Snaring During Christmas Vacation

By Jacob Seematter

Hi, I live in a small Northeastern Kansas town called Marysville. Trapping for me started about 5 years ago when my dad was always telling me about how when he was a kid how fur prices were so good and how he had caught quite a few raccoons. So I was instantly interested. And then my mom saw in the local paper that a guy that my dad and I hunted named Rick was holding a fur harvesters safety course. Which is like hunters safety course except its trapping. That is what really hooked me. And Rick was nice enough to loan me 6 conibears that I used that year. And since then I have bought quite a few of my own traps. Every year I have improved my catch dramatically. Including this year. I got a late start this year but it sure started out with a bang. Within the first two weeks I had already caught many raccoons and 2 coyotes. Then on Christmas break I had put out a few snares on a trail on a steep hill right above a creek. On December 31st my brother and I were checking the line and as we got closer I noticed that where my first snare should of been hanging it wasn't, I picked up my pace and was proud to find a giant tom bobcat caught dead in my snare. I instantly was right on top of it noticing how big it was and how prime its fur was. Then I tried to get it out but the snare was frozen around its neck. Next I tried to pull the stake but it was frozen solid in. Then I got an idea, I grabbed the .22 from my brother and stuck its barrel right by the cable and pulled the trigger. I looked down and the cable was snapped. We checked the rest of my line and didn't catch anything else but I didn't care, I had caught the biggest bobcat that I'd ever seen. We took him back to my house and showed him to everybody. Man was I proud. My mom took some pictures of me holding it up too. Then my dad proposed that we should get him tanned, I thought that to be a great idea. So we took him to Rick and asked him to skin it with the feet on and stretch it open. Because I don't know how to do that yet. I sent him to Mink & Moyle tannery in Idaho, and just got him back the other day. I was ecstatic he looks huge. And the fur is so soft. He will make a great rug or wall hanging in my room I haven't decided yet. I just want to thank my dad for getting me interested, Rick for helping me along, and Buckshot for all the advice. Thank you and happy trapping to everybody.