Thanks Tom, I dont trap much anymore so really cant write much about it. The last artical I wrote ,got printed in all caps so was hard to read. Bless their hearts I know they try and do a good job with the magazine otherwise. I had pictures of otters I caught in them.

I thought I had some pictures must of been on photobucket . I have this one its a blackfish trap I made, it will catch mink and muskrats too. same design, But you need the heavy mink wire or otters will destroy it. I had otters rip muskrats through the holes in the wire before to eat them.

I have tried making double ended models, but the upstream side always plugs up with floating moss and grass so one side is best. if we dont catch you can always turn it around and try the other direction.

Sounds like that area would be good to set Waggler, just find the small creeks in between the lakes, you can usually step over the creek if its a good one for a trap.

They were also used to set muskrat pushups. I never did it but had friends that would chop out near a push up and set the trap straight up and down and the rats will go down the hole of the funnel.

looking through my pictures I found This burbot trap.

That is my definition also. However, the way the author of the thesis refers to a slough it is obviously something different than what you and I consider a slough.

Here a slough is generally referred to as side channel off the main river, big enough for a boat to navigate. The traps can be set on the sides of a slough ususlly on a bend, but the ice will get thick. Its best in the smaller flowages where the blackfish are, they are food and they keep the ice thin as well.

Below a beaver dam in the small creek is a good spot too if the beaver dont flatten it.

That style of trapping is fascinating. Did you typically get multiple animals in one trap? I imagine fish in the traps were an added bonus at times.

Waggler,

Here you go...... if you read the introduction, this is the aforementioned
taluyak's design,, straight from John Burn's .....

Everyone should have a copy of this book, put out by the ATA. It contains information on building a fish wheel, weaving salmon nets, splitting fish, building sleds,trapping methods, building a stove, building a canoe, making snow shoes, etc... I think this book is still available through the Alaska Trappers Association website, for those interested, just scroll down a ways, on the provided hyperlink....

https://www.alaskatrappers.org/handbook.html

Yes multiple catches and different species including fish. Ususly Pike.

Those instructions TFE posted are acurate. I do stretch the funnels on a nail like pictured and make the hole fist sized for mink. A little bigger for otter.

The back side is sqared offf the ones here I never saw the back of the trap like pinched down like that unless it was one made out of wood. Must be a Kuskoquim thing.

Trappers here would make them to fit the creek they are trapping. I have seen some big ones.

" The last artical I wrote ,got printed in all caps so was hard to read. Bless their hearts I know they try and do a good job with the magazine otherwise."

Same reason I quit. The last one I sent was so butchered, it made no sense. Maybe the same editor? I actually knew the editor back in the 80's and I used to help put all the magazines in the separate mail bags.

PS If your magazine got lost in the mail in the late 80's, you can blame me.

Thanks Jeff and trapped4ever. That is the stuff I am looking for.
I've never seen black fish around Pilot Point, maybe because I haven't looked for them? They sound like a fascinating fish. There are pike, stickle backs and lots of big scuds in the ponds and lake though.
Lot of otter scat I've seen is nothing but scuds.

I was in the trapshed/chicken coop and realized I had one hanging from the rafters. Looks like its been froze in a few times but still functional.

The old boy that taught me how to make them used cage clips (he was a visionary). So I went out and got the plyers and clips when I started making them. Some are tied with twine and others use wire, some use just the clipped ends.

also if used for otters you need to use a heavy gauge wire, they can tear through the thin stuff pretty easy.

Jeff - cool cat. We have 2 of them. They are unique.

Jeff: My Grandfather Ralph Space trapped mink alive near the Yukon river in the mid 1960's and brought them back to NJ to crossbreed with our ranch mink. He had a permit from the state of Alaska to do so. I remember that the males were just as big as domestic males at that time, about 6 or 7 pounds. Bloodlines of those mink were still alive up til about 5 years ago when the rancher that had some of them pelted out. Eric

Thats Toby. He is quite the clown.



Thats interesting. I figured someone must of used the genetics for ranching mink. I was once asked by a mink rancher in Washington to get him some alive.

Eric, write a book about your grandfather's life. He was a fascinating man, I'm sure it would be a great seller plus preserve the legacy.

Jeff,
Was that Ron Marr?

Jeff, how did you deal with live mink or otters in that tiny cage?

I cant remember the guy's name. He was a Union painter working on the school here. I was a drywall taper at the time. said his friend was a rancher in Washington and was asking for him. Most were from Fairbanks worked for Roy, big outfit there.


30/06

The otters would generally mash up the funnle so it had to be straightend out after a catch. Most would leave a door opening in the back of the trap ,sewed together with wire they could open it to remove the catch.

I learned a trick of pulling them back through the funnle if I hold it upright and stick my arm up the funnel and grab them.

None were alive of course the trap is submerged.

Thanks Jeff,
Just curious as I grew up around a couple mink farms, Marr's was one of them.

Fishing is picking up. The Sheefish are coming back from the ocean fat now.

Tipped over a young cow today for summer meat.