For me it’s catching coyotes. NEVER wanted to do anything else. I had to work on the railroad for a while. Lay bricks since I was 16. Worked at steel plant. BUT I still ran traps everyday. Fun thing was. I conceidered = Steel Plant Railroad and Masonary my second job. Should it have been the other way around? They fired me from the railroad cause I was always late from running traps and smelling like coyote urine! LOL! To be honest. I have put Everything second to coyote trapping with the ONLY exception being my daughter. I once drove 239 miles one way To see her sing at a church event. Yep. Everything else is a far second to me on being motivated to catch coyotes

I used to project the numbers and the amount of traps set per line etc. a lot more and even when I was younger and more able I rarely met those projections, so yes there were a few weeks and days of really motivated efforts followed by faily big emotional and physical slow downs and dissappointment. Now days I plan more realistically set managable lines , move more frequently so there are newer sets more often and am much more satisfied with the results and more focused for many more days and weeks. Accepting reality can be a real character builder.

Bryce

Only two things really motivate me. Whiskey and wild women. Ironically those are also two of my biggest fears.

Whiskey is sweeter.

trying to outsmart these guys

Good Lawd!!! Has that place been trapped?

yup! i threw a bushel of tomatos there. might have to try a tomato down the dirt hole!

Boxed wine and cranky postmenopausal women motivate me to get the (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) out of the house and check traps every morning.

Seriously though, it's recapturing the feeling of my 10-year-old self waking up at 4:30am, 35 degrees and frost, checking coon sets with a red plastic flashlight, and seeing the glow of two eyes and fur at one of my bank sets. I can get close to recapturing those feelings and that's more than enough to keep me going.

Catches

A cool crisp morning last of October. The crack of daylight and the old truck heading down the farm lane saying get up.

The un known!! In PA you could have a coyote in your trap, a fox , bobcat raccoon, fisher, mink, beaver and the list goes on!! I like the unknown!! Keeps me motivated!!

True statement! I had someone that wanted to ride with me to check my traps one Saturday morning after daylight. I’d caught at least one of about every critters we have in SWGA and this guy was like a little kid at Christmas…as was I!! He’d never seen the larger critters up close and had actually never seen a bobcat.
So yeah, you hit the nail squarely on the head with that statement.

Getting fur so that I can wear it and bring home fur to my wife

This is a very good subject, and I don't think their could be a wrong answer, as long as it gets you out there enjoying the outdoors.

For me personally, its a numbers game, how much harder can I push, hoe much more geound can I find. I aim to outperform the year before, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But getting in some fresh sets each day really tends to help me get out of bed, especially on those days where I'm dragging pretty good!

Every day is like christmas, never knowing what maybe at the end of your chain. And the 3 other guys I compete with helps too!

Well out of all the different outdoor activity's I do trapping is by far the most rejuvenating, peacefully and almost spiritual experience for me. I found/discovered trapping in middle school and well I was not as all the poplar kid and well middle school was not pleasant for me and I was starting to go down a vary dark path. I saw a local FTA booth at a fair and took the trapping class. That was about 20 years ago now I've never missed a season since! Fur trapping is the thing that pulled me back from the dark thoughts and saved my live. Every time I'm out there in the field or river chasing and putting up fur I'm reminded what a great gift we all have to live life to the fullest and now that I'm married and a father to two little girls I get to see there excited faces as well pull up on the coon bouncing in what was the perfect yote set. If it wasn't for trapping I would never would have had those moments so It's sort of my way to reset and regain focus on everything. I'm not sure if that answers your questions but its the best I could explain it.

I always liked the anticipation of going to a set and seeing what might be waiting for you. And also the fact of “outsmarting” the animal. You can take a 4 inch trap and put it in a 800 acre lake and catch a muskrat in a blind set which the more and more I think about that I smile a bit. Same thing with blind trail sets on land. I put that little 160 or #2 coil spring in a trail in the middle of nowhere and I can get that animal funneled in to get caught. Also I like to study animal behavior, I don’t know how many times I’ve been out trapping and you see a mink a head of you dinking and diving along the river bank and watching what they stop to investigate or how they go around structure. Or setting the muskrat house to look over your shoulder at a pair of otters looking at you while they’re floating in the water. It’s a peace you can’t find many places especially not sitting in the house worrying about what’s happening in society.

I love prepping throughout the summer and fall. The prepping gets me mentally fired up for the season. I trap December and part of January and try to do my real job remotely from my pickup and early in the morning and at night. It can be tough. I do not skin much simply because of time and I have a good buyer who buys in the round.

Passing on all I have learned to my sons is also a huge motivation.

I know I went overboard years ago on traps and properties I trap. I made it a job at which I lose money, but I still really enjoy it.