On the Trap and Trot Line in the South--Fall of 1912.
Well, comrades of the trap line, as I see so many interesting letters
from trappers in the H-T-T, the best of all sporting magazines, I
will relate some of my experiences in the South, season of 1912.
During the latter part of the winter and the greater part of the
summer, my health was so poor that I never again expected to be able
to enjoy the pleasures of the trap line. But as time passed and I was
able to get out into the fields and wander about, I became stronger
from day to day until in the last days of October, when the frost
began to crisp the air and the leaves on the trees on the hillsides
became a golden hue, it drove the trapping fever into me to such a
degree that I was unable to resist the temptation any longer.
I took six or eight traps and went to the brush within sight of the
house. I was obliged to use a good, strong staff to climb the hill
with and could only take a few steps at a time, without stopping to
take my breath. But, boys, I found this sort of exercise better for
me than the doctor's medicine that I was taking. My first night's
catch was two fox. Many of the readers of the H-T-T will remember of
seeing my picture with the two fox in the December, 1912, number. The
next two nights I got another fox and three skunk and wife's pet cat.
The cat business put it up to me and I was compelled to lift my traps
and take for other fields. Had I been able to traverse the hills and
woods of old Potter County, I could have done far better than I did
in the South.
My trapping fever had now reached such a high mark that I could no
longer stave it off and not being able to travel the hills and
streams of this section, hit my feet for Alabama, where I could do
the greater part of my work from a boat. After reaching Tryanna, I
made a trip up Indian Creek every day by boat to a fish trap dam,
which I was unable to get the boat over so was compelled to leave it
at the dam and hoof it up the creek to the end of the line. On the
way back down the creek each day I would gather up a boat load of
drift wood to last for the day. The water being at a very low stage,
it caused several rapids, which made it tight nipping to paddle the
boat over. I had occasion to stop paddling often as I was continually
making sets for mink, rats, coon and opossum, first on one side of
the stream and then on the other, so that I had abundance of time to
rest. But, comrades of the trap line, this kind of work is much
better for an old played-out trapper than pills.
While I found trapping conditions here in Alabama different than they
were a year ago, I nevertheless got a mink, rat, 'possum or coon
nearly every day, but two mink at a single round of traps was the
best that I did at any time. There was no otter or beaver in this
part of Alabama and but very few fox or skunk, and I found far more
trappers than there were a year ago. Many of the trappers were from
other states, and last season I did not see or hear of a colored man
trapping, but this fall I heard of the dark man and his works daily.
One of the worst and most foolish things that the trappers did was
their early trapping before furs were any where near in a prime
condition. This unwise work was indulged in by the white trappers as
well as the negroes.
I was unable to get out into the swamps or sloughs to any great
extent and it is in the swamps that the coon are found more
plentifully. The mink does not take to the swamps as readily as the
coon, nevertheless he is found in the swamps as well as along the
rivers and smaller streams. If we could only keep down the trapping
fever and the desire to get that mink before the other fellow did, it
would help us out in a financial way. We saw many mink that were
offered for sale here that were over three feet from tip to tip, from
75 cents to $2.00, and the skins went a-begging at that price. Now,
comrades, just think of the difference in what those skins would have
brought when in a prime condition. The price then would have been
from $3.00 to $7.00, and this same rule applied to the coon and
muskrats and other fur bearers, and you are aware that the fur
bearers throughout the country are rapidly becoming scarcer each
year. While I found more mink, coon and muskrats here in Alabama than
I did in either Georgia or North Carolina, yet I did not see mink,
coon or rat signs in comparison to what they were a year ago, and I
do not believe that there was one-third as many mink, coon or
muskrats as there was last season. Opossum seem to hold their own
fairly well.
Well, comrades, the picture here shows the greater part of our
Alabama catch of furs. I trapped in Alabama about three weeks when I
went to Georgia, where I expected, from what I was told, to find far
better trapping than was to be had here in Alabama, but I was sadly
disappointed.
* * *
Leaving Tryanna, Alabama, by wagon, I went to Farley, eighteen miles.
There I took a train to Huntsville, then by the Southern R. R. by the
way of Chattanooga to Dikes Creek, Georgia, where I went into camp. I
camped at this place about two weeks, building two boats, one a good
large boat, sufficient to move my whole outfit from point to point,
as I moved down the Etowah River, then the Coosa River. The other
boat was much smaller, being suited to the trap and trot line. Boys,
you who have trapped on the rivers and large streams of the South,
know that the traps and the trot line go hand in hand and with only
two or three trot lines, to one who is onto the job, you will find
them quite profitable as well as a pleasure. In most places you will
find ready sale for the fish you catch at 10 to 12 cents a pound. If
one runs his trot lines two or three times a day and takes in from 20
to 100 pounds of fish, it is a little item along the financial trail.
But, boys, there is a knack in running a trot line in a successful
manner as well as a trap line. Where the trot line is run in
connection with the trap line, it makes quite an addition to the
trapper's job, for he will be out as late as 9 or 10 o'clock before
going to bed to run the trot lines, take off the fish and rebait the
lines. It is also necessary to put in any spare time that happens
your way in digging wigglers, hunting crawfish and other bait.
[Illustration: E.N. WOODCOCK AND SOME OF HIS 1912 CATCH OF ALABAMA
FURS.]
The boat is an absolute necessity in trapping in the South, as the
most of the fur-bearers are found along the rivers and large streams.
It is next to an impossibility to make a successful set for mink and
coon along the soft, slippery and sloping banks without the boat. And
boys, the conditions on the trap line in the South are altogether
different from what it is in the North on the clear, gravelly and
rocky streams of the North and East sections. It requires a trap one
size larger in the South in successful trapping than it does in the
North and East. This is owing to the soft, muddy, clay banks and
streams. Another thing that is a necessity along the rivers and
streams of the South is the trap stake, while on most streams of the
North the clog or drag is far better than a stake.
I did not find the fur-bearers in Georgia as plentiful as I expected,
from what I had been told and trappers were numerous, many of them in
house boats. I expected to find some beaver on Pumpkin Vine Creek, a
branch of the Etowah River, but they failed to show up on
investigation. There is but very few otter in northern and central
Georgia and in Georgia, as in Alabama, many trappers began trapping
in September. The best catch in one night at our camp was while we
were camping at Coosa, on the Coosa River, but it was nothing in
comparison to what we did in Alabama last season in a single night's
catch. The catch at Coosa in one night was two mink, three coon,
three rats and two opossum. This was done with about 20 traps. It was
raining at this time, so we kept this bunch of furs three days and
until there had been several more pieces added to the bunch. We
wanted to get a picture of this bunch of furs and the camp at this
place but it continued to rain and we were compelled to skin the
animals and let the pictures go.
The steamboats are a serious drawback to the trappers on the river in
the South. The average trapper plans to get out on his line and fix
up as many of his traps as he can after the steamboat passes. On most
rivers there is not more than one or two boats passing daily and on
some of the rivers, boats do not make more than one or two trips a
week. It was the intention of the writer when going to Georgia, to
work the trap line all winter, going nearly the entire length of the
Alabama River, to the Mississippi line, but met with unexpected
conditions that I was unable to endure and was compelled to give up
the greater part of the trip, which was a sad disappointment. But
comrades, you know that there are but few trappers but what meet with
disappointments at times.
The game laws of Georgia are a little hard on the trapper and
fisherman. The non-resident trapper has to pay a license of fifteen
dollars and the local trapper a license of three dollars. (This
alludes to the laws of 1912.) That is not the worst part of it. In
fact, the license fund, if justly used in the protection of game and
game birds and the propagation of game and birds, I would not object
to the license.
The hard part of the game law of Georgia is the trespass part of it.
The trapper must have a written permission from the land owner to
trap or fish on any man's land and where the river is the dividing
line between different parties owning the land, the trapper or
fisherman must have the written permit from both land owners, even
though he does not leave his boat to set a trap or place a trot line.
Now it is a very difficult thing for a stranger to learn who owns the
land and often the owner of the land lives in some city of the North,
or elsewhere. Now here is where the shoe pinches the hardest. The
fine for trespassing on a man's land is $40.00 and it is the duty of
the game warden to arrest any one he finds hunting, trapping or
fishing on any man's land without a written permit. Here is the worst
of all. The game warden must make the arrest without any notice from
the land owner and if the game warden fails to make the arrest, he is
liable to the same fine as the one who is doing the trespassing. This
is a law that the average land owner never asked for.
I had men come to me every day and offer me the privilege of trapping
or hunting on their land without any request on my part. I found the
majority of the people of Georgia very kind in regard to this
trespass matter as well as other matters. It was only a few sporting
"Nabobs" that concocted this stringent part in the trespass law,
contained in the game laws of Georgia.
Most other states of the south have as trespass laws, that the land
owner must order the arrest. The laws of Alabama allow or at least
can not stop the trapper or fisherman from trapping or fishing so
long as he keeps within the boundary limits of the river, which is
sufficient to give the trapper or fisherman ample ground to camp on.
After leaving the Coosa River I went into the extreme northern part
of Georgia where I camped for about three weeks and never met a more
friendly class of people than within the vicinity of Oakman and
Ranger. After leaving this section, I went into camp near Crandel,
Ga. From there I went into the Fog Mountains, where I found game
fairly plentiful but owing to bad weather and the condition of my
health, did not hit the trap line very heavy.