Pennsylvania Game News - November 2022 - 40

tracks of a wandering bruin as large as a
man's boot prints. You don't see hours of
deep discussions on life, love and family
between two old friends whose schedules
usually just won't allow for it. And you
don't see a 10-year-old son's excitement
of his first trapline check with the " guys "
or the survival kit it took all day to pack
the day before.
Trapping is so much more than trapping.
That
was what kept us going, since we
were seven days in and hadn't a thing to
show for our hard work and persistence.
We had a week of the most beautiful
weather a trapper could ask for, with no
precipitation and temperatures above the
freezing mark. Christmas morning saw us
up at 1:30 a.m. and hustling through the
line in the dark to make it home before
the kids woke with dawn. (I think I passed
Santa in the hallway on the way back to
bed, but I was pretty tired that morning.)
Unfortunately, Christmas also brought
the start of sour weather. A heavy rain fell
that afternoon and temperatures dropped
to freezing. I was feeling pretty low that
next morning as we set out. I knew we
would be remaking sets that held moisture,
especially with the coming week
looking wetter and colder. And this was
the last week for fishers.
We slogged along from empty set to
empty set, remaking and re-luring sets as
needed. My mind was far off the mountain,
filled with thoughts of work and
projects at home that awaited me.
About halfway through the line, we
swung into a pull-off where Adam had
a great set along an old logging road.
I had placed a set on the other side of
the ridgetop, along an old forgotten trail
edging a 20-year-old cut. Having picked
up a few bobcats in the past, I was most
interested in trying to catch my first fisher.
40
I hadn't put much stock in this set, but
had read that fishers will travel ridgetops.
Of course, the more you read, the more
you learn fishers will also travel creek
bottoms, cuts, conifer stands, benches,
sidehills, and pretty much every other
part of the forest.
So as I walked back the trail with my
tools and lure, prepared for a remake I
barely noticed the frost on the leaves and
the warm pink glow indicating that the
sun was minutes from crawling above
the adjoining ridge. Skies were clear and
the air crisp, but my heart just wasn't
experiencing the day as it should have.
That is until I glanced ahead to see
something black moving behind the log
I used for backing. I stopped cold and
looked again. Sure enough, a small black
head was cresting the top and I was face
Few seem to talk about some of the best
parts of trapping - cutting the boot-sized
tracks of a wandering bear or basking in
a brilliant winter sunrise. They don't talk
about the difficulty and disappointment
trapping can bring. But sticking with it pays
off, as evidenced by Adam's coyote, caught
on his last day trapping with the author.
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2022

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