No need to boil em really, and yes roadways are coyote highways, set up a four way and put your trap up wind of the crossing so if he comes from anyway he will smell what's there and investigate. Bout the easiest set for beginner there.

Great pics.

Just a little scratch to the trapping itch...

Nice doubles!

Greg, as a fur buyer, when do you think the furs will be ready in South East Texas, say about an hour south of Houston? It's still really hot here.

Well, to be honest with you the temp is not the determining factor in when the fur starts to "prime". Cold temps will help build a little more underfur but as far as being when the fur starts to get good is based upon the amount of daylight there is compared to night. For us being this far south, our cycle tends to start kickin in aroun thansksgiving. You will still have a few furs that have the slate look to them but for the majority after thanksgiving is a full throttle ahead for me. It can be 80 degrees all the way until Christmas and that fur is going to thicken no matter what due to the biological clock inside of the animal when the light phases change. Cats are a little later. Somewhere around Christmas. Is when they start to get solid, but this year I wouldn't start to early at all especially with coons. Goin to be a tough year market wise, little and early caught coons will have little to no value, same with late caught rubbed coons as well. Take advantage of December and jan an put the hammer down when fur is prime and you should do alright

greg, can you show pics of the slate and blue color and what a prime coon looks like?

Well I don't have any seperate detailed pics but I can show you on these couple of pics what they look like leather wise.



The majority of all of these coon hangin here were takin about the week before thanksgiving last year. Notice the blueish gray look to the ones hanging further away from the camera compared to the ones up close. The ones closer to the camera have a much whiter look to the leather and are closer to being prime.

You will also need to take into to consideration the guard hair length around the flank area and how full that area is. This is really the only place a fur grader will focus on when first looking at your fur.



Notice how all of the coon on the right are much whiter than the coon in the middle and to the left. This is not because they are scraped different or anything. The coons in the middle left were all November and early, those are slate. Blue coons will be very dark. The white coon are caught in December and prime. Notice how thick and white looking the leather is. Fur quality follows that time frame. White is what you want and thick long clear gaurd hairs in the flank area

Those are some great pictures. Thanks for sharing guys!

Ok here's some of the first coon I've fleshed this year and here's a good example of early or young coon vs an older closer to prime coon in regards to the flank area.


This is a young early caught coon, you can see the gaurd hairs are very short and dark, not much value in this coon here, few bucks


This is a much larger boar coon that is close to coming into a prime pelt, notice how full he is in the flank and how long and white his gaurd hairs are, these are the type of coon fur buyers like to see

Anyone know if Lauren Is still on the forum? She jumped on an older fellas trap line last year for a few weeks to help and they had some awesome catch pics, she even went out and caught herself a few red fox after that. Just wondered if anyone knew if she's around still. I think her name was laurendaniels or somethin along those lines

Greg, what's the fur market doing?

Well, it's not great by any means but fur is still in demand over seas. Better lighter colored thick coyotes are wanted for the trim trade, muskrats are a hot item with Korea bein a strong buyer there, coons and beaver are struggling a little bit, bobcats are still moving very well, grey fox still a little slow and otter are stable.

Hot items across the board are muskrat, which is pretty much a northern item, bobcats, and the pale coyotes.

Smaller coon and beaver have little value this year.

There are many factors that play into the fur market and how prices are affected.
We need cold winters in Russia and china, Russian economy needs to regain strength, china has all kind of fur import issues that have been goin on the last two years that new to be lined out, etc etc.. List goes on on the the different things that portray market value. Can't sell what you don't have though. Market can turn around at anytime, from 2011 to 2012 market jumped 200% in some sections. Dropped the same after china had it's problems last year as well. Never know, it's always a crap shoot but I follow it as close as I can everyday to stay on top of it the best I can

I dropped out a short line of coon and k9 sets last Monday and due to rain pulled all of them on Tuesday after checking them ...Pouring rain is a wonderful thing up here and I was glad to see it..We needed it badly.

Pulled 12 coons, two cats, and a grey..

Needless to say everything looked like I have expected with slate coons, cats have a ways to go and so did the fox..

5@ 30 inches
1@ 31 inches
3@ 33 inches
2@ 34 inches
1@ 35 inches

Nice put up dale, I've been workin in the fur room myself past few days gettin caught up from a lot of last years stuff did a few big ones today. 41 and a 39 there

Greg, I emailed your dates and info to a young man named Rene from Victoria.
He hunts our place between Westhoff and Smiley. I saw 2 coyotes there while reading my water meter a couple of days ago. One actually layed down in the middle of the road about 50 yards from me and watched me.
He told me he wanted to try calling them and shooting them, but if that doesnt work out for him, I will be looking for someone to come in and trap around the first of the year. Not big land, but it may lead to some additional relatives and also a deer breeder down the road.
Please keep us in mind.
Thanks
Brian Koenig

Thank you Brian, and let me know if you need some help I'd be happy to get out there if the dates line up.

Love them ringtails!

Those are some big ole coons Greg!!

got a coon today! let the season begin!

2 more coons….

im sick of being "Skunked"….2 yesterday and one today….all in dog proof coon traps.

Nice thread...ready to trap some of those corn stealing coons myself!

got 4 last weekend…see what i can get into this weekend!

7 coons
3 Skunks
1 Dillo