Trapping in Now

[Penny_Plinker]

I tried that pre-baiting suggested by another poster. Something was coming in every night and getting the fish, chicken, meat scraps, whatever put in the hole and it left some prints that looked like cat tracks but i'm hoping it is a fox instead.

I hope to catch whatever is getting the ducks. Started out in the spring with 22 ducks and now down to 9. It must be either foxes or coyotes although there's not a huge amount of sign.

Anyway season opened today and i was able to make three fox sets and put out two live traps for coon. I saw a trail where muskrats are coming almost 20 yards up on shore the path is in a straight line. Didn't have the right traps along or the time, so i'll make a muskrat set tomorrow. I"m going to rig it up drowner even though the ones i caught last year were not drowners and i NEVER lost a muskrat. The only reason i want to make the drowner is to make sure no fox beats me to the muskrat.

Anyone else start trapping yet?

Penny

[Star1pup]

I dopn't know where you are in WV Penny, but there is a guy in New Manchester who really knows his trapping. He'll be at our Deer Expo at the Leetonia Sportsman's Club here in Ohio. I spent some time talking with him recently and I learned more in a half hour than a year of trapping. He has the good old boy name of Smokey.

[Penny_Plinker]

I tried that pre-baiting suggested by another poster. *Something was coming in every night and getting the fish, chicken, meat scraps, whatever put in the hole and it left some prints that looked like cat tracks but i'm hoping it is a fox instead.



Well, i guess if'n it looks like s#!t, smells like s#!t, it probably is s#!t. Wasn't a fox :-[

[Penny_Plinker]

Thanks Starpup. Well i'm not familiar with New Machester. I'm near the Ohio border, not to far from Ravenswood which is halfway between parkersburg and charleston.

Penny

[Uncle_Alvah]

must be either foxes or coyotes although there's not a huge amount of sign.
I'm betting fox.
Fox and coyote don't get along well together. Do you see fox in the area regularly?

[Penny_Plinker]

I never see foxes or coyotes or anything. They must only come out at night or stay in the thick brush.

[JohnW]

Yip, you don't see fox very often, at least not red fox. They're pretty crafty. You will find there tracks in the snow, along ditches and out in the fields. Their foot print looks a lot like a cat track, and their behavior is recognizable. They trot along, covering a lot of territory, and they sort of zig-zag as they go, 5 degrees this way, then 5 degrees that way, every 30 feet or so, like they're looking over their shoulder. Then too, they might make an abrupt turn. They'll be headed north for 400 yards, then suddenly turn west, or something like that.

[Uncle_Alvah]

and they sort of zig-zag as they go,

Indeed. Lots of times you can see where they detoured to check out a little hummock of grass for a mouse, or most any feature that sticks out of the landscape.
Coyotes are as often heard as seen, or more often perhaps. Particulary in late winter, but they will sound off year round. No uncommon for them to howl at a noon whistle in towns that still have them!

[traper]

im haveing trouble getting foxes to come around any ideas?

[traper]

i started so far i got a coon and 2 foxes