I was gone for about a week and came back to Humboldt county yesterday. I had about four small dirt mounds in about a 5 ft area. Never could find a main tunnel. The dirts kind of dry and crumply. (New word means crumbles ) I poked around a lot of places but never felt like I found any main run. I did find a tunnel that wasn't plugged and I felt was active so I set in it. I'm using the Maccabee or Old reliable trap. I left it open when I was done setting. I put a couple of dirt clods to partially close the opening but it was wide open basically. This morning when I went out to check the trap it wasn't in the hole. It didn't even register what had happened until I had two cups of coffee. The trap was about 5 ft from the hole and there was a chunk of gophers still in it but the rest of him was gone. I have a real nice Fox that lives on the property here. I believe she got the meal. My trap is wired to a hand garden tool like a shovel that's about a foot and a half long. I guess he got tired of dragging it after a few feet and just decided to eat it where it was laying. At least my whole trap was not gone I should secure it a little better in the future I guess. That's the first time I've ever set on a new hole and got it the first night. I think it was some luck involved because it definitely was not in the ideal location but it worked that's all that matters.
Take it easy Ken

thats cool, i buried filleted fish and in the morning there was 2 foxes digging them up

I have k-9’s take my cinch traps once in a while. Gophers are a normal food source for predators. I have caught a gopher before I left the customers house, so like 20 minutes to set a trap talk to the lady and pull the gopher out of the ground. Still pays full price. It’s not the 20 minutes she paid for but the 30 years of learning a trade.

wws

Lost a few traps like that, but found them using a metal detector, furthest was like 12 ft from where I set it.

I'm new to this forum and didn't know how to add a photo and looks like I added it twice. This is an unknown shop that I use and I got another one today so it's working good for me