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Going Out Trapping As told by Leslie Ukatish
to Neal Hedrick |
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My name is Leslie Ukatish, I live in Port
Graham. I started trapping two years ago, about the middle of the winter. Not
knowing what brought on the urge to start in the middle of the season, I
wanted to go trapping, so I did!
I
started out when I was eighteen, didn’t know nothing
about trapping, except that you go out and do it. I used my dad’s skiff go
and check my traps. I had to go out there and try to learn and I didn’t have
much experience. So I went out there and started learning and how to trap (by
trial and error) and started looking around where I could put my first trap,
looking for tracks and evidence if where the animals were at. Wearing gloves when I set the traps, there wouldn’t be a human scent
on the traps.
The
tracks that I found were land otter and mink. I also found the slides of the
land otter. This is where I would set my first traps, on the tracks and
trails (or slide) that they used the most. Like if they came off the trail in
the water, where the trial ends. They usually wouldn’t go around the trap
because the trail is their main route that they take every morning and every
day. There is an advantage in putting the traps in the water! The water
carries the scent away and therefore they wouldn’t be able to smell the scent
of human. The
first year I started trapping, the first animal I got was an otter, and then
through the whole year I got two otters and two minks. That was the first I ever started trapping not knowing how to
skin them (everything was a challenge). From what little experience I had
before, and asking around in Port Graham, I tried to find out how to skin
them, and how to flesh them (clean the excess fat and flesh off the skin),
and also how to dry them and other information. I took the fat off the skin (that’s what you
call fleshing). You take all the skin off the carcass (body of the animal),
and then the fat comes off the skin. You have to do this without putting
holes in the pelt. That was the main goal (not to put holes in the pelt), you are getting a better chance, in getting a better
buy! The price of the pelts would depend on how many holes you have in it.
The less holes you have the more money you would
get. Then the second year which was last year
(1978), it was a pretty good year. Both those two winter have been really
easy on everybody. It wasn’t to cold. There were times when it was too rough
to go out when the weather and the waves were bad. I didn’t go out if it got
too bad. I didn’t set the traps around the village
because of the people, children, and animals, mainly dogs. Because, one
morning I started out to go check my traps in the skiff out towards English
Bay, the first trap I came to the one at the cannery Dam Creek, and there
lays a dog in my trap. I said to myself wow! My what
a fine otter. He was limping around in every direction trying to pull the
trap loose from his foot. I took the trap off, petted him, looked at his foot
at see if that was ok, then let him go, and decided not set another trap
there again. There are many types of traps starting from
number zero jump-to number four double spring to
number four jump trap. The different sizes of traps I use here in
Port Graham are; 1 ½ single spring which is used for mink. Number three
double spring can be used for catching otter, coyote, and may other different
animals that we don’t have here. Then there is the number four jump trap
which is used for wolf, coyote, otter and animals we do not have. I have caught a mink, which is a fairly
small animal in a number 4 trap which is not unusual. I’ve caught them
several times in that size trap Last year a friend and I went to check my
traps. When we came on them, one mink was caught in this number four jump
trap, still alive. I untied the end of the wire that was hooked to the tree,
I told him to get a forked stick, and tried choking him to death. That didn’t
work, so I said, “let us drowned him.” So we took him to the water and tried
drowning him, but that didn’t work, so I decided to let him go. An animal
that has a strong will like he did deserves to live!
We released him with a front broken leg. All of these traps come under the brand name
of Victor traps. Also there is this conibear,
a square trap that you order in different sizes. Number 110 single spring is
used for mink, muskrat; 12 in a package, 330 double spring, large of the conibear; four in a package, used for otter lynx and
beaver. The reason for setting my trap in the water
was because the otter likes to go over logs, and go under the logs. There is
a little space where the otter can go under the log,
he has a choice of going under or over. This trap here was waxed, that is mainly for
coyote, because coyotes have a good nose for smelling, so they would probably
smell the rust that’s on the traps. The metal being in the water, I don’t
think the coyote can smell it very well now! Most traps we’d set very carefully, hiding
it real good. The reason for that is because when the animals step on it, he
won’t feel it go down but he will feel the jaws close on his leg! If an otter comes over here and smells all
our tracks, he’s gonna wonder what in the world’s
going on!?! Out in the water you should have a flat,
firm spot for the trap, so once he steps on it, it won’t sink and give him a
chance to get away. It will close up on him before he feels it, it’ll just
close up on his leg and zappo, ya
got him! When you have it on blare the trigger, you have to be very careful
when you set the trap, cause it will go off very
easy when you put it in the water. When the weather stops me from trapping, I
can’t get across the bay to go check my traps because the rough weather and
rough water. So I take some traps on this side of the bay, on foot, as far as
I could go and check them and see if I have any success. If I didn’t get anything, I move the traps.
I try them around in different places, when I’d find slides and evidence of
otter or mink. My
traps are made of steel. They are Juanita Victor Traps and they come in
different sizes and they are basically made out of steel. I got started trapping when I heard about
trapping season being open, and I saw other people trapping and bringing
stuff in. I’ve always wanted to do this, you know, it was something I kinda thought I’d enjoy so I tried it. Not that I really
like being outdoors to enjoy it, it’s not like outdoor enjoyment. I’d stay away from the village because I
caught some dogs. Across the bay there was one year there I went and checked
some traps and there was another guy with me. From a distance you could see
these two animals moving, and when we got a little bit closer we found out
that there was a couple of dogs in two traps right by each other. Before that
I had a coyote come and dug up the trap, but it was already sprung up ‘cause
of the tide, the waves sprung the trap. I’ll learn to keep my traps away from
dogs. Across the bay there are a lot of different
places to set the traps. There is no limit where you can set them. You can
set them any place as long as you have some scent which would draw them
towards the traps, and some bait, too. Like you would have a trap down on the
trunk of the tree and the bait just above it. They go and try to jump for
that bait and land on the trap. I am not sure how far the trapping ground go, but they would say in regulations, what the
limit is around here. Mike Lockwood told me how to set traps and
what kind of bait to use and what kind of scent and where to set them. I went
to check these places out, and he was sure right. There was one place on the
island where he said he’d caught two minks every year so I went out there to
try it. I caught two mink on the island. There are two different places he
told me but I haven’t tried them. Mike described them over the telephone so I
pretty much know where he wanted me to set them. During trapping season, you can shoot the
animal if you have a rifle. It is legal to shoot them and it would be a lot
easier than waiting for them to get caught in the trap. I don’t think it
would really matter to Fish and Game, you would have
a trapping license, which I do. I never leave it behind,
I always carry it with me. I don’t know how it’s going to be this year.
I kinda think it’s gonna
be colder weatherwise and it could cause me not to
go out as often then I like to. From the look of it right now, I think it is
going to be very good for the fur through, cause
when it is colder, the fur is more prime. It is better quality when you sell
it, which I think, will make me try harder. It would also more of a learning
experience and I would do better this year than last year. Sea otters are not feasible to shoot. You
would get a $500 fine. You can shoot a land otter when it is a land otter and
not a sea otter. It is hard to tell them apart ‘cause they kind of look the
same in the water. I would probably wait for a while until he got out of the
water and on land and then shoot him if he starts towards the wood. If I
would get caught, and thought it was a land otter and found out it was a sea
otter, I would reason with that guy or something, tell him I did not know
what it was. When I first started out I was out I was
looking in the telephone book to find out who was selling the fur and a good
market was in Sterling near Soldotna, about 18 miles near Soldotna. He’s
giving me a good price and there in After
I fleshed it, and take as much fat off as I can, I take and put it on a
stretcher. You have a mink stretcher, a coyote stretcher, and an otter
stretch. There is a wire stretcher which is made out of wire frame and as you
pull the fur over the wire frame that is made at the factory, but you can
make your own stretcher and adjust it were you want to. So
I’d say to me trapping is making money and enjoyable at the same time!
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Copyright 1981, Volume 1 |
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