I'll Not Give Up, Ye Know!

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

F*ck 'em. They use " The River ". I've seen their shit there. I've also seen a live one just half a mile away, down the road, and headed up here. I'm gonna catch one, if it's the last thing I f*ckin do.

 

So, this is my latest effort, look. I've set up a permanent cage trap there. Right next to the pipe I once had a miscaught one drag my Fenn Mk III or IV up. Same pipe I've had that Pipe Trap stuck up since the old king died. I'm up there every bloody day, casting a disinterested glance at That poxy piece of shit. Thought I'd may as well put something there worth wondering about. So that's what I've been up to this afters.

 

I decided to use one of my larger cages. I believe these ones are produced by Essex Enviromental? Bloody lovely traps anyway. Treadle operated. They have a gorgeously sharp, decisive action to them and nothing much to snag and jam at the crucial moment. If that solid great door ever slams down behind anything? What ever's in there will be staying in there. They also come with a wire mesh face guard into which ye can cut ye own chosen size of entry hole. Easier than trying to cover over a gaping great entrance without managing to inadvertantly block it. I like them anyway.

 

Anyway; " The River ". It runs under the upper part of the main track here. That means that anyone coming into this part will pass it. Obviously, the vast majority of traffic on that track is vehicular. But The Idiots wife walks up there quite a bit and she's a bit of a bunny hugger, so I don't need her to know what I'm up to. In fact, no one needs know it's there really. If they don't know, they won't interfere with it.

 

The River isn't a river at all, of course. It's barely even a stream, except in the wet season. Then it really can put out a gush at this side, having banked up against the eighteen inch concrete pipe which brings it under our track. It's not doing badly as I write this. But it's been fiercer and will later die down to a bare trickle. But it's pretty much always got some water moving through there. Seems ideal, to me. Best of all is, the badgers don't appear to get it. Pat's cattle do. They'd come down here to drink and trample my cage to bits and wreck everything for me. But I'll let Pat know it's there and we can run a tape round it when he lets his cows back onto this particular field again.

 

Anyway, here's the pictures .....

 

 

 

Digging In ~ Note the Back Stop

 

 

 

 

Job Done ~ Back View

 

 

 

 

Side View

 

 

 

 

Front View

 

 

 

 

Idiots Wifes View ~ From the Track

 

 

 

 

Minks View ~ From The River

 

 

 

So, there it is then. And there it can bloody well stay. I've baited it with a scrap of white fish and a dose of Winterised Makeral Oil. I like the fact that what's left of the cattle path leads down to the river and the mouth of the trap. I also like the fact that that path is bang next to the track. Any mink following The River and coming up over the track, as they tend to do, rather than white water their way through the pipe beneath it there, should show a natural inclination to head down the cow track to the water. There's also another little natural slip way on the other side of The River and, again, anything emerging from that will have a job not to spot the lead up into my trap opposite.

 

Well that's the theory anyway. But those of ye who've been here long enough to have followed my sagas in search of will know as well as I what'll likely happen now. That damn trap will sit there untill the turfs I have covering it have taken f*cking root and the cows will have been and gone home again. And I'll catch bugger all!

[moley 115]

why not set two traps and double your chances , or even gang set , so the mink has nowhere to go but in a trap, put a bodygrip in the stream its self , it wouldn,t take much fencing in , those mink have two things to worry about , old age and starvation

[ianrob 2]

Very nice set up Ditch good luck.

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Moles; I've also set a Juby in the next ditch along, mate 'Mind you; No signs of activity there. Not like there was last year, when I put a halt to such activity by setting a Juby there. But the trap's in no heated rush. It'll wait. Last year showed me that the ditch leads from somewhere to somewhere. In fact, I know where. It's a good choice of runway Anything starts running it now, I'll have that too. I'm still thinking about case skinning ~ if ye follow ....?

 

Regards gang setting the river? Doesn't seem worth the expenditure, mate. I tend to do focused one offs there, because of the reasons touched on above and because I simply can't be arsed to go under the fence every day with my Dogs in tow. I have a particular spot where I can lean over a fence post and see if either the Pipe Trap or that cage have fired.

 

Saying that; I may end up putting a Juby there too. Only I want to paint some first. It's a very exposed spot and yet I'd want it in plain view from the track. But, yes, the bank opposite the cage would be a nice spot.

 

In the water? See above. Soon won't be enough water.

 

Cheers, Ian. I made a proper job of that one. Couldn't have done it without my trusty old Trapping Hammer. I wonder how many of us still have and use one of those, eh?

[Rolfe 2]

Well i still use my trapping hammer on an almost daily basis Ditch. You don't see many about these days.

Last one i saw for sale was at the Midland last year........they wanted £40 for it.......well worth it if you had a use for it.

 

Rolfe.

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Craic is to bring them in from Oz, Rolfe Loads of them still knocking about out there. British made stuff from the old days. Mine's a Braids and cost me about twenty quid, all found.

 

Wouldn't be without one.

[john b 38]

I use a brick hammer - do I get half marks ?

[moley 115]

bloody hell , i thought you forgot about that shitty

i used a brick hammer for years for rabbit trapping with mk6,s, but was getting sick of sometimes not being able to fit it on the hole to start with , common sense would say trim the blade down a bit, but i just persevered, i got me a mini spade type tool made up and use that all the time now , much quicker and easier to use , got an origional trapping hammer of the bay but not to use

[gav000 0]

any of you have any photos of your hammers, i dont know what they look like.

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Photo's? Sure. Right HERE, Gav

[foxdropper 17,092]

Perseverance mate ,thats the key to anything ,although if i lived closer i would drop a fella in that cage just so you can write about results .Come on .