content when I saw their tracks until I rounded the corner and did this.


We were there for a few hours extracting these 3 machines and of course Eric and his partner didn't have anything. I got my machine stuck 4 times after I got out of the first channel trying to get over to Eric.

Once out, I went back home to dry everything out. The new log splitter was full of water. Couple days later, Stacey and I went back out to finish the mission and take the WT out to the cabin. The 2012 WT is now my back up sled at the cabin





Lots of overflow out there too and great snow.




End of the season, one of our loyal fur buyers from Soldotna way called asking about some furs. Jim Masek and I gathered up what we had and did pretty well.

Our auctioneer from MT Dwight Gapper had booked his flight for our cancelled ATA Fur Auction and Fling came up anyway so had him out to the house. He has been doing our Auction and Fling for many years and is definitely the best auctioneer I've ever been around. Made me a lot of money and cost me a lot too. He is famous for saying..." I'll tell ya when you bid too much". Just a great guy.

Overflows, though handy for travel, still scare me.

Sure love seeing all that beautiful fur draping over the tables, plush ruffs showing off the colours.

Picture of that pike jumping is pretty cool!

Flew out to the Trapping cabin for a few day checking on game cameras and cabins. Pretty disappointed in the predator activity on the cams or lack there of I should say. One coyote and one wolf on the cams.


Had a new big boar griz show up chasing a sow this spring. Lots of moose and caribou. Kind of selfish being disappointed in the lack of predators when that means we as trappers are doing our job. Will definitely be expanding this year if I want to put some more wolves on the stretchers.
Cabins looked good with not much activity around them either. Did have to thin out a few squirrels while I was there.




Just came back from Minto Flats with my gal. We went down for the duck opener. Did well on the ducks and pike. Been a while since I'd duck hunted and was a great time. Didn't get my Speckled belly goose but I'll try again.




The weather was awesome and water was high.


Yesterday morn we packed up to leave and had this little fella come out for some pics. First ermine I've ever saw on our little peninsula

Moose season in on us now so hopefully fill up the freezers. Good luck and be safe out there

Thanks for the pictures nice bunch of duck you have there ! I'm sure you won't have any problems filling you're moose tag !

Keep up on the wolves I've got a feeling some replacement wolves will move into your area before you know it !

Nice pics, JR. weather is nice , like the summer ermine. Good study on feet placement on that one.

Glad to see you and your pictures with stories. Always interesting. Thanks JR.

Awesome thanks for sharing.

Hey Trappers, hunting season is on us now. Spent some time back down in the flats with Jim Masek. Caught some pike and shot a few more ducks. Took the Mothership down for a shake out run and had a few issues.



Weather was awesome with northern lights and awesome sunsets.


The Mothership issues were building so we decided to head tor the truck. 11 miles into the trip up, all stop. We lost a power. Jim wasn't too far behind. I sent a message up river to a friend with a bigger jet boat and he'd be down in a hour or so. Jim tried pulling us upriver at 2 mph with my jet boat. Slow but worked.
And then Bruce shows up.....

Bruce has a 20' Alweld with a Chevy 350 and a jet. 22 mph on step towing the Mothership. He towed her 12 miles upriver. Learned a lot on that experience. Carry good rope, shackles, use long straight pull on the boat being towed off a bridle hitch on the tow boat and keep your friends close. Did I mention... good rope and great friends? We popped my bow rope 4 times when we started. We wore out the bridle rope where the shackle was rubbing back and forth. It may have made it but I wanted to be sure so we built a new bridle out of some 1/2" rope.
We are all back home and hopefully the Mothership will be back up and running tonight.


Spent the weekend down on the river with Stacey and some friends. Figured out the power wire on the boat and milled some cottonwood for the neighbors. Great time.



Good luck and be safe.

Your cabin looks alot different with out the snow Good to see you and Stacy out chasing the critters and connecting! Thanks for sharing your adventures!

Great pics as usual Howler.
Very nice country.

Was that one of them electric bicycles out side your cabin? How are they can you drive them through the creek? Them caribou sure look good on your trail camera picture.

Thanks guys. Muskrat411... that is just a fat tired bike Norwegian powered. Very hard to pedal through the creek if it is deep than your pedals. Don't use it as much as i'd planned on. More of a motorized man myself....

Thats impressive towing with that jetboat. I had no idea one could get a big airboat up on step like that. No doubt the towing was hard on the rope.

Great picture of the bull spruce grouse.

JR as always fantastic pictures and stories to go with them !

Looking forward to seeing some more moose pictures in the future !

I'm hoping to put the wolf snaring I learned from Jim to some good use this winter since we can use them now in Montana .

Good to hear you can wolf snare in Montana. Should be real fun running 200 snares up in that rough country. If you accidentally snare a cougar can you keep it? What system are going to be running for snares? Senneker kill springs?

Check out my moose hunting video on my 2022 trapping season thread.

Good morning Trappers. Made it back from a successful moose hunt. My ol buddy Jake's son came up and hunted moose with me. We went North with the Mothership and were able to fill the freezer with a nice meat bull. The Mothership had a wiring and carb issue on our last outing. Figured out the broken wire and put on a new carb and we were up and running. My trusty flatbed went down so Stacey let me use her 2010 Ford F150 FX. What a truck... It pulled that airboat better than any truck I've ever used including my diesels. Unbelievable little workhorse.
Weather was good for the ride up but changed rapidly to snow and 16 degrees. There were a lot of people on the river this year. Had to go six miles past my old camp as there was someone already parked there.


We picked a fine camp spot with great visibility, water and plenty of standing dead firewood. We called for days and burned a lot of firewood.




Decided on day 5 as the water was dropping as fast as the temp, snow was increasing, not seeing a moose, that we would pack up camp and head south. In doing so, I heard a bull off in the distance across the river. A few soft cow calls and out he came appearing out of the snowy burn some 350 yards away. A couple more calls and he came across the open bog on a string. At 260 yards, he decided something wasn't quite right and decided to start to circle so we dumped him were he stood. Well now, I guess we won't be leaving today after all. The Mothership was froze fast to the ground and took us quite an effort to get her broke free.

Looks like some cold hunting but I bet that arctic oven keep you all nice and toasty. Congrats on the moose!