I was checking the very few sets I had out yesterday and was driving up a B grade road to check some coyote sets, when I saw a orange something on my trap. As it was public land I figured it was a note telling me how much of a Jerk I was for trapping and that I should pull my traps etc.





Nope it was a tag from the Iowa DNR saying they had checked my gear, and I should remove the tag within 24 hours of when they attached it. I don't care, sets were legal, public ground, tagged traps, so no biggie but didn't know they left tags

Trapline audits are not uncommon here.
The tag is likely put there to make sure you are chcking your traps within a mandatory time limit,lokks like 24 hours.

Interesting he doesn't have courage enough to sign his name.

I did notice it wasn't signed, or printed at all.

I've never seen such a thing. Were you in Story County?

Never heard of that

Kinda makes it trap tampering in my mind. Not signed = unofficial.

Did he/she uncover the set or just look at it without disturbing it. If he disturbed it I would complain and demand the name.

Wardens get kinda cranky about unsigned stamps and permits here. If there’s a place for them to sign, it should be signed imo.

Idaho CO's will leave a business card with a note to call him. We have a 3 day check and this times your check.

Yes, I was trapping in Story county pulled the traps today as they were again uncovered, sprung, and one was cut free of its cable stake. Not sure (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) is going on there so decided to pull them for now

Interesting. I know some other guys that trap in Story County but have not heard about any encounters like this. Hopefully the rest of your season will be incident free!

Eh, they seem to like to harass me I swear LOL, had out 20 lousy sets and they have to go and fiddle with them

I’d give your local game warden a call, when Ken was ours he usually came and found us and asked, he was really good.

IM BETTING IT ISNT THE DNR IF THEY WERE ILLAGLE THEY WOULD TAKE THEM OR FIND YOU THEIR NOT GOING TO LEAVE UNSIGNED NOTES AND TAMPER WITH YOUR TRAPS YOU HAVE SOME ONE SCREWING WITH YOU

Ya I've never ran into something like that, I would ask local officer about it

The GW intended to drive by and look, (No tag when he drove by after 400pm means you checked your trap) So that you did not have to call him. No reason to leave a name or contact number if you don't need to call.

If the sticker was there when he checked; He would have pulled your gear and contacted you.

I did trapping enforcement training in each region in Utah. And then taught each group of new officers for several years. I educated them about how all the various traps worked and how to do what they needed to check a sample of a line, with minimal disturbance to the trappers sets. I taught them to leave the sets as close as possible to how they found them. I taught them to maintain good relations with trappers because trappers know what's going on on their traplines more than anyone else, and can be great source of information in egregious poaching cases. I taught them to leave their business card with a short note near the set to let the trapper know who had visited their sets. After that little bit of training, some of the officers became trappers (which I encouraged). Administration liked it because the officers became more professional and courteous, and effective in trapping enforcement and the number of complaints from irate trappers went down. It is better for everyone if the slob trappers that threaten the future of the sport are caught and properly dealt with.

All that said, if you have an officer that is being unprofessional and unreasonable in his method of enforcement, I suggest you write a complaint and send it to the law enforcement supervisor at the regional level. Let him find out which officer did it and hopefully correct the problem.

Ah, ya that could be why, I lived in Conrad for 8 months , 1980

I would for sure gotten a picture of the trap cut loose.