My youngest daughter is who got me back into it Swamp. An old trapper owned a camp near mine. One day while my youngest and I were up for the youth deer hunt I took her over there. His fur shed was filling up and she was fascinated by the furs. She was 12 at the time and told me she wanted to start trapping.

When your child tells you something like that, you gear up and do what it takes to get back into the game as quickly as possible. We had a great run.

When she got into her late teens, she discovered boys and all of a sudden, dad was not as important as he used to be. I do miss those days though.

I started letting my granddaughter tag along when she was about five years old and she’s still going strong 10 years later.

Three more this morning.




We had a bit of snow this morning and the roads were starting to get slick by the time we got the run done. She of course wanted to skin all three of them but I told her I wanted to get her back home before the roads got too ugly. So I fed her breakfast and dropped her off at her house.

They had a virtual day at school today so she probably would have had time to skin them. Virtual classes don’t start until 8:30.

Found a decent amount of liquid gold this morning in the fur shed.



That makes 12 reds since we set the line out a week ago.

Good thread Lug, enjoy watching your adventure with your granddaughter.

This is great!!!

Really piling up the red fox.Congrats

$$ can't buy what your creating with your granddaughter, especially in the future when the memories will sustain her through the years.

Started fox trapping fox with my grandfather in 1974, and set my own line in 1976...Believe me, every single season the memories come flooding back, even though we lost him in 1978.

Still use his sets that I've never seen in any trapping book or video, and many other details that have made a big difference...Caught 4 reds one morning back then when reds were worth $50 here locally before school one morning, and remember telling my Ag teacher about it....He was in shock that more $$ had been made by a 15 yr old before school that morning, than he would make all week!

Lugnut, great pictures and amazing story. Congrats to you for being the grampa every child needs

Great pics, thanks for sharing

Just Amazing

This is great stuff! Are those old Northwoods 1.75 SJ's you are running?

Yes, I've been buying them for decades. The used ones get new springs and the chain modified. They're a great fox trap.

thanks for taking us along on your line with your granddaughter, please keep posting,

We caught another two on this morning‘s run. We pulled up on the first one and it was stretched out prone. We pulled the truck to within 10 feet of it and it didn’t move. We sat there watching it for about 30 seconds and it didn’t move. I didn’t see any damage on it, but I was asking my granddaughter what she thought killed it.

We got out and I was heading to the back of the truck to get the trapping gear and she said, “it’s moving.”

The darn thing was sound asleep, I mean really sound asleep and finally woke up, I guess when it heard us talking.

I forgot to take a picture.

Another good breakfast and off to school for her and off to work for me.

A cottage cheese omelette and slice of scrapple for me and just scrapple for her.

Nice work Lugnut! Great story and pics....tell me with all those reds do you still have any grays left?

We haven't had grays around here since the mid-eighties. Back in the 70's you could catch them in equal amounts, maybe the grays had a slightly bigger population. I'd catch the grays in heavy cover and the reds out in the fields.

I always heard it was parvovirus that wiped the grays out in this area. Whatever caused it, the gray population crashed and never recovered. The reds came back big-time.

We have been seeing signs of coyote for about fifteen years but their population seems to have stabilized and it doesn't seem to be affecting the red population much. Coyotes have hurt the red population some but nothing drastic.

Great read!!!

No catches today for the first time since we set the line out ten days ago. I told the granddaughter we must have caught them all.

We did have a bit of excitement on this morning's dark check. We came around a turn on a back road and I had to hit the brakes hard enough to make the tires squeal to avoid hitting a large tree down across both lanes.

It's been very windy hear, was howling last night, makes the 14 degree temps feel even colder.

I had to back up about a half-mile before I could turn around and detour to finish checking the line.

I called it in to 911. The local dispatcher said she would notify the township guys.

LugnutI have to think you are having a great time with you trapping partn and the arrangement she apparently was requesting concerning doing the fur put up

We are having fun.

I started a bathroom remodel I had to be at so I'm currently having my youngest daughter, who was my original trapping partner, do the skinning. he's happy to do it, she's been away from it about twelve years but did a good job on the two from yesterday.

I told her to take her time since she was away from it for so long. She told me, "skinning foxes is not a perishable skill." I'm pretty sure it is! LOL I told her I better not see and big eye holes.

She did skin several black squirrels a couple of weeks ago she wants to tan and did a good job on them.

This thread is the most fun I have had while not trapping for a time I miss it more with every passing day But IT comes close to being real again when I am looking at your write up and even the pictures Man that breakfast made me wish I had been there to eat and than ride along IT HAS BEEN FUN WEEK