June, 2019
Three years ago, I heard a man say it wasn’t possible to kill a thousand coyotes in a year, let alone a fur season. When I heard this, it instantly made me wonder. Someone saying it couldn’t be done was a challenge that just kept fermenting in my mind. Never tell a Missouri farm boy something can’t be done! If such an undertaking was possible, I knew it would take 2-3 years of preparation to be thoroughly prepared enough to make a solid attempt at accomplishing such a feat. A one man operation, no partners, skinning each coyote, just one man shouldering and doing all the work on his own. Was it even possible?
When you run the number of days of a normal coyote fur season when the fur will be at its highest value on average (October 20 through January 20), you are looking at 93 days (just over 13 weeks). Then subtract travel & setting days along with a family day or two while resupplying between trips and the number falls to 80 days or less with 76 days being even more realistic!
This means a daily average of just over 13 coyotes must be maintained.
That is no small achievement for even just a week of trapping in a lot of areas I have worked across the US! To try and do this for almost 80 days boggles the mind and would give any sane individual serious pause.
During the drought of 2014, Bob Wendt from Greenfield, Indiana, caught 640 coyotes in roughly 6 weeks. He maintained a little over 15 coyotes a day for 42 days, all on a 24-hour check. This is the single largest known documented catch I could find here in the continental US by one man doing all of the work in the last two (maybe three) decades. Bob owns & operates a Christmas tree farm. Selling Christmas trees limits the number of days he can trap during the fur season.
As a licensed veterinarian, Bob goes at things with a much more pragmatic or clinical approach than other trappers do. Bob has always been willing to share his knowledge and experience with any trapper interested in learning. I can say I have learned a great deal from communicating with him over the years. If not for his obligations of selling Christmas trees, I believe Bob would have caught over a thousand coyotes in 2014. Bob’s numbers proved (to me) that this goal can be achieved. The biggest obstacle to this goal of a thousand coyotes is not catching this many and doing the work, rather it is having access to this many AND being able to do so at a PROFIT!
Three years ago, I thought I had a major piece of the puzzle secured in Texas. This was a higher elevation (for Texas) trapline that the weather seldom shuts down for more than 24-hours. Unfortunately, I was just a line item on a budget and the financial managers / accountants in Florida gave me the axe when they experienced a budget shortfall.
Having spent most of the last 15 years doing various types of predator control for hire and working properties with a limited number of animals available, I miss the volume / fast-paced production style of trapping. Growing up during the fur boom in the 80s as a kid, I memorized Ray Milligan’s complete lure advertisements and seeing his picture of the barn covered in coyotes. Right now, I just long to be a fur trapper again. Not having to answer to various companies, drainage districts, road departments, and high fence property owners. However, when not trapping for hire, reality sets in and the focus must be maintained on PROFIT!
Obviously, the further south a trapper operates in the plains states the higher the population base of coyotes is going to be. Current market demand is for the trim trade, desiring the heavy northern coyotes. The goal is to harvest coyotes as heavy (and prime) as reasonably possible for the best financial return.
The Petska Fur Company in Ord, Nebraska, recommends the following start dates on their website (petskafur.net): 7,000 ft. Canadian border, October 15; 6,000 ft. Williston North Dakota, October 20; 5,000 ft. from I-94 to Glendive, Montana, October 25; North Dakota / South Dakota line, October 30, I-90 to Rapid City South Dakota, November 5; Nebraska / South Dakota state line, November 10; I-80 November 15; Kansas / Oklahoma state line December 1. Length of days affect fur priming more than any other factor. A wet, cloudy, overcast fall can advance fur primeness, while a month of bright sunny days can delay it by a week or more.
Wanting to start trapping in late October, a trapper needs to start as far north as they can and in the higher elevations when possible. This means Idaho, Montana, or North Dakota (Editor’s note: many Western states classify coyote as a predator or varmint and don’t require a fur trapping license unlike most Eastern states.) then move south as the weather forces you to. For years, I have always felt like a snow goose, trapping my way south following the geese to the Gulf States then working my way back north following them as winter receded.
Mother Nature can throw a trapper some serious curve balls. Each stage of the trapline must have a plan “B” as a backup. A trapline a trapper can roll into in 24-48 hours and hit the ground running! You cannot afford to lose days by asking permissions, getting guided tours, and finding your way around on new ground. Ideally, the plan “Bs” need to be at least 150-200 miles apart when possible, so they are hopefully outside of any weather front that hits the primary trapline forcing the trapper to move. Currently, I have focused on seven traplines in five different states for this endeavor.
This is the first of four articles with information showing you how to pursue such a goal. There will be information shared on modern scouting, gaining permissions, setting up, and maintaining various trucks and trailers for the trapline. Logistics, equipment, and the freezer space needed to handle this kind of volume will also be covered. I’ll also discuss physical conditioning that any trapper should consider if they are going to work 19-20 hours a day for weeks on end. Lastly, I’ll be sharing numerous time saving tips that eliminate those “moments” that add up to hours or even days lost each week that cost all of us exponentially.
I hope that you can laugh at or even with me as I live out and pursue a childhood dream.
In the interest of transparency, there will be an Internet address in the December article where anyone who wants to can monitor my progress as I try to achieve this goal. Even if the goal is not met, the pursuit of this dream and sharing this as an educational experience is what matters.