Catch & Release Fishing Is For Wimps

[MossRoad]

A real sport is catch and release skunk trapping!!!

[JCB]

Moss,

I got my hackles up. Read your post. Then agreed with you. Half a thrill is better than none.

[beenthere]

But...he's walking away

[magicheater]

I do other things for "risk exercise"!

[Toyboy]

My friend & I tried something similar on a raccoon with a mayonnaise jar stuck on it's head like a space helmet....only without the box. We both ended up having to get rabies shots.

[JCB]

My friend & I tried something similar on a raccoon with a mayonnaise jar stuck on it's head like a space helmet....only without the box. We both ended up having to get rabies shots.

Toyboy,

That is funny!

Joe

[Hooked_on_HP]

Moss,
There has to be more to this story?
Bill

[CurlyDave]

Just don't be letting anything loose at my place.

I have enough varmits as is.

[Cami]

They give a fair bit of warning before they spray but holy smokes!

There are no skunks on the island where I live but a buddy used skunk scent from an animal caught by a friend on the mainland as a lure for his marten sets and had a section gang working nearby going mad wondering if they'd discovered skunks on the island.

Thank you for the stroll down amnesia lane!

[MossRoad]

Hee hee!
O.K. Here's the whole story....

One of my garages houses my tractor implements. It has a dirt floor. Last week I pulled all of my implements out to do the spring shuffle... you know, put the snow plow in the back, bring the brush hog to the front, etc...

I get to the back and there is sand all over my brush hog. A ground hog had dug a hole in the back of the garage. That got my dander up. I filled in the hole and borrowed a live trap from the neighbor. I was gonna get that sucker! There is a small space near the front corner of the garage where I knew it had to come in, so I set the trap right there on the inside of the garage and baited it with sliced apples. I put some boards on the sides of the trap, so no critter could come in that hole without having to go through the trap.

Sure enough, the next day, the trap was tripped.... but there was nothing in it but a pile of groundhog poop and the apples were half gone. Lots of dirt torn up under the trap. Somehow it had gotten out of the trap after it ate the apples and pooped. It must be a small one.

So I cleaned out the trap and re-baited and reset it. Nothing for 5 days. I am in that garage every day getting garden tools, so it is checked once every 24 hours. Well, I kind of forgot about it last night and opened the service door and started walking over towards the far wall to get some garden tools. I look down and see the trap door is closed. YES!!!! I bet I finally got that sucker!!!!! The lights aren't on and it is kind of dim in there, so I peer over the top of the boards and see a black cat. Stupid neighbor's cat. We have an old lady on our block that probably has a thousand cats (o.k., probably 8, but they run around the neighborhood like a pack of drunken monkeys). Anyhow, I notice the cat has a white mohawk.... SKUNK!!!! And I run out of the garage!!!

I had read many TBNers' stories about what to do with skunks in live traps.... so I found and old tarp. I slowly opened the large doors where the trap was. The skunk was fine with things until it saw me. Every time it saw me, it would turn sideways and start pointing its rear end in my direction. As long as I kept myself pretty well hidden behind the green tarp, the skunk settled down and just kept sniffing around. So, I put the tarp over the trap and then reached under the tarp and slowly slipped the boards away. I was able to grab the handle on top of the trap through the tarp and slowly picked it up and carried it to the back yard. Along the way, it started getting heavy and I accidentally kicked the cage. The skunk got agitated and started running back and forth in the trap. It reminded me of that scene from Christmas Vacation where the old Aunt wrapped her cat in the present box. But for some reason, it never sprayed. I did smell it a little bit once I got to the back yard, but it was never close to bad.

I set the trap down in the yard for about 20 minutes, then got the courage up to slip the tarp around until I could find the rear latch on the trap. While the wife, kids and neighbors watched, I opened the trap and pulled the tarp off half way.

That skunk shot out of that trap pretty quick. I ran about 10 feet and turned around. The skunk ran the other direction about 20 feet. Stopped, looked over his shoulder at us and raised his tail for about 2 seconds, put it back down and ran into the woods. It was over in about 5 seconds. It ran so fast my daughter could only get one picture of it.

Anyhow, that was much more thrilling than fishing.