good luck. I enjoy your journal

Nice catches.Those bobcats are beautiful.

Looking forward to following along this year!

Always a great ride along....

Love this thread. Good luck

I'm a little late with my update. Checked on Tuesday and had a couple grey fox. Still have a few spots that I need to get set on Saturday.

Caught in the first set we made this season.

Another catless trap check but the fox keep us busy. Got out some more sets on some sign, and 3 fox to take home. Even had a double. Sure is fun being out there with my boy. I can only put one on the ATV so they've been switching off each Saturday.


You can barely see the second fox. He wasn't very photogenic with both back feet caught

Wow both hind feet. I caught a red with both front feet twice but never both back ones.
Love the carry out pic with your son

I'm a few days late on my update, but here it is. Still pretty slow on the line. The last check I had one kit fox and one grey. The kit fox was a shock since I have never caught one this high up. Then after checking my last set, the display on my ATV started acting funny, then about 2 miles from my truck, the thing shut off and wouldn't start. The lights would still turn on, but nothing on the display would work, and the starter wouldn't engage. I tried pull starting it and it would turn over, but wouldn't start. I'm guessing it's something electrical. The guy I got it from put power stearing on it and seat warmers so my guess is something shorted out with his DIY wiring job.

My friends going out with me tomorrow with his RZR to pull my traps and tow my ATV. Then I'll be taking it to the Polaris Machanic so they can go over everything to make sure I don't have any other issues. I'll be out of town the week of Thanksgiving so I was planning on pulling my traps next week anyways. Hopefully they can get everything working right on the ATV so I can set after I get back.

Hope you get the bike fixed and get back out on the line.

Got the few sets we had out pulled. Still no spots in the traps, but we did have another grey/kit combo. My friend came out with his RZR to help pull traps, and tow my ATV. He brought 2 of his kids along and they had a blast. I'll tell you what, those RZRs sure are nice. I could only go about 10mph on these roads in my truck and about 20 on my ATV, but with the RZR we were easily hitting 35mph and could hardly feel the bumps. It wasn't much fun being towed behind that thing for 2 miles in the moon dust while retrieving thevATV but we were able to get it to the truck. I'll be taking it to the polaris mechanic next week and hopefully they can have everything sorted out and fixed by the time we get back from visiting my parents for Thanksgiving. We will at least be able to go after some muskrats and possibly coyotes while at my parents.

sux about the wheeler. stay in good graces with your Polaris mechanic . keep after em

Nice catches

The mechanic cant get my ATV in for another month and a half so I had to take care of the issue myself. I know the ECM is a common issue so I unhooked the battery and pulled the ECM and could instantly smell the issue. I got a new one and installed it yesterday with a fresh battery and it fired right up.

I took it for a ride and still had the same bogging issue when I hit hit rough sections, and high idle sometimes in netural. So I did some research and startered looking for issues. When I checked the MAP sensor I noticed some cracks in the wire insulation. So I started it up and when I would move the wire it would bog down when I throttled and would idle high. So now I'm just waiting for the new wire harness kit. I'm not sure if that's what shorted out my ECM or if it's just a defect (polaris did have a recall on the part). Anyways, the blogging down is the only issue I've had before the ECM fried so I should be good to go after this fix.

Since I'm out of town next week, I've got sometime to get the part delivered and installed before we set again.

Its good to have backup equipment when running a trapline.
Way back in the day after I had depreciated equipment to the point it is no longer a benefit as a tax offset I bought a replacement new,and keep the old one for backup,This is a big benefit to the bottom line when filing your buisness tax and you will have back up so no downtime.
I have two(at least) of everything that is trapping related,bikes skidoos chainsaws boats etc.
been many years since I had to quit trapping mid run because of an untimely breakdown of any equipment.
Another bonus is if you do have a breakdown out in the boonies you have the means to recover the equpment without having to depend on someone else or pay someone or rent to recover. it.

Got the new MAP sensor wiring harness hooked up and the ATV started. It struggled a little on the idle and sound like an air issue so i checked the Idle Air Control harness. And yep, the IAC also has some cracks in the insulation and wire itself so I got a new one ordered and it should be here in a couple days. I still gave it a test drive with the new MAP harness wiring and there is a world of difference. I got looking into it and polaris is know for making their wiring harnesses as short as possible which causes sharp bends near the sensors and eventually causes breakage. Then they have that sharp plastic wire cover that cuts into the wire. With the added wire length and the new wire cover that won't cut the wires, I will HOPEFULLY be done playing mechanic.

I knew I should have gone with a Honda.

at least you admit it...Polaris may be faster an ride a lot better but Honda's are hard to beat.

The only thing polaris has going for it is the suspension. I hate the belts, and all the electrical issues polaris has. I had a honda CRF 150 growing up and my dad had a Honda foreman and I'm not sure if we ever even changed the oil in either of them for the first 5 or 6 years and maybe only a few times in their life and they still fire up every time I visit my parents. My dad has a new Rubicon so the foreman just sits most of the year. But the autoshift in the new ones are amazing. My cousin just got a new Talon that I rode in last week, and that thing is crazy fast and you can barely feel it when it shifts.

Finally got back out. The ATV ran great all day. I went to an area I haven't been able to access for a few years and found what I've been trying to find all season. A big toilet with all different sizes and freshness of turds. One was only a day or two old and I could still see the toe prints in the scratch. Feels good to have traps soaking again.

Good luck