Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

January 15, 2015: With warm weather in the forecast, Dakota and I took off on a Thursday afternoon to see if we had any coyotes down. My concern with warm weather trapping, especially with coyotes, is green belly. We figured we better do a quick check and see if we couldn't get a few more snares up along the way. The long range forecast is for more warm weather, so I'm going to have to figure out a way to get back to make checks every couple of days. Even if it means checking in the dark, which I'm not a big fan of for safety reasons. Having said that, I've spent many dark nights checking traps over the past few seasons. I just try to avoid it where possible.

We started off checking empty snares but in short order we came to our first coyote. A nice sized male on a trail that leads through a stand of willow. We set this snare about a month ago after seeing tracks leading off a beaver dam that led through the willows. After several checks, I was starting to wonder if a coyote would ever come back through that way but sure enough, this one did.

The coyote went under the rotten log and entangled itself in the willow bush. You can see it if you look closely.

The male coyote that crossed the beaver dam and hunted its way through the willows.

After checking a few more snares without luck, we came to another spot that had been set for about the same time period as the first coyote we caught beforehand. I was starting to lose faith in this spot as well, but it just goes to show you that if a coyote went there once, chances are it'll go there twice. This one was a nice young female with a good white belly.

A nice female coyote with a white belly. She is a little dark along the back though.

The rest of our snares held nothing. We had brought all of our lynx and coyote carcasses with us that had been lying by the garage at home. A neighbour's dog decided to munch on the lynx carcasses so I decided it was time to get them set out in a kind of mini bait station. The location we chose is the same location where we had disposed of the coyote that had shoulder mites. Numerous tracks showed that coyotes had visited the spot, so in obvious trails, we got a half dozen snares set up around the bait site. The location didn't offer the opportunity for more than six, so six it was. We'll see what happens next time we're back.

Coyotes number 5 and 6.

So far with only a handful of snares set, we've managed to take six coyotes. My hope is to take ten from the ranch. More would be a bonus but with all of this warm weather forecast, I'm worried about getting too many snares set with a bunch of coyotes caught that haven't had the proper chance to cool down and even freeze. We have 24 snares set now, including the six set at the mini bait station. We will be returning right away to make another run.

Stay tuned!

A good end to 1804's season

January 9-11, 2015: Before I get you caught up on our trip to the registered trapline, I should get you caught up on our activities at the ranch where we're chasing coyotes. We still don't have a lot of sets up but the ones we do are starting to produce a little. A week or so ago, we made a check of our snares there and then came back home before heading to the trapline the following day. During that check, we managed to pick up a couple of coyotes. The first one we caught was a good-sized male that looked to be in great condition, that is until I got up close and inspected it. Usually, sarcoptic mange is the culprit when discovering your coyote is useless. This time, however, another disease has suddenly reared its ugly head in the world of the lowly coyote. I'm not sure what the proper name of the disease is but I will be researching it for the magazine in a near issue; however, trappers are calling it "shoulder mites". Apparently, it's a mite of some type that imbeds itself between the shoulders of a coyote. This causes the coyotes guard hairs to either fall of or, my guess, are rubbed of by the coyote, making the pelt worthless.

I once trapped for a cattle rancher near Chip Lake where mange was prevalent to a great degree. In fact, for every 10 coyotes I caught, four would have to be discarded. I've never caught a coyote with shoulder mites before and hope it isn't as prevalent as mange is in coyotes. However, I'm hearing reports that in some areas it is pretty bad.

The good-sized male coyote that upon first glance was a keeper.

Here you can see the damage done by shoulder mites, making a good pelt worthless.

It's a shame that coyotes are susceptible to so many terrible diseases; perhaps that is why they are considered "filthy vermin" by many. When a coyote is inflicted such as the one above, the animal is discarded and left for raven feed.

On that same day, we managed to pick up another coyote, only this one was in good shape. This one was our third coyote of the season. The plan is to ramp things up on the ranch as soon as we shut down the registered line.

Coyote number 3 - a keeper.

The ranch is covered in oil lease roads and pump jacks.

Our next check at the ranch produced another coyote, our fourth of the season. At first glance, we thought we had a wolf lying there as from a distance, the big barrel-chested coyote looked monstrous. In fact, I'd bet the big male coyote pushes 50 pounds. He was our only catch but we were grateful to have another "good" coyote for the fur room.

The big, barrel-chested coyote that pushes 50 pounds.

 We reached the registered trapline around 3:00 in the afternoon. There was about 4-inches of new snow on the ground and as soon as we had the paths cleared and the snow removed from the roof of the cabin, Dakota ran off to check on his mink set near the beaver dam. In short order, he was back with a prime female fisher, our third one of the season. Our fisher quota was now filled. I'm not sure what has happened regarding our fisher population but suddenly there appears to be quite a few running about. Every year we manage to catch one, but that's it. Needless to say, we are quite happy to take home three this year. Female fishers always garner more money than the large males. Their fur is silkier than the bigger course-furred males that are often referred to as grizzled.

Our third fisher of the season - a prime female.

The next morning, we loaded our gear and set off. Our plan was to take down all of our sets and close up shop for the season. With both our lynx and fisher quotas filled and not wanting to catch any marten this year, we were done. We'd spend the next month trapping coyotes at the ranch before spring sets in and beavers and rats become the order of the day.

Once we were out on the trapline, we discovered that there was a lot more snow in certain areas than in others. Quite a bit of snow had fallen in places, as much as a foot or more. It was starting to look more like the trapline we know and it was snowing even more as we traveled around. Our trip was uneventful with empty traps wherever we went, but I was smiling nonetheless; it had been a good season for the few sets we had out, albeit a short season.

Stuck on the entrance to Clear Trail. I lost sight of the trail and fell off into the deep snow.

The snow was proving to be a challenge. We'd forgotten how hard we'd worked last year when snow had become our number one enemy. Suddenly, we were remembering all too well. After digging ourselves out for the second time, we finally hit the last leg of our trails before winding back up on Cabin Trail and home. Clear Trail would once again prove to be a winner. When we hit our squirrel midden just down from where we'd caught a big fisher the week before, we were shocked to see a marten hanging from one of our traps. Thankfully, it was a young-of-the-year male. I wouldn't have been too happy had it been an adult female. No damage done to our marten population. We also had a nice squirrel hanging above the midden. We'd hoped for a few more squirrels at this spot but snow had hampered our efforts.

A perfectly caught young male marten.

Dakota holds up our prize.

The single squirrel is to Dakota's right.

The rest of our traps were empty. I was surprised we never caught a weasel. I can't remember the last time we ran the line, even this small portion of it, without catching a bait thief. Perhaps we're finally knocking them down a bit, which would be helpful to our marten population.

Back at the cabin, the snow was falling like crazy. Now I was starting to become concerned about getting out of there. If it kept up at the pace it was coming down, we'd have two-feet by morning. Thankfully, later that night the skies opened up to the stars... and then it got cold. By bedtime, the thermometer was reading -24 Celsius at the window.

You can see how high the snow is to the window of the cabin. Much of it we've pulled from the roof, but it never ceases to amaze me at how much snow we get up here on the trapline.

We watched a movie on the DVD player and after it was done, I started reading a book my good friend Ken Colwill had given me. It was silent in the cabin with Dakota listening to music with his headphones on when suddenly, I heard a strange noise coming from behind the wood stove. A quick glance over and I saw a flash of white to my right. I got Dakota's attention and we watched as a weasel had entered the cabin uninvited. Dakota kicked the metal behind the wood stove and suddenly, the weasel was seen running along the top of the snow pile right outside the window. I'm not sure if it visited us again during the night, but it wouldn't surprise me if it did. I don't mind a weasel living around the cabin for mouse control, I just don't want one in bed with me at night. The weasel was far too fast to get a photo of.

The weasel appeared where the tin ends just above the metal pail.

The next morning, we packed our gear, gave the cabin a quick going over, and then bid her farewell. We'd be back in February for a final cleaning and for some wood gathering for at home. But for now, we were done for this year. Coyotes will become our main target now at the ranch.

Our catch for the trip.

Stay tuned. We're hoping to spend some time now figuring out exactly where the coyotes are traveling at the ranch. We've saved all of our lynx carcasses and will establish a short-term bait station there that my add to our coyote count. I hope to double or triple up the number of snares we currently have set.

Catch Count:
Lynx - 5
Fisher - 3
Coyote - 4
Weasel - 9
Squirrel - 4
Marten - 1 

Until next time!

From bad to excellent!

December 26-30, 2014: We left on Boxing Day with intentions of spending New Year's Eve at the trapline, as we have for the past three years. But before we would even point our wheels onto the 45 minutes of gravel roads that take us up to 4300 feet and the trapline, we would spend a good part of the day at the ranch checking the few sets we have there and perhaps get a few more up. We had high hopes of a coyote catch but our hopes were short lived, all of our snares were empty and coyote tracks were again few and far between. There certainly doesn't appear to be as many coyotes here as I was led to believe; perhaps they'll return before the season is up. Even with few tracks, we managed to get up another five snares on trails that did hold tracks, albeit, single tracks, not the well-used trails that you'd like to find.

We arrived at the trapline late in the afternoon. We have a few sets that we check on Cabin Trail Road and on Cabin Trail. This day they too were empty. So far our trip was beginning in poor fashion. Speaking of fashion, Dakota was sporting his new raccoon hat complete with tail, a gift from Mom and Dad for Christmas.

Dakota sporting his new coon cap complete with tail.

The next morning we hit the trail at first light in -16 Celsius weather. Again, our traps and lynx cubbies on Cabin Trail were empty but each was refreshed and left with new hope. Gulo Trail also held no catches nor did our mink sets and trail snares up Grizzly Road. We hit Unnamed Trail hoping for better luck and if you can consider a weasel better luck, then so be it, our luck was changing. Personally, I'd rather the little bait thieves didn't take our traps out of commission but they are a furbearer and there is a market for their fur. This was weasel number 8 on the season. I remarked to Dakota that if we were running the entire line this year we'd probably be at 30 already. The rest of Unnamed Trail held nothing.

And so it went, from one set to the next we looked at empty traps with our spirits low. We added another lynx cubby and set another marten box on the first part of South Trail, but that was as far as we were going down there this year. I want to rest the marten on this part of the trapline. It's where our biggest catch comes from and we'd taken several marten from this area over the past couple of years. 

With only Center Trail and Clear Trail left to check, we turned down the pipeline that would lead us to Center Trail. Our first set there was empty as well. Little did we know, our luck was about to get considerably better.

The next set on Center Trail is a lynx cubby guarded by a 220 Conibear. We'd caught a lynx here every year since it was built. This year, we added a couple of snares around the outside of it, hoping to catch a circling lynx. When we first arrived, I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. The angle of the trail and where the set sits requires you to stand up to notice it but suddenly, I realized we'd caught a lynx in the 220. Closer inspection revealed another lynx caught in a snare to the right of the cubby. We had a double!

Dakota with our double lynx catch.

One caught by the 220 Conibear, the other in a neck snare.

With only one more set to check on Center Trail, I fired up the Ski-doo and we took off with our lynx safely bagged inside the sled. Our spirits were definitely up. We only needed one more lynx for a full quota, which on this trapline is a joke. The previous week, we could have filled our quota with ease. We caught two lynx and I could have shot three, all in one day. And now we just caught two more. The number of lynx here is amazing, they are everywhere it seems.

Arriving at our next set, I let out a hoop and a holler. There, hanging from a 120 Conibear in a vertical marten box was a huge male fisher. Our first fisher of the year!

The big male fisher. A perfect catch.

After high fives and cheers all around, we bundled up our prize catch and added it to the two lynx we already had stowed in the sled. Our luck had definitely changed for the better.

Next up was Clear Trail. My dad and I cleared this trail a few years ago and it's been a decent supplier of fur ever since. In fact, we caught our first marten on this trapline here, our first lynx, and our first squirrels. It's also a good supplier of wood for the cabin. We have three marten boxes on this trail, two lynx cubbies, and three squirrel middens. This year, only one squirrel midden is set, as one appears to be abandoned and the other had a tree fall that knocked down all of our poles. The one that is set gave us three squirrels the previous week. We've also caught a barred owl on this trail no less. The trail is a windy one that's quite narrow and arriving at sets is instant. Come around a tree and you're there, which is exactly what happens at the first set. To our astonishment, there, in the marten box that produced our first marten on this trapline for Dad and I, was another huge male fisher!

Our second fisher of the day.

Fishers are amazing creatures. To me, they are my favourite member of the weasel family. Their colours are beautiful, going from a grizzled brown at the head to jet black at the tail. They have large feet, very noticeable claws and large, sharp teeth. They are also the only animal that can consistently and successfully kill porcupines. This is because of their incredible speed. They say that for as fast as a marten can catch a squirrel in a tree, a fisher can catch a marten in a tree. They are amazing and we now had two large males that had to weigh 12 pounds each. This one has a noticeable porcupine quill stuck in his side. Most fishers are usually sporting a quill or two.

The fishers body can expel porcupine quills without infection or problem.

Our fisher quota is three. To catch a third would be nice.

Our next set was empty and our squirrel poles held nothing. Snow had landed on the poles, covering each of the snares. You could see where the squirrels had hopped along but with the snares under the snow, we had no hope of catching one. Our next set is a walk-through lynx cubby. This is the spot where we'd caught and released the barred owl the previous weekend. To say we were a little shocked to see another lynx caught in the same snare that had held the barred owl would be an understatement. But sure enough, there it was in the exact same snare.

Caught in the same snare as the barred owl.

Our lynx quota was now filled. We would have to retrace our tracks and start taking down the cubbies that we have up. A pain in the butt to say the least. But first we had two more sets to check. I was praying our next lynx cubby held nothing and somebody must have been listening to me because it was empty. Our last marten box held another weasel, the second of the day. I don't expect we'll catch a marten on this part of the trapline, even though we have in the past. But they have been few here. It was a very successful day with three lynx, two fisher and two weasels. Considering how few sets we actually have up, that's a fantastic catch.

Weasel number 2 on the day and number 9 on the season.

Back at the cabin, we fired up the stove and cooked up some nice steaks and fried potatoes for supper. A staple on the trapline is hot banana peppers. My dad got me hooked on these things when he was here a couple of years ago. Today, I eat them with breakfast and supper whenever I can.

Dakota getting ready to chow down.

After a few hours running the line, a good meal sure hits the spot.

A staple on the trapline - hot banana peppers.

That night the temperature dropped big time. By the time we hit the sack, the thermometer was reading -34 Celsius. And that's by the cabin window. You can add a few more degrees colder to that. The cabin has a good wood stove though and you never get cold here. In fact, quite often you're kicking off the covers.

The next morning we hung up our catch and spent the day tinkering around the cabin. A good cleaning was in order and in no time we had the place sparkling clean, well, at least to our eyes; my wife would beg to differ.

Hung up and waiting for the skinning shack.

A good catch for so few sets out.

Notice the large, sharp teeth on a fisher.

That night I went to work on our weasels. Skinning weasels is always an adventure in smell. Even if you don't hit their scent glands, they still seem to give off a pungent order. Below is the skinning sequence for weasels.

Our weasel ready to be skinned. A sharp knife is a must.

The first step is to put your weasel in a bag and spray it full of Raid. Weasels are notorious for carrying fleas and the last thing you want is fleas in your cabin. Then the weasel, as all fur should be, is brushed out clean.

The front legs are removed at the elbow.

The back legs are ringed, and then a cut is made down the back of each leg, meeting in front of the scent glands nearest the belly. Another cut is made to the back of the vent on each side, leaving a small patch of fur between the legs. The back legs are then worked free of the hide and the tail worked free from the tail bone.

The hide is then pulled down over the body much like taking off a sock.

Carefully, the ears and eyes are cut free and then the hide cut off at the nose.

The now free pelt is pulled over a board to match the size of the weasel.

A fleshing tool is used to remove any excess fat and flesh.

The front legs are pushed back in behind the pelt. I use a chopstick for this. Then the pelt is pinned to the board at the back legs and at the tail. A pin can also be used at the nose to help stop the pelt from slipping off or down the board. It is also wise to put a belly stick (again, I use a chopstick) down between the pelt and the board from the nose to the pelt bottom. This helps when removing the pelt from the board once dried. The entire process usually takes me less than 10 minutes per weasel.

Two finished weasel pelts. Once dried - about an hour or two - they are removed from the boards.

Until next time!