Nice looking set AT: Why did you leave the safeties on those traps?

Man I hate snow in the boat !

Did you go back and look at your pictures to see if you did leave the safeties on :-))

AC doesn't look like you've had much cold weather either. We've been in the 30's since mid Oct. Three feet of snow and no ice except a few of the small creeks sure make for a rough opening.

Good luck

Welcome AKChuck
Man could make for some dangerous conditions. All that snow and no ice.
I remember driving out on a high mountain lake in Montana one winter. We got off the snowmachine and I took the ice auger to make a hole to fish for cutthroat.
I started spinning the auger and their was no hard ice. Basically 3-4 feet of hard snow. We thread lightly and went fast!

You can still land on floats out here.

Looks like I have a new trapper coming up. She never quit helping during the whole process. Shown here attaching 3/32 slide locks to 5/64 cable for under ice beaver. This would be my 3 year old Delta Bay. But don't be mistaken she is all girl. Yes, that is a purple dress under the snow bibs and shirt!


I couldn't wait and had to move into my shop for some work that has to get done. Sheetrock mud can wait!

How much do you figure it would cost to put up a shed in Alaska, depending on location, that was 8 ft wide x 12 ft long x 10 feet tall? Would that make for a decent fur shed or too small?

F.T. : What a cutie - we will be expecting some trap line journals from her in the future also.
C.B. : Same price as your H.D. if you are in a location in Alaska that has one - or you have labor and or freight to ship the materials to a remote location. Although bigger can sometimes be better, there are lots of fur sheds like that.

CB that would cost me right about $5000 here

Thanks.

There is 3 of those sheds going up for auction and they got lights installed plus electric outlets.

Haha! Now that is what its supposed to be like! Someone has discovered the beauty of PWS during trapping season... Nice pics. I like. Give me about 6 weeks and I'll be home for a month to fight the snow myself. Between that and 2 weeks in March I'm still figuring to be in on the deaths of a few otter this year.

I wanna see some catch pics from this year!


We thought about tarping the boat... Never really got around to it/decided it wasn't worth the effort... Just spent 10 minutes clearing the back deck when you get moving in the morning. The harbor deal is a serious issue. You think it is bad now, wait till their are no deer hunters. Then they don't put any effort into keeping it functioning. Had some mighty close calls on that tunnel trying to get the boat out of the harbor.

Also, that west wind is pretty common. You just have to plan for a long nasty trip beating your way up passage canal on the way back most trips.

P.S. Nailing pots to trees is much faster than wiring imo...

On the 300's anyway I tried nailing but found the wire to be an integral part of holding the trap firmly when used as an anchor. With the wire already attached on the pots it meant I didn't have to get out a hammer and nails which saved time.
I really liked the wire that stuck out to attach a thumb sized stick to hold my lure and tainted fish up in the air and out of the way of voles.

TrapperJOe,

I knew the pics would get your attention. Yeah, you warned me about it and I knew I would have to deal with it, but Terry over at Harbor office told me it fell almost 3 ft in 12 hours!!! I just pray its not like that everytime it snows. I'd like to get more sets out this weekend, but its calling for more snow.

Seas in Cochrane were confusing on the way back, hit 4-6 ftrs rounding Passage Canal, then it went glass calm from Blackstone to the harber due to all the slush build up in the bay.

Harbor office couldnt help me with clearing the ramp due to the heavy snowfall, wasnt a priority until all the roads were cleared. She was nice about it though and lent me a shovel and said she could put me up in a slip if I couldnt get it out of the water. It was quite a chore to get out, cleared about 30 ft out of the way, it was just enough to get my truck out but not the boat, still needed to clear another 30 ft. Luckily a guy pulled up feeling sorry for me and pulled me out the rest of the way.

LEN, looks like Im gonna have to cancel my deer hunt on Montague this week, weather is forcasting 5 ft seas, blowing 25 knots, NOT GOOD. Im bummed, had the cabin reserved Wed thru Sun, but Im not willing to chance it. Plus the wife says Im crazy to go.

White17, I looked at the pics and cant remember if I pulled that safety or not, I know I pulled the one on the other side, but I see the other is still on. I'll need to check it next week and hope I didnt scare a critter off for good. Although I have a strong suspicion that I will be digging this set out from at least a 1ft or more of snow.

AkChuck, Welcome aboard, I Googled Hiline Lake and pulled up a lodge, looks like your north of me, I tried road trapping up in Denali Park last year, it was tough going. I hope it cools down for ya. Good luck to you to!!!

Trapping in PWS, gotta love it!!!!

AT

p.s. Los Anchorage got another 3-4 inches this afternoon!!!!

LEN, Yeah the wire sucked the trap and pot right in snug. I will need to wire the top though. Not sure I could set the coni in good with the pot nailed to the tree. Not sure I understand your method of attaching the lure and tainted fish to the top wire, my bait is wired inside the pot, is yours too and is the tainted fish just another scent your throwing out?

AT I wire a piece of beaver into the bottom of the pot. I then leaver the tails long to wrap around the tree. I like to attach the top wire first. This lets me have hands free to grab the bottom wires. Also when the traps is set off I undo the bottom wire and hte pot tips up and points towards me and makes it easier to load the trap. The tainted fish is more of a lure than anything. A stink to get them to the trap. I jus use the longest wire sticking out after tying to wrap up a stick to put in my fish.

I hear you familytrapper... I use 120's so with two notches cut they stay in the pot better probably. Also, I didn't like to wire bait in the pots since they didn't stack as nice and lastly, I attach pots to pretty big trees sometimes... Much bigger than optimal, but if a 30 diameter tree is all there is, I don't feel like having 6+ feet of wire on the pots. 1 nail top, 1 nail bottom, bait pre wired and stick the wire up through the center hole of the pot and fasten to top nail. Takes about 30 sec. Lots of different ways to do it though... I doubt this way would work as well with 110's.

This is also one of those things where you don't tend to think about the climate, but I am sure it is much less convenient to try and handle nails and such in cooler areas. In coastal stuff, I just wear rubber gloves and they go on and off constantly. I just had the nails in my pocket. Actually used a LOT of nails to stabilize conibears for otter. Speed things up. Don't want to spend time looking for and cutting sticks which you may or may not be able to get into the ground anyways.

Where the three bodies of water meet, you can get some really wierd confused seas. Strange stuff. PWS gets a lot of very localized weather, so you can have 25-30 knot winds blowing out of any given bay on any given day... and then meeting in the same spot.

Joe it is hard to compare the 300 and the way I set them to the 120 setups you use. Different animal for sure. The nails would be the way to go on the larger pots for sure.
For me the wire is not just to hang the pot but to snug the trap to the pole and anchor the tipup. 30 inch Tree! Not in my neck of the woods. No problem finding all the 8 inch ones I want.

Had fun here tonight with Nooksack and a long time trapper here in the Homer area. Beaver Nelson. Spent the evening in the shop comparing snares, wolf sets and Mb 750's. Pretty much 3 hours of non stop talking. Our own mini ATA meeting for the month of Nov.

Do Coyotes have any effect on the Moose population?

No

Nope. When there are a lot of wolves, and thus a lot of kills around, the coyotes seem to thrive. Apparently they are able to scavage off the moose carcasses.

When a wolf pack catches a coyote (or red fox) out on the ice of a lake, the coyote loses out bigtime.

Usually there is nothing left but bits of fur blowing in the wind.... And tracks that look like someone played a game of football out there. Which is apparently, essentially what happens.

Pete

..............The answer is blowing in the wind...