Tofan. I do not water trap. I only catch coyotes for my clients. That the main problem where im at. Thats what landowners pay to have remove. I NEVER NEVER NEVER move a trap on a paying job. Cant tell you How many times i have caught a coyote on the last day of a 14 or 21 day job. Had 1 trap stay at a locations 44 days before I caught a coyote. Time and patience catches coyotes. Plus I have LOTS of traps LOL!!

It appears given your level of experience that you would be wise to look for a mentor locally to assist you in basic trapping knowledge. You should also join your state organization and national trapping organizations. I would attend their conventions taking advantage of demos offered. Also, you may want to consider paying for trapping lessons focused on the animals you will be targeting locally. It really depends on how long you prefer the learning curve to be. You can jump start it by taking lessons or learn from the school of hard knocks. However, the more time spent in woods will putting what you learn to use will give the greatest benefit.

OK, that helps most of the spots I have right now have been drive up spots, but I was walking a few creeks there for awhile. I need to do a little research into what I can use where I am trapping, I have a feeling it's electric only, but great point that I have been thinking about anyways, very appreciative of the info thank you. One of my spots was a money maker so to speak, I was pulling coon everyday from for awhile, than it turned off completely. I saw tracks but those sets, they just would not touch at all, no idea if it was one of their friends who watched the other get got. I will say that I spent from about 9-4 setting new traps today though, so thinking about what you said, I am going.

You asked, and I am being very honest and serious when I say this. I want to be the fur king. I want to be one of the greatest trappers of all time for how much fur I trapped year in and year out. The money as of current does not play a factor for me, if it helps we can consider the furs to be currency for me. If I can catch 1000+ coon every season with beaver, otter and mink and others, that's what I want to do. I also want to show the mid and northern states that Louisiana is the premier state for trapping in the USA. I want to swim in a sea of fur, I will probably sell some at some point, but I need them all from this year, and atleast half of next year to get to a good point where I could start selling.

@Steel Man, I regret pulling my previously set traps that caught critters after reading what you said. I let a bunch of them stay, but I was getting discouraged and pulled them thinking I was in a bad spot after multiple no catch type days. I will keep that piece of advice in mind now and in the future, very great point about giving them time, thank you for sharing.

@Longbowman Great advice, I am a member of the LTA, am scheduled for one of the 3 day events which I am very excited for. To echo your point about being in the woods, I can say all the hours I have spent in the woods for trapping this year has taught me so much, and even though it's still this trapping season, I am so pumped for next year, thank you for the great points.

Tofan

Get with Steeltraps spend a good month on the line with him and you will be well on your way to being the Fur King. But we will need a cooler name for steeltraps if you guys are partners. Maybe if your fur king ST can be lion king since he will be like your mentor for a little bit.
Out of curiosity how old are you? Lot of the great trappers started as kids.

Good luck Tofan!


You’ll need to add freezers to your list of supplies, big ones. Then you need to identify the areas with the greatest populations with access for target critters. Different parts of Louisiana have tremendous populations, especially nutria. The general public has no idea just how many nutria are here. Seeing 50 or more in broad daylight on a short boat ride in nutria country is barely worth mentioning. I was told by someone that as many as 5,000 were removed from Marsh Island in one day by multiple airboat crews. That’s a number I certainly believe but can’t verify personally, but I bet LDWF could tell you.


We may not have the fox numbers that are found in the Northeast, but we have an abundance of water and water animals.


Cool goal, hope it works out for you down the road. I’ll be waiting for updates if you push it

I'm glad you mentioned that man, I am going to build a big walk in freezer for this purpose. I am also very interested in trapping nutria, I saw their pelt the other day, just stunning. We will meet the goal I am sure, maybe not me as far as the fur king but I can dream right?

And Beaver. It's my belief that we have the best beaver of all the Southern states.

@Yes I am 31 my friend, with an exquisite focus on spending the remaining time focusing on trapping, hunting, fishing and enjoying life.

I bought about $1000 worth of trapping supplies the beginning of this season and spent a bit over 1000 on gas.

Tofan - someone mentioned paying for lessons to shorten your learning curve. DO THIS! I don't know if there is anyone in your area, but there are many pros all over the country that offer lessons, and it would be well worth your time and money to invest in it.

Tofan
I been think if you really wanted to help new trappers out the biggest thing you could do is share how you are financially able to quit your job and trap full time without depending on any income from trapping to make ends meet. That is the biggest hurdle for most of them.

New trappers? How about the general population, lol??? I could do it, but I don’t think my job nor wife would give me a leave of absence for that long.

So I will answer this later with more specific detail, but the basic answer is that you learn how to do everything just above the "Good" level. From the time you are 18, it should be a rush to buy all the tools you may need in life, as well as getting into a house that is proportionate to how much money you make. There should always be a calculated effort to avoid taxes as best as you can, and learn that humans are generally very wasteful in this day and age and that a lot of things you need you can likely get for free if you spend some time understanding your area that you live in. Also learn that value comes from how easy it is to repair, the cost of parts, and availability of those parts.

The other huge thing is that you have to change how you see money and not let it turn your world. For example, say you have $1000 in bills every month, but at your current job you make $4000, at 40 hours a week or 160 hours a month. Do you really need that other $3000? If you are just starting out, sure you need that extra money to buy the tools and supplies you will need for the rest of your life. However, lets look at the situation in the context of how my eyes personally see it. You could spend 40 hours or one week straight if you want working to get the bill money, than you have the other 120 hours to do what you want. Not what somebody tells you, or makes you think you need to do, what YOU WANT. It's very easy to get ahead in this modus operandi, because the other supplies you have been conditioned to think you have to spend money on you likely don't. Every situation is different, but that is the very general advice I can give you right now.

You still gotta have some $$ to live.

It cost you 50 bucks per animal to catch. Add 1200 labor hours. You are going to need a better plan. Perhaps run 150 with lots of rotation into new ground. Full time trapping to me means predawn until dusk or later on the line. You got your feet wet, now dive rite in. Good luck!

So basically what you’re saying is you have everything paid off and enough to live the rest of your life to take off every trapping season. I get that. I have an entire years gross salary saved in cash. BUT, that doesn’t mean I can just take off every trapping season. I still need a 8-5 job to pay my bills and save for the future, so therefore I’m “dependent” upon that job regardless of how much I have saved or paid off. I also have a family that depends on me. Heck, I trap to pay for my out of state hunting trips, buying extra trapping supplies, and fun stuff for my family. While my trapping costs are somewhat minimal after trapping for several years now, they still add up and require a little money each year. Plus I have granddaughter to spoil, lol.

ADC work yes, it’s an open market down here. He’s fur trapping and not selling so no income coming in.

Where is the fuel money, food money, light bill, internet or phone bill, repairs, property taxes, insurance, etc coming from?

Can we get more of your story? Im real interested in the "how" as I think a lot on here are.

If the OP would have stated more of what the planned outcomes etc. were to be as we learned in additional posts after the OP, the OP would have been a lot more informative and valuable for new trappers or beginners. We all venture into new ventures with different motives, thoughts, ideas and projected outcomes. Therefore there are many different BMPs for those looking for info on their ideas and thoughts.

Bryce

The thought has crossed my mine that someone like Jtrapper or Savell could be trolling us here too......

Guy has his pic on beaver tail contest....well says so

Very good advice, I will remember most of it going forward. I will say that I went back and forth about posting the thread originally but decided that it would be beneficial for beginners who thought like I did. So I guess in a sense I wasn't really sure what I was going to end up posting or not, none the less will remember your comment in the future.

@Wanna Be & @Swamp I am saying that there are very few things that I have that I will have to pay somebody to do for me. It took me probably longer than most to learn I guess what I would call the basic arsenal of knowledge but I was able to get most of the tools so to speak. I am not just taking the trapping season off, I am going to transition to fishing, crabbing, shrimping and Turkey season is soon here, so that will happen as well. I still have a FFL and some other things that will enable me to make money when I need some to buy stuff. I am hoping that with trapping, I will be able to transform the furs into some masterpieces that I may be able to trade for other things later on. Multi purpose things are huge and if they don't use electricity, even better.

I will also just recommend to diversify your nest egg, but not how you probably think. I don't mean put some to this 401k or this IRA, gold etc. Ok great you have cash. Did it have the same value 6-12 months ago as it does now? Nope, I am talking inflation here, cash or proxies for cash will always be dependent on inflation or the price of everything else for common folk like me. I would be looking at buying 20-50 years(age dependent) worth of ammo for hunting and shooting. I would be buying 20 years worth of arrows, fishing tackle, grease or oil for lubrication for those things if you desire, etc. Maybe you buy 40 years worth of seeds, estimate your usage are super high buy accordingly, they will last in the freezer for a very very very long time. For the current vehicle, do you have 10 years worth of filters and fluids? If you cut wood 4 times a month on the table saw, do you have enough saw blades for 10 years? For all of your tools that have bearings, do you have 2 or 3 spare bearings when those will inevitable wear out? Maybe you should mix in some of the beaver or raccoon with the deer or cow meat to get even better return. Woodstoves, Canners, Cast Iron Cooking Tools are a must for every person in my opinion. I am not criticizing at all, please don't take it any sort of way like that, but the above is how I think about getting ahead. Like if you lost your job tomorrow, you know you gotta keep on that house payment, but almost everything else would be expendable if you planned things out the right way.