ONCE OVER THE LINE — WHITE WEASEL.
Mink and coon are also caught in water sets, and should be drowned by using the same fastenings as for the water animals. It is a good idea to tie a weight to chain near the trap, so that when the animal is caught and gets into deep water, the additional weight helps to hold it down and so of course it drowns sooner.
Spring poles are used in many of the Northern States and Canada, so that when an animal is caught it is lifted several feet into the air and out of reach of other animals, but in other sections the spring pole is little used and trappers should get over their lines of traps as often as possible, for there is always more or less danger of the animal escaping or being destroyed by larger game.
The most successful trappers are those who visit their traps often. In addition to loosing little or no fur after once being caught, they keep their "sets" in good condition.
The experienced trapper knows that the first night before severe weather each winter, his traps are much more liable to contain game than on almost any other night. Why is this? Animal instinct tells the animal that winter weather is coming, and they travel much more just previous to cold snaps hunting food and good warm dens. At this time, too, they go into most any den to explore it. Some trappers neglect their traps the first cold night. This is a mistake, for the animal often travels the first night of a cold spell as well as the night previous. Of course they do not travel as much the first cold night as the night previous, but some animals not suited with the den found, stir around another night looking for better quarters.
CAUGHT JUST BEFORE A COLD SNAP.
This rule perhaps does not hold good for such animals as fox, mink, marten and other fur-bearers that keep traveling most nights during the winter, no matter how severe the weather, but with such animals as skunk, coon, opossum, muskrat, etc., it does. The first night of a cold spell early in the season and the first night of a warm spell during the winter, trappers should have their traps in good order.
Many trappers, as soon as the trapping season opens, set traps for all kinds of fur-bearing animals that are found on their grounds. This as a rule is a mistake. Skunk and muskrat should be taken first, from the fact that skunks den up with the first severe weather and muskrat are hid under the ice. So trap these animals in earnest at the first of the season.