Late Furbearer Season

The end of the year doesn’t signal the end of the fur harvesting season at least not for another month. The 2008 trapping and hunting season officially ends January 31, 2009. However, coyote hunting continues as a year round season with minimal regulations and beaver trapping continues until spring April 1, 2009.

It seems irrational to think of those still trapping and coon hunting at this time of the year as it both it drives man and furbearers into their home dens. Furbearers have extremely minimal movement this time of the year and it is difficult to find them le alone trap them. One has to be smart enough to find the dens of where they are “hibernating” throughout the winter. Many times trappers and hunters target the many barns that are throughout rural Iowa as these are hotspots for ‘coons and other predators to hole up for the winter and for warmer weather. Box traps or conibears guarding modified five gallon buckets are very effective at these locations and to hunt raccoons in these barns smaller type hunting dogs are required. These hounds are typically either beagles or some breed of rat terrier and then these dogs trail after a ‘coon in the noticeable entrances of the ‘coon’s dens in the mounds of hay.

However, barns are in limited supply and after a couple nights of hunting the barns can be cleaned out around where you live. I have never really pursued to heavily after this kind of hunting or trapping. It seems unusual that the season doesn’t end until the end of the month of January. I can’t imagine to many hunters or trappers are out this winter in the unusually below average and below zero temperatures trying to hunt and trap when the fur prices are falling out and into chaos.

I’m looking forward to trapping beaver in the spring when the streams unthaw, but for now I’m leaving the ‘coons alone until next fall and staying in my den or trying to catch a fish through two feet of ice.