Trapping
as a Family
Article from July
- August 1999 Buckeye Trapper
by Paul
MeElhaney
At the last convention in Mansfield, we attended for the first
time and picked up an issue of the Buckeye Trapper. I read it
several times through. I found it to be a good magazine with interesting
articles. I came up the hard way in trapping, with no one to show
me how to trap, with only a copy of "The Trappers Companion"
from Fur Fish and Game. I made a lot of mistakes (this is a good
little book but the information is very dated) and learned from
them. I have been trapping a lot of years in total, but have a
lot to learn yet.
I started out trapping in High School and viewed it mostly as
a means of income. I managed to take enough fur to buy gas and
insurance for my old jeep. After I started working, other things
took priority (Girls) and I got away from the sport altogether.
The only right thing I did at this time was to give all my old
longspring traps to a kid who was just learning to trap. Now I
find that there were always other reasons to trap that I did not
realize at the time.
After many years of not trapping at all, my father purchased
some acreage in southern Ohio. This land included a major creek
that held a good number of beavers. I had never had an opportunity
to trap the large rodents in the past and thought it would be
fun to give it a try. That first year produced a few beavers,
but more importantly got me back into trapping. The next year
I thought that it would be fun to try my hand at snaring fox and
raccoon (in my bygone trapping days snaring was not yet legal
in Ohio). The end result has been that I now trap more than I
ever had before, it has even replaced many of my hunting activities.
Trapping, as many of you know, lends itself to being a fine family
activity. This was a fact that was lost on me during my first
years of trapping. Now that I have a family consisting of a wife
and three girls, I have found it to be much easier to take the
little ones along to set water sets and snares, than to take them
along squirrel or deer hunting. Silence and little girls in the
woods do not seem to go hand in hand. However, while trapping
they are free to ask questions and make old Dad think about why
he does things on the trapline the way he does.
We home school our older two girls and have found trapping to
be an excellent opportunity to teach our girls many lessons in
wildlife management, the environment, the habits of wildlife and
problem solving skills.
I took a week of vacation and set out with the camper and family,
to do a little trapping in about the third week of the season.
I took the children out one at a time to make sets with the exception
of foothold sets for fox. I guess I still like to keep the chances
for scent to a minimum at baited sets. However, I did not find
that having the kids along while setting snares reduced the catch.
Keeping them a short distance away where they could still see
what was going on kept them interested in what I was doing and
solved the problem of boredom associated with sitting quietly,
waiting on grey squirrels at the crack of dawn. Water sets for
muskrat were made with their help and as any trapper knows, muskrat
trapping suits this bill to a tee. Even my youngest, Heather,
who was three at the time, was able to participate in a small
way. She would walk the easier walks with me and I was surprised
at her ability to make her way along.
I would generally check the traps alone in the early morning
and would get to the camper to find the girls looking out the
camper window to see what we had caught. I will never forget the
first fox I brought to them that week. Both older girls waited
until they were alone with me and asked the same question, "'Did
you catch that fox in one of the traps I helped you set?"
This was a question that was repeated every morning and I was
very glad that they got the answer they were looking for most
of the time. They even took a surprising interest in the skinning
of the animals and handling of the fur.
The older girls, Natalie (8) and Amy (6), did their schoolwork
in the camper with Mom while three year old Heather helped Dad
with the campsite chores in the late morning. The older two, after
being done with their lessons would take turns helping Dad make
new sets and move or remake old sets that had made a catch.
Taking some time out of the season to trap with the kids at a
more leisurely pace was one of the best trapping experiences I
have ever had. Seeing their satisfaction at making a catch on
a trapline that they had helped set out, outweighed many times
any fur I missed by taking more time than usual to set the line
out and making fewer sets. I don't want to give the impression
that I think you should not take the young ones hunting anymore
in favor of trapping; but for my young girls, trapping seems to
be more enjoyable than hunting or fishing. Rules of quiet and
stealth are replaced with discussion of the habits of animals
and techniques of trapping. Keeping mostly on the move helped
them keep comfortable on the cooler days rather than freezing
in a tree stand, and they love to find a track that Dad didn’t
see.
Finally a word about my wife, Crystal, who did most of the work
that week and is infinitely patient (furs stored in the camper
freezer and the like). She has always understood my love of the
outdoors and shared in it, even when it meant doing some things
she wouldn't have done without some encouragement. Thank you.
|
