5300 coon season

Read on Iowa trap forum today of a trapper here in Iowa catching 5300 coon and 730 incidental mink in the year of 2006 working alone. I know him and he is not a bser. Has to be a record of some type. He says he always tried to get 1000 the first week.

I don't know him well, but well enough to believe it. He's not the type to beat his chest and throw around numbers. He's never been on the internet talking about it. He just goes and does it

That’s only 20 a day for 265 days.

Must be Coonman

No, not coonman. But despite whatever else coonman is, I happen to knw he is a pretty good trapper.

That's ...."THE" Coonman ! to us mortals.

He is a man of steel. He goes into physical training before the season opens. He runs up and down steep stream banks to build his knees and physical stamina up.

That's an average of about 80 per day.

I know what it takes to catch 200-250 a week I have done it a few times, but those kind of numbers are hard to fathom. Of course mine were during the 1980's with heavy competition and not in ideal coon habitat.

If that's true, 1000 in a week and 5300 in 8 weeks or so, is hard for me to wrap my mind around. Getting any kind of big numbers in December even with unusually warm weather is pretty hard to do.

If this is true, I am in awe. That's all I have to say.

You'll see why he's not when you read the replies to follow.

Hard for me to fathom also, but some people are good at what they do.

Impressive!

I think what might be more impressive would be putting together that much land and permission , that would be a full time job almost the rest of the year

I assume no permission needed GCP, it is ROW trapping

Catching and finishing that many animals is a lot of work.

I couldn't even SKIN 1,000 coon a week, let alone catch AND skin them. Wow.

I can guarantee you when I was trapping full time I never even considered skinning my own critters, I could make WAY more money trapping them. I paid a skinner to put them up for me or sold them as I got them. Many times my wife just took them to the fur buyer while I got some sleep.

I doubt he skun them. Market then wasn't bad, easier to just sell whole.

He sold a lot of carcass coon. I passed him on the road one day and his truck was piled high full of coon. Don't think he could have fit another one on there!

Is this in southwest iowa. I may have met him when trapping down that way

The 730 "incidental mink" is incredible

That's way beyond what most of us can even comprehend. What a machine.

no ROW trapping in WI without permission , part of what would make it so hard here.


would I be correct in assuming he starts with a truck bed of 220s and puts them out in every ditch and culvert for miles

Without a doubt, Wisconsin regulations make it extemely difficult to run a big road line anymore.

Nope, doesn’t use 220’s but rather 1 1/2’s.

I know who this person is and everything is true about him and his catches. Works harder and sets more traps/locations than most can imagine!

man it would be hard anywhere. Blows my mind.

Very impressive, can’t imagine the beating his body goes thru.

Wow, it is mindblowing to just do some math on this, let alone be the person doing this. Just doing some math lets say 90 day season that is about 60 coons a day and say a 20% catch rate or about 300 traps per day with say 2 traps per location that would be in a 14 hour day on the line a stop about every 9-10 minutes to include travel, dispatch, reset and move on and then pulling and setting out say 40-60 new sets per day. This would be say an IA situation maybe with MO in with an early November start and going into early Feb. If the person trapped in southern states then the season or days on the line could be longer.
Don't know about fur handling but just to skin would take a good skinner about 3 hours or so and a ton of freezers. If he decided to say have a person put up his fur can you imagine that person having th truck roll up about 8-9 PM with about 30 coons on a very slow day and about 90 on a real good day!!
Impressive just from the aspects of knowing where the coons are, how to manage the line and the emotional, physical and mental stamina to carry that out. Seven hundred incidental mink would imply a lot of water sets along with the road right away sets.

Bryce

I have a friend in the middle of the country that has told me about this trapper. The old adage is true. Many of the best are not in print and that is how they want it.
I have friends on this forum that make unbelievable catches but they do not talk about anywhere. If you have something to sell, go ahead and advertise. If you don't, stay quiet. That was the old school way of looking at things, and it still fits.
If some of these catches I know about were discussed, every paper tiger, and key board warrior would be beating their chest and dismissing the trappers that shared their catch numbers.

Mac

That's impressive. But I am curious if he used a dump truck to haul the animals. I wonder how large of an area he trapped.

He's still skinnin em to this day.

Iowa season opens the first weekend in November and closes January 10.

To do that….in my mind you are trying to catch at least 100 coon a day, every day. Many people can set up to do that opening day of season, but to do it day in and day out is pretty awesome. That’s a lot of empty traps to check, and new traps to put out every day, bait to have stockpiled, and gear to have ready to go when something is lost or broken.

It goes until Jan 31st. Pheasant season ends Jan 10th.

That's a lot of coon. Beat my record by 5273 coon and 709 mink! Wow.

Chris

Using extended checks and essentially running a different trap line every day for however many lines you have out is the only way I can see it done. As an example pre-stake and set 3 lines with 500 traps each and check each line every three days. A monumental task never the less.

Yes.

That's super impressive.
Hard to even comprehend what kind of dedication that would take.

I don't think that number is humanly possible for 1 man, taking in all the variables that happen in a season... just my opinion.

sounds great , all I know is I don't want to do it

Since raccoons can eat 2 lbs of food per day on average, that's 365 days x 2 lbs/day x 5300 = 3,869,000 lbs of feed that are available to the marketplace.
You'd think biodiesel for my truck would be a tad cheaper

That's like 12 bricks of .22's. Guy must be rich to afford that!

Is it mostly river trapping with canoe/jon running off a trolling motor, drop sites on the river for coons and wife picks them up and he has extra trolling batteries stashed on the line, dispatches with a trapping stake. If yes,
He's a machine and I believe the numbers.

My bad. My memory fails me at times. Still, it's hard to catch any number of coon in January.

Who is this super hero? It’d take me 2 hours every night just to unload his truck and get the critters situated for processing. Sorry guys not buying those numbers they defy physics.

Nimzy, take it for what it's worth, I know guys I trust that know him. It's the real deal

Don't forget there are those out there who can't fathom the # of mushrats some people can catch and at certain times of the year.

Sets were all on drowners. No dispatch to slow him down. That was back in the years of plenty of water in streams to drown. As dry as is now, drowning not an option in smaller creeks. All sets were exactly the same set-up. Production line efficient trapping.

I'm not rich and I prudently have more than 12 bricks of 22 laying around

You're saying all the right things. In a 5 minute phone conversation I could tell if it's legit or not.

The thing about drowners is that even if the water is not deep enough to drown a coon, it still takes them away from the set so you do not have to rebuild. You can also place sets closer together. Takes a little longer to set them up, but they are more efficient in the long run in some circumstances. Let's say there's a hole with a piece of fish in it, and the first coon to come along goes down the drowner, the second coon gets the fish and he's going to be back to check out that spot again, so you have increased your odds even after having taken a coon in the set.

As a numbers guy myself and always focused on efficiency and a production system, I have to say this stuff really turns my crank!

Without ROW allowed, whole new ballgame.

These #s are heard to fathom. Some of the most impressive catches I've known of were from trappers working other jobs . I Sold to a buyer in Iowa that started buying at 4 in the afternoon he would always have a pile of coon , big dry coon sometimes 40- 50 on the floor from his personal 220 line. This was on a daily check row trapping. 400 to 500 coon are what he said he would generally catch in about 6-8 weeks. I can imagine with drowners on a 3 line rotation some pretty impressive checks could be made. This would deserve some respect for sure.

Not the first time he has been discussed on here if I remember correctly.
As always several doubters with credible reasons.
But it seems that the ones that know him have never doubted him in the years this topic has been discussed.
I also believe he once responded thru a past member on here.
Things started getting personal and he just shut up and went back to catching and selling.
Never to talk about it again.

I may be wrong about this .
But I do know he gets discussed every season since.

He always ran out of his truck, far as I know. No rivers of any size in most of his territory.

It’s been mentioned his wife has helped. We sometimes forget the value of good help. Both physical and mental.

Met guy ran big numbers for two years. Met him at a buyer's location one time. Buyer shared some of his secrets. He did all the trapping one man but had his girlfriend/wife meet him at points and trade trucks. She took most catches to the buyer and would return at times to trade for his catches again. She also supplied all his food, trapping supplies, and whatever else on the fly. This is years back and I was told he moved out of state. I never ran a real fulltime line so crazy catch numbers inconceivable to me. But with planning, drive, and support the right people can do amazing things. Fair weather in a particular season also helps! lol

I believe if you have the coons and are river trapping as said plus ROW and don't need permission and your a tough dedicated trapper with no other job yes I believe you could do it . Skinning , fleshing, and stretching now that would be even more impressive if you could do that yourself also with the catch... Jon

hmmmmm that sounds like probably when the special drug enforcement task force was in pursuit. LOL

It’s not the amount of fur he caught that’s impressive to me, but finding a woman to do all those things for him. Anybody know where he met her?
Farmers only??

f some of these catches I know about were discussed, every paper tiger, and key board warrior would be beating their chest and dismissing the trappers that shared their catch numbers.

Mac

haha, sure has got ALOT of the older crowd quiet about catch's, systems, methods, etc. We went through a stage where everyone was sharing what they knew in print, etc and now we're reverting back to when i first started, ask a fox trapper how he caught those fox, answer was in traps, where did you set them, here and there, lol. Those were short answer's you would get.

Running a marathon for a catch like this though, dang! He'll be crippled up when he gets old, lot of wear and tear on the body. Not sure if he has the coon record but can guarantee he's holding the record for accidentally catching over 700 mink, lol.

You are talking about a different guy. Mike’s wife doesn’t help him trap. I have rode along with him several times. He will instruct me to stay on the bridge and watch so I don’t slow him down trying to keep up. He don’t need any help!

nope

2006 Iowa had 78 check days that would be just over 68 coon and 9 + mink a days average.

I understand there is a meat market for coon. You would need a walk-in freezer for hundreds of coon. You would have to gut. wash and bag each one after skinning. Finding a reliable outlet would be the next task. If it were me, I would be concerned about liability issues if someone got sick eating your coon. I have seen where a nice big coon carcass is bringing $10. 10x 5300 = $53000 plus what the pelt might bring. We are talking serious money. Then hope the IRS don't find out.

How do high number trappers record where hundreds of trap sites are? A pen and notebook or something else.

I used a notebook in which I used a code. I wrote about it in one of my books but I forget which one.

These days I would probably use an app and drop a pin.

I use a Garmin Auto GPS & log every truck stop & name the waypoint with a code example "Q F S". Q = the 17th letter of the alphabet so the point was set in 2017, F S = Fisher Set. I type in Q F S and the Garmin will number the point. I take 10 minutes each day I make sets to back up the Garmen file to a computer. GPS receivers die and are lost so I back up the data. I have most of my truck stops backed up for the past ten years. I then use a notebook to record how many traps are at a stop and where they are. I've been recording sets in a notebook for the past 50 years or so. I still have those notebooks & use a new one each year. Here is what can be done with the Garmin files.

I use onx, mark a point and add a note with the amount of traps at the location.

Whew! Looks like my record of 5,301 is still holding up! LOL

ol' dad

68 coon in a day is way more than possible…especially in the Iowa area. It’s maintaining that average that’s the problem. Especially when you take into consideration that the coon catch rate drops off progressively as the end of season gets near. Dealing with the fur shed duties while maintaining a serious trap line with that many per day for that long is the next problem. Even if you only skin and freeze the hides, it’s going to take you the better part of the year to put it up. I personally don’t see myself or anyone getting that done….even if my wife brings me breakfast, lunch and supper and skins my catch…and gives me a back massage after that! Boys, it’s not real!!

Fun to see how people think how not to do it, instead of thinking how it could be done.

Lots of guys in Iowa have done 1,000+ a year and quite a few have done 2,000+. I think one of the guys on YouTube is over 1,200 this season and he’s done all his own skinning, and is on college to boot.

The stars have to align to make a catch like this - the weather, Coon population, your health, the market or drive to do it, and the equipment and Trapline to make it possible. But trapping all day ever day, with no fur handling makes it possible.

Big difference between catching 1500 and 5300.

Spot on Mike. Don't tell what you catch, you'll be called a liar here too.

Yep...I believe he caught around 180 opening night. Having lots of equipment, time, work ethic and youth on your side helps. He's had a heck of a year and I think had close to a week after that blizzard he wasn't running any traps.

Only 3800.

As far as I know he skinned very few, if any. Sold on the carcass daily or every few days.

Some guys put traps out before season. Multiple lines. LOTs of traps. Opening day they are setting and baiting. In a state like some where you only have to check every other day if your making drowner or 220 sets you can take advantage of that. One line today another tomorrow. When a line slows down a bunch you dont pull the traps. You just fire them. Next day your putting in a new line with everything thats already in place. Set bait and go to the next one. Traps/fur get stolen doing this. Everyone I know that runs hard just accepts that.

Other guys spend a lot of time critiquing the way they make a set. Doing everything they can to maximize how many sets they can get out. If you cut just six seconds here and two there times how ever many sets you can make it adds up. They choose one set and just keep doing it over and over and over.

5300 coon season is amazing. I bet most reading this have not caught 5300 lifetime.

Right on!

I'm guessing there is plenty of other catches like this that nobody knows about. And probably never will.

Lots of people projecting on here how it can't be done because they know they aren't capable of those numbers. People are out there who are capable of these things and don't need the approval of random strangers on the internet.

The top 1%'ers don't seek the input of those who aren't the top 1%'ers because the drive to stack up fur, meat, skulls, or to create a $150,000+ a year trapping income via predator control is an inner passion. Some call it "drive."
And most trappers are wonderfully content where they are, doing what they're doing without large numbers or an income in trapping.

The real competition in trapping has always been within the trapper themselves. Period. And when some trappers hit heights that are unimagined to the 99+%'ers, the stones and tomatoes come out.

You want to catch 5300 coon in a season? Get after it.
You want to catch whatever in a season? Get after it.
You want to make 6 figures a year trapping? Get after it.

Most won't believe you when you do. And you'll witness envy from other people when they call you names your momma and papa didn't give you.
Just accept that as fact.
And keep on rollin'

Blessings,
Mark

Can positive income be made trapping these days? If so, how is anyone doing it? Will anyone here tell there secrets? I can understand if a trapper remains silent on these questions.

When I think of trapping machines:
I'm not sure what his annual catch totals were but Dave Plueger from Eastern Iowa had a system down for river trapping that averaged a 50% catch rate using pocket sets with footholds. I had the pleasure of meeting him a few times- he meets the criteria of a humble, unassuming guy that piles up a ton coon every year. I remember when he did a demo at the WTA in Marshfield Wisconsin, a couple people that liked to hear their own voice interjected thoughts and second guessed a few of his sets/methods, he fielded those questions that with the highest level of humility. He's perfected his methods for 40 years- sometimes you're better off listening rather than talking.

mink 99,
See the above comment about 6 figure incomes. In answer to your question, yes.

40 years ago I figured out that I could make a lot more money catching than I could skinning, and some people on here still apparently haven't figured that out.

I want to see the system that produces that number of coon. I would like to know if it's similar to what I did, just at a bigger scale or if there are efficiency aspects to it that I never figured out. Very intriguing to me. I know the competition and the habitat are big factors but there seems like there must be more to it than that. I'm in awe.

Blackie from Ohio perfected the river trapping system also. Great trappers have a way of doing that.

5300 coon, 900+ mink and 3000 grinners, skunks and muskrats. In one season. That’s a lot of critters.

Look at the bright side. It’s all hearsay. .

I can't say. It's beyond anything I can comprehend. I was just showing the math. I can't say that I would agree on late season being a slow down in coon hearvet in IA, there's to many factors some of my largest catches have been in January Iowa while mink trapping. One winter just shy of 400 incidental coon while mink trapping. Southern IA can have some pretty open January's.

And the harder they work the luckier they get

One thing about it, there probably not on the internet bickering about it, like the rest of us.