Thread: Possum Trapping

UPDATE!!

ok so i just want to confess i gave up for 2 months. Started trapping again late july. Spoke to the neighbor and got onto his land. i think i had 15 traps.. He asked me to set them up the tree because of the kiwis, it took me about a week of trial and error to get a working technique so didnt catch much but did have a lot of set off trap. I found the top of the hills were by far the best, was a tough hike but worth it. I was averaging 8 once i found them caught a lot of black possums too. After a couple of weeks i scouted ahead of my trap lines and came across a load of pine trees. Couldnt quite believe my eyes there was literally possum shit everywhere, went up for a spotlighting session that night and slaughtered them, i was spending more time plucking than anything else. This would of been mid august, moved all my traps to the pines and almost all my traps would go off every night for a couple weeks, a few nights they all went off. Just wish i had more traps!!!! The pines started to die down and i pulled my traps and went to the next piece of land id secured at the end of the road. Word seems to get around quickly, im not far off having every acre in the valley to trap on. Anyway i got a bunch more traps by this time, probably start of september. So 30 traps, went to the new bit of land trapped it for about a week had just started to find them but there was another peice of land opposite the one i was on. This one had a ton of pines with native bush right next to it on the side of a big hill. I couldnt help but think if they pines were stuffed with possums a few weeks ago surely they will now all be in the bush right next to it. So took the gamble pulled all my traps and went up there. I walked up the pines and trapped in there for the first week, maybe got 20 possums i mde the mistake of putting too many traps too close together thinking it still might work. Ended up pulling all but 4 traps and started laying them right at the very top of the native, near the bush edge. Didnt put them all out at once as was scared to loose them, the information i got from the ones that were out up there told me that there was alot of possums so banged them all out pretty close together. I think i went 10, 18, 16 15 then 2 (rained all night long) then 8 and out of those last 8, 6 of them were babies either just off the mothers back or maybe id killed all theyre mothers i dont know?? 3 the next day then I pulled my traps after that, not sure if it was a mistake or not. I might go back to the same bush a km away or something it was like they got trap shy pretty quick i doubt i wiped them out. Kind of got my sights set on some different land tho spent a while on google earth trying to decide where to go. one that doesnt involve a 6km hike everyday. Just need to go see the land owner and introduce myself will probably do that tomorrow along with some maintenence on my traps. Then spend a day walking around it to gather some intel.

Ive almost been in the country a year. I came over myself from scotland on a working holiday visa, never imagined id be doing this haha wasn't too bothered about travelling in campervans and picking fruit i was keen to live more like the locals. Been trapping since march i think,took a couple months off. Im pretty confident now, obviously still got so much to learn and every day up the bush im learning more and more. Sadly i might be leaving the country next month, have had a blast tho

Scotty

Originally Posted by scotsman

UPDATE!!

ok so i just want to confess i gave up for 2 months. Started trapping again late july. Spoke to the neighbor and got onto his land. i think i had 15 traps.. He asked me to set them up the tree because of the kiwis, it took me about a week of trial and error to get a working technique so didnt catch much but did have a lot of set off trap. I found the top of the hills were by far the best, was a tough hike but worth it. I was averaging 8 once i found them caught a lot of black possums too. After a couple of weeks i scouted ahead of my trap lines and came across a load of pine trees. Couldnt quite believe my eyes there was literally possum shit everywhere, went up for a spotlighting session that night and slaughtered them, i was spending more time plucking than anything else. This would of been mid august, moved all my traps to the pines and almost all my traps would go off every night for a couple weeks, a few nights they all went off. Just wish i had more traps!!!! The pines started to die down and i pulled my traps and went to the next piece of land id secured at the end of the road. Word seems to get around quickly, im not far off having every acre in the valley to trap on. Anyway i got a bunch more traps by this time, probably start of september. So 30 traps, went to the new bit of land trapped it for about a week had just started to find them but there was another peice of land opposite the one i was on. This one had a ton of pines with native bush right next to it on the side of a big hill. I couldnt help but think if they pines were stuffed with possums a few weeks ago surely they will now all be in the bush right next to it. So took the gamble pulled all my traps and went up there. I walked up the pines and trapped in there for the first week, maybe got 20 possums i mde the mistake of putting too many traps too close together thinking it still might work. Ended up pulling all but 4 traps and started laying them right at the very top of the native, near the bush edge. Didnt put them all out at once as was scared to loose them, the information i got from the ones that were out up there told me that there was alot of possums so banged them all out pretty close together. I think i went 10, 18, 16 15 then 2 (rained all night long) then 8 and out of those last 8, 6 of them were babies either just off the mothers back or maybe id killed all theyre mothers i dont know?? 3 the next day then I pulled my traps after that, not sure if it was a mistake or not. I might go back to the same bush a km away or something it was like they got trap shy pretty quick i doubt i wiped them out. Kind of got my sights set on some different land tho spent a while on google earth trying to decide where to go. one that doesnt involve a 6km hike everyday. Just need to go see the land owner and introduce myself will probably do that tomorrow along with some maintenence on my traps. Then spend a day walking around it to gather some intel.

Ive almost been in the country a year. I came over myself from scotland on a working holiday visa, never imagined id be doing this haha wasn't too bothered about travelling in campervans and picking fruit i was keen to live more like the locals. Been trapping since march i think,took a couple months off. Im pretty confident now, obviously still got so much to learn and every day up the bush im learning more and more. Sadly i might be leaving the country next month, have had a blast tho

Scotty

Be careful not to trap and shoot them out mate.
Farm it sort of speak, if you plan to do another season there.

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