kermit stearns

did he ever write a mink method book?

I do not know for sure the answer to the question .Other from PA likely do .I can tell you he could have written several books on Mink Trapping based on his knowledge of catching them

He was my main instructor at the FTA college back many years ago. Very good instructor.

According to Nittany Lion (quote)

Here is my list. It should be noted that I did extensive research and Kermit Stearns never wrote a mink method book. He did write mink trapping articles for magazines.

I also think he wrote the question and answer page in the Fur Fish Game magazine for a time . I remember him doing demos at several PA Trappers Convention

I do not believe he wrote the question and answer page for FFG but he wrote that same type of column for the Trapper Magazine for many years.
A friend of mine went to the Fur Takers Collage back in the day, sometime in the 70s or early 80s. He had Mr. Streans for a instructor. He said he was an awesome teacher.
He came away with memories to last a life time. He attended with great guys according to him. A couple went in the supply/DVD/book end of the game.
He had some decent lure formulas out of Kermit's class.

I asked Kermit once why he did not write some books. He basically told me he could not believe the cost of the books on he market.
I have been on the trail of one of his books and I am not sure that I will ever see one. One friend out Ohio way is pretty darn sue he did write some. Still looking.

Mac I stand corrected .I remember him doing a question and answer column. I connected him to the wrong magazine. Fur Fish Game put out a book Favorite Sets of Top Trappers which was a compilation from Furtakers of America book that included a chapter by Kermit Stearns Thanks Mac for helping me remember what magazine his column was in .Maybe a little more coffee will clear my cobwebs this morning

Mr. Stearns published a 2 sided page on mink trapping. It was called "A Mink Line".
I have the original and I have run off some copy's on request by some of you on T man.

He held a mink trapping seminar at one of the NTA conventions I think It was at Foun Du Lac WIs don't remember the year.
This Is where I got the one page hand out.

i was gonna say he had to of but glad i kept my mouth shut as i wasn't sure.

he had the knowledge to,thats for sure.

I was in Kermit's group at the '85 FTA trappers college, along with Tom Miranda....The thing that will always stick with me is how soft spoken, completely capable,
and how humble of a man Kermit was...Definitely one of the greats!

If anyone wants a copy of that hand out just send me a self addressed stamped envelope and I'll send you one.

We may have been there at the same time, I think it was in 85 for me. Tom Miranda was an instructor also when I was there. He showed up in his airplane

Very well could have been in the same class, in '85 the FTA trappers college was held at "Land Between the Lakes" just across the TN line, at the Brandon Springs youth camp.
I'm thinking soon after the '85 class it was moved to southern Indiana, closer to Charlie Park's place maybe?

The instructors in '85 were - Kermit Stearns, Major Boddicker, Tom Miranda, Red Edgemon, Dan DeZarn, Charles Park, and I think maybe Jerry Joe Barnett also.
I'll check my notes after work to see who I might have missed.

Kermit had a very cool slide show on mink trapping that I got the chance to watch.

used to watch him drive by my house every morning checking his line." i'd tell him he's wasting his time, I already got them mink behind my house before they get to your sets". he'd laugh and drive on! he showed me a beaver set on Frenchcreek that worked pretty good, gotta use a double longspring trap for it.

Met him at the OSTA convention, I enjoyed his presentation, remember him saying over and over “gotta pin that bait son”

Nope we weren't there at the same time. I had a buddy that went when it was at LBL, but when I went it was at LaGrange IN. up in the northern part of the state. It must have been in 86 or 87 when I went. I followed Jerry Joe up when I went we live pretty close to each other and are members in the same local FTA. I still recommend to anyone that can go to the FTA college to do so.

Pin it with a wad of grass. I remember him saying the same thing.

[quote=ky_coyote_hunter]I was in Kermit's group at the '85 FTA trappers college, along with Tom Miranda....The thing that will always stick with me is how soft spoken, completely capable,
and how humble of a man Kermit was...Definitely one of the greats![/quote)mr kermit was a good friend. Miss him. We camped together in about 98 at a convention. He tried to talk me into going to Alaska,he loved it.

and we also had james lee there,a very capable guy

1986 Beav

I attended his classroom presentation and took notes from the man. Still got 'em somewhere. I'd like a copy of the Mink Line if you could.

I met Kermit while attending as a student at the FTA college in 1983. I can still see him standing in water knee deep in hip boots while instructing, showing all of us as attendees how to fence mink with small sticks in his Victor 1.5. He was a master at fencing all sorts of predators, not just mink.

Kermit also was an excellent fox trapper also and used a rig with a Victor 1.5 wired to a cherry wood stake that was hand carved with a pointed end. The whole rig was dyed in walnut hulls or similar to give it a dark appearance.

What struck me in the day (late 1970's- early 1980's) was that Kermit Stearns from PA , George Stewart from CO, Larry Johnston from AL and Odon Corr from SD, etc.... all the FTA instructors were passionate about teaching in an era when lips were tight. I mean tight, tight. Kermit especially loved to talk trapping. I personally learned MUCH from this humble man from PA.

Major Boddicker invited me back to assistant instruct with Odon Corr (SD) the following year and as I was checking into the bunkhouse that year, Kermit Stearns walked up to me and said it was good to see me again and proceeded to grab my duffle bag and head towards where the instructors bunked. I remember full well how at my tender age of 27 I was not going to let who I considered to be a true legend of trapping carry my bag (Kermit was decades my senior) BUT that I would certainly tote his if I could! Kermit smiled and off he went with my bag anyway. Very humble sincere man. Wonderful man. I was blessed to learn trapping from him but more importantly "how" to teach trapping too.

I've talked and still talk passionately about a man I barely knew but who I think was a pioneer along with Boddicker in trapper training history, what with FTA college being what it has been all these many decades.

And Kermit was right there at the front end helping to shape and mold the training that has helped so many at FTA College.

A few years ago now I was at my booth at a PA show and a PA trapper came up to my booth and handed me a trap. It was a Victor 1.5 with a cherry wood stake wired on as a stake all dyed dark to have it blend in whether it was a mink trap or used elsewhere. The trapper (I don't remember his name but can still see his face) asked me if I knew what the trap was?
I smiled and got a little emotional (as that man was tearing up a bit also)... and I said, "I sure do. I answered, "This is a Kermit Stearns trap."
The trapper at my booth said, "Mark, look at the trap tag." So I grabbed at the tag, flipped it over and read it, "Kermit Stearns (along with his information from PA)".
As I shook my head and remembered that great gentlemen from years before that had passed, I offered the man at my booth payment but he refused saying that he bought it at a PTA auction and that because I often give Kermit credit wherever I go and whoever I talk with, he wanted me to have it. What a wonderful gesture by a fellow trapper!

I can promise you that Kermit's legacy lives on in me as I barely knew him but he made a large impact in my trapping life. Perhaps some of you reading this have had a similar wonderful experience. I cherish the fact that I got to know him and that I was fortunate to learn from him.

Kermit's trap is on my office shelf along with a few others from those I have had the privilege to meet and or learn from during my trapping career.

I published the book Famous Sets of Top Trappers in the late 1990's when I was editor of the Fur Taker magazine. It was a fundraiser for the FTA, I presented the idea to the board at one of the conventions. I agreed to compile and edit the stories at no charge if the FTA would pay the cost to produce the book and they agreed to do 1,000 of them. It made pretty good money for the organization so we printed a second 1,000 copies, and we went on to do another one, Famous Sets of Top Trappers 2.

I am pretty sure he also had a small chapter in the fox book that the guy that went as Smitty wrote. (Smitty wrote a coyote book as well published a book about an interview with Thorpe.)

Smitty is RC Smith: pretty good author, he wrote 3 books, Coyote Trapping, Fox Trapping and the book where he interviewed Johnny Thorpe. I know I have the coyote book and the Thorpe Book and may have the fox book, I think it was called Fox Trappers Encyclopedia. Kermit Sterns had a collum in the early "The Trapper" similar to Willey Carrol's, I have a stack of those next to my chair sand will double check those also, I will check some of the old NTA mags as I believe he made the cover with maybe Pat Sedlack. i will do some digging.

Smitty is RC Smith: pretty good author, he wrote 3 books, Coyote Trapping, Fox Trapping and the book where he interviewed Johnny Thorpe. I know I have the coyote book and the Thorpe Book and may have the fox book, I think it was called Fox Trappers Encyclopedia. Kermit Sterns had a collum in the early "The Trapper" similar to Willey Carrol's, I have a stack of those next to my chair sand will double check those also, I will check some of the old NTA mags as I believe he made the cover with maybe Pat Sedlack. i will do some digging.

Update on fellow Trapper Kermit Stearns.
info from "FIND A GRAVE'

Kermit was an avid outdoorsman and wrote for two outdoors magazines in the 1930s. Since 1977 he wrote a question and answer column for a trapper's magazine.
He operated a black angus cattle farm and taught horseback riding as well as provided pony rides for local fairs and picnics. At one time he co-owned an auto business.
He was a US Navy veteran of WW II, serving in the 89th CB Unit. He served as President of the Cambridge Springs Rod and Gun Club and director of District 1, Pennsylvania Trappers' Association. He was inducted into the Pennsylvania Trappers' Association's Hall of Fame in 1978.
In 1994 he was cited by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for his work with sportsmen. He enjoyed gardening and hiking.
He was survived by his wife Juanita E. Right Stearns whom he married Aug. 7, 1941, 6 children, 17 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8750107/kermit-lord-stearns
Kermit Lord Stearns
BIRTH 7 Feb 1912
Cambridge Springs, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, USA
DEATH 11 May 2004 (aged 92)
Cambridge Springs, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, USA
BURIAL Miller Station Cemetery
Cambridge Springs, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, USA
MEMORIAL ID 8750107 · View Source


REST IN PEACE

Update on fellow Trapper Kermit Stearns.
info from "FIND A GRAVE'

Kermit was an avid outdoorsman and wrote for two outdoors magazines in the 1930s. Since 1977 he wrote a question and answer column for a trapper's magazine.
He operated a black angus cattle farm and taught horseback riding as well as provided pony rides for local fairs and picnics. At one time he co-owned an auto business.
He was a US Navy veteran of WW II, serving in the 89th CB Unit. He served as President of the Cambridge Springs Rod and Gun Club and director of District 1, Pennsylvania Trappers' Association. He was inducted into the Pennsylvania Trappers' Association's Hall of Fame in 1978.
In 1994 he was cited by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for his work with sportsmen. He enjoyed gardening and hiking.
He was survived by his wife Juanita E. Right Stearns whom he married Aug. 7, 1941, 6 children, 17 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8750107/kermit-lord-stearns
Kermit Lord Stearns
BIRTH 7 Feb 1912
Cambridge Springs, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, USA
DEATH 11 May 2004 (aged 92)
Cambridge Springs, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, USA
BURIAL Miller Station Cemetery
Cambridge Springs, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, USA
MEMORIAL ID 8750107 · View Source


REST IN PEACE

More on Kermit

Retiring in 2002 from the trapping industry, he was an outdoorsman and
wrote for two outdoor magazines in the 1930s. Since 1977, he wrote a
question-and-answer column for Trappers magazine.


https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/347062/Question_about_a_mink_set_in_a


R.C. Smith's "Smitty's Fox Trapping Encyclopedia" Book

R.C. Smith's "Smitty's Fox Trapping Encyclopedia" Book contains 165 pages of intense fox trapping instruction. This book also features chapters from the following top trappers: Steve Craig, Herman Cupples, Gary Dunlap, Richard Rast, Kermit Stearns, Herb Simon and others.



I suggest you review copies of the trapper starting 1977 and buy RC Smiths book on fox trapping as it has a chapter written by Kermit. In addition TRAPPERMAN archives has a lot written on Kermit and other experts that most have never heard of or forgot about.

Enjoy your trapping

Henpecked.

Smitty was interviewed on trapping radio not long ago.

He had a article called " the hidden pocket set " published in the OSTA book Selected sets .

Here is a snap shot of Kermit's Q&A column in "The Trapper' September 1982.

Try again

I think it worked this time.

Hen Yes I remember those columns .In fact I have nearly every copy from 1982 until now of The Trapper and Predator Caller .Many of those issues from the 1980's had articles by some of the most well known trappers of those days .

The 70's and the 80's was like the Golden Years, every big name trapper, lure dealer & up and coming was in print. Bench marks were set in the industry and knowledge both good and bad was shared. Internal politics, feuds and ego's spilled out on pages and at conventions. It was like football, every trapper picked a team (lure dealer). It was a hoot. The good ole days.

Henpecked.

Yes but the great part was that if you wanted to learn ,for the price of membership in my case to the PTA that publication came in my mail box on a regular basis ..Sometimes you needed to sort out what worked for each of us .And sometimes the info changed the way the way traps where made and how trappers went about what they did .I know some of the articles sure made a huge impact on my trapping success .I would agree the Golden Years

Totally agree, it was a great period in trapping history. I collect/sell old trapping paper. I never get tired of reading the ads and article. So much information was put out that it seems like everyone was reinventing the wheel. Thanks for the memories.

I found this last night, Kermit Stearns "Hall of Fame Trapper"

here's another of Mr. Stearns; he was one of my instructors at the FTA Trappers College I always looked forward to talking to him

Holy smokes those magazine covers bring back memories. In the 70's and 80's I devoured that magazine from cover to cover. When it came in the mail my entire world stopped until I had read it all.