When do you start fur trapping in your areas of operation.
Here in the frontier I will start in the next few days setting the North line primarily for beaver,and probably this year for mink same time.After several checks on those lines,I will start setting the lines closer to home
I will start to set for marten on or about Nov 1 and get some jackpots ready to open up for cats shortly thereafter.
How long I go on the land fur will depend on depth of the snow and the age class (abundance or lack of juveniles) of the harvest.
Had to shut down most of the line mid dec last winter due to the heavy snow even though there was an abundance of fur on the land.
Every year is an adventure.
Good luck on the lines this season.

For good (better) fur here, November 1st for me. I'll start this weekend for coon in cornfields where the farmers want them gone though.

We can start trapping beaver and rats in our area October 15. I normally don't unless I want a few rats for fresh bait. Usually I don't trap rats or beaver until after cat season closes in mid February.

I normally start with coyotes around October 20th and run my upper line until a day or two before Thanksgiving so I can spend the holiday with my mom. Then after the break I set up my lower line for coyotes and run until the first week or two of January. Cat opens around December 10 and I throw in a few cat sets where I can while I'm coyote trapping. In early January after I'm done with coyotes, I run my cat and wolf line until cat season closes in mid February. Then onto rats and beaver until the end of March.

As I mentioned in my other post I'm sitting this one out this year. Etta is too fragile now to go with me and cannot be left alone.

It is up to Mother. When the rivers freeze.

December..January..February

Nov. 1 usually.

Early fox,coyote,and now coon season here starts October 18th.I will start trapping the 22nd, the day after my last day for the season at Baxter state park.

Freezeup is a big factor here.Besides restricting my travel to the interior of the ground,lots of water restricts animal (cats and marten) movement compared to after the freeze when they can roam/disperse.
We used to have good hard ice in early november for a couple weeks before the snow-made for great ice conditions and easy beaver trapping,could identify runs thru the clear ice.
Those conditions no longer exist here. Today it is freeze,thaw snow slush refreeze,repeat.Makes water crossings and lake travel treacherous.

I now live in a rain forest, Half that forest is horizontal thanks to the bark beetle. Most of my sets have tipped over. Glad I never used marten boxes.

Trail mtc is one of the things that is way harder to do nowadays compared to 30 years ago.
Good thing there are a couple young (50ish)trappers willing to help out an old guy once in a while in return for some skinning or shared knowledge.

I abandoned some of mine and rerouted. They looked like logjams. This kind of sucks at my age.

In Wisconsin it is going to have to cool down first. Still mid 70's here. Too Hot.

Look at the bright side Dirt-good dry firewood to cut for a couple years and some good marten refugia.

Beaver season opens Nov 15th here but I like to wait until mid-December when they have better fur. Trap beaver (and otter) right until season ends March 15th. The last 4-6 weeks of the season I get a lot of dmg beaver so HURRAH for the felt market! We''re open water all year long.

Same deal with cats, the season opens Dec 1st but if I want them to make HVY Western I need to wait until mid -January before I start. Then I've got a month and a half to make hay.

Starting to cool off a bit here now.
Around the freezing mark overnight (0c) and 10c or so during the day last few days.
Our water fur season goes from Oct 5 to May 15 with open water til around last week of Nov most years and about 2-3 weeks of open water in may most years.
Land fur here runs from Oct 25 to end of feb.

A friend showed tanned cage fox pelts.
True prime was one week in November.
A week prior and former showed a difference.
He also told the "prime" story told to him by his seller.
Fun learning and definite eye opening.

I don't care if others start too early or go too late.
When you try to shorten the season is when I copped a tude lol.

Plenty times I saw buyers buy coon leather and sell coon fur.
That's why I liked Nafa and Fha. Real fur grades.

Right around the 1st of Nov. give or take a couple of days. Raccoon might be holed up by then but some are not. Some animals a bit longer but in depends on how early winter shows up and how bad.

Mid December I may get serious

Coons after November 5th and Coyotes not until December 1st as thats when they are fully prime and cat seasons are typically open depending on your location here in the Midwest.