Old Tricks for New Dogs

Olds Tricks for New Dogs

​  By Colton Morris

Trapping is part of my heritage, as it is a part for so many of you who might be reading this. I am a blip in the lineage of trapping and its existence, but I am a student of this heritage with my primary focus directed towards canine trapping. When settlers first came to this country, trapping was one of the primary trades that provided a monetary foundation for so many settlers. Knowledge, equipment, regulations, and much more have all changed since the settlers arrived but the basic premise of trapping still holds true. Find your target animal, become proficient trapping that target animal, and rinse and repeat.

If it was only that easy… Nowadays we as trappers who areinnovators, experimenters, students of the heritage, or whatever you may refer to yourself as make it more complicated then what it needs to be. We spend money on all this fancy set making equipment, we go to several different classes and pay top dollar for knowledge that contradicts things you have learned from a previous class, we are fed lies after lies from the “pros” so they can make a quick buck, and for what…. To be given “new life changing tricks from old dogs” that will take you from being mediocre at trapping your target animal, to potentially being less mediocre.

I am here to tell “you” the person reading this right now, that I don’t know every little detail when it comes to trapping canine. I am continuously learning, but from my medical background if you are not continually learning you become irrelevant and I see that as value added to any endeavor you venture towards. Some of you who comprehend literature well might be thinking well isn’t it a good thing to be going to all these different schools to learn? To that question my answer is: go to any school you desire to attend, but be cognizant of what they are offering and how they are treating you. If you mostly remember the food and beverages with guys bragging about how good they are then maybe your $500-1500$ could’ve been spent a little more effectively somewhere else. Now do not get me wrong, there are 2-3 schools I could think of right off the top of my head that would be beneficial to go to, and one of them would be a program where you are learning direct on the line instruction.

I know, I know, you are sitting there drinking your cop of coffee if you are an old timer, or maybe your favorite energy drink if you are one of the youngsters, wondering… When the heck is he going to get to this “Old Trick for New Dogs”. It’s coming I promise. First lets discuss some of the greats, because in order to understand the old trick you first have to understand the history of it. If you were to sit there and think of your Mount Rushmore of trapping, who would be on it. I am familiar with some great trappers not being very boastful about their accomplishments, but Ill divulge my Mount Rushmore, and it might surprise some, and to others they might have never heard of them before. The line up is as follows with no particular order, Bob Wendt (coyote trapper extraordinaire), Phil Brown (the fox whisperer), Matt Jones (stinky fingers), and David Thompson (my mentor). There are plenty of others who I look up to and admire and it is hard to narrow down just 4, because you also have JC Connors, Marty Smith, The Virginia Fox swiper, O’Gorman, Marty Senneker, and more. There is an attribute that these men all share regardless on how well some of them get along. That attribute is an insane work ethic!!! They all believe they are the hardest working man in the room, a matter of a fact I would love to be a fly on the wall listening to them debate over who they thought was. Anyways, they work the pants off their competitors and don’t bat an eye at it. They think nothing of it because it has become innate within them. They know what is required to get the job done and to them that’s normal thinking. To others, they sit back and think that what they are doing or how they are doing it is insane… To me it is overwhelmingly inspiring and I thrive from it. I too want to become the hardest worker and exceedingly proficient trapping my target animal. I have also been told that I have a type A personality, and if you sit back and look at most of these gentlemen you will see that they are favoring type A as well.

No no no no…. Having the Type A personality is not he old trick, like I said, “we are having a small history lesson” more like me bragging about some old and decrepit trappers (kidding). No my friends, the old trick that will take your catches to the next level is proficiency, and efficiency although it is a little more granular than that. How do we become proficient and efficient? Three simple words can get you there…. Practice, plan, and perform.

You always hear certain coaches, employers, or teachers saying practice, practice, practice…. Because practice makes…. If you are thinking of the word perfect, well, I am sorry but you are a little off. Practice makes ‘IMPROVEMENT”, and like I stated earlier in this lump of shit writing. We as employees, business owners, and in this case trappers should always bestriving to learn every chance we can. Go outside with your gear and practice making your set/s. I would recommend sticking to a dirt hole of some type and a flat set of some type. Practice bedding your trap 100s of times, practice making your dirt/punch hole. Practice so much that the steps that are required to construct your completed set become innate within in. Practice having your trapping equipment in the same place in your trap bag or bucket. Fumbling around for 3 minutes trying to figure out where and how you are going to set a trap, plus the extra minute you take to find the right equipment is wasting precious time. Practice the S.W.E.T method. (Same Way Every Time) because if you are wasting 4 minutes at every set and you are trying to put in 30 sets…. 30x4=120, so essentially you are wasting 2 hours jerking yourself around when you could have used that time to get on new properties and set more traps.

Practicing is incredibly important, but not if you do not have a plan. I like to follow one of the old military sayings that incorporates the seven P’s. “Piss poor planning promotes piss poor performance”, notice how the third step of perform is a part of planning. They go hand in hand, but for some of you who read things more linear I will break it down a little more clearly for you. We need to have a rough draft of a plan ready to go if we are after certain target animals. I will give you my examplefrom a few years ago for relevance, and it consists of me wanting to harvest 100 plus coyotes in Ohio. In order for me to do that I had to have the necessary equipment I wanted to use, the baits and urines, my route, my permissions, my back up equipment, my work schedule, my family obligations, and more planned out.

I needed to have all my traps, trap setting equipment, equipment back-ups, the products I wanted to use, my truck, my ATV, and trailer all set up and maintained to insure there would be minimal chance for a failure along my trapline. I stick to mainly one trap now a days but in my younger years when I couldn’t afford the high dollar traps, because I was also using my budgeted money for other trapping expenses and therefore, I mainly used the duke #2 style of trap. Now I am strictly NO BS JRs with the wire levers, and I am not looking back. The reason I want one trap is because it increases my efficiency when constructing my sets, like I said it is all innate when I get down to make a set.

I went away from using lure, and not that it doesn’t work,but when I am running and gunning on my 2-3 weeks vacation line I stay pretty streamlined with natural/commercial bait and coyote urine. From my understanding the commercial baits typically have a combination of mink glands, muskrat glands, otter glands, beaver castor, and more to elicit the response I am looking for, and the coyote urine acts as an additional attraction. I will confess that I use lure after that time frame because I want to continue to learn different luring techniques and applications, that way I can eventually share to the masses (basically whoever cares to listen to me).

I plan out most of my line from aerial maps first and foremost, and my reasoning is that I am looking for certain feature on the maps that I can tie together to make a large loop back to my house. I never want to back track and potentially waste time doing something inefficient, but after I figure out the rough draft it is off to get permissions. Permissions have never been hard for me to get, but I’m definitely not batting 1000%. Most of the places that say no are either tied up on a lease I cannot get in with or another trapper has already locked it down. There is a well known canine trapper for my area that has a lot of permissions that goes by the name Danny S., but he is a wealth of knowledge and a super nice guy to talk to. 

I personally scout every property I can with my red and blue Heeler pups. Sometimes the places I think are going to be the “SPOT” are way off, and sometimes my dogs confirm that I am the man (kidding). Everything I do is kept track of wirelessly. I don’t write down notes anymore in a notebook. Everything goes on my phone, the notebook is just one less thing for me to worry about. I mark down the locations that are potentially the hot spot or spots on the parcel, decide how many traps I will be taking in there to set on that parcel, and that way I know when I show up to property “A” I need 6 traps and when I show up to property “B” I need 3 traps. Now, as a highlighted side note that I will add in at this time is…. I pre-set the majority of my vacation line. Trap bed, dirt hole/attractor, and anchor will be ready to go. The first day I go out to set traps on my vacation line only requires me hooking up the trap, covering the trap, baiting the set, and on to the next one. The reason I am adding this to my scouting section and not giving it a whole different section entirely is because I have to keep you on your toes for what the next article could obtain. The pre-setting is usually done a week or more before I plan to set traps, and no I don’t hide my sets or plug my holes.

All the planning that is required will be finished, but I am always trying to fine tune it to shave off seconds or minutes so I am a little my efficient. Now it is time to perform baby! Unlike in the bedroom, when it comes to the trapline I am all go and no blow. I love setting traps probably just the same as I love checking traps. When you are setting traps you have the mentality that everything has the potential to catch the next day, and it is very rewarding that following day or days when you see it pay off…. It is also very humbling, but I don’t fret. I keep on chugging like that little engine climbing the hill. I like to enjoy my time out on the different terrains, but I am also very serious about it as well. I don’t like to cut corners or try and bend the law, and be mindful that there are always going to be little hurdles for you to overcome. Do not let these hurdles affect your mindset and what you have set out to accomplish. Staying mentally sharp is just as important as staying physically fit, and that is something I plan throughout the year so I can perform at my optimal best. The more obstacles I face the better I get at dealing with them or learning from them, but it is hard to go from being out of shape the opening day to being in shape in a week or two, and that is why it is a staple of my everyday life.PRACTICE, PLAN, PERFORM…. Those are some old tricks every new dog should be incorporating into their everyday lifestyle that will make you more proficient as well as efficient.

Regards,

C-MO