Well, today was another check of the trapline. I didn't have anything in any of the beaver sets, but I did have a snapped off conibear. I caught another coon in the spot closer to the conibears where I caught one on Tuesday. I've been trying out a homemade bait and it seems to work well. I also caught a double on skunks right by the 2nd old Beaver Lodge. I got them dispatched but will leave them till the next check so they can air out a little bit. I also had to remove a coyote set where I had kept a deer for a little while since the area was pretty torn up, hopefully, it'll bring some attention to the area with it so disturbed. I'm going to be setting muskrat traps, on Friday so I will have another update for you guys later today. Anyway, I think that's all I have for today, was a pretty uneventful day. Here's the picture of the coon, I couldn't get a picture of the skunks because they weren't positioned too well.

Nice catches.

Nice!

Way to go TYT.
Go back and get them skunks before some critter does.
You'll get used to the smell the more you trap. Airing them out by leaving them there won't do much good.
Way to stick at it and get a nice mixed bag of fur

Looks good!

The critters around here don't bother them. I'm just trapping them for the pheasant population so I'm not skinning them. I can't smell skunk at all unless it's a foot away from my face. But I get yelled at when I come home and smell like it, so leaving them for a day or 2 does help.

Thank you guys for all the replies!

Today was another great day on the trapline, one of the best. This place isn't close to home but it sure is paying off. So I guess let's explain how tomorrow went as far as setting rat traps. I got 2 colony traps and 3 blind set 1.5s set on a small irrigation ditch. I also got 4 blind set stoplosses and 2 159s set on a slough. And another 2 stoplosses blind set on a second slough. So today I started the day at the irrigation ditch and caught 1 rat in a colony trap and 2 in the other. I then went to the 1st slough and I caught a good sized coon in a #1 Victor Stoploss, it held him perfectly, he did rip the trap up a bit but it should be an easy fix. I got him dealt with and couldn't reset the trap as he messed up the stoploss spring and the pan. I will never doubt the holding power of one of these little traps again. So I then went to the 2nd slough and had nothing, I did switch one of the traps around from a hut landing to a feed bed. So I finally got to make the 15 mile trip up north. I started the day with a nice sized beaver, probably 35 to 40 pounds in my drowning set. Another trapper who was out pheasant hunting stopped by and we chatted it up for a bit, he was from a little more north of where I was trapping. It was very nice to talk to him. I then went and checked up until the 2nd old beaver lodge and picked up the 2 skunks from the other day, which smelled way better. I got those traps reset and I thought about making a pocket set but decided against it for now. So I continue to the last double of coyote traps. In the dirt hole set, I had a very beautiful male coyote! It's the first one I have ever caught and it was a perfect catch. The remake was very good looking as well, so I hope to catch another one there. I also had to remake my last gland set as another deer set it off. I also stopped at a slough where the landowner saw a couple of mink and made a pocket set with a 1.5 on a 10ft drowning cable.

I can't even explain how it felt to catch my first coyote, it was nothing like any other animal I have caught before. I was completely blown away. I have been trying to catch one for my whole 5 years of trapping but this is my 2nd year trying decently hard to trap them and it finally happened. It will be getting taxidermy tanned as in skinned out paws and everything else and tanned to be hung on the wall. Anyway, here are the pictures from today. I will upload my reaction video on Youtube of my first coyote catch. The coon isn't in the picture as it was very full of stinky slough mud and I didn't want that on my floor. Thank you for reading.

Keep at it!

Congrats on the coyote, TYT!

Skin those stinkers!

Yep skin them skunk, we got good money for our skunk's last year
on the Montana trapper's fur sale.
Ms.V had top skunk @$32.50
More than I averaged on coyote

You should really put up those skunks TYT. Good money and everyone buys them. Learn to extract the essence and double your money. Easy to skin and easy to flesh. Just watch out for those pods when skinning.

If your family raises a "stink" about the smell do them out back in the woods. Around here a coyote or fisher would apt to run off with a skunk laying around.

Your doing good. Keep it up!

I learned to extract the pods before I skin, some good u tubes on it.

Last January I caught two large males. By the time if sold the hides, essentially, pods, fat and raw skull I averaged just under $90 apiece. That's a lot of gas money!

Thank you

I may get around to skinning the skunks some time, but I just need to get the motivation to want to do so.

I understand, they can be intimidating at first, but they're not that bad. I actually enjoy putting them up now.

Today was another great day, I love this new line that I'm running. I started the day by the irrigation ditch. I caught a buck mink in a colony trap and a coon in a 1.5 set on a crawl out/ trail. I had my doubts about the 6' fiberglass poles staying stuck in but I've caught multiple coons with them and they're holding strong. Let me tell you though, those coons rip up an area especially if there are cat tails there. I then went up to the spot where I caught that coon in the #1 Stoploss. I had nothing in those traps again, but rats were swimming all over. The problem is that these rats don't have any feed beds or anything, I can't even find a bank den. I'm going to pull those traps on Wednesday if I have nothing again since that spot does add an extra 6 miles and probably 30 minutes to my drive time. At the next spot, I had nothing again but saw rats swimming so I repositioned one of my #1 Stoplosses to a hut where I saw coon tracks to hopefully catch something. So I finally got to venture up north and I got to my pocket set I put in the other day. And guess what, I had a coon floating about 5 feet down the drowner. I also had to fix my beaver foothold since it had fallen off of its bed where I had it. I refreshed the dogproof near there as the rain had come through yesterday. I got to the 2 beaver conibears and 1 was set off, so I reset it. I might need to bring a foothold down there and try it. I also rebaited and lured all of my other dog proofs. Since it was running out of light though, I didn't stop to remake any coyote traps. I will remake them on Wednesday when I go out again since I should have some more time. But all in all, it was a good day on the line. On my way home though a deer hit me as I saw it was coming straight for me and had little room to go to either side so I stopped and it ran dead smack in the middle of my grille guard. It only ended up breaking my license plate frame but I should be able to fix it with some JB weld.

I ended up getting home quite a while after dark and I got right to drying some fur and getting ready to put up some fur. I ended up getting the 3 muskrats from the other day put up, the mink from today, and a weasel for a buddy. This was my first time putting up a mink and I think I did well for never doing it. The rats do have a little green belly but it should be just fine once they're dry. I did end up messing up on the weasel for my buddy as I didn't cut the tail enough and popped it off. Now all I have left is my one beaver from the other day but I think I'm going to try fully putting it up tomorrow night. Anyway, I think that's all for today. Here are the pictures.

Good job!

Looking good partner