# lure of fur



## h2ofwlr (Feb 6, 2004)

*lure of fur*
Running a trapline has been a lifelong habit for Dan Croke.
BY SAM COOK 
Duluth News Tribune
Article Last Updated: 12/20/2007 04:55:36 PM CST

Duluth's Dan Croke can still remember the first fox he trapped. He was a kid, growing up in Two Harbors, Minn., and had to ride his bike to set and check his traps. His uncle, Cecil Swanson, had taught him the basics of trapping.

"I got my first fox in seventh grade," Croke said. "I carried it back to town across my handlebars."

Croke, now 59, checks his traps from a pickup these days, driving the woods north of Duluth, where he traps beaver, mink, otter, fisher and marten.

Otter season opened Oct. 27, and fisher and marten season opened Nov. 24. On this day in November, Croke is off to check several sets for all three species. He cruises slowly along the tote roads, a bag of venison jerky at his side from one of the two deer he killed this fall.

Croke knows his business. He has been trapping steadily for almost 47 years. He has been named Minnesota's Male Trapper of the Year (1984) by the Minnesota Trappers Association. He was inducted into the association's Trapping Hall of Fame in 2002. He has trapped beavers and coyotes for the state of Minnesota, and he has trapped beavers and timber wolves for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services Program.

"Dan is one of the most skilled trappers I know," said John Hart, a federal trapper with the USDA's Wildlife Services Program in Grand Rapids. "He understands the habits and the habitats of all the animals in northern Minnesota, and that's the key to trapping."

Croke eases his pickup to the roadside near a small creek north of Duluth. He grabs an ax and his trapping tongs and heads down the creek. He has placed a "blind" set for otters here, meaning the trap is unbaited. It's a Conibear 330, set mostly underwater. 
"Otters travel from pond to pond to feed on fish and crayfish," he said. "The trapper has to try to figure out what's going on."

Croke has figured correctly again. He chops ice to free the trap and pulls up a yearling female otter. Its mahogany pelt is thick and rich. Even soaking wet, clamped in the jaws of the trap, it's possible to visualize the finished fur in a winter coat.

MARKET VALUE

Two years ago, in the winter of 2005-2006, a prime otter would have brought Croke $150 to $200. That's when the Chinese were buying lots of otters. Last winter, pelt prices fell to an average of $35, Croke said. He's hoping they'll average $40 to $50 this winter.

The Chinese market dried up over concerns that some endangered species, including sea otters (listed as "threatened"), were being sold illegally. The fur of sea otters is difficult to distinguish from that of river otters, which are abundant and not endangered.

Croke hauled the 15-pound otter to his pickup and moved on down his trap line. Fur prices have been low since the mid-1980s with the exception of the 2005-06 winter, Croke said. That blip in the fur market was "extraordinary, but short-lived."

When fur prices are good, more trappers buy licenses. But usually, about 5,000 or 6,000 Minnesotans trap. They're the ones, like Croke, who do it because they love it, not just for the money.

Croke is headed for another otter set now, on another creek. This set is in the right place, too. It holds a male otter somewhat larger than the female Croke trapped earlier. Croke uses his tongs to pry the trap's frame off the otter. The Belisle Conibear 330 that Croke uses is a powerful trap. It kills an otter almost instantly.

With two otters, Croke is halfway to his season limit of four.

"Great start to the day," he said.

Croke keeps trapping, even in years with low fur prices, for a couple of reasons.

"I just enjoy the outdoor experience and the challenge," he says.

Croke likes figuring out what an animal, or a population of animals, is doing. Where they move. What paths they use. Why they prefer certain places. Why they avoid others.

It took him 20 years to get good at trapping, he said.

"It's experience, just learning what works and what doesn't," Croke said. "Location is the key. And I mean exact location, down to where they're going to put their foot. Trapping technique is second."

GO FOR THE GUSTO

Croke moves on to check more otter traps - all otterless - and several pine marten and fisher traps.

Marten and fisher are not particularly hard to trap, he said, as long as they're in the area and they're moving. A marten set, an open-ended box made from wood, is about the size of a rural mailbox. Croke attaches his to trees at about eye level. The trap, a smaller Conibear 120, sits just inside the box.

Croke places bait, usually a chunk of beaver meat, behind the trap in the box. Then he pulls out a 4-ounce bottle of liquid the color of gravy and unleashes the rankest scent you can imagine. It's Caven's Gusto, an elixir with at least 50 percent skunk scent. "Any marten trapper worth his salt uses Gusto," Croke proclaimed.

Gusto is a "call lure," a strong odor that attracts an animal to the vicinity of a trap. Once there, the animal smells the bait and, theoretically, approaches the trap.

As we try not to gag, Croke slips the bottle of Gusto over a horizontal branch until the branch is coated with the pungent liquid. He wastes no time in recapping the bottle.

Croke collects two pine marten on his rounds in the deep woods, one a dusky gray, the other auburn. Pine marten are ferret-sized creatures with pointed, catlike faces. The combined marten and fisher limit is five.

Pine marten fur is valued for hats, vests, jackets, scarves and coats, said Wayne Nurmi, who owns USA Foxx and Furs in Duluth. It takes 35 to 40 marten to make a jacket, he said.

Croke has a hunch why most of his marten sets are untouched on his rounds.

"For some reason, they haven't been moving," he said. "What makes 'em move is those warm nights. They conserve their energy when it's cold."

Croke hopes that marten will be worth about $50 each this fall, down from $85 to $90 two winters ago. He isn't complaining. He still feels the anticipation at every set he approaches.

"You ask why I trap?" he said. "It's the outdoor experience, but it's also that Christmas-morning syndrome - what am I going to have?"


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## Quacker Wacker (Oct 12, 2006)

good story thanks for posting!


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