Hard winter on the trap line

Last week, I wrote to you about my experiences while setting traps for and catching my first otter.

This week I am writing about my attempt to catch a fisher while walking a four-mile piece of The Meadow Valley Wildlife Area.

Monday, Dec. 28

High 17, Low 3

Anyone that has run a winter trap line can tell you that one of the biggest challenges is changing conditions. Today I found that out first hand on what would be one of my most interesting days of what would be a two-week experience.

My first set was near a dam and was quite interesting as I could see where four otter had repeatedly climbed up the dam and slid off the off an ice covered waterfalls. Otter love to play.

The set that I had made near the dam was for fisher and it was simply a 160-body grip trap that was on the outside of a rock enclosure. I had put a piece of muskrat and some scent inside the cubby. An otter had walked right up to the set, smelled and ignored it.

My otter permit was filled and I was happy the otter was too smart for the set.

My next set was about a mile and a half into my hike and was on a dike. All of my sets were along dikes and it was really interesting to travel this way. At any given time I could be looking at deer, wolf, otter, fisher, coyote and bobcat tracks.

Animals like humans will travel the path of least resistance and a frozen dike is an easy hike.

I had been following a fresh set of bobcat tracks for about a half an hour and was praying that the bobcat had not gotten into my next set as that would be quite illegal and a waste of good bobcat.

Luck was on my side as the cat was smarter than the trapper. The bobcat had actually sat in front of my cubby set, looked inside and made the decision that the fine smelling meat inside was not worth losing its neck over.

Last week, I tried to emphasize that trapping is an adventure for me. The otter that I caught will be made into a body mount that I will be as proud of as if it was a 10-point buck.

I am trapping where I have camped for probably four full years of my life. Back in the winters of 1987- 92, I camped in this wilderness area from the middle of September until the middle of February. I had no money, hand- wrote my column and mailed it out each week in Mather.

My golden retrievers, Ben and Star, were my constant companions and on one of those winters, Star gave birth to a litter of pups and thus Pearl, “Ice’s” mother, came into my life.

I would sleep until about 10:00 each day and than go ice fishing on the nearby cranberry marshes. About, 10:00 each night, I would tie on my ice skates and on these same dikes.

I had trails shoveled on them that were just wide enough to skate. After skating I would put on my crosscountry skis, go exploring and usually come back to camp around 3 a.m.

All of these awesome memories traveled through my mind as I ran my trap line. At that era in Meadow Valley’s history, there were no turkey, fisher or wolf but whitetail deer were plentiful.

My next set was another miss, three fisher had come within 20 feet of it as they cruised down the dike. I believe a strong east wind had kept them from smelling the scent that was to the west of them.

About a mile later, I came to the reason that I started writing this week’s column about and that is changing conditions and how they can affect trappers.

All three of the fisher were headed in the same direction that I was walking.

Earlier in the week, lots of rain had fallen in this area and actually caused a slight rise in the water levels. Now it was very cold and everything was freezing solid.

I had a cubby set that was above the water on the side of the dike I was traveling.

The tracks in the snow told the entire story. One of the fishers had puts its head right into the cubby to see what smelled so good. Lucky for the fisher, the water in the dike had risen 2 inches and froze the bottom of the trap solid, which made it useless and a lifesaver for the fisher.

I did not care. My cash flow says no fisher mount this year and all my goals for this two-week experience had been met.

Thanks for reading!

Sunset