To trap otter cut a log about 18 inches in diameter and about 7 or 8 feet in length, then cut half off five or six inches of one end of the log. Now float your log with the cut end down. Fasten your trap chain to the side of the log. Float your log to just below the point of a stream or a little above an otter slide.
See that the log end on which the trap rests is below the water so as to give the otter a chance to climb onto the log to investigate the scent which should be "Oil of Anise" smeared on to a stick and set upright on the log. If you use good judgment in placing your log-float, you can count the "b.a.l.l.s" on the otter"s feet at every set.
I find where the otter comes out of the water, writes an Arkansas trapper, to dung, or slide, as some term it, and I take a No. 4 steel trap and set it where he comes out of the water and about two inches under. Great care should be taken in setting a trap for an otter, not to go too close to the slides. Have a pair of rubber boots and wade in the stream along the edge to where the slide is. Set your trap so as to leave everything just as you found it, as near as possible; if handy, set from boat. No bait is required.
[Ill.u.s.tration: LARGE OTTER CAUGHT IN NO. 3 NEWHOUSE.]
Fasten your chain to a pole, say 6 or 8 feet long, leaving some limbs on one end to prevent ring of chain from coming off and wire the other end to a bush or something of that sort as far out in the water as you can so the otter can get into deep water and drown. Have a pole driven in the ground out in the water so the otter will get tangled around the pole. This will prevent him from getting loose, because he has no purchase to pull as he would have if out on the bank.
I "hung up" three one night last fall. When I went to my traps I found one otter that measured 6 feet from tip of nose to tip of tail.
I found an otter toe in one trap, another trap being taken off by an otter, as the chain pulled loose at the spring. I was fortunate in finding the otter that got away with the trap four days later, tangled up in some vines about two hundred yards from where he was caught; he measured 5 feet and 11 inches.
MINK.
An excellent way to catch mink is to take a fish, cut it in pieces and tie all of them except one or two onto a large stick and fasten it out about two feet from the sh.o.r.e in shallow water. Set your trap about half-way between the sh.o.r.e and the stick and have it fixed so that the covering will make a little mound above the water. Throw the other pieces of fish down on the sh.o.r.e and you will get every mink that comes along. Be sure that your trap is staked in as deep water as is possible, so they will not get away.
In setting any trap it is a very good thing to have rubber boots and stand in the water while setting. Some trappers say it is foolishness because they are not afraid anyway. Well, I have caught mink in an uncovered trap that was in plain sight and then again I couldn"t get them to come near with the trap under water. Some mink are more careful than others and if you set for the wisest ones you will be sure to get them all.
I will give you a good mink set, writes a Minnesota trapper. Here is a trail along the edge of the water. Let us follow it until it takes to the water. In order to pa.s.s around a projection in the bank where the bank is so straight up that it is necessary for the animal to go into the edge of the water to pa.s.s around this obstruction, and in the edge of the water not more than two inches deep, level a place for the trap and press it down into the ground until the jaws are level with the surface, being careful to remove all mud from under the pan, giving it room for free action. Stake the chain back into the water full length and press it down into the mud.
After doing this get a handful of dry dirt, pulverize it and let it fall gently over the trap, thoroughly covering it at least for a quarter of an inch, even and smooth in all places. Now about eight inches on each side of the trap place a small weed stalk an inch or two above the ground and directly over the path and if you will put a few spots of mud on it just where it crosses the path to give it the appearance of being rubbed against, you will catch every mink that runs this trail from either direction, and without bait or scent.
MUSKRAT.
When setting traps stake well out in the water, so that when the animal is caught he cannot get to land, and nine times out of ten when you visit the trap your game will be drowned. The trap should be in about three inches of water where rats frequent. If set 3 inches or deeper the trap is more apt to catch by the hind leg, which, being large, the bone is not broken so easily. For bait use white corn, apples, parsnips or turnips.
[Ill.u.s.tration: MUSKRAT CAUGHT IN A DOUBLE JAW.]
The idea advanced that the muskrat gnaws off his foot when caught is erroneous. There are times, however, when the trap has broken the bone in the leg and if the trap is a strong one, the animal frees himself by plunging about until the pressure of the jaws have cut thru the flesh. The flesh of the muskrat is not strong and when the jaws spring together, if they break the bone in the leg, which frequently happens, then the rat often frees himself before the arrival of the trapper.
It is a good plan when making the round of your traps to carry a stout club with which to tap game over the head, killing it, should it be yet alive when you arrive. The entrance of the muskrat"s den is usually under water, unless the streams are very low, then you can often find them.
In the mouth of these dens is an excellent place to set traps, as game is pa.s.sing in and out quite often and if traps are baited you are pretty sure to catch game in a day or two. Where rats have made a path from the water up the bank is another good place to set a trap.
The trap should be set just at the edge of the water.
It is a good idea to cover up your trap, even when trapping for muskrat, for with continued trapping they become sly and learn to shun traps. Along the bank of most all streams green gra.s.s can be secured and this placed over your traps will enable you to catch game that otherwise would shun your trap. The trap should be baited, but the covering up of trap and chain will greatly help in catching game.
The earlier traps are visited in the morning the better, for should the game still be alive there will be less chance of it getting free.
c.o.o.n.
Now just a word about trapping c.o.o.n in water. Set trap in water and bait with fish. Now the right way to use fish is to cut it up in very small pieces, drop some on the ground and some in the water and when Mr. c.o.o.n comes along he will find that fish on the ground and then go to feeling in the water and the first thing he knows he is in the trap.
Here is my most successful set for c.o.o.n. Find a log with one end out of water, and one end running into the water. Place a trap on the log an inch or so under water. Cover it with wet leaves all but the treadle. Then place a few grains of white corn on treadle pan. Mr.
c.o.o.n will as sure put a foot down to investigate as he runs the log.
FOX.
I go around every fall in August and look for places to catch sly reynard, says an Eastern fox trapper. I look up all the warm springs back in the hills and dig them out and leave a stick or rail there for a clog. I leave it just where I want it, so that they will get used to it.
About the middle of October I go and bait every place, using a piece of chicken or muskrat about as large as a b.u.t.ternut. I place it on a rock in the middle of the spring or about a foot from the bank and put a stone half-way between that and the bank just under water. Then I take a stone, the thinner the better. You can find enough of them around a ledge where the frost has scaled them off. I lay it on the rock that is just under the water so it will stick out of water. It ought to be 2 inches across each way.
I use the scent of the skunk on the sole of my boots so as to kill the scent and handle the bait with a "knife and fork," never with my hands. It won"t be long before the bait it gone when I am ready to set my traps, then I move the middle stone and put the thin one on the pan of the trap so it will just stick out of the water. Try this and you will get your fox. Scatter three or four drops of fish oil around trap.
SPRING TRAPPING.
When setting traps for beaver and otter in the early open water, writes a Canadian of experience, the greatest difficulty and annoyance the trapper has to contend against is the varying depths of the water caused by the melting of the snows during the day and the running down of the levels during the frosty nights. This, of course, applies more to rivers than to lakes, but as the rivers open so much earlier than the lakes it is on them the early trapping is prosecuted. It is most exasperating to visit one"s trap in the morning and find by the signs that the beaver or otter had paid his visit and that the trap was out of order by being a couple of feet under water, or high and dry up the bank.
To avoid this close observation of the working of the water must be taken note of by the trapper. Weather conditions is a factor to be reckoned with. A rainy night and a cold frosty one have, of course, different effects, and must be considered with all their bearings by the would-be successful trapper. The best time to make a set or final adjustment of one"s trap is as late in the afternoon as possible.
Then one sees how much the stream has risen since morning, and calculate by his judgment how much it will recede during the coming frosty night. Or if rain has set in or is imminent before morning, how much further the rise will be.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A MORNING"S CATCH OF RATS.]
With these daily and nightly variations of the water, of course, traps must be visited each morning and evening. It is therefore good policy at every early visit to make a level mark near each set, whereby in the evening when the trap is to be properly adjusted, the day"s changes can be noticed with accuracy. Small streams, of course, fluctuate more than large rivers, the latter generally showing a steady increase in volume from the beginning of the break-up until the lake ice is all melted. There are many tributaries of large streams that one can easily jump across early in the morning, after a sharp frosty night, which are positively raging torrents at sundown.
On streams with such wide variances in depth, trapping is almost impossible. At all events, a good deal rests on chance. One has to manage his trap with a large amount of guess work. Streams with a breadth of an acre or so move up and down with a greater degree of uniformity, and the trapper who pays close attention to the movements of the water and weather conditions can set his trap pretty accurately for business. A river such as I have mentioned last, whose feeders are a considerable distance up stream, generally falls a third of what it rose during the daytime. Thus, if you find that since morning the level has risen nine inches it will be safe to set your trap six inches under water. By this calculation there would be three inches over the jaws at the lowest ebb next morning, the night before being cold and dry.
I have caught both otter and beaver in traps set on a half submerged log, a place which makes an ideal set on waters that are liable to vary in height, as the log moves with the change of height and the trap is always in order. Another good place for a trap is on a floating island when such can be found, but these favorable places are not always obtainable. A beaver or otter will be caught in deeper water in the spring than in the fall. In the spring they swim about with more vigor and consequently displace more water in front of their b.r.e.a.s.t.s, their feet thereby, setting off the pan in what would at other seasons be too deep water.
A piece of castorum is the general lure used by most trappers for the animals I am treating of. In fact castorum is used for almost any animal. But a stronger "draw" for beaver or otter is a drop or two from the scent bag of the animal. The contents of this sac can be emptied into a small vial and carried about in the trapper"s pocket to be used when required.
A small twig dipped in this and stuck in the bank back of the trap will cause any otter or beaver swimming past to come straight for the trap, regardless of consequences.
In setting a trap for these animals care must always be taken to douce all about the trap before leaving. This can be done from the canoe or boat by flipping water with the flat of the paddle. A difficulty in setting spring traps is the planting of a picket to hold the trap. The banks are generally frozen even for considerable distance under water, and driving a picket or stake is impossible.
One good way to overcome this condition when procurable is to fasten the trap chain to a good sized flat stone. Have a wire from this to the sh.o.r.e tied to some willow or root, and if anything is caught, with the wire you can drag everything ash.o.r.e.
When stones are not to be procured a young spruce can be cut ten or twelve feet long of a size at the b.u.t.t that the trap chain ring will pa.s.s over. Leave a good tuft of the head branches, removing all the rest down to the b.u.t.t. The ring thus being a.s.sured of a clear run down to the tuft, the trap is set and the end of the pole made secure to the bank either by a piece of wire or by a cord. If the latter, care must be used to tie close down to the p.r.o.ng and the cord carefully covered with mud or something else to hide it from rabbits or other animals that would surely gnaw, thereby endangering the loss of your trap and animal.
Trapping, like everything else, to make it a success, must have proper attention. A man who sets a trap haphazard and visits it only occasionally cannot expect to be very successful.
SALT SET.
I use both the bait and blind set; the water set I think is the best, that is, in bitter cold weather when the ice is thick. My way of making, I call it the ice set, writes an interested trapper, is to take a piece of oil cloth or an old buggy top cover will do, and put about 5 pounds of salt in same and sew it up, having it about 2 inches thick. Don"t make it too solid, leave it loose enough so you can work the most of the salt around the edges to bed the trap in.
Now puncture with a needle to let the fumes of salt through; cut a hole through the ice at edge of the water, sc.r.a.pe out hole to bed salt in; but first put a stone in the hole and bottom and side it up with stones to keep the mud from clogging the needle holes. Now you will wonder what the salt is for; simply to keep the ice from freezing the hole shut. I had nine of that kind of sets last winter and trapped 7 mink. The hole will never freeze shut. Always set trap under water.
Last winter I told my better half that I had better take my traps out of the run where I trap, as I couldn"t make a water set, because they froze up over night. She said, "Why don"t you put salt around your traps?" That put me to thinking so I got an old piece of oil cloth and got her to make four bags for me on the sewing machine; I put a sack of salt, 5 pounds in each one, and used them as I have described.
BAD WATERS.
The marshy lands that are tributary to the Atlantic extend for hundreds of miles along the Maryland sh.o.r.e of Chesapeake Bay. These lands are sometimes entirely covered with a brackish water forced up by the tides from the sea, while at other times they are covered by the fresh water brought down by the flooded rivers from the higher lands of the back country.
Upon these vast extents of boggy wastes large numbers of fur bearing animals, mostly muskrats are annually caught, and many trappers make a good living from the fur and the meat which as "Marsh Rabbit" is served at the Bon Ton restaurants of the neighboring cities.
The water of these marshes varies much in its component parts at different places on the coast, caused by the varying quality of the streams which flow through them. This is plainly shown by its effect upon the traps used by the trappers of the different localities.
While in some places the springs will stand apparently as well as in fresh water streams, in others they break very badly.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BLACK WATER MARSH.]