Spring Gopher/Woodchuck Trapping/Hunting.

[trappingaddiction]

I set out 8 gopher traps today just for the fun of it, plus, many of the gophers arent even out yet (or making dirt mounds). The groundhogs are being hit on the roads, hoping to get a couple of them for trapping bait this fall. Anyone else trap/hunt them, and anyone have any pictures from previous years?

[Grayfox]

Don't trap woodchucks but I help my youngest trap gophers. He's got 25 this year so far. I'll take some pics the next time he goes out but here's a few from last year.

[trappingaddiction]

Very nice! How many traps does he set out? How do you trap the little ground squirrels? Is there a bounty in your area?

[Grayfox]

$3 for pocket gophers and $1 for ground squirrels. The ground squirrels we catch are caught in the same gopher mounds. I think they move in on the empty runs. Last year we were running 55 traps and we picked up another 20 near the end of the year. We had a great 80 that hadn't been trapped in quite a while but the farmer is having his daughter trap it this year but let us trap another 100 acres down the road. We drove it today but haven't seen any fresh mounds out there. A lot of old ones though.

[Double D]

Man, times have changed in 30 years. If we had gotten 3 dollars we would have thought we had the world by the tail. My dad was on the township board and we thought it was great when they went from 50 to 75 cents. Still paid for our bikes and traps, though.

DD

[icehousebob]

Back in the late 50's, early 60's, there was no bounty on them. I got 25 cents for trapping them out of the neighbor's fields and nothing for trapping them from the fields of the relatives that I lived with. Striped gophers and flickertails were five or ten cents apiece. I made almost enough to pay for my plinking ammo.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

got a 4 day weekend coming up and 4 quarters of alfalfa i will be trapping in the next few days. with good weather, we should be able to clear 100-150 pocket gophers and how many ever 13 stripers we can shoot while checking the lines. township is paying $2.75 for pocket gophers, $.25 for stripers. usually do this every spring and the money we garner goes into the "deer camp" fund for meat processing equipment, beer, etc. when i was in high school i would trap pocket gophers pretty hard for 2-3 weeks in the spring, and would usually make anywhere from $800 to $1400 a spring between the township bounty and the farmers or hunting club owner paying me ontop of that.