Who's your favorite legendary Trapper?
Second Who is the most influential Trapper in your life?

Savell on both questions

Too many to name.
I could easily list 20 or 30.

MattLA

They aint legends but I like them. Pete Billings, Mark Smith, Terry Diehl, Derek Masenthin, Matt Peek, Andrew Eastwood.
Lee Steinmeyer I guess is a legend. He's a good guy

Charlie Dobbins - very skilled, good writer, super nice to talk to in person and willing to share with you his knowledge. One of the nicest trappers I have ever met and humble as could be.

Asa Lenon - Miss him terribly, super nice man to talk with, willing to share his knowledge of trapping and lure making, also very humble

Influential trappers:

Pop - Charles DiSalvo Sr. - gruff, short, rude at times LOL he took me out checking traps when I was 4 and allowed me to run his big line when Ui was sic. He taught me the basics of trapping raccoons and muskrats as well as foxes.H explained sets but not in great detail, he did stress on locations..




Dad - Charles DiSalvo Sr. - more patient, trapping with him was more like graduating basic trapping and moving to college. Dad taught how to make fox sets in detail and why he set them there. He also explained what lures to use and when. Also taught trap tuning, modifications and dying and waxing



Me on right


Arnold Favinger - my best friend and partner - he taught me to think outside the box when trapping. Using the same traps over and over while trapping foxes. Better ways to make coon set as well as trapping fox in the big woods and finding set locations on pipelines. We had more fun the two grown should be allowed.

Arnold on left,me on the right during a mountain trapping trip

Coonman

The #1 trapper in my book is Charlie Dobbins I will add to what MikeTraps2 said above about Charlie He influenced my trapping career more than anyone else from the time I first met him in 1982 until his passing way to soon . His desire to be a good trapper always lead him to want to know how and why the animals he was trapping did what they did .His mind was light years ahead of my train of thought And at the same time it was generally so plain to understand that I often thought why didn't I think of that His books on Trap Fastening and Trap modifications where worth their weight in gold to me Those 2 books put more fur on my stretchers that any other book I ever bought on trapping With one other one that also was a big help . Number 2 and 3 would be Carroll Black from OH and Kermit Sterns from PA also had a lot to do with the way I approached my trapping career Both of them where down to earth humble guys that where some of the best that ever was They worked hard at their craft and knew how to treat people Carroll once told me "I check a lot of empty traps " And what he was really telling me is it takes a lot of hard work to be successful. .And Kermit was a great. all around trapper from the same state as me . (PA) He was like a legend here in PA and yet so low key about his skill and work ethic . And his mink trapping ability put him at the top of the very best of the best And # 4 would be Phil Presjak from OH At a time I was banging my head against the wall trying to learn how to catch mink in traps set to catch mink Phil Presjak wrote Mink Mania . Somehow that book help me break through the wall of catching mink in the places they can not stop themselves from going through .And that did not make me a high numbers mink trapper .But I WAS CATCHING A FEW ON A YEARLY BASIS AND THEY WHERE CAUGHT IN SETS TARGETED FOR THEM .And that understanding of how all critters use the terrain in their travels carrier over to the other animals I was setting for .And more importantly it allowed me to streamline my methods to catch more with less time and work so I could trap even more .

Jedediah Smith! Man what a life he lived. Killed way to young by commanches.

Yup, he is still doing great and getting after those coons.

Still worries about stuff a little.

Going with Thorpe, and Miranda(Ohio boys gotta stick together)

I followed alot of what russ Carmen was doing both from Pennsylvania met him a few times watched a few of his demos read all his books as well great guy great trapper there ....most influential has to be my uncle Ed good trapper got me into it and taught me the basics

[quote=Turd Furgeson]MattLA[/

I almost miss him

Bedo Hobbs

Asa Lennon. He was very helpful to me especially because I trap where he did. He was always very helpful with questions and forthcoming with interesting history.

Bossman gets a nod as well for running such a helpful forum.

Carmen, Lenin, Dobbins, June and my dad for introducing me to trapping and the outdoors…Jon

Some of the guys that influenced me to want to trap were: Milligan, Dobbins, Thorpe, Carmen, Marsyada, Tom Krause, Miranda, Don Shumaker, Kermit Stearns, Phil Presjak, Paul Grimshaw, Bob Noonan, all the trapline writers of that time, because there was no internet to learn from.

Bud Hall
Russ Carmen and Ron and Pete Leggett

It's me!!!

Kristen