Thanks for the info Larry. I think I used mostly birch and mulberry wood like the one in the picture. They just seem to grow in right shape and they were in handy locations.

Fence staples still have a place in my arsenal of trap anchoring

I used a few many years ago. I bet with a metal detector at the right trees you could still find a few I wasn't able to pull without breaking the chain. lol

Man that stake brought back a lot of memories. My grandfather showed me how to make stakes just like that. Staking a 1 1/2 long spring in dry mink trails around the slough. They worked perfect.

Me on muskrat mink

Yep, it was all in prepping for trapping season. Boil traps, check them for tags and adjust em. Build snares.... and go cut stakes. The good ol days.

yes indeed, and you didn't need a pickup full of stuff

There are very few spots on my line where that would work. Either too rocky or too sandy. Not to mention I’d have to cut down every tree within ten miles of my house to get enough of them lol

Traps, hammer, trowel, bait and of course the stakes we cut, maybe splurge on a bottle of fish oil, lol.

Caught my first coyote in a fox tap with woodn stake. Course he pulled it out but got tangled up in tree roots. Just north of of otter ck. marsh in Tama Ia.

Those are the brand I used for years first stating out.

I just cut a half dozen of those stakes from our willow sapling forest. Planning on using them this season for staking muskrat/coon traps in the river

Dad cut firewood down to that size because he always liked having some small wood for a hot fire on occasion. I got all my trap stakes from the firewood pile.

I held lots of fox and coyotes with those stakes. It was what we did back then. I don’t recall anyone using rebar or metal stakes though they were available through trap supply outfits.

My biggest coyote ever, 52 pounds, was with a Blake and Lamb #3 double under spring and a maple stake just like that. Northern NY had some big coyotes.

Started trapping rats around 76, or so. Cut wild cherry branches just like original picture. Wild cherry has lots of branches with forks like that in them. Cut branches early so they would dry and harden. Don't waste time cutting stakes when you should be setting traps and moving. Dip heads of branches in your dye bucket so they look aged and don't stand out for trap theives.

Late 70's was excellent time to learn how to trap. Everybody was trapping, tons of competition. You were learning a lot, whether you realized it or not.

My coon catches in those years were nothing to brag about. What I didn't understand until later was how much the heavy competition from other trappers and coon hunters, was affecting my numbers. To me the competition level has never been that high since those late 70's.

Me too. I cut a lot of drags on site too for wolf sets

I still occasionally use wood stakes water trapping. It gives my kids something trapping related to do in the summer. We mostly cut popple, when the bark slips off easily. My eight year old runs the hatchet and my six year old runs the hand saw. They can make me a couple dozen stakes in pretty short order.