This Yankee just started a new line lol woodchucks
Here are the 4 sets I made yesterday
And the 4 catches

I even skinned out the one that was still warm

They have a thick hide and are great for kids to learn on with a two handled flesher

I used to sell quite a few to fly tying folk. Don't know any now.
They use the tails mostly.

We also eat woodchuck. Usually in the late spring during strawberry season. Gun shot so they haven't played out too long. They tend to green belly rather fast.

Just thought you'd enjoy a Yankee trappin' thread.

Yessir thanks for sharing…. Looks like you got it figured out 100% catch rate

… we don’t have those things here

… what do they taste like and how do you prepare them?

Growing up my Uncle had a hog farm. Once a year he'd have a blow out party and woodchuck shoot.
Every farmer hates the things for the holes they make. Drop a tractor front tire in a hole and break a spindle.
Wed probably get a hundred or more. Prizes were handed out for weight and most. A couple kegs later us boys would clean up the back legs on them and get ready for the BBQ.
I wish we had Sweet Baby Rays sauce back then. Just basic BBQ and cold beer. The seventies were great times lol
To me they taste like a cross between beaver and pork.

Every animal I know uses there old burrows for dens.

Make great tough leather. I knew a guy who made moccasins out of them.

Can’t beat fried groundhog. Get them when they’re small, really tender.

Two more whistle pigs today

… good deal … stay on em

What size Conibear is that? 160?

Yep #160 for woodchucks works best for their den hole size here.

Thanks turtledale. Have one in my garden. i normally shoot one or two a year but found fresh dug out hole and put foot holds down in front, feel like there is no way he could miss them (2 per hole) but haven't seen hide nor hair of him. I may set a conibear to try like you did.

There is a drought here. would that cause them to move dens/holes do you know?

Th young are moving about and starting new holes. Also here they'll have more than one burrow set up with 2 to 3 entrances. Some set up on different food sources and also to escape predators.

If I threw out every kind of carcass I caught at the same time in a pile, the woodchucks would all go first.
Most don't last one night here. They're stinky critters that fox, yotes etc.... can smell for a long ways away.

Forgot the phone today. Got three more.
Time to move the traps around tomorrow. I found 3 more hole and two have been used recently. Maybe by ones I already got; maybe not.

Only got one today. Moved three sets

Ended up catching 11 woodchucks
Now I have his farms to trap on this season.
Around here helping a farmer out is the best way to get permission.
He will undoubtedly hook me up with someone else sometime in the future.

He also decided it was time for refreshments this afternoon.....I like his choice