Outdoors - Trapping hobby done as a service to the community

A February wind threatened to snatch the handle from a weather-reddened hand opening the door of Kelly's general store. Sitting at the table inside as part of Kelly's breakfast and coffee club was Jefferson Weaver. Unlike the other regulars, he was wearing a tie beneath his overalls.

“Let's go,” Weaver said. “I need to head for the office in 45 minutes. Maybe we caught something last night.”

At age 44, he is trapping again after a long layoff.

“I hadn't done any trapping since I was a teenager,” he said. “Back then, a trapper would pay us kids $5 for anything we caught. We thought that was a lot of money. But he was probably selling our furs for $15 or more, making quite a profit.”

Weaver said money was no longer his incentive for trapping. He was setting land traps for coyotes, bobcats and foxes because the closely spaced rainfalls this winter made water rise and fall too much for effective water sets.

“I'm lucky if I make enough money trapping to pay for the gas,” he said. “I trap as a service to my community. People were missing livestock and pets. Some were having beaver problems. I already knew how to trap and thought it would be a good reason to be outside.”

Weaver caught his first beaver using a snare. Then he started trapping foxes and coyotes.

“One morning, I caught a 41-pound bobcat,” he said. “I was so excited, I had her mounted. Fooling a bobcat isn't easy.”

Driving a sandy farm road in a compact pickup, with traps and chains rattling in the back, Weaver slowed to a stop. He pointed out a white object.

“See that deer backbone?” he asked. “It has teeth marks on it, so I put it out as a visual attractant for a coyote set.”

But the trap was empty. Weaver drove slowly, watching the roadbed and pointing out tracks made by various animals.

“One lady asked me to catch some coyotes she heard because she feared for her pets,” he said. “I've had two coyotes fight with my dogs and lost chickens, ducks and geese to coyotes.”

This season, Weaver said he had caught 11 bobcats, but no coyotes. He approached another set.

“Oh-oh, it looks like a dig-out,” he said. “I'll bet a coyote sprung the trap, but it missed.”

Footprints told Weaver the set had indeed attracted a coyote. He said catching a coyote that knew about a trap was difficult, but not impossible.

“I'll just leave that trap alone and set another one beside it,” he said. “If he comes back to investigate the first trap, the second trap should catch him.”

Weaver drove an anchor into the ground and wired the trap chain to the anchor. Depressing the coil springs with his feet, he set the trap. Then he placed a tuft of fiber beneath the pan to keep soil from seeping beneath it, which could have prevented the trap from springing. To hide the trap, he used a window-screen sifter to cover it with sand.

The entire process took less than five minutes. Then Weaver drove off to check the last of his traps.

“I may not make any money trapping, but there's always excitement and anticipation in seeing what I've caught the night before,” he said. “It gets me outside, taking my mind off deadlines and all the other stresses of life. That makes trapping a bargain because it's cheaper than paying for psychotherapy.”

For more outdoors news, or to contact Mike Marsh, go to his web site: mikemarshoutdoors.com.