#436716 - 11/29/07 09:40 PM
River trapping tips
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trapper124
trapper
Registered: 12/22/06
Posts: 371
Loc: MO bootheel
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I am about to start trapping a river. Well we call it a ditch but in most parts of the country it is probably a river, it is about 90 feet wide. (we call the Mississippi a river lol) I will be trapping it for beaver, otter, coon, mink, and muskrat. Any tips or secrets about trapping a large piece of water would be appreciated.
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#436981 - 11/29/07 11:48 PM
Re: River trapping tips
[Re: trapper124]
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trapper124
trapper
Registered: 12/22/06
Posts: 371
Loc: MO bootheel
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come on folks
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#436992 - 11/29/07 11:56 PM
Re: River trapping tips
[Re: Gary]
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Eric Sutherland
trapper
Registered: 11/29/07
Posts: 38
Loc: Arkansas
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only time i trapped a big waterway i had trouble with the fluctuation in the water for my coon sets.
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#437063 - 11/30/07 05:38 AM
Re: River trapping tips
[Re: Possumslayer]
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danny clifton
trapper
Registered: 12/23/06
Posts: 347
Loc: williamsburg ks
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You'll be wet by the end of the day. Can get chilly. Bring dry clothes socks gloves and boots.Change into them for the trip back to the boatramp. Bring a couple pairs of gauntlett gloves so after you fill one with water you have a spare. Themos of hot coffee is nice treat also. Oil your pistol every night so it don't rust.
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#437079 - 11/30/07 06:19 AM
Re: River trapping tips
[Re: danny clifton]
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Newt
trapper
Registered: 12/26/06
Posts: 1179
Loc: Port Republic NJ/ ChocowinityN...
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You asked
RIVER'N VHS/DVD
by Clint Locklear and Newt Sterling
http://www.snareone.com
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#437163 - 11/30/07 07:44 AM
Re: River trapping tips
[Re: Newt]
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bulldog
trapper
Registered: 10/10/07
Posts: 34
Loc: se kansas
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Check the water depth before you get out of the boat. If it is not clear enough to see bottom don't assume it is not too deep. Water over the top of your waders will make for a long day or worse if you are in chest waders.
_________________________
dark water
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#437172 - 11/30/07 07:54 AM
Re: River trapping tips
[Re: bulldog]
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Eric Cottrell
trapper
Registered: 12/23/06
Posts: 223
Loc: Minden, La
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1. wear your life jacket
2. don't bypass any islands without scouting them for sign.
3. try to get some topo maps of the area noting everywhere another body of water comes close to the river you are traveling. otter and beaver will travel pretty good distances to bodies of water that do not flow into the river.
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#437333 - 11/30/07 10:14 AM
Re: River trapping tips
[Re: MinnTrapper]
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trapper124
trapper
Registered: 12/22/06
Posts: 371
Loc: MO bootheel
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great tips guy, keep em coming
Newt if i had the money i would have already bought you movie. Back about a month ago i had to decide between that and more coon traps, i had to go with the traps.
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#437361 - 11/30/07 10:30 AM
Re: River trapping tips
[Re: MinnTrapper]
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BaldKnobber1
trapper
Registered: 06/29/07
Posts: 647
Loc: Ozarks of Missouri
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I almost exclusively trap from a conoe. Almost where you are, and almost for the exact same target critters... and here's what I know....
You...are...going...to...get...wet.
EVERY TIME.
Its the nature of in-and-out boating.
And you are goint go get more muddy than you have ever been. Just expect it, accept it, and be prepared to see more mud than you could possibly imagine mud in the boat, under your finger nails, on your face, in your hair, on your shirt and caked onto every tool you take.
Take an extra pair of gloves or two...they get wet first.
Take an extra COMPLETE set of clothes. I have never needed a complete change, but Im pretty sure they saved my partner's life one 30 degree morning, when we were three hours from the truck.
Get a canvas 'tool bag' for your setting equip. baits-lures - zipties - a hammer/digging tool - and one/two traps for each stop all go into one bag. You dont want to be trecking back and forth to the canoe three to four times at each set. It will wear you out.
Pre-set ALL OF YOUR CONNIS before you put them in the boat.
Hip waders simply wont get it done, and chest waders will have you bound up all day tring to sit in the boat, and they are a PAIN IN THE CROTCH when you are trying to mount dismount in two -three feet of water. Either get waist high waders, or get a REAL belt to hold up your chesties so you dont have to wear the shoulder straps (this is what I do). That way you arent as bound up by shoulder straps, and you have that extra 6 inchs of "HOLY &%#$%^%! I almost went under!!!" height.
Dont take extra gear 'just because' you have always taken it in the truck. Because, that canoe/john is going to be heavey enough with traps and fur, and mud and the water that you bring in every time you re-mount from the deep spots. Trust me your boat will be heavier than that summer float trip, and the water is at its absolut lowest this time of year. Places that you drift serenly over while fishing in june or august, are the same places you are goint to be dragging a loaded boat through two inches of water and sliding on gravel in december and january.
Dont take drowner wieghts. Take empty bags and a shovel...God will provide gravel or shoebox sized rocks to fill those bags. Dont take rebar stakes, or coni stabilizers...God will provide sticks, and stakes. You are going to HAVE TO learn how to make do with what the environment provides and learn to stabilize and stake your traps with sticks. Wire is your new friend. 16ga, and 10ga. Dont take that heavy wire spool with 10-20 times more wire than you will need either. I have 16 inch long 1 inch round wooden dowel with little holes drilled all the way down it. I cut about 5-6 feet of wire, put one end in a hole, wind the rest onto the dowel. I have about 15 pieces of wire on each dowel. Learn to get it done with 5 feet of wire. Get a good set of linesman pliers and a belt sheath for them. I use them ALL THE TIME.
Dont take a cooler full of lunch. Take jerky in your pocket, and a bottle of water. Leave the lunch in the truck for when you are REALLY hungry at the end of your line.
If you have a motor on the boat, you need to take about three hundred and fourty six or so extra shear pins for your prop. You REALLY dont want to run out of these in the cold. Take my word for it...dont test me on this.
Buy a dry-bag and put in:
cell phone
wallet
camera
dry clothes
toilet paper
If you are setting out a long (all day... 10 mileish) line, take a skinning gambril, a good knife & a whet stone, a rope and a shovel. 6-8 beavers and 12-15 coons can weigh 300-400 pounds in the round, and take up a WHOLE LOTTA ROOM. You dont notice it in the truck, but you're for dern sure gonna notice it in the boat. I plan for two 'skinning stops' on check days. Stop, skin, put edible meat (beaver straps) in ziplocks, pull sellable teeth with pliars, bury the carcasses.
Did I mention take toilet paper?
Get some reflective florescent spray paint and completely completely completely cover every tool you take. Id rather have an ugly tool in the boat than a pretty tool three miles up river ...some darn where, next to some darn set. And it also makes them easier to see under three feet of water.
Oh, yeah, and take toilet paper, and keep it dry. There arent any leaves to use this time of year, and the water is especially cold if you put it there, and you're too old to be proud.
I am plenty jealous there trapper 124. Ive always wanted to road trip over to the bootheel and make a week long trapping camp out of your 'ditches'. Have fun, and take pics for me.
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#437478 - 11/30/07 11:41 AM
Re: River trapping tips
[Re: BaldKnobber1]
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BaldKnobber1
trapper
Registered: 06/29/07
Posts: 647
Loc: Ozarks of Missouri
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Dont drink coffee or water just for the sake of something to do. You'll be in waders ALL DAY, and doin your business while wearing waders is a production you only want to go through once maybe twice each day. Pee right before you put on the waders whether you need to or not.
By the way, dont forget the toilet paper.
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#437638 - 11/30/07 01:37 PM
Re: River trapping tips
[Re: SNIPERBBB]
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trapper124
trapper
Registered: 12/22/06
Posts: 371
Loc: MO bootheel
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well baldknobber, i will have to take drowning wieghts, over where you are at god provides gravel and rocks, here god provides mud, mud, mud, o and mud
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#437683 - 11/30/07 02:05 PM
Re: River trapping tips
[Re: MinnTrapper]
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trapper124
trapper
Registered: 12/22/06
Posts: 371
Loc: MO bootheel
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i have pogos but how would you set them up on the end of the drowner?
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#437699 - 11/30/07 02:14 PM
Re: River trapping tips
[Re: MinnTrapper]
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BaldKnobber1
trapper
Registered: 06/29/07
Posts: 647
Loc: Ozarks of Missouri
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I hear ya 124. I have stretches of bank that are like that too.
If ya gotta take weight, ya gotta. But, always be mindful of the weight in yer boat, and after 3 or 4 'ditch lines' I bet you'll figgure out some other method for drowning. Since Im mostly rocky bottomed, I cant use drowner rods no matter how much I want to. OTOH, they may be exactly the ticket for you. A standard canoe is 17feet 5inchs long, and the space between the seats is about 12 feet. You could probably haul a couple dozen or so 12 foot drowner rods at the cost of about 60 lbs (total guess on wieght, as Ive never even seen one), and that would be a WHOLE lot lighter than a couple dozen breakdrums, tie plates or cinder blocks. Only thought is that anything above the gunnels of the boat makes it unstable in the water, and strapping on (with bungees) a bunch of steel rods would require a test float before I set out down the river without a plan B.
Not to argue with you 124, but Ima tellin ya, you're gonna see pretty quickly how fast the weight adds up in a trapping boat. Just be ever-consious of searching for a light wieght alternative to EVERYTHING!
(and I have often made plain mud work for me in my bags....just has to be completely still water
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#437823 - 11/30/07 03:37 PM
Re: River trapping tips
[Re: BaldKnobber1]
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BaldKnobber1
trapper
Registered: 06/29/07
Posts: 647
Loc: Ozarks of Missouri
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124, i sat here and typed it out and them backspaced it like 4 or 5 times. I just cant put the pogo to drowner set up into words.
Ill get you some pics of my drowner rigs tonight. I use 14in 1&1/4 pogs on every set. They will drive in gravel and hold in mud. I coppied them from a demo I saw at the 2006 NTA conv in hutch KS.
its a loop to loop connection so the pogo can be replaced easily if it wont come out when I pull the set. The slide lock is permanently attached to the drowner cable. There fore the trap is permnanently atached to the drowner cable, unless I want to pry open a j-hook in the field, and, well, I dont find myself wanting to do that very often.
Both ends of my 16 ft drowner cable have two inch loops on them. One loop for the pogo anchor loop to loop, and the other loop for the tangle stick or drowner bag. I attack the drowner bag top the cable with a ziptie after I fill it.
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#438162 - 11/30/07 06:55 PM
Re: River trapping tips
[Re: SNIPERBBB]
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trapper124
trapper
Registered: 12/22/06
Posts: 371
Loc: MO bootheel
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bald, i don't know if i misunderstood you or you misunderstood me but i was talking about using real long pogos for the deep water end of the drowner, i was wondering how i could do that. I have a real long driver and plenty of cable to put on the stakes just don't know how i would go about doing it.
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#438192 - 11/30/07 07:06 PM
Re: River trapping tips
[Re: trapper124]
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Cannon Ball
trapper
Registered: 12/23/06
Posts: 202
Loc: Washington , N.C.
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T124
Get Newt's video and it will show you how to make that drowner. 2 or 3 coon and you will have it paid for with shipping.
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#438647 - 11/30/07 11:29 PM
Re: River trapping tips
[Re: Cannon Ball]
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trapper124
trapper
Registered: 12/22/06
Posts: 371
Loc: MO bootheel
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cannon it ain't the fast that i could pay for it after some coons, its the fact that i can't pay for it right now.
does some one want to tell me for free?
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#438673 - 12/01/07 12:06 AM
Re: River trapping tips
[Re: trapper124]
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jwr
trapper
Registered: 12/23/06
Posts: 113
Loc: Rison, Ar
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Get a Good life jacket that FITS and Never NEVer NEVER take it off. Beter yet get one of them suspender inflatable life jackets, (I love mine) about a $100. Did I mention NEVER take it off.
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#439155 - 12/01/07 12:07 PM
Re: River trapping tips
[Re: jwr]
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trapper124
trapper
Registered: 12/22/06
Posts: 371
Loc: MO bootheel
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jwr, the place i will be ain't all that deep, deep holes probably don't even cover the wader
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#439939 - 12/01/07 08:35 PM
Re: River trapping tips
[Re: trapper124]
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Calvin
trapper
Registered: 09/12/07
Posts: 958
Loc: Farminton, Minnesota
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This was my first year running a river line. Learned a few things along the way. It depends on your soil make up but I used rebar on both ends for drowning stakes. I also use 14ga wire but learned this was inadequate as you have to re-wire after a coon or two. I went to 5-6 ft of3/32 cable instead and was very happy with that. I intially started with wood stakes but the rebar just worked out alot better with the cable.
_________________________
Any day above ground is a good day.
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#440185 - 12/01/07 10:23 PM
Re: River trapping tips
[Re: Calvin]
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The Beav
trapper
Registered: 12/23/06
Posts: 777
Loc: Wisconsin
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No one has mentioned the most important tip.
Never and I mean never leave the boat with out tying It up. Boats have a way of getting away from you.
I would stay away from earth type anchors at the deep end they can be just about Impossible to pull. If your water Isn't over your waders like you say you will be able to step In a T bar or a wood stake.
Get out on the line a stash traps and other gear along the way so when you start out you will have just enough gear to set up that part of the line. Then you will reach your next stash and go on from there. Pre scouting Is the most important part of any type of trapping but more so on a river line.
Don't over load the boat If you have to skin some of the catch along the way do It. We always gutted our beaver when the boat got close to being over loaded. Be safe.
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#440243 - 12/01/07 10:58 PM
Re: River trapping tips
[Re: The Beav]
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trapper124
trapper
Registered: 12/22/06
Posts: 371
Loc: MO bootheel
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beav, if i had some tbars long enough i would use them but i don't
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been there, done that.
