Being driven to succeed is vital to any trapping game plan, as anyone who lays out a line knows. Dealing with brutal weather conditions, difficult situations and often dismal returns would make members of other sporting pursuits close up shop. Dealing with all of this sure requires serious drive. But what about those trappers who for whatever reason become overly enthusiastic, maybe even obsessed with one fur bearer? Only too well do I know when this fever overcomes a person, and for this steel stringer it’s fisher first to the last.
MUSTELID ASPIRATIONS
My trapping partner (and patient wife) has said for decades that I need to get a self-help group started for trappers who are obsessed with Pennants Marten. Sure, it’s funny, but if you know the feeling of the all-consuming nothing-else-is-worth-my-time mindset you know it’s true.
But just how does an ordinary trapper once perfectly happy with his line get so focused as to forsake good fox territory? I credit two very powerful forces for my fisher focus, one being my paternal grandfather. I’ve mentioned William Rideout’s fisher adventures before and his relentless pursuit was passed on to me. Fisher for his generation was the mark of true trapping success, with fantastic prices paid out. The other source of fisher obsession was the local fur buyer. His grandson and I were pals with a shared trapline. I can still see the fur
