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Post by trapperjack on Dec 2, 2020 10:13:17 GMT -5
Well, not a single fisher or marten this year. I saw quite a few while hunting too. That warm spell was crazy. Caught a ton of red squirrels in 155s and most were eaten by the time I checked traps leaving the head and tail. 5 coyotes, 9 red and grey, 63 muskrats, 5 beaver, 11 coon. I saw 1 bull moose. First ever in the Adirondack for me. 2 black bear and seven deer. Not a bad year I guess. I had fun and that’s all that matters. Final weekend for deer up here and then muzzleloader. Season went so fast. I’m getting old I guess.
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Post by turtledale on Dec 2, 2020 10:45:39 GMT -5
Sounds like you had some fun and got out. Maybe just bait with red squirrels next year and put 2 traps at each site. Just a thought. Haven't taken a tally yet but I coon trapped a week. Fox trapped a week now I've put in rat and beaver sets for week. Going to try for coyotes in January once deer seasons are all over here. Take care
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Post by trapperjack on Dec 2, 2020 15:36:59 GMT -5
Yeah I set with red squirrels after that, along with beaver and rats. It just was too warm in my opinion. Of course, they were smarter than me too. All and all, It was a great year to be in the woods. More hunters than usual though. COVID related? . I also didn’t know who won the election until a week later when I talked to a hunter.
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Post by joepennanti on Dec 3, 2020 19:35:25 GMT -5
Why are you writing in the past tense? The best fur is yet to come and most land trapping runs til mid-February.
I limited out on Marten; no Fisher.
Those that you saw while hunting... did you set for them?
I am surprised that the Squirrel heads were not eaten. Keep those for bait. Crush them right at the set. No critter can refuse delicious brains on a cold Winter night. I have found 40+ headless squirrels, mice, birds, etc. in the Woods over the last 40 years.
Why no photos of the Coyotes or Fox? I don't understand why there are so few photos on this forum. It takes all of 1 minute + 45 seconds to upload a photo. And it adds so much to a thread.
Can you tell me the ratio of Reds/Greys? Are you near the peaks? I'm thinking there are almost no Reds where I trap.
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Post by turtledale on Dec 4, 2020 5:58:32 GMT -5
Why are you writing in the past tense? The best fur is yet to come and most land trapping runs til mid-February. I limited out on Marten; no Fisher. Those that you saw while hunting... did you set for them? I am surprised that the Squirrel heads were not eaten. Keep those for bait. Crush them right at the set. No critter can refuse delicious brains on a cold Winter night. I have found 40+ headless squirrels, mice, birds, etc. in the Woods over the last 40 years. Why no photos of the Coyotes or Fox? I don't understand why there are so few photos on this forum. It takes all of 1 minute + 45 seconds to upload a photo. And it adds so much to a thread. Can you tell me the ratio of Reds/Greys? Are you near the peaks? I'm thinking there are almost no Reds where I trap. I do all my posting from a dollar store tracphone have no computer at home. Take very few pictures of fur anyways. Wouldn't know how to upload anything. Catch mostly reds out here have lots of them and hardly any Grey's. Have quite a few coyotes and don't start with them and fox again until January. I live off the shores of lake Erie in Chautauqua county. Lake effect snow machine is just starting to work up with some colder temperatures. Most of my trapping is revolved around deer seasons the land owners just don't want you out there during any deer season. State land I quit trapping because theft was out of control and most caught aanimals were blasted in half by hunters.
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tmc
#2 Newhouse
Posts: 2,447
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Post by tmc on Dec 8, 2020 17:17:35 GMT -5
My trapping season - and deer season - along with my life were so heavily impacted by repeated (THREE OF THEM SINCE THE MIDDLE OF OCTOBER!!!) COVID quarantines for my grandsons which I had to "officiate" and do the homeschooling for them, that as far as I'm concerned, it's over. I had maybe 20 days to trap, I don't know I'm so frazzled maybe a little more, and never had more than 10 sets out and working during that time. I had 8 sets out for fisher and 2 for canines. ALL of the fisher sets were along a small section of the southerly line of my farm in Sauquoit (southeastern Oneida County, WMU 6S), the distance from first set to last set maybe 1,600 feet. I utilize stone walls in the wooded section of that line. But, I suppose I shouldn't be griping - I caught 3 fisher (2 males, 1 female), 3 coyotes (all from one of the two canine sets), 2 grey fox, and one red fox. Not all that bad. All but one fisher and one coyote are put up, but those two are at least skinned and in the freezer awaiting the end of this current miserable stinking idiotic "quarantine" to end at midnight, Sunday, December 13th - actually, the daycare/virtual learning center for the boys has to quarantine until midnight of the 14th, so I'm still in COVID prison until the 15th. Fisher season for me ends December 10th... Of the pelts in the freezer - the coyote is a medium-large female, the fisher is one VERY big, VERY old male, he had only about 3 or 4 inches of tail and a badly healed broken left rear leg, plus other old injuries I detected once he was skinned. Very BIG, very fat, and extremely well-muscled individual. It was at least half again harder to skin than any coyote I ever skinned. Very tough critter. Oh well, at least the boys benefited greatly from "grampa" having to educate them. Twin boys, gonna turn 7 next week, two different schools because one of them is wheelchair bound. It's been a tremendous drain on grampa though, more than I could ever express... my wife works from home since this crap started in March, my daughter is considered an essential worker so yeah, she has to go to work, and we're limited to travel between the two households. Grampa's schedule is flexible, so that translates to grampa gets the short stick lol. But the blessings abound. And we're grateful for the strongest of bonds that have been forged.
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Post by turtledale on Dec 8, 2020 18:16:11 GMT -5
tmc- your family is lucky they have you to step in and and help. Hopefully the time spent with the boys will help strengthen the bonds you have. Sounds like you caught a tough old cagey Fisher. Was wondering what color your coyotess are. I live on the shores and first hills of lake Erie. about 50 percent of yotes I catch are reddish. Take care
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Post by trapperjack on Dec 8, 2020 18:27:25 GMT -5
TMC .YOU ARE A GOOD MAN.
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tmc
#2 Newhouse
Posts: 2,447
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Post by tmc on Dec 9, 2020 21:00:14 GMT -5
Thanks guys, but I'm sure I'm no different than any of you all. We were raised in another world, another time, and it's literally in our DNA. I could no more walk away from family than I could cut my heart out and eat it. It's just not possible. I get there never later than 7:30AM and generally don't get home until after 8PM (I just got home at 8:16 lol). 5 days a week whenever this COVID insanity rears up and spits it's venom our way. The hundreds of stories I could tell about the genuine insanity... not only my own, but those affected similarly. The county health department tells you one thing about quarantining while the state health department tells you another, and says don't listen to the county they're 100% wrong but it's the locals that are the ones that can't stick yer sack in the wringer so it's infuriating. One mom says the county called her and said her 6-year-old daughter had to isolate in her bedroom, and had to wear a mask, food could be left for her but she had to social distance when the door opened. Asked what about the bathroom, the gal from the county started to read out of a book. Mom tells her to shut up, they're not going to abide by any of it except the staying home part, gal starts harassing her over it. On and on... This most recent quarantine was the result of my wheelchair-bound grandson testing positive. False positive, he tested negative 3 additional times, we paid out of pocket and if you know anything about it, it is not cheap that way and we later found out can get you in trouble... still waiting to see what it'll amount to. We were told it doesn't matter if he tests negative 100 times a day, one positive and no number of negatives matter. He has hydrocephalus and has a shunt under the skin leading from inside his skull to the abdomen where the excess fluid can harmlessly drain and be absorbed by his body. At least twice a year I take him to Syracuse for an MRI, but he's paralyzed on his left side and unable to remain still so they have to use general anesthesia and that's defined as a surgical procedure. So, a week or so before his appointment for the MRI, I take him to his local pediatrician for a "pre-op screening." That was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. And now with COVID mania, a test between 3 and 5 days prior to admission to the hospital. My daughter was able to get him in for the test on Thanksgiving morning. The Monday after Thanksgiving, the positive result came back. Again, no one doubts that it was a false positive but that didn't matter. I had to go pick up both boys at the registered daycare/virtual learning/physical therapist location and tell the director. Every parent had to leave work and come get their children. And other than that facility, the ONLY place besides home that he'd been was the doctor's office and the testing location, SINCE NOVEMBER 6TH. So that means IF it were really a positive, then absolutely start the 2-week quarantine from the date of the test. NO. The infected person only has a TEN DAY quarantine, everyone else pulls a 2-weeker in COVID prison. BUT... my daughter is considered an essential worker, so all that's necessary is if she feels like she has any symptoms, call in to work and go by what they say. So help me God. She, and we, all got tested anyhow, all negative. All of us and everyone associated with the daycare facility? - NO SYMPTOMS, NO POSITIVE TESTS RESULTS. Doesn't matter. You're talking about more than 100 live directly, NEGATIVELY, impacted and no telling how many more are indirectly impacted by this insanity. I got the call from NYS Contact Tracing in Albany one day, my wife 3 days later, and now we each have different COVID prison release dates because it's based on when they finally contact you!!! Each of the parents from the daycare facility - same boat. And the daycare facility has to remain closed until the 15th, even though when I wake up next Monday morning I'm a free man, because that's 2 weeks (the 15th) from the date someone finally processed the facility's paperwork. And oh, brother, believe me, it gets so much more complicated and insane from there!
I will no longer comply with any of their rules that are ridiculous and draconian. None of us are inclined to flaunt common sense rules to reduce the spread of this China virus, but what's being done by government is literally made up as they go along.
Sorry to take this so far off track... turtledale, I haven't seen any red around these parts. A lot of very dark, a lot of very light colors. These all look like different sizes of the same color, very light bellies and light to greyish/grizzled above.
One of the males that I was fleshing, unfortunately was the day after the election and I had the radio on in the barn... BIG MISTAKE. I fleshed so hard at one pint listening to the election fiasco that a strip along the back of the legs -- hair came out as I was running the fleshed stuff off the hide. A few days later, a friend looked at the boarded pelts, took a look at that one and said, "Wow, too bad about that mange. Otherwise quite a beauty!" GAAAAAHHHHHH! IT'S NOT MANGE oh nevermind...
Old Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times." I want Old Normal back! heh heh, maybe I'll talk to my friends that own a (legal) distillery and convince them to come up with a spirit called "Old Normal". Or Old Norm, or Old Norman, or... ok nevermind. I'm fried and I need sleep. Tomorrow the one grandson has a Common Core Math test. And now I'm about to go off on another tangent 1,000 times worse than the one above. Unless you're familiar with Common Core, YOU WOULD NEVER BELIEVE IT. Never. Interesting times, INDEED!
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tmc
#2 Newhouse
Posts: 2,447
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Post by tmc on Dec 9, 2020 21:16:01 GMT -5
Sorry, one more thing - I've been through this, A LOT. Starting with the school closing back in March through the middle of June. There is NO WAY my conscience would ever allow me to push this hell off on my wife or daughter. Twin first-graders, two different schools, two different programs, two different schedules. I literally do not have time to you-know-what from the time I leave home, to the time I get home. And I know I've got it far, far easier than most families out there. So, yeah, maybe not so much about being a good guy as just being a man, a husband, a father, and a grandfather. And I've got the medals (and scars) to prove it. And, an additional bonus - I've become quite a good cook. And my singing voice, which once was considered a lethal weapon, has improved to the point where the boys won't go to sleep without grampa singing a long hymn or an old Irish folk song. Weekends I'm there generally from 5PM until 8 or later. Mom's gotten fond of grampa taking over the cooking chores, and the boys want a song. Hey, when this is over, hmmmm.... the possibilities! G'night.
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paintedpaw
Retired NYSDEC Lake George Ranger
Posts: 691
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Post by paintedpaw on Dec 10, 2020 12:08:59 GMT -5
The year 2020 has been the worst year of my life. In June my sister passed away from lung cancer. In September my wife had a knee replacement which had a rough recovery, a few weeks later her mother fell, broke her hip, and died three days later. Numerous friends contacted Covid, some very sick, others not at all. In November I started trapping fisher. Caught a couple of mink and pulled those traps. Caught a fisher early on, the weather was extremely warm, trapping in shirt sleeves. I became very, very ill; fever, tremors, muscle aches all over, and hallucinations. I was tested for flu and Covid, negative on flu, but covid results would take several days. I continued to get worse. Doctor advised to get to emergency room, the worry was that I had Covid. Quick test at hospital showed I was negative for Covid, but had Anaplasmosis, a disease transmitted by a different type of tick than the ones that carry lymes. The bad news was that it adversely affected my organs; kidneys, lungs, liver, and heart. Good news is that anti biotics could permanently cure it. Nurses told me later that I was near death when I was admitted. The antibiotic has worked and most of my organs are back to normal. Blood count still low. Taking a nucleur heart test tomorrow. Am very sensitive to the cold. Had to have a friend pull my traps. My season is over. Never got to go deer hunting, but I'm just thankful to be alive and hopefully fully recover. I would strongly urge all trappers to put their fisher in a bag and spray them well for ticks. Spray your clothing as well. Shower daily and self inspect for ticks. I understand the type that got me can do their dirty work in less than 12 hours. When I was aware of his presence I got him off me, but he still nailed me. Be safe everyone. Hopefully 2021 will be a better year.
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tomsnare
It's a good time to be a trapper!
Posts: 514
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Post by tomsnare on Dec 10, 2020 17:26:34 GMT -5
Hope you get up and going! A ranch I trap lost a young cowboy to the plague, he was part of the family that owns the place. I "bomb" everything I catch, the red fox are the worst for fleas, even the cougars crawl with "em. Heres to 2021, hate to see time go fast but this year has been tough.
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Post by turtledale on Dec 10, 2020 17:43:53 GMT -5
Painted paw - I'm glad you got the antibiotics and correct diagnosis in time. I worked and ran a grape farm my whole life and have had hundreds of ticks on me. Thank the good Lord I've never contracted anything most of the time I feel em crawling and they never sink in. Just yesterday I was putting up a red I had in the freezer and when brushing it out again found four ticks. Neck had 20 to 30 scars and holes from ticks. Never saw one so bad. Summer here was warm and super dry, maybe that has something to do with more ticks. I'll be putting up some rats tomorrow and a couple coon. After that I'll be getting out the beaver boards and fleshing and tacking them down. Have a few more beaver to trap but waiting till January and the deer hunters to clear out. Maybe I'll try my hand at clean skinning a couple. Take care all
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Post by trappermac on Dec 10, 2020 20:54:46 GMT -5
Been a horrible year, sorry about your sister and mother in law Al. Lost my Mom earlier this year also, she knew a ton of people and the showing and funeral was immediate family only due to covid. Yep, bring on 2021. Cant happen fast enough.
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