It's been a bad section of the population cycle in this section of Nebraska for both of these species as well. This year we set a record with positive rabies cases and skunks comprised a full 90% of the carriers. It is just common now to drive down any highway and get a whiff of skunk as you cruise along. The road-killed carcasses for both skunks and possums seem about as high as I ever recall.
Last year I also set a personal skunk catch all-time high, and the interesting angle on that was that all the skunks came from within a mere 2 square-mile section of land. I took 8 skunks in a small 80 acre area alone, within only a two-week stretch to boot. No small specimans, either. I was also not the only one killing skunks in this area either. My family members took 2 while pheasant hunting, I counted 4 dead on the county road that summer, and one was killed while it wandered into my in-law's front yard area. That one was submitted to the local health management department, and it did test positive for rabies. As a result, all the family pets got an immediate vaccination.
Anymore, my job is not only to take fur, predators that affect their bird hunting population, etc. but also critter control for this terrible disease.
I used to avoid skunks and possums at sets by steering clear of bait, making sure that there was no "hollow" area under the pans of my traps (skunks have a knack for digging out little hollow areas...it helps them locate grubs underground), I used snares and blind sets, and went to water trapping until a good, hard freeze hit before I made land sets at all.
Now, I set both land and water alike, use all the bait I want to, and try to remove as many skunks and possums from the immediate area population as I can. If I don't, there doesn't seem to be any other population control other than cars, coyotes, and diseases. With a huge disease presence, it is now more of a necessity to protect the family and our pets, too. I like to think that I "lay down a lot of cover scent" by trapping skunks prior to deer season around here, too. (ha ha ha)
Seriously though, the predator trapping around old skunk catch circles seems to be much better in late season. It's like putting a powerful call lure nearby my predator sets, and in late season it does seem to be helping me out more than hurting me, too. Once and awhile I have to spend a little extra time washing out a coyote or fox hide because they managed to find the old skunk carcass and either ate it or rolled in it. A post set near an old skunk catch circle, with the old skunk carcass buried right at that old set, is a great canine set. I get a lot of smelly canines that have an urge to pee after rolling around in the old skunk catch circles.
I'm not an expert by any means, and Charlie Dobbins often wrote about the merits of a post nearby something smelly to key in on canine habits like this. I am finally seeing the wisdom in his thoughts on this, and this is one way to both reduce your skunk and possum numbers "early" and then cash in on the canines later on in the same section of land.
Jim-NE
