still havin fun killin $2 bills

Good for you Joshua! I'm sure your trapping partner has a lot to do with your enthusiasm. Maybe it's just a coincidence but I had a

muskrat job myself today. The memories of trapping with a brother, grandpa, and especially dad, live forever.

P.S. Did you really catch that mink on Welch's PB&J?

Great Josh, those are memories.... Did you send those pics to Gma ?

This is $85 beaver....cant sell on fur market

I have never sold a fur since I went into this business full time. But if I had, how would anyone know the difference? Is there

something that tells you that the hide came from an ADC pest? By the way, it is legal to do so here. Josh, I did catch two muskrats

on the job I was on. That's worth about 13 days of fur trapping I'd guess.

It is the principal and what i believe....i have not been dishonest in business and i dont intend to start now....a few years ago my dnr agent told me that when caught during fur season that it was ok to keep the fur....he retired out of field work and while he is head of wcos now in iowa...his guys under him now say i cant.....since they write the tickets...i wont

Talk about wanton waste of a resource. I think all wildlife that can be utilized under a seasonal circumstance should be handled in such a manner. Particularly in that instance.

That is where there are problems in some DNR licensing and regulatory laws. I find that there are some common sense issues that get skewed as you climb the ladder of advancement in many such areas. Our state for the most part has reasonable laws and guidelines but there still remains some gray areas that need to be addressed to make things more clear with regards to interpretation of the law.

When you actually think about it, this has to be one of the dumbest laws ever passed. The animal is already dead and in your

possession. Do they think that if you're already getting fifty bucks for catching that muskrat, that selling the fur for two dollars

more is somehow going to turn you into a wildlife violator? I can't grasp the thinking on this law. The reason that I don't sell the

fur is because my time is more valuable than skinning, fleshing, stretching, drying, and selling a hide for two bucks. When the

market is as bad as it is now, I also think that no one, with the exception of kids, should sell fur. Just my opinion.


P.S. Bob, I don't want you to think that I am wasting a resource. Most of our furbearers are caught live and relocated, including a

bunch of muskrats that I live trapped this past summer.

I agree with the dumb part...would rather use the fur....i end up using the carcass as a draw for coyotes to an area

[i]I also think that no one, with the exception of kids, should sell fur. Just my opinion.[/i]

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^. As long as the market treats fur sellers like bastid stepchildren, don't give them the satisfaction of providing a product the garment producers use to make money.

yesterdays catch...day before was same except minus one mink

Looks like fun Josh. Our fur trapping season has been open 3 weeks and I still haven't been out. But will go take care of my farmers and landowners where I've been trapping since grade school. Started when I was 10, now 57. Never missed a year! Seems as though some folks think that when rat prices are low they must quit digging into shorelines and dams? Should I tell the farmers the excavating/bulldozing costs for repairing their dams will be 80% less since the furs are not worth much? After doing commercial wildlife work 6 and 7 days a week from March through October, I look forward to getting out for some recreational trapping. At the same time maintaining my annual trapping locations with about 30 landowners. Trapped rats for 75 cents, and for 12 bucks. Can't stockpile animals, and it makes zero difference in populations whether they are trapped heavily or not at all. And as both a fur trapper and wildlife control operator, I actually DO understand the huge difference between the two. There's not a single landowner on my fur trapping list that would EVER pay for wildlife control, and it doesn't bother me a bit.

I started fur trapping in 1955. A large, prime mink brought $35 back then. The average wage back then was $85 a week. I agree with Ron

about my farmer friends not ever paying a nickel for ADC work. Oh yeah, and they've all sold enough land to be worth 3 or 4 times what I am.

Yep.... my grandpa was one of the best mink trappers around earlier than that. His nickname was "mink". He worked for the state, and would make far more money catching mink in the winter than driving the state snow plow!

I actually have ONE farmer who will NOT allow fur trapping, but when he has beaver problems he HIRES me to trap them under my commercial permit. Says he owns too much ground and is worth too much money to take a chance on fur trapping "protections" offered through state game laws. He wants me doing it commercially as he knows I'm insured, and doesn't care what it costs. Funny how people can all be so different.

People are funny that way...one farmer is beggin me to trap beaver but wont let me drive in his property...i told him as soon as he is willing to let me drive in on my atv i will kill the beaver but until then he can keep em...also told him i will also require ability to trap coyotes and other fur while in there or beaver wont be enough

You guys are right. Nearly every kid I grew up with was a farm kid and all of them could chase their farming ancestry back to the

Garden of Eden. Lots of fun watching the kids that barely graduated from high school growing up to become millionaires. But they

still try to convince you that they are practically penniless.

Up to 16 mink and 97 muskrats

I have noticed a lot of mink killed on the roads this year. The terrible fur prices have a lot to do with that, I'm sure. When we had

the snowfall last week I was amazed at the number of rat houses on all the marshes that I would not have seen without the snow cover.

Let's see if I understand this: if you work ADC with all the permits to do so, you can't market your fur if caught during fur season? If that's the case, why not get a trapping license and sell under that?

You can probably tell I'm not in the ADC business.

At today's fur prices, you probably won't make enough to cover the cost of the trapping license.

In iowa you are required to have a fur license in addition to the nwco permit...i am a fur trapper but if i am caught selling nuisance caught fur i can lose my license....it is a waste of a resource but it is the law as it is right now

In Wisconsin our trapper's license IS our ADC permit. Boy, do we use our heads or what? Joshua, I am still wondering how you tell the

difference. Does nuisance caught fur have a big N on the skin?

I tell the difference through my morals paul...

See, now there's a problem for you either way. Your morals tell you that you caught that animal doing ADC work so you will throw it

out. Now your morals are also telling you that you are wasting a resource because you have already reduced it to possession and it's

just as dead as the ones that you fur trapped. I made the decision when I started this business that I would never skin another

animal and I've kept my word. But it was my decision and I don't think states should make that decision for you. A lot of you guys

aren't allowed to sell ADC caught fur and I believe that should be your decision, not some politician that knows little or nothing.

I have a whole freezer full of fur that was harvested on my trapline...

I stand behind Josh on this issue.

badger, if you stand behind Josh I'm pretty sure we won't be able to see you.

Morals tell me to cash the checks when the problem is solved. In the end its just another way for the states to make a buck, It's the game we choose to play.

Virginia has both ADC permit and a trapping license. The ADC permit allows you to charge to remove the animal anytime of the year, the trapping license does not. You can only use the pelt or parts of the animal caught during ADC work if you bought a trapping license and it during trapping season.
The ADC permit is commercial, allowing for charging for a service the trapping license is not. Its just how Virginia does it.

Kurt Temple

I also agree that fur caught during the fur season should be able to be used in the fur trade...just that State of Iowa does not allow this.

I had the former Game Warden tell me during fur season to go ahead and salvage the fur...but the one that replaced him is by the book and is also a fur trapper..

still though...just because a officer tells you to go ahead when it is clearly stated you cannot...is not a good recipe for success...I still didn't use the fur....

also...I have people approach me that want me to trap muskrats in their ponds within city limits but don't want to pay for it...they just want me to do it for the fur...but since the furbearer is inside the city limits and I would have to use my nuisance permit to take them, it would be unlawful for me to sell the fur once removed since other fur trappers only could not access the same right.

thanks Mike.....I know both of us don't like it but it is what we have to work around

....badger is a good friend and probably my biggest competition in this market in central Iowa....we have a mutual respect for each other

I am not surprised that Josh and Mike are friends and also competitors. This business seems to lend itself to that type of

cooperation. And I don't mean to start any arguments between ADC and Fur. I just love simplicity and that is what we have. If you

want to do both ADC and fur trapping in our state, you take a trappers test and pass and you get a single license that covers

both. If you want to do pest control, you study a lot harder and pass a more difficult test and get your pest control license. That's

all that should be necessary. Much like every other state we have special permits to do bats out of season, woodpeckers, etc.

Everything is spelled out for you so we don't have any ADC guys on the DNR's Ten Most Wanted list.