Water, of course, leaves no scent where it is possible to reach the set by boat or wading, but where this is impracticable arrange to go to trap but rarely, if it remain undisturbed. The height of springs vary but little with wet or dry weather, and this fact should be taken full advantage of by the fox-trapper. Carefully select a trap that will not spring of itself. See that the trigger is pushed well into the notch, pick out a good, close-fibred piece of moss for pan, not large enough to clog the jaws, and stick a few small twigs around it to hold it in place. Push the chain well down into the mud, have the bait exactly in the right place, and in fact use every care to have things fixed so that they will not be disarranged by trivial causes. Then in visiting, go no nearer than is necessary to see that bait or trap have not been disturbed.
Skunks will often prove a great bother, as they take all kinds of bait and kick up no end of a "bobbery" when caught. The fact that their pelts pay the bill in part is but poor consolation, when one has just got a particularly shy old red coat about worked up to the "biting" point.
Sometimes one will run upon natural conditions particularly favorable for a set--a rock, islet or piece of drift in mid-channel, or an old log spanning the stream. Experienced trappers are quick to note all such places as these, as well as points where, with a very little human handiwork, traps may be placed to advantage.
It is best to make all essential preparations as long before setting as possible, though bearing in mind that the streams are usually much higher in the trapping season than during the summer. Also begin putting out baits some time before setting traps. No animal exercises afterward the same degree of caution as on the first two or three visits to a spot, and even so shy a creature as the fox, if he become accustomed to picking up a few choice bits at a place, will soon neglect much of his usual precaution in approaching it, and though he take alarm and shun it for a time will ere long get up sufficient confidence to renew his visits.
If you find where there is a burrow with a family of young foxes, watch them all you can during your leisure moments. Learn where they get their food, where they cross the streams, and their general lines of travel. True, the family may be broken up and driven to sections miles away before time for trapping, but nevertheless a few traps should be placed in the old beats, as if one of this family should ever return to the vicinity he will be certain to revisit his former haunts.
Many trappers, and especially young trappers, expect to get a fox the first night, and, as it would seem, think to make their set so that not the slightest taint of man or iron lingers about the spot after they leave it. They boil their traps in this or that, or smear them with some odorous substance (the very thing perhaps to draw the game's attention to them); they handle them gingerly with gloves (which are often as strongly imbued with man smell as their naked hands); strap hides, pieces of board or snow shoes to their feet when setting or visiting, and in fact go through a rigmarole that would require about half a day to set a single trap. Then they think that if the shyest old fox imaginable should come along that night he would walk into their snare as confidently as a cow into a stall, or a man into his own house. Without reflecting upon the methods of any one, we must say that we consider many of these expedients unnecessary, unless when dealing with an unusually shrewd customer.
For my own part we make but little reckoning on a trap for the first two or three days, especially one with bait. Sometimes, of course, a storm helps us out, or we may nab a youngster who is green at the game; but this is an exception, not the rule. We take all needful precautions in respect to disturbance and scent, but our chief aim is to secrete and cover our trap well; to cover it so that no smell or iron can possibly reach the surface, and so that it will remain covered for weeks if necessary, and yet be ready for business, let the weather be what it will--snow or rain, heat or cold. Herein lies the essence of the art; to fix your trap so that it will not soon require your attention, then nature will speedily dispose of whatever scent you may have left about it. We are speaking now chiefly of land sets.
In looking up a place for a set, select one if possible where some natural or artificial provision will admit of approach without leaving much scent--a hard-beaten path, a double stone wall, a line of ledges, or a combination of some such conditions, which should be invariably followed in going to and from trap.