The first animal I ever caught that I could actually sell was a large raccoon. This was back in the 1960s although I was excited about catching that raccoon over the years I have not been a big fan of raccoon in my traps. It seems like they were always messing up my mink sets and would always find a way to get in any set no matter where it was. I caught them on rat houses in beaver sets at Caster Mounds and bait sets and... Fisher and coyote and fox sets. I did Target them a few times especially after DPS came out just for the novelty of it. My efforts to avoid raccoon seemed to be working after I started using more and more body grips in my water trapping. The old saying never say never came to light last week when I was finishing up my Beaver damage control job. One of the sets I had already caught two beaver in was a blind set in a small Channel next to a feedback and when I came upon it I noticed fur floating on the surface. It was a 12/16 Bridger almost completely submerged with maybe 2 in of the top Jaws out of the water with a cross piece over them. I thought it may be another beaver but the Coon curse struck again. In the Trap was a 24 lb b o a r raccoon. He had to be swimming with just his head out of the water to get in this body gripper. Why he was swimming there only the Coon k n o w s and he's not talking. All I know is Never Say Never and the Coon curse is back.

Lol. Once years back I caught one in an open water beaver snare. It was February so coon season was over which means I had to get it red tagged by the DNR.

It happens to the Best of us....Hahaha!

Look on the bright side
Least it wasn't a possum...

Quite a few years ago I had a 330 set for Beaver between a little chunk of stuff and a very steep bank on the Black River. I accessed it for several days by stepping down on a shelf of ice. One day I found that a big coon had somehow gotten into the set and was dead in the 330. As I stepped on the ice shelf it gave way and the only thing I had to grab and save myself was that big coon in the 330. The water there was deep enough that my feet did not touch. Somehow scrambled out of that mess and headed for the truck.

That was the one time I really happy and lucky to have a coon in a Beaver set!

Moosetrot

Haha, with you it’s coons. With me it’s possums. My first year trapping a particular property I made the statement I didn’t catch a single possum all year after catching 30 something coons.
The next year I ended up with barely 20 coons, but close to 60 possums!! Since that year my possum catches almost always double my coon catches.

I wonder how many states still have a season on raccoon? I think South Dakota gave it up a decade or more ago. I don't think anyone has looked back about yet...

I had one area where I started setting DP's on the bank by every castor mound set- I got tired of pulling up coons from the end of slide wires.