New guy here from southern MN.

I had a few things fall through this year that allowed me to take 9 days to head up north to try to catch my first cat. With a young family I knew it might be my only chance for a few years to give it a shot. A nice tom has been on my bucket list for some time.

So I found some scrap plywood and made myself some boxes.



I headed out opening morning into some brand new country that I was completely unfamiliar with. My dad tagged along to give me a hand and I got 22 of my 30 boxes out. I got the remaining boxes out Day 2 and found time to catch a limit of walleyes in the evening. Total over the 2 days was 3 sets of cat tracks.

Monday I noticed a bunch of fox tracks near one of my cat sets. I won’t trap fox around home because there are so few of them. I figured it was a good chance to get one so I made a dozen snares Monday night, set them Tuesday, and got my first fox Wednesday.



The next few days revealed very few cat tracks. I made a few otter sets and had some luck with a couple very big male otters.




The days ticked by, fishing got slower, and cat activity remained slow. I had one fisher refusal. Finally on Friday and Saturday I saw a few new sets of cat tracks, but nothing within about 50 yards of any of my sets. I spent my time scheming about how to find time to try again next year. Sunday came and it was time to pull traps. About 2 hours in my body was on autopilot, doing the work while my brain enjoyed the quiet woods. The thought of actually catching anything was pretty much gone. I walked up to a set and noticed my trap was missing. I kicked around looking for a bird or squirrel but couldn’t find trap nor cable. I stood looking around, confused. At one point I turned around, and this is what I saw.



I was in total shock. The first thing I did was call my wife with shaking hands. I talked to the kids and they were super excited. After I hung up I snapped a few more pictures. The smile never left my face picking up the rest of my traps and driving home.

I’d never planned on getting anything mounted if I got one, but this beautiful 30 pound tom changed my mind. He definitely deserves a home in the shop.

Switching gears

Checked my two bait stations and found little activity even though the LO sent me a picture of a tom in their yard the other night. Cold weather might change that I hope. Put out 8 weasel boxes to give me something to check. Meanwhile started putting up my Kansas fur. Fur buyer comes to town tomorrow and I have an elder trapper who wants to take in some durs but recent health scares prevents him from driving. So tomorrow morning I'm picking him up and we're making a trip to town. I'm sure as long as he has a driver I'll end up taking him grocery shopping and any other errands he needs to do. Eh, he's worth it.

Switching gears