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During the years prior to establishing my own fulltime trapline I became very active in the Alabama Fur Takers Association and served as editor for our quarterly newsletter to members for about two years. During this time I worked closely with Larry Johnston who was our public relations director and who spent a lot of time with legislators in the state capitol working hard for all trappers.

Until now trapping had been mainly just a hobby for me and an excuse to keep myself in the woods as much as possible, so when I decided to go professional fulltime Larry and his wife Marcia invited me to spend a few weeks with them on their trapline in Wetumpka, Alabama. After two weeks I was well on my way to really learning the craft of a professional trapper which mainly boils down to one principle... A lot of very hard work!

I wrote a feature article on my experience with Larry for Fur-Fish-Game magazine and plan to post it here in the future, but for now here's just a few brief photos from Larry's trapline in L.A.(Lower Alabama).

Two Weeks in South Alabama!

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Larry is releasing a muskrat from a 110 conibear trap.

Making a blind set for mink along the edge of a small stream.

Making a cubby hole set for raccoon along the edge of a creek. Larry was always very careful not to move around a lot when making a set which is a habit which develops after making hundreds of fox sets!

He's now making a trail set for beaver with a 330 conibear trap. At this time there was a severe overpopulation of beaver in the state of Alabama and Larry had as much farmland to trap as he was willing to take on. His reputation among landowners was well respected throughout several south Alabama counties.

Larry taught me a lot about making dirt-hole sets for fox and he was certainly a pro at it!

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The reward of a lot of hard work is coming to a set the next morning to find a nice grey fox!

A bloodless kill is essential if you're going to use the same set again so Larry humanely knocked out the fox with his small trapper's trial, then held his foot firmly on the heart/lung area until the fox unconsciously expired.

A couple of fine fox.

Here's one opossum that will never mess up another fox set!

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