For Midwestern gopher trappers

What's your favorite pocket gopher trap?
Does anyone use the gophinator trap?

I'm learning. My best day has only been 30% catch rate. Those gophers are giving me a real education on catching them! But hey, I'm retired. What else should I be doing besides playing in the dirt?

My favorite trap is what is catching the gophers.

I am not being a smart A in this, because my nephews made quite a great deal of spending money in the Minnesota bounty system catching pocket gophers as they ran into the traps. Where I am, my gophers must have a genetic PHD, because they constantly bury traps.
I have tried everything from covering the hole, to death tunnel traps, 1 longsprings, 1 1/2 coils, and more often than not what I get done most is digging dirt. This is not to say I do not catch them, but it is labor intensive.
I was watching a gopher one day and he was blowing dirt out of his hole in bursts of dirt being thrown. I think that is the problem in this location, as my Uncle who lives several miles away is quite proficient in 1 longsprings and license plate on top of the trench.
So for recreation, I like fine tuned body kill traps, when the coyotes are not bending them pulling gophers out. For killing gophers, I much prefer a sorghum pellet poison placed directly into the tunnel by device.

A number of years ago I got my mother's place sowed down to pasture and alfalfa, and a neighbor a mile away had a literal infestation in his alfalfa field. He broke it up, and I watched like a tidal wave of mounds coming at me in trying to stop them. I never did, and they turned everything into an axle breaking gopher mound pile, and then moved on to the east. I have never experienced pocket gophers like these, nor had my nephews as they came, caught a few, and left for Minnesota where the gophers came easy.

My favorite and the ONLY trap I use to catch gophers is Trapline Products (Steve Albano's) Gophinator trap. Search the archives and you'll find all kinds of tips and techniques to improve your catch rate.

Holler if all else fails!

I'm using cinch traps and cinch trap knock offs that came around after the cinch trap patent expired. 16 gophers so far this spring but like Star Flakes said, I'm getting my exercise digging holes, unblocking traps and chalking it up to the gopher side of the ledger.

I've tried the open hole method (no covering), putting a plug of grass over the open hole, and am starting to cover the holes so gophers don't push dirt to the trigger to plug the wind/light source. Being retired, I have the time to experiment. But, I'd like to catch more for the bounty and so far that isn't happening yet.

I see some gophinator in my future. They're less expensive than used cinch traps and won't take such a big hole to dig. I'll keep you posted.

Open holes have worked for about half. Some gophers appear to have charged forward and hit the trigger. Others pushed a pile of dirt ahead of them and got caught despite the the pile

Yesterday I plugged the holes with grass wads. That also seems to work. Gophers aren't pushing dirt and are being caught just back of the head. My holes tend to be big to accommodate the cinch traps. I suspect the gophinator or death clutch traps don't require such a big hole.

For those of you that catch a lot of gophers, do you tend to cover the holes or leave them open?

I use a dab of chunky peanut butter between the tethered Trapline gopher traps. I started out using 2X2X12 stepping stones to cover the trap hole (not bigger than a 3 pound coffee can) until my back started hollering at me. I now use aircraft aluminum covers and stake them down. I rarely leave the trap hole open. I do not want the smell of the PB or hopefully the dead trapped gopher attracting wild or domestic predators.



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Note the distance (>12 - 18") of the trap set from the mound. Stay away from the plug (where he came out throwing up dirt) at the mound. You want to probe away from the lateral tunnel (usually <12 - 18" and sloped upward toward the plug) and find the main travel/foraging tunnels. Most of the time, you'll find tunnels directly across from each other. Ensure you tether your gopher traps!

Understand that this works for me in South Texas sandy soil. Midwestern gopher subspecies habitat/behavior, soil, climate, etc. might dictate different techniques.

Gophinator Traps is the only ones I use. They work great!

Albano traps work very well on moles, voles, chipmunks, shrews and gophers once you get on to the setting technique for each specie.

I just put in an order for 6. Will try them out. Fleet Farm carries Death Clutch for about $6 each but I haven't been impressed with the trigger mechanism. The gophinator trigger looks smoother and once I start making some catches, I'll probably order more.

Death Klutch for me.

We use a combination of Death Klutch, Cincher's and Lanesboro. Each have a place, depending on what area of the tunnel we find. The lanesboro works really well when you intersect a tunnel, it will take them whichever way they come from. We have way fewer plugs with clinchers -vs- death klutch. We average about a 1/3 catch rate. It also seems after a plug they get pretty educated. We trapped 5-6 farms this spring and are currently at just under 400 gophers. We trap strictly part time, make a little cash, secure a few more properties for the fall. What is the going rate for you guys, some townships around here pay a buck bounty, others nothing. Farmers are willing to pay $5.00. We have not been following up with poison before we leave a field, do any of you, if you do what kind?

I did a township search and most townships pay $2.50 bounty per pair of front feet. Striped gophers go for $2.50 per tail. Some townships are higher. So far, I haven't explored a per animal payment from the property owner but will in the future. Right now I'm learning and doing it at places that allow me to trap coon in the fall.

It's been about 10-days since I mailed the money order for a 6-pack of gophinators. Since then I've emailed Steve Albano twice to see if they've been shipped or if he's even gotten the money order. I've heard nothing, making me wonder if he's been washed away in a mudslide, out of business, on vacation or just slow in responding.

I had a problem getting my order as well but when I sent them an email, they got it straightened out quickly.

I had great service with the order I placed with Trapline products/Steve Albano earlier this spring. Combination of online and over the phone order and was here in Iowa in just a few days. Biggest obstacle was me figuring out the time difference in placing phone calls.

It took 3 emails to get a response. They said they got the money order and were shipping yesterday.

ANALYSIS: Steve Albano is a nuisance (gopher) Trapper AND a manufacturer. I suspect this time of the year he does more trapping than product selling. I don't doubt he had a good product. I'll just have to be more patient when ordering during his trapping season because he may not be in the shop very often

The Albano traps are small but they work. I'm learning to bed them solidly. And the gophers are still humbling me but I'm learning!

I use the gophinator and the dk-1

I prefer the gophinator most times but they each have their times. I have a lower percentage of buried traps with the gophinator. The dk-1 works well for ground squirrels as well

I'm a lot further south and am about to look into the gophinator traps but I am a big fan of the cinch traps.