2007 trapline plans

[fishermann222]

Well the rivers and lakes are slowly freezing up and we have some good snow. I have been making snares for lynx, wolverine, fox, and wolves, been dyeing and waxing fox and lynx traps. Put chain on my wolf and wolverine traps and got them tuned and ready to go. Been working many hours to get things in order for this years trapline adventures. As promised here is a post to show what my plans are, my hopes, and my goals.

I will be running a small fox line near Bethel this year, I hope to get 30 or 40 fox right around bethel and the nearby fishcamps(photos to come as I am able to get to the fishcamps). I am also going to run a small lynx line real close to bethel as well, hope to nab 2 or 3 lynx near town.

For my real adventure this year I am going to be heading north to the Yukon River. I am pretty familiar iwth the area as it is where we go to cut wood for burning in our steam house stoves and wood stoves in the house. There is LOTS of game up at the Yukon Tree line(treeline as i will refer to it from now on). Recently one of the two packs of wolves in the area we will be trapping has gotten themselves into some trouble. THey went into the village of Marshal (not far from my trapping grounds) and killed a bunch of sled dogs. THe villagers did manage to kill one of the wolves as they were retreating and it was found to have rabies. So We will be targeting this pack as well as one other wolf pack in the area. These are wolves that have not been trapped in years and the pack size rangers from 20-30 animals per pack.

THere is a photo showing bethel and my line up to the treeline is drawn in. It is a 70 mile trip one way, but there are good trails most of the way. It will be about a 3.5-4 hour trip up and back every weekend depending on the weather, there are no trees the whole way up or back so it leads to some pretty white out conditions when it starts to snow, gotta love the GPS, and the partners GPS, and the backup GPS can never have too many when traveling up here.

THis is a pic of the line we will be running. there is a cabin (4 walls and a roof with a woodstove) where the line starts and ends and it will be where we are basing our operations out of, it is a native friend of mines cabin.

On the line we hope to snag a wolverine or two, 50 marten, 50 fox, 5 lynx, and a wolf or two.

Wish us luck, this is going to be quit an adventure and a costly one if we don't catch the fur we hope we do.

Ask any questions you wish.

[umichjesse]

I look forward to the reports! I shoot yotes and fox in Minnesota and North Dakota and always wished I could get into trapping. However, I just don't have time to check them every day. You really need to know the animals when trapping them, even more so than when hunting I imagine.

[TommyJ33]

Any results yet Fisherman222?

[fishermann222]

Plans had to be changed due to weather this year. We froze up early but then thawed for 3 weeks. the first day it would have been safe to make it all the way up to the yukon was two days before xmas.

I am not going to be setting up that way this year becasue I have to go to anchorage the weekend of the 6th so i could not go up that weekened, the next weekend I have to spend the two days marking trail for the K300 dog race. Then the weekend after that is the K300 dog race we have to check trail the day before it starts, half of it anyway 150 miles to make sure everything is still good. Then there is only one more weekend to really trap. before the female marten really get on the move.

I dont believe it is ethical to let a line sit for 4 weeks without a check. We dont' have check laws here but a month is not ok, every two weeks at a minimum is my rule of thumb on a kill line.

I have a fox line in fairly close to Bethel, but i got the area that is left over becaues there are 10 other fox trappers in bethel.

I am headed upriver tomorrow to make more fox sets and set lynx sign if i find it.

All and all i am pretty bummed with this years trapping season. Oh well, better luck for me next year