Setting for lynx

December 19-21, 2015:  Another trip with little to show for my efforts. The marten, fisher and mink aren't cooperating, the coyotes and fox that seemed to be on all my trails have now disappeared, and the wolves have yet to return. So, I spent a lot of time checking empty traps (with the exception of three more bait thieves and another squirrel), re-setting traps that had been snapped, and replacing stolen bait.

Weasel number 18 of 20 on the season.

Another bait thief out of commission.

In the previous blog post, I talked about catching a bunch of bait thieves over a two-day span. What I forgot to mention was an episode of thievery at its grandest scale. When I returned to the cabin that day with five weasels in tow, one of them had been snapped in the trap against the bait, a fist-sized chunk of beaver meat. There is so much fat and grease in beaver meat that it never really freezes solid; this is what makes it such good bait. Because the weasel was snapped against the beaver meat, it had blood in its white fur along its neck. The blood can be removed from the fur simply by getting it wet and rubbing Borax into it. The Borax removes the blood and leaves a clean white fur coat again. On this day, however, I decided I would leave that particular weasel until the next day for cleaning, so I left it on the rocking chair that sits on the porch of the cabin.

Later that night, I heard a rustling outside the cabin door and instantly knew it was the weasel that had been eating the carcasses that I'd left on the woodpile who was making the noise. He had come back for more. I looked out the window on the door of the cabin and saw him on the deck floor. What surprised me though was that he had the weasel I'd left on the rocking chair in his mouth. I quickly opened the cabin door, hoping it would scare him off and he'd drop my weasel. He took off all right, but with my weasel still in his mouth. I took off out the cabin door yelling at the thief to drop my weasel! The yelling though, just made him run faster! But I was hot behind him, running through the snow in my slippers after him. However, a weasel in the snow, even with his own body weight in his mouth, is a lot faster than a man in slippers. I soon ran out of cabin light and the thief disappeared into the night with my catch in his mouth. Standing there watching him disappear, I quickly realized my slippers were full of melting snow and my feet were quickly getting cold. Back in the cabin while I was changing my now wet socks, I started to laugh, realizing I must have looked like the village idiot chasing a weasel through the snow while wearing slippers.

Weasels are pure carnivores. They don't eat anything but meat, including their own.

My intention on this trip was to start getting lynx cubbies set up. Lynx tracks have been showing up with regularity in my old locations and in several new spots as well, so filling my quota of five shouldn't be an issue. I'd been holding off because one of the main things that the fur graders look for is how white the belly is where the spots are, and how much silver is in the guard hairs along the back of the lynx; they call this "clarity" and it's given a grade of 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, with a clarity of 1 getting the best grade. My clarity grades have been averaging 3 with the odd 2 thrown in, which I'm not happy with. I'm chalking it up to starting on the lynx too early so this year, I held off for about three weeks, hoping my clarity grades improve, as the lynx should be in a more prime condition.

A proven lynx cubby set up once again.

This is what a lynx would be looking at. The bait is suspended just above a stick smeared with Lonesome Tom lure, a smelly concoction that the lynx want to go in and rub themselves on. The bait is the deciding factor. Lots of trappers don't use bait; however, I find it works extremely well. Once the lynx commits, the game is over.

I've never set up a lynx cubby on the Extension Route before because I've never seen a lot of lynx tracks down there. Over the last few weeks, however, I've been seeing a big set of tracks near the mid-section of the trail, and another pair of sibling tracks at the far end of the trail. The big set of tracks must be from a big tom cat because the tracks are huge; it almost looks like a Clydesdale walked down the trail. I decided I'd better get a cubby up where his tracks have been most consistant to try to catch him.

The set of tracks being consistently left behind by what I presume is a big tom.

The new cubby set up for the big lynx on the Extension Route.

Lynx have small heads, so you don't want your snare loop size to be any bigger than 7 or 8 inches wide. But lynx also have long legs, so you want your snare to be about 12 to 14 inches off the ground to the bottom of the snare loop. Placing a couple of sticks on an angle with just enough room for the lynx to step through below the snare, guarantees he's going to put his head into the snare. You also have to make sure your bait is far enough back so that the lynx can't reach in with his paw and get the bait, or get his paw caught in your snare. As well, lynx cubbies need to be big enough so that the lynx thinks he can go in and turn around. If the cubby is too small, the lynx won't go into it. It should also be sparse, not filled in with spruce boughs and dark looking.

Another view of what the lynx would see.

I managed to get 11 lynx cubbies set up on this trip. We'll see how I do on the first check; this will determine how many more cubbies and trail sets I need to get up, if any. Last year, Dakota and I caught our quota of 5 lynx in about 8 days with just 9 cubbies up.

When I returned to the cabin that night, I skinned out the three weasels and the squirrel I'd caught after cooking myself up a nice steak dinner on the stove.

Boiled potatoes and a nice rib steak goes down real well after a long day on the line.

Weasels and squirrels are skinned and finished with the leather side out and the fur in.

Trapping is a lot of hard work and most people that take the trapping course through the Alberta Trappers' Association usually quit after their first year or two, finding it too hard, to expensive, or too time consuming. In fact, we believe that of every 20 who take the course, only one will trap on a regular basis. It's easy to fall in love with the idea of trapping, but to actually get out there and be the boots on the ground can change that love in a hurry. However, for me, I can't imagine not being out there witnessing nature during the toughest months of the year first hand.

Until next time!