John,
I had shared the following post on a michigan forum a little while back so I will just cut and paste it for you guys here.
I always wondered what happens when you take your kids into the field with you over and over again. Apparently if you do it enough and are lucky when they get to be about nine years old and you ask them if they want to go check traps with you they say yes. Then when you point out to them that the weather is turning nasty and cold so you will need to pull the line in addition to a regular check they still want to go. Finally you point out that its nasty enough that you yourself are going to be a little miserable out there. Granted your still looking forward to going but its not nice out with the wind and half rain snow mix. Still the youngster is undeterred. So you agree thinking to yourself well he asked for it!
Since he is old enough now you tell him to get his gear and meet you at the truck. After all he is all grown up. He shows up with waders, coat, gloves, and a bomber hat so off you go determine to teach this kid a lesson.
Do you think he learned anything from this? Yep he learned its a blast out there and that there is something to be said for laughing at yourself and the absurdity of the weather you go out in sometimes. I am starting to worry he might enjoy this stuff as much as I do and I am not sure that is healthy!
Finally I had got the water line in, nothing huge but I found a few hours and set around 30 traps. First check yielded 10 rats the second check yielded 16 rats. To bad we had to pull the line on that check but traps frozen into the marsh would have been a big pain.
That is my extent of trapping till December at this point.
