By Kevin McCloskey, Venago County, Pennsylvania
My name is Kevin McCloskey, and I started trapping for the first time [again] last season. My son Michael’s friend Cameron and his dad Chris have been trapping for years and Michael wanted to start. I wish I had taken more photos from last season, but this year I did better.
From left to right - Chris, his son Cameron, my son Michael and me. 2007-08 trapping season total: 41-coon, 5 –coyote, 3-red fox, 3-grey fox, 3-beaver, and 7-muskrats
We had a lot of fun on the trap line, and I had an opportunity to share some things with my son that some people will never see in their lifetime.
One morning while running a small line up by Tionesta, we had the pleasure of seeing not one, but two bobcats. In all my years in the woods I have only seen one. That alone is a thrill, but to see two at once and be able to share it with my son is something we will never forget.
Bobcat tracks
We had a lot of fun on that small line, but there was so much woods and so little time. We spent a week there and only caught one coyote.
We started our regular line around home and caught a nice coon on our first set. Good start.
My son and I run a small line in the mornings before he goes to school. We then meet Chris and his son in the evening and run about a 50 mile line.
One afternoon after meeting them, my friend Chris (who is kind of a jokester), said get the coon out of my trap box. Much to my surprise, it’s a live baby coon. The coon was too small to harvest, so he brought it to show me and the boys. Nice guy… maybe next year!!
This is a nice grey fox in one of my best coon culverts.
Some days all you get for your efforts is some tracks at your sets to show that the animals are still smarter than you. Other days you get to share memories with your son that will last forever….like the morning we found this in one set.
What a surprise… an adult female fisher, what a mud ball she was. Most people will never see one, but we have caught and released 4 this year.
It has been a fun filled season so far. We are trapping beaver this year and have caught two so far.
This is Chris with a 40# beaver, but the best was in the next set.
It doesn’t look big with me, but when we had the boys hold it up
This one goes 50# …. What a haul. How many kids go to school and can say they helped catch a fifty pound beaver over the weekend.
Now we are not hard core trappers out to catch everything we can. We are trying to pass along some of what we know to our sons and hope they will enjoy it and maybe pass it along to their children.
New Year’s Day brought us one more surprise on the beaver line.
Yes…. It’s an otter… 21 miles from the clarion river, as the crow flies. We never saw any sign that otters were in the area, but there he was at 8:00 in the morning. We called the game warden and he said to hold tight and he’d be right there. He [Rodney Bimber] showed up about 20 minutes later.
He managed to get a catch pole on him and we released it from the trap. It was caught in a 330, in front of the hind legs. Although we set all our traps for beaver and try to avoid otters, sometimes things just happen.
Unfortunately, this catch would end on a sad note. The trap had broken its back and the otter had no use of its back legs. The game warden had to put it down. The otter was an adult male and weighed 23#.
This has been a great season so far. There have been a lot of surprises and good times, and as my son says “it’s good father/son bonding time”
Thanks for the great story and photos Kevin. You can send us your hunting or fishing story and if we use it on our web site we will send you a Pennsylvania Sportsmen Portal T-Shirt. The Pennsylvania Sportsmen Portal is all about folks who hunt and fish in PA and we love to feature our site visitors. Only criteria is, you must be a Pennsylvania resident. Stories can be from out of state adventures also, but we are really looking for stories that feature hunting and fishing in PA. Click Here For More Information.
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