A DECOY DIMENSIONAL TRAPLINE

There’s far more innovation out there in trapping methodology than what we currently think. I have noticed that strategies in the trapping world don’t necessarily change as fast as other outdoor pastimes when trying to collect predators. Heck, I occasionally find myself still setting the very reliable Newhouse leg hold traps that don’t look all that different from today’s long spring traps. Mr. Newhouse himself would be proud, almost 200 years since his birth, to see his iconic trap design still in the field today.

I have personally tried just about every bait recipe known to man, and have concluded that there’s no secret magic bait — only concoctions that fare a little better than others on the trapline. I haven’t discovered the secret dirthole or blind set, either.

However, there could be a secret little golden addition to a trapline. This is one method that I haven’t really seen on the Internet, read in a magazine, heard on the telephone, telegram or trapper network. After a decade of testing, I have found that employing the use of decoys on the trapline works pretty darn well.

For years, trappers have used feathers, synthetic fur, Christmas tinsel, aluminum foil, animal carcasses and other visual aids with varying degrees of success for capturing predators on the line. I changed things up a bit and have been experimenting with decoys and laminated prey pictures around my traps, and would like to say that I’m