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.
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| The good-sized male coyote that upon first glance was a keeper. |
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| 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.
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| Coyote number 3 - a keeper. |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| A perfectly caught young male marten. |
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| Dakota holds up our prize. |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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