More than once I remade a set that had connected And even though it was not te way I would have liked it to there was a animal waiting there the next day Only traps that are set can catch an animal.

I've been trapping 15 years before I caught my first possum.

I once set six Conibear buckets on a marsh island across from a fish house. Baited the buckets with fresh tuna caught that day. Next morning I had five raccoons and a nutria. Often wondered what the nutria was doing at my set since it was a vegetarian. I could have gone six for six except for that darn nutria.

Those were resident coons. Workers threw them trash fish every day. I snuck in late and checked out early and had to keep a secret.

When I was 10 I found 3 1 single longs and started pocket gopher trapping. That summer I caught 22 or so at .25 each I had $5.50. My mom got me 1 dozen victor single long 1s through Montgomery Wards and the next summer the first day I set 15 sets and the next day I had 11 gophers! I was the king of the township!. I caught enough the rest of the month to buy a $4 bike and now I was a long liner! lol. Trapping has always been rewarding but nothing as an adult gave me the rush that that day as an 11 year old did.

Bryce

I've had 3 high % checks.

The first one a friend asked me to trap a stretch of the raccoon river west of Desmoines IA
The coon where leveling his corn. 1 put in 13 sets in about a 1/2 mile and had 12 the next AM the last trap had a paint turtle lol.

#2 I set up a farm near a feed lot in Central Wyoming. There was good fox sign, I put in14 sets . This was on a 320 acr farm .there was lots of coon sign, so it was a challenge to avoid coon. 12 fox 1coon and a coon pullout the next day. Always that one tough bolt.

#3 this one was a head scratcher, I stopped to ask permission to trap a farm in Eastern Wyoming. The rancher said somthing was killing his chickens, after finding a 3" hole in the chicken wire with brown hair I told him he was feeding a mink. His wife had several barn cats,but they had a mile long drain going through there property dunping in to a larg slough. So I put in 12 pocket sets, each one was on a drain pipe or spring seep, exept for 2 wall sets at the drive way culvert. I caught 4 buck mink and 4 females the first check. Then in the next week I caught 3 jumbo rats and one coon. I told the rancher I thought his mink problem should be good for now. He said we had more chickens killed last night. Sure enough there where big dusty mink tracks leaving the coop. So he had his wife lock the cats in the barn. In three nights we had a huge buck mink in the 110. I trapped that farm fore 3 more weeks and not another mink. An the water sets were still operating.

One fall we had a black wolf that would come into the village every night. It became famous and all the men in the village were locked and loaded and driving around hunting it every night with lights.

This went on for about a month and folks were getting paranoid about sending their kids to school in the morning.
Some were carrying guns to walk in town or to the store.

One day I walked up the hill behind my house and set a single snare on the narrow part of the ridge barely wide enough for a snare. On the third day I was fishing eels and forgot to check it but a buddy came and picked me up and said he shot the black wolf and asked if I had a snare set . I confirmed I did set a snare. He brought me to the gas station where most of the village had gathered to gawk at the now dread famous black wolf that was terrorizing the village. I got a hero’s welcome and felt like Peter and the wolf for a day.

I have outsmarted Possums for years. and for $ 29.95 I can teach you how to do it too. Never have I ever caught a possum. been trapping over fifty years now.
The Number to cal is BR - 549 .

Been there and done that makes one scratch his head doesn't it

I think my greatest success story on the trapline was where I had set one 330 Belisle Super X on each corner of an old beaver dam for otter. As was often the custom with otter, nothing for about a week. Then one day I checked and had two otter in one of the traps and one otter in the other trap. I thought 3 otter for 2 traps was pretty good.

Not I.

My hero! Sounds crazy, but I think a lot of new trappers need to see this. I know when I started out I almost quit because I’d catch like crazy at first then nothing. I thought I didn’t know what I was doing (still question that at times) and thought maybe they need to get someone else to trap for them. It took some asking and reading to realize you’re not going to have a full line every single day. Generally the more sets you have out the greater your odds. But, you can’t catch what ain’t there in some cases.

I've also caught 6 coyotes in the first 12 traps checked. Had over 100 sets left to check (a 42 thousand acre property) ....... didn't catch another coyote that day.....

Trapping rats in the Miss. refuge in Mn.You can only run 40 traps I had set all feedbed sets. Checking the next day I caught like 25 or so in a row and began to think I will run the table and the next trap was snapped and empty. Started catching again and was almost done and had 2 rats in one trap so now I'm back to 100%, last trap.... empty.

My first year trapping a property that had never been trapped I called the landowner because I started feeling bad about all the critters I was catching. He said catch everything I could, so I did. At that time I was just trapping in exchange for a couple of turkeys. I thought I was a trapping God. Doubles every single day for a 10 days. Coyote/coyote, coyote/fox, coyote/bobcat, bobcat/bobcat, bobcat/fox, fox/fox. And all that was on one stretch of road through some small pines. I always wondered who was caught first. Those sets were maybe 10yds apart on opposite sides of the road.

Since that first time that road hasn’t produced but maybe 2 coyotes and about 3 bobcats over the last 4-5 years, lol. I quickly realized I wasn’t anywhere as good as I thought. Still learning to this day.

Catch will naturally drop off as time goes on.generally speaking.Exceptions are sets made on dispersal routes at choke points earlier in the season.And a couple other instances like some late spring beaver set locations,Millette set in winter,etc. These sets will produce fur on extended checks.
A savvy trapper will add new sets by extending the line,and leave productive sets and move the dead ones.
This will keep you skinning.

Once set 2 snares and a foot hold at a bait site. Next day caught 3 bobcats at this set. Can it get any better ?

The “dead sets” are the most productive I have found. If I move a set thinking it’s dead that set location will invariably be visited. I just expand!

This ^^^

I leave a set a minimum of 10 nights....

I expect an animal to be in every trap I check. Been doing that since I was 12.
I can say that in the 50+ years of trapping, I've only succeeded once. That was last week. I set one foothold on a 2,000 acre island and caught a coyote, the only one on that Island. The ground nesting birds are safe for one more season, unless another coyote walks across the high rise bridge.