For most of us guys,, it’s absolutely wonderful.. it’s about time we get a great payday when we are practically getting peanuts..
But unfortunately, it also brings out the riff raff.
The quick buck crowd.
They could care less about rules and regulations..
Ethics and with social media being so popular that these guys can turn an incident viral.

Someone setting a trap where they shouldn’t, maybe even illegally..
it doesn’t take much for a fire to spread.

When we had our last mini boom..
I was accused of being a land hog.
I was asked by other guys if I could give up some of my trapping permission so others could have a chance to trap..
Of course I said no. I got called all kinds of names.
Guess whose traps went back into the shed or got sold when prices hit the floor?

I don’t like being a rat,,, but if I see something that’s related to trapping that’s illegal,, I’m absolutely calling my cpo.
Can’t take chances… not too many of those quick money people are even willing to support a trapping organization even.

It doesn't seem to happen much around here.......yet anyways. Some get the steel out, then quit after the first week. Too much work.....lol.
But, it can work out good for me. For the lazy ones who just want to trap but not do anything else, ole Shakey will give them about half of what he thinks he'll get at auction.
I'll tell them exactly what I'm doing with their animals too. "Do it yourself & possibly double your $......or let me roll the dice.

I’ll be surprised if there will be any increase in trapping in my area. Trapping takes some ambition , and the slight increase value of some critters won’t be enough to motivate most. Also, this mini boom most likely will be short lived.

Even with a bump up in prices, it’s still difficult to make much money trapping, at least here in western Pennsylvania. Let’s look at what we have….lots of coon, that might fetch you a $5 bill. Coyotes, yea we have them, but they’re the wire haired easterns that are a tough sell. Beavers? What we have are hounded by trappers, even when they sell for $12. Very few rats here. Fishers, bobcats and otters…..I can legally one of each a season. Hard to make bank with one hide. On the other side of the state, the SE corner does have decent red numbers, they paid well, but there’s nowhere near those number here. I know guys who trap 30 mink a year, but they’re driving 150 miles a day to do it.

Coons and rats were where folks made good money back in the late 70s and early 80s. Those days are gone.

Not a problem in the Deep South. Only a very small handful of trappers down here that have the gear to do the job.

Plus, we don't have any mink or muskrats and otters have not increased much in price. Coon still suck. Foxes are almost existent. Coyotes are worthless unless you like caging and feeding/watering them for a week or more at a time.

Beaver have been very saleable past couple years...just have to skin 'em.

The only "shining light" right now is bobcat and even a good trapper down here will have to run at it hard and steady to put up more than 30 or 40 bcats.

No real competition.

Fur prices rising?Do you realize how much things cost. I mean four dollars plus on gas and running a longline on mink you might if you have a good population make a few bucks if the market stays.. 4 dollar muskrats ? Terrible coon market? Not sure where the idea of good prices comes from. You work your butt off you can make a little cash. Few want to do that and maybe they are the smart ones. Me? I’ve never been accused of being smart.

All very good points....I'll add that WE have lost a good many fur buyers and fur trappers since the last mini boom we experienced. Not worried about the competition so much as the fuel and overall expense to do what we love doing.

I'd have to believe if 'coon were shining again this would be a different conversation, at least here in the midwest.

I bought a new boat motor and trailer package for trapping last year it was 21 grand. I bought allot of new traps and trapping gear this spring so I could trap a little harder this year. So far that has cost me another 5 grand and i'm not done yet. I don't see were prices have came up enough to even cover my gas let alone my equipment cost. I trap for the freedom it gives to my life not the money.

If marten lynx and to a lesser extent beaver prices stay where they are,or near that,trapping will provide an excellent wage after all expenses.

Markets would have to stay up three years in a row for any one seriously to make a lot off the work involved in trapping

I doubt we will see cat prices again like this next season, hope it would stay high but it won't be like it was this last pass over.

Only way to see a steady rise and keep it there or manageable is to have a considerable amount of growth in use of fur, thats not in the cards any longer, once in a while a small jump, but nothing in the average market to have people wanting to use it, sadly would take some sort of dire consequence's in the world to change for it to happen for a long time period

Not happy thoughts I know, however when one watches the fur trades and buying you learn to see things that takers never understand, only buyers do !!

Even with the rise, I doubt I will run into any single trapper anywhere I go, just like this year and the previous ones.

Whos getting a "pay day"? hahaha

Unless you have marten or (good) bobcats, there is no profit in fur and fur alone!

Let's face it, even with this modest rise in some fur, compared to boom times it's not even close to getting even...while it might sound good to us, I doubt it will lure any new people.

A 25 per cent rise in rat prices would get them to about 5.50 a rat. I am almost sure gophers pay better for me. One gopher equals 1.5 small square bales of hay. When hay is cheap, the farmer is doing ok, but when hay is nine bucks a square, I am not rationing the cows intake. G.

Marten prices stay high, it will probably bring out some airplane trappers. I expect trouble this fall.

No martens, cat, otter, wolf wolverine, etc... for me to trap

Call me when coon, possum and eastern yote shine lol

My reds pay decent but over50% have mange

Ill always trap some of everything, im glad my mink will pay more. But high volume mink trapping is not in my immediate area. Beaver pay decent but 15 years of high temps and drought have taken their toll on water trapping here. Muskrat numbers plummeted a long time ago.
When the general market for ALL species is up ill call it a boom. Not just one kind of fur or species that aren't in my region

This area might see a increase in a few trappers but not horrible. All my trapping is mainly done on private land so don't worry to much.

We will see many of the older trappers who have sat out some seasons back. With $4-$5 rats many who like to trap will set some areas up. The rats won't make any of us any real money but they can buy their gas and with coons, still low and lots of additional work and coyotes even worse and reds not too common the rats at a gallon of gas or better will bring out trappers, especially those who are retired,

Bryce

I found when older guys quit trapping they rarely start up again. I mean rats go up a buck .I don’t think that’s much incentive . They aren’t five bucks .

Night calling gained in popularity exponentially around me. Amish spend a lot of money on expensive night shooting gear. I suppose more fox will be shot; both in and out of traps. I know some that will hunt hard Sunday night into Mondays. They will hire a driver and cover some ground. Last nice boom 2011-2013 was fun, I ran hard and made some loot.

Lot of completion here last year, I expect more this fall.

You may want to mention to them that using night shooting equipment is kind of "worldly" ain't it?

I was just a hobby trapper. I can assure you that I never turned a profit, but I had lots of fun and got some exercise. My dog enjoyed it too. I'd hate to try to support a household with my trapping skills. My hat is off to those of you who can.

And I would sell you everything and be happy if you make a great profit. And I would be glad something was being done with them I trap to keep the predators in check and healthy. Its not been worth my time to learn how to get fast at puting up fur with my work schedule, family and farm demands on my time. Used to skin them all but the freezer full of furs never got sold and thrown out . Eventually I stopped taking the time to skin tham at all. .

Fur put up is part of trapping and some day I hope to get good at it and tanning and sewing as well but I dont know when that will ever be.

Same here.
There was an auction I’d like to have been at this weekend in Sprague, just north of the MN border. A trailer load of gear. Would’ve been nice to toss in a big bud on the whole trailer. Some junk, but lots of belisles in the pic.
I’ll be picking up a bunch of stuff off another oldtimer near St Malo (1/2hr north of the MN border).

I remember some of those 80s and 90s market swings when prices got high and there were multiple stakes and wire drowners under every bridge. But seriously that was a LONG time ago and I cannot recall the last time I saw such an uptick in folks trapping. Back then too you could still bring carcass fur to a buyer and were a lot of hunters vs trappers showing up.
Most trappers around here hung it up decades ago and I couldn’t say if they even kept any equipment to “restart” if they did want to fire back up. Equipment is pricey today if starting back up from scratch.
This past winter was first I had taken off from trapping in many decades and it had nothing to do with prices or market. We were in process of moving homes and I absolutely had no time to go check and process catches.
I’ll start back up when I get the new place set up.
Nothing to do with prices for me. My buyer had a market this past year for certain species but had to caught with certain methods and no bullet damage whatsoever which eliminated the thermals and spotlighters or the pickup army coyote hunters. Trapping was only method he wanted to see and only undamaged and finished pelts. I didn’t know many folks that were willing to put up their own fur if just getting back into it for prices only.
That wouldn’t have brought many back out of the woodwork I’m guessing if they didn’t have some traps annd finished equipment and Other resources available.
Just my two cents.
Jim

spot on Gritguy.. Those still involved might produce a bit more fur, but it will take a 2-3 years to draw in a large "new" crowd. And I hope it happens, we need the new blood in the organizations particularly. The good part of a fur boom would be that increase in trappers and hopefully memberships.

A prosperous China would sure help fur prices for a longer run. I'm not sure that Iran war is going to be very helpful in that regard. I keep hoping Peace prevails. Same for Ukraine. We need a healthy Russia and Ukraine back to buying fur.