Scouting for new areas at the kitchen table

[coyotero]

I confess I'm a map junky.I have been going over my De Lorme Gazetteer.I have been looking for creeks.I found over 14 I didn't know existed in my area.Most of them have section line roads crossing them repeatedly.This is just on 4 pages for my local area.I have to use a magnify glass to read the creek names( my eye balls getting old).A couple of creeks/streams connect 4 or 5 lakes/sloughs.The ones I looked at on my way home from work this morning all had good fur sign,muskrats,mink and coon.When I canine trapped in  Montana and North Dakota I always looked for secondary roads to run lines off of.I was able to lay out nice loops or circular lines so I didn't have to back track.I'd drive the loops,pick out and record locations and then secure permissions.By laying my lines out from maps at home it saved me time and gas  over just driving around looking.I always try to line up 3 times as much ground as I figure I can trap.This really helps out if you have lots of competition,areas of low fur population and line rotation.I have 4 lines/loops to check out in the next 3 days.

[wormbobskey]

Me and my trapping partner just spent several hours scouting properities we have permission to trap. Put a lot of miles on the boots today and saw some pretty good sign in most of the areas we checked. We're targeting mostly coon and muskrats, but I always have my eyes peeled for canine sign. We still have several properties we haven't checked and we're trying to do like you are in that we want more property than we can trap. We plan on trapping the furthest properties early in the season and rotate our traps until we get the the closer areas as the weather gets colder. We both have 4X4's, but that don't mean we want to have to use them unless we have to.