Flagging your set locations?

[cathryn]

do any of ya;ll flag your set locatins, not as an attractant but to literally mark the locations of your sets?

im curious because today in a WMA in northern WV we stumbled onto a trap line marked with hot pink ribbons tied to trees. the ribbons were located as markers for some egg traps the person had out for coon.

it was easy to pick the set locations out 0nce you looked for them with the trappers eye,lol.

i just wondered of ya'll flag your set locations so you wont forget where your traps are and why or why not?

Jerry taught me to blend my sets into the natural surroundings so that no one in the area would even recognize there were traps there.

i was kinda surprised they flagged each set location so visibly. while ive never had a trap stolen on public ground here in WV, i dont openly advertise where i make my sets either.

we moved on and to a different area of the WMA to a place where this person didnt have any traps.

[pitw]

cathryn I always carry a roll of flagging.  I don't have no where near the problem of trap thieves that you do down there and if i get a foot of snow everything kinda/sorta looks the same.  I will put flagging at a measured distance from certain sets just in case.
Barry

[GunDog]

Ms Cathryn,

I reckon it would depend on how many Thieves you have there in the area? There was a time (long ago) my Dad and I would have 200+ sets in the ground at any given time. We never trapped any WMA land, most of it private owned or kaolin country. Around here (back then) you would not want your lines flagged, it was bad enough losing a lot of your catch to the Thieves riding around looking to just make a quick buck. I'd have to think if we were flagging every set or some of our lines they would have went looking for them instead, and we'd lost a lot of traps also. The fur market here in our area dwindled away in the late seventies to pretty near nothing. What few trappers left here sale mostly live animals I think. I kept a bunch of traps , stretchers, fletching tools, boots, even my old trappers basket and such thinking maybe someday it would come back. In reality it probably never will. My sons missed out on that way of life .... kinda sad when I think about it that way. You keep on catching and posting up the pictures for me, will ya ....  

[alscalls]

If ya aint loosing any.......Dont mark em......I dont trap much anymore but when I did there were thieves about that would take em all if they could......ya run into someone like this it is best to pull up and just go elsewhere as they wont give up. 
Like Barry said though if the weather gets tough......they will be harder to find so write em down where they are and try and use natural markers.

[Todd Rahm]

I've seen it done but never used it myself for fear of trap snatchers, but I think it would be handy if you was trapping remote, like some do up here.

[Bills Custom Calls]

The theives around here are to lazy to take your catch out of the trap
They will wait till you have them fleshed and streached and ready to sell then they break in the fur shed and take them to the buyer for ya  Yes I have had that done before
So now I skin and freeze and don't tell much on what I have caught

[Hidehunter]

I never flag, way to many crackheads in my area.  They will steal anything a Pawn shop will take.  I always pack my little GPS with me and it works fantastic.  Make your set, set a waypoint ( mine says 'set1' 'set2' and so on) and you are good to go.  Almost crackhead proof till they steal your GPS then your screwed.

[iahntr]

I never had that many out in a certain area, when I was younger
and "ran a trap line", that I had to mark. Any how, if
I was running a line big enough that they needed to be marked,
for what you can buy a GPS for nowadays, that's definately the way I'd go.

[Tikaani]

Never marked any of mine nor did my partner a few years back.  Marten sets are on lean poles so they are clearly visible, in fact when the season ends we snap them and let them hang until next year.  Same with cubbies and bucket sets.  As for snares, put any kind of marking near it and forget about a wolf coming anywhere near it.  Only precaution I take is GPSing my #9s, at 120 bucks a pop I want to find them when the season ends.

John

[cathryn]

tikaani, jerry does the same thing with his marten sets in wyoming.


here we dont use markers other than natural laNDMARKS.PERSONALLY, IF I GET OUT MORE THAN 20 SETS I NEED TO WRITE DOWN HINTS AS TO WHERE THEY ARE.

JERRY ON THE OTHER HAND CAN RUN 100+ sets ans never miss one.
dont know how he does it.

we've never had any traps stolen on public land here but have had some coon taken by hunters after they were caught.
\know that for a fact cause one of the guys who hunts our area is a friend of mine and i guessed where they went and he confirmed it.

i let em go but we dont set that same area anymore.