Iowa Trappers: Your oppinion please

[dalebillingsley]

Here where I live in extreme southeast IA we are pleaged with deerhunters, leased ground, and all that great wonderful stuff that comes with trophy whitetails in your back yard. As that our trapping season ends Jan 31 and deer season ends jan 20(late doe season). Its rough to git in on private ground around here except for the last 10 days of season. Then they are ready to let you in with open arms.Pretty tuff to trap coon or coyotes for that matter anything els with just 10 days & in some darn harsh weather sometimes. What im interested in is your opinion about appraoching the DNR about possibaly extending our season thru the month of Feb? Ive trapped in sevral southern states that seasons run thru Feb & the fur is fine. In my opinion a Feb rubbed coon is better than a Nov blue any day. So come on fellers lets here your thoughts. Also maybe we should try to get back those last 2 weeks of beaver season we somehow lost?

[tjk]

I would like the beaver season set back to the way it was.Don't know about the regular season.Its always good to have more opportunity to trap.I get the feeling we would have about the same luck trying to get them to shorten the deer season as we would trying to get them to extend the trapping season.Even though we have a high population of both.

[Bristleback]

From my experience, I trap cats and coyotes through Feb 15 here in KS and in "tough weather" for KS.....plenty of 0 to 10 degree nights......the coon I catch are dandies for sure, mostly XX, XXX, XXXX, given this years market, I've sold several in the $30-35 range at the auction.
Coyotes are hit and miss, with our mange, more miss than anything.
Cats are at their best.
I'm no beaver trapper.
I'm cool with the extension fo the fur season.
We'll be back in Iowa soon.

[k9]

I am good with extending the season. Downside is that in many seasons the snow/weather conditions male it impossible to operate during that time of year. The last two years we have had that type of snow that you just cannot effectively drive in with a four wheel drive without getting high centered, shutting down even the 4wd trappers from private ground.

Coon are a little pissy and spotty but for the most part pretty good. Coyotes either look really good, or really bad that time of the year with not much room in between. With essentially NO coyote market right now not many people who are actually trapping coyote should care about money. If they cared about money they wouldn't be trapping coyotes.

I trap coyotes because I enjoy it, and the farmers want them dead. Coyotes get me on a lot of ground for cocn.

[4fur]

Normally it seems like the quality of fur really goes to heck right at the end of the present season in this part of the state. And many coon guys feel the early bred coons produce offspring which will also breed early. So I don't think an extended fur season would benefit my line but I can see advantages especially for the serious canine guys in areas with a lot of deer and bird hunting pressure. So guess I would be neutral on the proposal. Interesting idea though, Dale.

[braveheart]

It would be nice to have a longer beaver season.Sometimes the ice hangs on late.But you might make some extra money trapping and the DNR might not go for that.

[jdrogge]

As far as the regular season goes the conditions up here would make it pretty hard to run that late into the winter I think. A extended regular season is probably not something that I would take advantage of but I would sure support it if it could benefit other trappers in the state. The beaver season is another story. I very much enjoy my spring beaver trapping and this shortened season has made things very difficult. The last few years I have only had 2 or 3 weeks at best of open water before the season ends.

[braveheart]

What they need to do is open the cat season when they have fur on them.It is a shame to catch a cat with no fur or fur value.Just to say you can catch a cat.I always hope I can let them all go with out any damage to them.They are neat to catch but why.

[gopherkiller]

I kinda went thru this the last year in my mind while i was trapping, deer hunter/trapper conflicts... I think the simple answer is to extend the season thru the end of Feb like many other states have. I dont think that is the fair answer. In my honest opinion and I am not anti deer hunting by any means but I dont see why deer hunting needs to last for nearly 5 months. I think gun hunters ought to be tagged out in 3 weeks, heck if ya cant kill a deer in 3 weeks around here then something is wrong. I feel that if someone is out to get the biggest buck in the woods, tie up the entire season to do it and expects me to stay clear until they have it done is insane and disrespectful.
I guess landowners that want to see pheasants again will let me in to trap and the ones that want the big buck deer killed will let the deer hunters sit out there till the cows come home. I think a longer season would be great and i would support it but personally if someone really insists that i wait till January 20 to start trapping that person is not gonna see me there at all. thanks for the post, very good topic!!!

[Bristleback]

Braveheart, you're OHHH SO correct on the cats. Sorry, but Southern Iowa bobcats caught in early Nov, is a dang waste of resource. Seriously, their fur quality is better March 1 than Nov 1.

I'm sure the huge % are caught in conibears/snares set for coon.

[hillbillyken]

I think the only reason they open the cat season in Nov. is to give the guys that trap for 2 weeks. You know the guys that take off of work to trap.....You all know that the DNR is trying to make trapping fair and all......I myself would like to see the cat season not open until Dec. like Neb. does, but I really don't think it will ever happen I agree that the fur is terrible in Nov. but the DNR just don't listen As far a an extended season I say hell ya I'm all for it but its not me you have to convince if you know what I mean.

[x-demoman]

There is that phrase again "make it fair for all"

[dalebillingsley]

I 2 agree about the whole cat issue. But lets be honest how many cats are caught in IA itentionally? I no of a few trappers myself included that can and have caught cats on pourpuse. But im willing to bet the farm that dang few are trapped this way. Most are caught incedently in 220 or snares for coon. So what good would it do too move the cat season when most are caught in november anyway? They'll just lay in the freezers till December.