Thread: The Oldies possum trapping again

Yeh when Beeman splashes you know where he's been, but it does work and draws the possums in.

No work today as its been pissing down.

Still had to go up there tho and check the 10 traps we have set. Unfortunately no interest in the one trap i have set on a ramp

The critters must have known the storm was coming as there were was one cat, one rat and three of these...



Also one of these...Bugger.



Any tips on plucking them when they look like this



Cheers

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It's messy but eventually you get the job done. Ya just have to keep wiping your hands to get the stuck fur of and into the bag.

Those sprung traps that have possum fur in them are the worst scenario @kukuwai, you're not gunna catch him this season. They learn quick and become trap shy and bait\lure shy. Good luck.

Originally Posted by BeeMan

Those sprung traps that have possum fur in them are the worst scenario @kukuwai, you're not gunna catch him this season. They learn quick and become trap shy and bait\lure shy. Good luck.

Yep i haven't seen that with any of the bushmasters yet. Even managed to hold onto this one several months back



I guess that's the price you pay for cheap traps. That one in the sprung photo was only $5.
@Mrs Beeman Great thread you started here



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Oldies on the move again, . This is how I do it . . thumb under jaw, jaw up n set plate. . 75mm-100mm placement from tree. . set lured n waiting. . SMOKO.

Have learnt more in that last few posts than a life time of trial and error ...fantastic ..thank you so much for sharing your knowledge ..love trapping possoms done it with mixed success over the years. Taking it all in so I can make a better effort on a smaller scale ...thanks again

Originally Posted by BeeMan

Oldies on the move again, . This is how I do it . Attachment 93090. thumb under jaw, jaw up n set plate. Attachment 93091. 75mm-100mm placement from tree. . set lured n waiting. Attachment 93092Attachment 93093. SMOKO. Attachment 93094

I set my traps pretty well the same ... maybe not so much lure but the same technique.
Have done 10kg of fur so far this winter trapping and thermal / spotlighting myself.

One thing I have discovered from using the thermal a lot at night is just how much warmer it is in an exotic pine / douglas fur forest compared to the native forest in my area.
I'm using "white hot" and the native forest is fairly bark black. Whereas pine forests are fairly light and the trunks are a ghostly cream colour.
I used to think the possums moved into the pine forests in the winter for some sort of feed that was there !
But I now think that its because its so much warmer and I'm trapping and shooting them as they come out to feed on the adjoining pasture.

One other tip is that I have a lot of my traps on a heavy para cord lanyard with a dog chain clip on the end.
That makes it really fast to run out a trap line along a fence line around a pine or native bush block.
Also makes it easy to un clip the trap when the possums get the chain hopelessly tangled up in the fence wires.

@BeeMan cheers for the above post

What make trap is that one pictured? It looks like a good solid one.

I'm still picking them off down here although this weeks been a bit slow with the rain about.

However its nice and clear tonight so I'm hoping they are hungry!!!

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Originally Posted by Russian 22.

Is that a bat?



Should have kept it up. Feral cats are terrible.

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possum tail

Set another 85 traps yesterday and got 52 today. Take a look at the contents of their stomachs and you get an idea what their diet is at the moment. We're hoping the weather forecast is wrong as they are predicting rain tomorrow so makes plucking unpleasant but it has to be done.

@kukuwai - the trap pictured is a Victor 1 1/2 but we usually use 1's or Dukes.

Well this has inspired me so back out spot lighting Friday hopefully as https://www.windy.com/ seems to think we might dodge the rain.

The stomach content is about 250 grams of pine pollen, most of our possums are like that. The high protein in the pollen induces winter fur drop and secondary growth to start. Hence no good for skins, but not a lot of difference for plucking.

Fruits of the day. And cleaning up.

Jacko don't look to chuffed with his prospects