My 14 year old son and I have started a tradition of going out of state each year to trap some critters. He is also making a fur display and he has caught every pelt that is on it. We are looking to add otter and gray fox to it this year. Anyone have these critters and some good chunks of public land for us to pursue them? Looking for some direction/help here. Please PM.

Nonresident aren’t allowed to trap grey fox here, and otter are pretty hard to come by.

But if you ever wanted to catch kit fox and spotted skunk this would be a good place to come. You could trap kit fox, spotted skunk, striped skunk, coyote, badger, red fox, and hunt chukar.

The southeast would be a good place to go for those two. Georgia has plenty of both, but has a weird non resident system. I think Alabama is free to trap as long as you don’t charge for trapping or sell furs. Don’t quote me on that though. Can’t trap public land in ga, but can normally find permission pretty easily

I heard Georgia has a insurance policy mandate for trapping.

Huh?

I think he’s probably referring to the nonresident licensing $2,500 (I think) bond requirement. That was the weird nonresident system I was referring to in my post. I believe Swampwolf recently posted describing what it entails to get that, but the wording in the regs made it sound more confusing to me.

Louisiana for otter and grey fox. Lots of public ground as well as road trapping.

Didn't you ask this last year and you got a whole host of answers then? You are going to have to get out and scout yourself along with your 14 year old son, it will teach him a great lesson that the best things in life are those that you work yourself to get. Google public land in whatever state you want, call the state trapping association, call the state wildlife department. Goodluck.

Tofan, yes I asked last season too. We ended up in Missouri instead of going down to Arkansas. We caught everything but what we were after. He did get to add a red fox and a badger to it from last season. So, we are dialing in on the otter and gray this year and plan to go wherever we need to.

Sorry Minnesota doesn't allow non-residents to trap or you could come up and get your grey fix and otter here. We really need to change this.

Not an insurance policy. Georgia requires any NR to post a bond b4 purchasing a NR trapping license. The bond is $2500. This is a fur boom era law that remains in our law book.

Come to Missouri, south of theMo River. No end of gov land to camp/trap with plenty of Grey's and Otter.

I remember years back when I trapped Georgia that I had to get the bond. I believe you paid 10%- $250.00 and if all went well during your stay you got it back down the road. Georgia was the only state I have trapped that required a bond. There may be others I just never trapped in those states

Could you explain the reasoning behind this, please.

I've always been told it's there to cover fines and court costs should the NR end up in front of a judge.

Strange concept that assumes a NR is guilty of something.

That is correct, but I can't explain the reason it's still on the books. It was put in place, to my knowledge, in case a violator skipped court and left the state.

Now that we are a member of the Wildlife Violator Compact (all 50 states are now too,I think), it should be repealed.

Probably to keep out the competition. I know when I was a manager over techs we couldn't bring in one of our Alabama or Carolina guys if we were shorthanded on trapping. And it was questionable on bat exclusion to bring them in as labor.

Maybe back then it was to limit competition for the fur resources, but now it should be removed....but likely never will be, because its not a priority to DNR.