The Irony is not lost, chris.
Its just some hunters are not  s toatly committed.
They  are w easily distracted and their efforts are not enough fer ret to be effective on a trap line.

hauraki hunter wrote on Sep 18^th, 2013 at 7:16pm:


Stoats and ferrets can be fickle, nothing for ages and then one trap will catch a bunch. A useful tip, though not very practicle is to keep baits as fresh as possible. It's pretty hard to compete this time of the year with a wealth of young prey about- today I was able to abandon my truck and chase down (gazell like) a leveret. Took it back showed Max at the truck who was highly impressed (he's not allowed to chase them or their parents) and then I let the squeeling little hua go, proving I have more compassion than a stoat!

no they pretty much stay that color. you can use what ever you like, the more killed the better.
they are a major introduced predator here and take a heavy toll on native wildlife.

when I was in the employ of DOC I sorted through hundreds of trapped stoats from the BOP area.  No ermines in there but then I saw one on the Mangatoatoa hut clearing one day in June or July so there is the very odd one in that area-although to be fair MTT is pretty high elevation and pretty cold as well.  Maybe there are more again in the deep south?  Certainly I wouldn't expect too many in the winterless north

Certainly not but i have trapped them also. They're albinos with pink eyes.

Bon, that is what I use as well.  I make a box with a 2.5 hole drilled in it about 2" up from the bottom to keep voles out and the trap set up against the front of the box, bait in the back.

I don't know about your ability to order or shipping costs, but a man by then name of Asa Lenon makes a great lure for the weasels.   I still use a small piece of duck or beaver for bait, but it isn't required with the lure.

This forum on trapping in the US has a lot of pictures and knowledge from folks who catch a lot.  Might be worth a read
http://www.trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1034047/35

well bugger me i never knew that! cheers guys.
yeah would be keen to find out more about this weasel lure. wonder if we can get it into the country.

A while back I had a couple of trap placements that simply were never as effective as the other traps in the line, no matter what I did to adjust the location or bait etc. So I physically swapped the traps and boxes for other ones in the line that had sucessfully caught weasels. Within 48 hours, one trap had its first kills, and within 72 hours, so had the second one.

I can only think that by using traps that had fresh scent on it, encouraged the weasels to come and have a closer look, when they would have just kept going by.