INNOVATIVE’ CATS
The philosopher Plato once wrote “our need will be the real creator” — which eventually became: “Necessity is the mother of invention.”
Theoretical physicist Albert Einstein once said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
And, of course, the quote that most applies to me, is: “Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.” I don’t know who said it, but it likely was a trapper. Well, I actually don’t consider myself lazy, but you see where I’m coming from.
No doubt trapping has evolved with invention and innovation. Look back on that fateful day when Sewell Newhouse forged his first longspring with hammer and anvil to build a steel trap. Or a hundred years later when Canadian trapper Frank Conibear changed the way we trap beavers, otters, muskrats and martens today. The famous Conibear bodygripper was a project that took Frank more than 30 years to refine.
Most of us aren’t inventors or manufacturers — we are trappers. Yet trappers are constantly refining techniques and pushing the limits of the traps and knowledge of effective techniques. As trappers, we typically learn from successful trappers and modify these techniques to serve our unique areas and circumstances, adding our own imagination to another’s tactics to make them our own.
CATMEN
Looking back at all the trappers and hunters I’ve met and learned from (and it’s many), I’m of the opinion
