2015-2016

Cameron2, I guess that isn't what you want on a cat line but it has to beat empty traps. Still no white stuff down there I see.

Beautiful day out on the trap line after a fresh snow. No new cat sign and pulled all but 5 coyote sets now. Did catch this one today at my old faithful location. Muddy mess! I will have to tumble him a while to get all the mud out.


Christmas right around the corner and I will be pulling everything till February when I might try for a cat again. Good luck everyone and post up those pics love seeing everyone else's lines.

Nice job Lance. You certainly are a dogs worst nightmare. If anyone (Tracey) not fighting the White Stuff cares, your sets could look like mine. lol

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Good job Lance! Moneyspots I had my fair share of that today checking my coyote line, I feel your pain. Sweeping traps and getting them running again is not much fun. We will get them next time! Snow is forecast throughThursday, with one day of rain in between, so that will make it interesting.

"We will get them next time" I love your optimism! That is my same thought. If I didn't think that way, I might as well give up. There is alot of truth to that statement by the way. The snow as pesky as it is can be, is the ultimate tool in learning cats. If you look at my picture above what you can't see is that set is on a ridge and a big Tom crossed over it. He didn't smell any lure or head to a prominent point. He crossed and noticed the only part of the set left in the game. The attracter. He was curious enough to change direction and check out the obvious. He circled right through the only part of the walk through sticking above the snow and right over my trap. Even though he is still out there, I know what I am doing gives me a change for a next time. I.e. if the weather will hold out that long. 10"-20" more snow forecast on my line in the next couple of days. I sure hope the forecast is off (in my favor) like it usually is.

Thank you to everyone for posting.  Great pics and shared adventures.   Some good looking heavy coyotes. Triples and quads? Good grief that is great stuff. I have never taken a triple on coyotes. My fault, have rarely set more then two at a location. Need to wise up.

Lots of snow for much of NV this fall has made life very challenging for the dry dirt trapper.

Ran a coyote line in Central NV in Nov. and it was a learning experience.  Followed behind a WS trapper and it was slow.  Took a loop into mountains out of his area and did well. Best day was eight. Heavy coyotes too. One morning in mid Nov. it was plus six degrees in camp. Drove home in a blizzard one morning before sunrise and will never do that again.

My cat season is in high gear now. Have out about 80 sets and they are doing well. Best check day out of four has been seven cats. Two doubles. Small cats so far. Good reproduction. The bigger cats are fat as raccoons.

Will try to get some pics posted.

rockpile wrote:

Lots of snow for much of NV this fall has made life very challenging for the dry dirt trapper.

Boy this is no lie! My coyote line went dead in a hurry after the first real snow. I love the snow to the extent of being able to see how coyotes travel and what kind of things they check out, mark and pee on. But when you have a set out and see them walk up to the edge and turn around and walk away drives me insane.... would actual rather not even know. Keep my moral up lol. It rained here all day today after snowing this morning. Have to check traps in the morning after I get off of work and am hoping to not get stuck. Freezing weather in the forecast starting Friday with a of 19 and low of 6 and even better high of 12 and low of -6 on saturday. Should make things even more interesting.

Great job on the cats rockpile. I would love to see some of your pics. During the snows like this do you change anything on the way you set your cat sets. I have been setting just like your demo at the rondy and with all the snow I am noticing that my guides aren't even visible with a couple inches of snow on top of the set. I have just been adding a stepping stick on top of my rock blocking that sits a little higher and makes the trap the only place to step even with the extra snow on top? Any info is greatly appreciated. Do have a couple of locations that are under overhangs and staying sum what dry but not many.

Lance,

Mud was the big problem for me in Nov.  Would snow, melt, and turn to mud.  Still caught coyotes but missed some too with slower traps.  But travel in the valley was a slip, slide and away muddy slog after 10 am when it unfroze.  The atv helped a lot.  

As for snowed in cat sets.   It is not near the problem here as up in your area.   But still it happens here sometimes.  About 2 inches and I am pretty much out of business till it melts off.   I carry a little whisk broom and clear the snow off the trap and approach lane in and out.  And add a little salt on the trap.  And try to set in the sun.  

One thing I do a little different is make it nearly impossible for the cat to step on the rocks or sticks on the sides of the trap by placing green spongy vegetation over the rocks on both sides.  Cats like to walk on rocks or logs but will not step on spongy vegetation even when covered by snow.  And I put a trail of pee about two feet out of the trap in both travel directions to draw the cat right through.  Since I started using more pee including remakes my catch went up and the back foot catches went up.  I think the cats are backing in to mark it. A back foot is fine with me as long as the cat is there.

PS.  Caught three toms yesterday.  One is as good as they get.

Thanks for the tips John. I got off of graveyards this morning and went and checked traps... Shoveled them more like it. Foot of snow or more on every set. Got stuck once. I think I might have to take the quad on the next check for sure but the old yota got her done today so we will see.

This is about how my year is going.  At least I had a cat in there for a while.
Glad to see you guys and your catches, hope to see many more pics and stories of your season

That sucks. What happened there cattrappernv?

no clue. looks kinda suspicious. I never seen an animal caught and have it break unless it was at the catch which it was above the catch. I just don't know. thought maybe it was so cold it snapped off. this was a 2 day check.

Lion?

There was no sign of the cat eaten or even a sign of a fight just a paw in the trap. Hopefully I catch the other side now and it stays in my trap.

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope everyone had a good one and may your traps be full on your next check.

I was starting to think I would never connect again. These storms are really frustrating. I get my sets working each time out just in time to get buried the next day. I guess that's why it isn't called catching. Lol


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I havent been in your conversations but I love reading all of the stuff about what you guys are doing and seeing the pic's!

Good job moneyspots! Did you catch the gray in a trail set or did it come into a flat set for a bobcat? I had a fox work my trapline last check and walk around every set, but he wouldn't commit to my exposed trap flat sets. I'm thinking it was a red fox, I've not ever seem grays in the area I'm trapping.

Thanks. It was a semi exposed walk through. The exposed trap seems to keep most of the fox out and some of the cats as well. So I am doing things a little different now and I guess my sets wouldn't classify as fully exposed any more. I set all semi exposed a couple seasons ago and couldn't keep the Grey's out of them.

I wish . . .

They all . . .

Looked like these.

Um, so do I. Beautiful!

I pulled my line today. I plan on getting a few sets out close to the house soon but it may be a while before I can add any more catch pics to look at. Good luck everyone and keep the pics coming!


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Holy crap, so do I rockpile!!! I love to see picture of bright wide bellies, not the casty ones I've been catching

Beautiful cats everyone. Wish I had more time to run another line. I do have a few cage traps out now that I got at the rondy. No luck yet.

Huntandfish, good luck on the cage traps. I hope to see a picture of your kids standing in front of one with a big ole' tom looking out!

Nice on the cat moneyspots! NVagteacher I think you can put up fur with the best of em!

I pulled my entire line on Monday just do to snow aand getting into my sets. I just got off of graves and it was -20 last night at work here. Needless to say I am not upset about not having to go and check traps this morning.... That and I got voluntold to come out tonight as well. Keep up the good work everyone and please keep posting the picture so I can get my fix! Hope one of you guys has a New Years cat waiting for ya. Happy New Years all!

Coyote line from Nov.  Nice pale dogs up in that area.  

That is a nice group of coyotes, that is a good day! The pelts look very heavy, was it in high country? In my area the coyotes change in a matter of 5 miles depending on if they spend all their time high in the mountains.

Some good looking coyote rock pile. These 2 are most likely my best colored for the year. Caught em both the same day.


Only had this this guy by a couple toes but my dad was insisting on taking this picture. LoL

Don,

That coyote line was mostly valley coyotes with a loop into the mountains. And yes they were very wooly and heavy.

Lance,

You take some beauties. And you put up is as good as it gets. We ought to have you do a fur handling demo at a summer rondy.

Hell John I was actually hoping to have you critic my put up in Fallon. Can never stop learning about any aspect of trapping IMO. I am a sponge so I can't wait to have some of you seasoned guys look at em. First year going to Fallon so I am pretty stoked!!

Sure Lance, I would be happy to look at em.

Ask Tracy too. He does a superb job on a lot of fur.

Rockpile and Tracy have handled more fur than 5 good trappers will in a lifetime!!!

Yikes, big cat. Tracks as big as my truck keys and my hand. Better not set up this canyon or meet this guy eye to eye.

Be careful there Rockpile!

I've found the best measure of a cat's size is its stride, as opposed to its feet. I've treed a fair number of cats who just had big feet for the size of their body. Think of a puppy -- its feet are huge compared to its body. On the other hand, some cats (especially females) tend to be long and lanky with small feet. Regardless, you're obviously dealing with a mature cat there so keep your wits about you.

Big, medium, or small they still bug me. I can feel them watching me sometimes.

I thought I'd share the results of my last two checks. It looks like we are in for snow all weekend, not sure how I feel about!

WTG Don. Beautiful cats and red fox.

I hope the next storm doesn't do you in. There may be good news with it, there is usually a lot of movement right before a storm.

Good to know there are still a couple reds in this area. This was the first time in 3 years I didn't catch one. Good job teach!!!

Don, the pic of that first cat looks like a big boy. You have to love Jan. fur. What did it stretch to?

He stretched 43", here's what he looked like on the stretcher.


Lance, I have one more red fox walking my cat sets. I see his fresh tracks each new snow; he may fall for an unburied blind walk through before in pull.

Gorgeous tom. Your cats in N. and Central NV are a bit bigger then ours in the Mohave.

Few cats down here go over 40 inches. Most of your toms do. I think the Great Basin cats are a different sub species then the desert cats.

I would agree John, I think the northern cats are larger, but I'm starting to see that the south country has some brilliant white bellies and spots. I am amazed at the quality of cats that Tracy and you bring to the sale each year. Looking at some of your pictures I think it would be a blast to trap for cats where creosote bush and joshua trees existed! Here's what I had waiting on Wednesday evenings check. One nice size tom and a smaller young of year tom, both appear to have nice bellies.

Both are beauties.

Great looking cats teach.

Good luck guys! I am living thru you all with not trapping this year. We have received a lot of snow this year and I am loving it! Best wishes to all and keep them traps open!

Good to see you on her bucks! I believe my last post I claimed I was going to try and keep on keeping on. Well I am buried in snow and every time I think ok it's time to go back out, another storm hits. I have said to my self in the past, I trap because I love it and money is not my motivator. I stand corrected in an aspect of that. I do trap because I love it. I would still be keeping on if it wasn't so much work for me in the currant snow conditions. Now on the other hand of money, I would be fighting every snow flake to get the prices I saw in 2012 and I would have a line out. So I guess I will eat my words. I just saw an update from NOAA, and Ely is on record for the biggest snow fall on record. That got me to looking at the snowtell sights around the state and I see the entire state of Nevada is doing amazing on snow fall so far. Good luck to all.