Dave Parks
Well-known member
Les, I don't blame you. Fur prices have never really recovered much since the crash of '87. I was lucky and sold my winter catch of Central Oregon coyotes and bobcats just before the proces tumbled that year.
I never did like skinning beaver too much, the skinning was not all that bad, but the fleashing was a pain in the neck. I finally wised up and started selling my beaver to my local fur buyer right out of the trap and he's come pick them up. He would only dock me $5 per beaver and to me it was more than fair. You could not pay me $5 to skin and fleash a beaver!
I usually targeted muskrats, grey fox and otter. The muskrat is easy to put up and otters around here are plentiful and just about my favorite fur pelt. I targeted coon when their prices were up and there was always the odd skunk that would get into my grey fox sets.
I started trapping in 1957, that same year I met my trapping mentor Fred Truesdale who lived just about all his life in Santa Margarita, California. Fred was an old Oologist (egg collector) and I was into Falconry at the time. Fred's favorite birds were the hawks, falcons and owls, but he was an all around outdoorsman who knew every birds and animal in his area.
Fred was very active for his age (he was 81 when I met him) and I would usually spend a week at his place when I would come up to visit him. His wife would always get after Fred at each meal to get him to spit out his chaw of Days Work chewing tobacco. Fred always argued with her, saying he could chew and eat at the same time.
Fred was too old to do any climbing so he taought me how to use climbing spikes and teh right way to anchor a rope ladder in soft ground atop a 100 foot cliff.
Fred knew where every Prairie Falcon in San Louis Obispo County nested as well as every other bird of prey I was interested. He was a wealth of knowledge on trapping as he was on birds.
Fred was born in 1878 and around the turn of the century The then famous Ornithologist J. Hooper Bowles of Washington State hired Fred to guide him and his 2 assistand on a birding venture for Prairie Falcons east of Shandon, Calif. They traveled and camped for two weeks on that trip. In the photo of mine below, J.Hoper Bowles and his assistant are riding in front of the buggy and my old friend Fred Truesdale is sitting in the back. The second assistant that drove the supply wagon took this photo in (I belive) 1908.
I learned a lot from that old 'bacci chewing bird man and it sure don't seem like it's been 50 years since we trapped together.
You are welcome anytime Les. Them big cats are around, but mighty hard to get. I think a lot of patience and a varmint call is about teh only way to get one without dogs. Evidently there are more of them now, I saw in our 2008 hunting regulations that you can get two cougar tags now. I have a year round permit to take one on our place due to loosing two dogs to cougars in the past.
Dave
I never did like skinning beaver too much, the skinning was not all that bad, but the fleashing was a pain in the neck. I finally wised up and started selling my beaver to my local fur buyer right out of the trap and he's come pick them up. He would only dock me $5 per beaver and to me it was more than fair. You could not pay me $5 to skin and fleash a beaver!
I usually targeted muskrats, grey fox and otter. The muskrat is easy to put up and otters around here are plentiful and just about my favorite fur pelt. I targeted coon when their prices were up and there was always the odd skunk that would get into my grey fox sets.
I started trapping in 1957, that same year I met my trapping mentor Fred Truesdale who lived just about all his life in Santa Margarita, California. Fred was an old Oologist (egg collector) and I was into Falconry at the time. Fred's favorite birds were the hawks, falcons and owls, but he was an all around outdoorsman who knew every birds and animal in his area.
Fred was very active for his age (he was 81 when I met him) and I would usually spend a week at his place when I would come up to visit him. His wife would always get after Fred at each meal to get him to spit out his chaw of Days Work chewing tobacco. Fred always argued with her, saying he could chew and eat at the same time.
Fred was too old to do any climbing so he taought me how to use climbing spikes and teh right way to anchor a rope ladder in soft ground atop a 100 foot cliff.
Fred knew where every Prairie Falcon in San Louis Obispo County nested as well as every other bird of prey I was interested. He was a wealth of knowledge on trapping as he was on birds.
Fred was born in 1878 and around the turn of the century The then famous Ornithologist J. Hooper Bowles of Washington State hired Fred to guide him and his 2 assistand on a birding venture for Prairie Falcons east of Shandon, Calif. They traveled and camped for two weeks on that trip. In the photo of mine below, J.Hoper Bowles and his assistant are riding in front of the buggy and my old friend Fred Truesdale is sitting in the back. The second assistant that drove the supply wagon took this photo in (I belive) 1908.
I learned a lot from that old 'bacci chewing bird man and it sure don't seem like it's been 50 years since we trapped together.
You are welcome anytime Les. Them big cats are around, but mighty hard to get. I think a lot of patience and a varmint call is about teh only way to get one without dogs. Evidently there are more of them now, I saw in our 2008 hunting regulations that you can get two cougar tags now. I have a year round permit to take one on our place due to loosing two dogs to cougars in the past.
Dave
