SUMMERSVILLE, W.Va. — When it comes to woodsmanship skills, trappers are probably best tuned to the outdoors of any of us. A trapper faces a serious set of hurdles which range from concealment to scene control. All of which are on a scale unlike anything hunters typically encounter.
Corey Boothe of Summersville doesn’t consider himself an expert by any means, but he definitely felt better about his skills in recent weeks when running his trap line in Nicholas County.
“I’ve been pretty lucky,” he said in a visit on Ram Trucks West Virginia Outdoors. “I got to pull off a feat I never would have expected to do.”
The feat to which he referred was recently trapping three bobcats in three consecutive days.
“One felt good, two felt better, and three was almost unbelievable,” said Boothe. “Two were from one set and another was a couple hundred yards away. They were all from the same cut. This is about a five to seven year old clear cut with a whole lot of sign and animals use it.”
Boothe said he felt confident when he laid the dirt hole set. The vegetation on either side of the trail was approximately six feet high, but the trail was barely a foot off the ground. He laid the traps in a tapered hole four to five inches deep and concealed the bait with a leaf. He reasoned the critter would be right handed so he set the trap to one side of the hole.
“Bobcats need a little bit more eye appeal, so it was a little bit wider hole,” he said. “I set the trap to the left since I assumed they were right handed when they stuck their paw in for the goodie. Then I top it off with something called ‘Gusto.” It’s a really skunky scent and if you get it on your hands you don’t want to be around your wife for a while because she will be upset with you.”
The area of his trap line seemed to be an attractive trail for many critters moving in and out of the area.
“It definitely had the sign and it seemed to be the highway,” he said. “I’ve trapped several coyotes and I’ve killed a couple of bear right on the edge of that cut. Animals seem to use it for sure.”
State law limits trappers to three bobcats, so Boothe was done for 2015, but believed there were more around. He saw several fresh tracks even after his triple.
‘I think with bobcats and bears, there’s a lot more out than people tend to think,” he said.