Fur Trappers a thing of the pastFollow

Fur Trapping Almost History

When I was a kid, I used to go trapping with my old man. As a dirt poor farmer, he had a half dozen ways to make extra money. He'd pull time working a crane on 3rd shift at a Procter anf Gamble company whenever they had union problems, which was every 3rd year in February, like clockwork. He fished baskets and trotlines in Lake Blackshear, almost year-round. There was a worm business, we kept he local store supplied with fresh fishbait. And even though it was illegal, I'm quite sure that there was some selling of deer meat that occurred, despite the fact I never heard of or saw any moeny change hands. I recall one particular week when I counted; I dressed out 38 deer that were his that week; the yearly limit at the time totalled 5. We had several chest freezers and I rarely tasted store-bought meat, but there's no way all of those carcasses wound up on our plates. Plus, he trapped beaver, fox and coyote.

Of the three, beaver are the easiest to locate and know where to set your trap, coyote are by far the most plentiful, and fox are rarest and most difficult to trap. Twenty-some odd years ago when this was happening, there were fewer fox, far more beaver, and fewer coyotes in the area. Even then, he eked a little profit out of the process by only trapping as a service to landowners in need of control of the coyotes or beaver. Fox were just a challenge and the pelts actually paid well enough that they were worthwhile if you happened to locate one in an area already being worked that you may as well try.

With our economic and land development over the past twenty years, I'm frnakly startled that trapping is still a profession. I note that the fellows still in the business are doing so as a pest service, but that has to be some lean pickings.

All in all, trapping dumb animals isn't that hard. Scent is your main enemy. Trapping coyotes is laughable; they breed so fast. Not only that, they interbreed with dogs all the time, so you get packs of mixed breed wild dogs in the bargain. Best cure is to poison the lot of em. If you get aunt Sally's beagle as part of the package, maybe aunt Sally should consider keeping her beagle on her own damn property the next time she buys one. Amazing how if said beagle wanders into my garage and laps up some antifreeze while I'm working on my car, it's a tragedy. When the beagle runs wild wreaking havok on my farm or wood land and is poisoned, but not targeted for poisoning, I'm not a responsible landowner. ***** aunt Sally; I forsee a lot of tragically missing dogs in her lifetime.

I lost my enthusiasm for trapping the first time I found a glove of fur, skin and meat left in a trap; the fox trapped had managed to gnaw the right spots and pull a mangled paw out of the trap. She took some meat and all the bones with her. Died somewhere, I'm sure but we never found her.

Nutria. The cops down in New Orleans shoot em on sight. Originally imported to eat the vegetation and keep the canals clean, not working out so well. They do eat the vegetation, but their dens cause more problems than they are worth. The Wildlife and Game people brought a few to Lake Blackshear about the time I was born; went over like a fart in church. The second day they were loose, one was caught sucking eggs in a henhouse. Since then, they've been remorsely targeted by both officials and private individuals, yet are still slowly spreading. I've seen one in the wild, thought it was a big beaver until I noticed no tail. When I related the story, the old man explained the history of em to me.

Nutria meat is good, had some in Louisiana one time. Mechanic at the warehosue brought in some hogshead cheese made from nutria, thinking he was going to watch me put it down when he told me what it was made of. Heh, good thing he had brought somethng more than that for lunch.

This rambling post with no point to it at all has been brought to you by the little **** from work that called and woke me up an hour ago for something a kindergartner could answer. Amen, hallelujah, see you in church on Sunday. Peace out, much love to my brothers. Keep up the hard work. Pimpin ain't easy, ***** better have my money. I can see right now Wayne Brady is gonna have to choke a ho. kkkthnxbbl111.

Somebody stole mine.

If you have any snare, maybe I could borrow one of yours?

Not true. I'm out trapping beaver every weekend.

Twiztid

Beavers are wiley things. You have to poke and prod them to let them know who's boss.

Yes indeedy. They gnaw on logs.

Hey, the Alabama Black Snake is very selective about its' prey. And hittin' the strange isn't on the menu, knowwhatI'msayin'?

Totem

Dam beavers get wet.

No, in my pants.