I've been a hunter and fisherman my whole life but I'm new to trapping. In fact I finally get to take the class in 2 weeks and I'm very excited. I figured I would start with muskrat and coyote to focus on. Down the road my goal Is wolves. Got me thinking though - if you had to recommend one animal for a newbie to start with for trapping, what would you suggest and why?

Whatever you have a high population of. It's easier to catch them if there are a lot of them. In Iowa it would be raccoon for example.

Welcome aboard,
South East Idaho should be good opportunity for most every species lots f coyote, beaver,
muskrat. Used to be plenty of fox and cats.
The beaver market is healthy right now and you would have plenty of bait and good table fair to boot.
It's late in the season so maybe try your hand at bobcat and then some spring beaver and muskrat.

I started with barn mice and rats. Don’t laugh, it got me going at an early age!

Whatever you have a lot of in your area. I’d suggest to start off slow though, and don’t set too many traps at once. Walk around and look for tracks and sign. Read it, learn it, set on it, and check up on it.

Coon and muskrat are two of the easier species to catch along with of course possum and skunk, lol.

Coyotes can make you pull your hair out. Imagine trapping coyotes and wolf would be similar, although I've never trapped wolves.

Whatever interests and motivates you. I’m a water trapper. Like water critters and trap line “design” in water.

Welcome aboard.
I cut my teeth on coon and muskrat

I learned by my mistakes, but ya got to learn
Learning “sign” is the key to Zen……….
My advice my not be the best because I have been a hired gun for 25 years to solve wildlife conflicts

Just guessing coyote

You are in SE Idaho

I would learn what critter, you have, ,,,,,what is available.
Me it rats and beaver, otter.


Now the coyotes are bothering my life at home.

And I love trapping skunks.

Every critter is easy to trap until they are educated.
Fur is fur, you can move
Adc is no moving on……

( Tom petty song flashed into my pee brain)

welcome, start out small, rats are a good animal to start with, do you have coon? try Coyote but don't get frustrated!

Scout and see what sign is in your trapping area, trap on sign. The two biggest mistakes I see a new trapper do is not setting on sign and not bedding the trap properly. Take your time and make each set as perfect as you can. I can't tell you what animal to start with as I trap everything. If I see coyote sign I make a couple of sets, if I see bobcat I do the same...nutria, otter, beaver, mink, raccoons...What ever I see is in a area, I set for. Louisiana trapping laws are pretty liberal, so I throw out a bunch of blind sets. If I see define game trails on my route to check specific sets, I stop and set some blind sets. I never know what I will have in the morning, which keeps me excited to go check in the morning.

Whatever you want. Trapping beaver wont make you a better coyote trapper. If you just want to catch stuff, coons are brave. Not much spooks them. Same with cats. Lots easier to get sets in front of coons compared to cats. Getting your set someplace where the target species will find it is the key to any success. Sounds kind of obvious but it aint easy at first, High numbers guys run ALOT of traps. Hard work. They are also expert at finding set locations.

In the city and county of St Louis you can learn on moles. People are paying $100.00 per mole to get them out of there yard. Lets se you make that on coon and coyote.

Catch just one bigfoot and you would be famous and top that price or end up broke and in jail. Would be more protected than wolf's but only after the fact.

When I grew up as a kid , we lived next to a lake ... so muskrats were plenty ...
I loaded all runways with 110 coinbears ..checked traps before school ..
Learned how to skin and put up fur ...great experience for a kid ...

Biggest mistake I see is newbies going after harder prey and getting frustrated check after check with nothing to show for it. I can still remember the “sting” of bragging up my trapping prowess to an aquaintence who wanted to tag along. Skunked! Wouldn’t you know it?

Lesson here? Trap alone at first. Lol. And second, go for the easy stuff first like muskrats.

Don't be telling. Now there will be more competition and I'll never get he first yeti!!

Whatever is plentiful

Dont overlook snaring as an option if your state regs allow. Coyotes are easier to catch in a snare than a foothold (at least for me).

If it's coyotes you want to catch and have coyotes to catch, I say start on coyotes. Just understand there will be a lot of zero days but if you're truly serious it will help to develop patience and persistence. If you want catches right a way, coons and muskrats would be the ticket.