Farms and roads

[Bob La Londe]

I haven't trapped in a very long time. Last time I trapped was 1993 when a
buddy asked me to take him before trapping was banned on public land in my
home area. Last time I trapped seriously was around 1989 or 1990. Whatever
year it was when grey fox went from from 35 down to about 12, and desert
coyotes dropped from $12 to $2. I used to run about 100 traps on 3-4 lines
at any one time in the desert, and a few scattered extras were I saw cat
sign. That was the most I could run and stay legal checking every one every
day. Usually I had 1 line going in, 1 or 2 lines setting over, and 1 line
coming out every day. So I only averaged about 60-70 traps in the ground
every night. Usually I had 20-30 to boil when I got back to camp every
night.

I ran about 10-12 feet of 2/0 dog chain with a swivel, shock spring and a
heavy grappling hook. It was pretty darned effective, but obviously
sometimes a critter could travel a bit before it hooked up. Foxes wouldn't
drag it far, but I tracked a coyote once for two miles following his line of
chewed down bushes.

Anyway, I might have the opportunity to do some trapping again, but now on
private land. A couple farmers I know have found out I used to run a few
traps, and have asked me to do some control work for them. My public land
long line drag chain techniques won't be very affective I think. I sure
don't want to get ticketed because a critter wandered off the private land
where it stepped in a set onto public land. I reckon I can find sign,
trails, entry points etc just fine, and I hope I can still make a set a
critter will walk into, but I am concerned about location choice for public
safety, and about staking instead of drag chains. I never staked a trap in
my like. Closest I ever came to that was running a chain under a tree trunk
and securing it with fence staples. Darned coon pulled out every one of
those staples and broke the tree in half. LOL. We are talking about dry
land sets around fields. Any pointers? Any suggestions on how I should rig
to save the critter, and not have them pull out or tear themselves up to bad
with staked traps? How big of a stake? Maybe multiple stakes on coyote
sign? Would you suggest a flag or marker in the area of traps to alert
field workers? What about the liability of pets? I know people aren't
supposed to take their dogs near produce fields anymore, but some still do.

I never trapped around farms and close to people. I always trapped wild
country before.

I figured I'ld do some studying on it a bit before I threw my hat in the
ring.