Mike Marsyada of Pennsylvania
Growing up I lived at the end of Hazel Township. At the end of our road was the local junkyard and dump. Rows of old cars that were stripped for parts and at the other end of the property was the place where locals brought their trash to dispose of it on an open ridge. This resulted in an abundance of rats inhabiting the area. It was the local hangout for every kid with a BB Gun and later a .22 to shoot rats every evening. The over abundance of rats also filtered out through the neighborhood so there were always traps set for them in every back yard. our street was the last street of four that bordered a wooded area that ran for miles. Brush fires in those days were common along any railroad track and those brush fires kept the woods well supplied with thick under growth. This in turn was a haven for small game in the form of cottontails and grouse.
This cover coupled with the abundance of rats and rabbits created a perfect habitat for weasel and fox. My father had a few number zero long spring traps hanging in the garage for use on the rats and in 1958 or ’59 he said I could set them out back of the house for rats. I did and couldn’t wait to check 4, 5 and sometimes 6 times a day. After checking the traps for about 2 weeks and catching several rats, a possum or two, and a skunk, I came to see my first weasel in one of my traps. Dad told me I could sell the fur if I skinned it but I didn’t know how so he showed me how to case skin it. He then cut a stretcher from a wooden produce crate and stretched it. In those days we had very little, although we didn’t know it, as everyone in the neighborhood was the same. Most of us living there came from hard coal miners and most of our grandparents were the first generation to come from America from Poland and Austria. So finding a way to make an extra buck was always a priority. Trapping afforded us that opportunity.
My father didn’t trap but he lived to hunt and hunting fed our family for as long back as I can remember. There was never a shortage of canned deer meat, plenty of pheasant and as many grouse as you could eat. Once I was old enough to carry a gun, my father never left the house without me in tow.
As stated earlier, we had no money, so when I found you could make a few bucks selling fur I had to see what I could do to catch some. I concentrated on weasel in those early days and was quite good at catching them. Of course it helped having an over abundance of them in the area. When I was trapping weasel, I came upon a grey fox that stumbled upon one of my weasel sets. Once I saw that grey fox I had to learn how to catch more of them. Then as a bonus I found out the state paid a four dollar bounty on fox that made them even more sought after to me. I continued trapping weasel and trying to catch more fox those first few years until I was twelve years old. That was the year I decided to try water trapping along with setting for weasel and fox.
For two Christmas’s in a row there was a nice new shiny box of traps under the tree for me. So counting the 9 number 0’s I started off with from dad’s garage, and 6 number 2 Blake and Lamb under spring my father’s friend Lesty Magana gave me for fox, I also had 2 dozen number 1 Blake and Lamb long spring traps to set as well. After reading the market report in the Fur Fish Game magazine at the gun club, it was clear to me that I had to try and catch mink. About a mile behind our house ran Black Creek. There were areas of slow moving water with grass covered banks that were well stocked with muskrats. It wasn’t hard to figure out where to set as feed beds, slides and dens were quite plentiful there. In no time, I had my traps set. Where I couldn’t located a den or feed bed, I placed an apple on a stick on the bank and set a trap in front of it. I started catching a rat or two every night the first few nights and after Lesty showed me how to skin them he lent me a few old wooden rat stretchers he had, I was in the rat trapping business. I quickly learned that rat meat was also an excellent bait for weasels, so I figured it must be good for mink as well. I began putting a chunk of rat meat on a stick placing a rat trap in front of it in the water with an inch or two of water over the pan. While I never caught a mink in those sets the first year, I was bound and determined to do so.
The following year I managed to catch seven male mink in muskrat dens and on rat feed beds. I couldn’t wait to sell those mink as Fur Fish Game magazine said they were worth 40 bucks each. I was going to be rich! So once again I consulted Fur Fish and Game where I found an ad for Snowiss Fur Company out of Williamsport, Pennsylvania. We packed a box with my mink and sent them on their way. I kept a constant vigil on our mailbox until one day my letter came. When I opened it, I couldn’t believe my eyes as enclosed was a grade sheet and a check for $2.45! The grade sheet said I sent seven cotton mink! They paid me .35 cents each. I have caught hundreds of mink since those first seven and you couldn’t catch 7 out of 7 cotton mink if your life depended on it. This was my first lesson selling fur to a fur buyer without a conscience.
Dad’s hunting buddy, Lesty Magana, trapped some fox for bounty to supplement his meager miners wages. After some persistent begging by me, Lesty agreed to show me how to catch them. Lesty showed me how to make several sets, including the blind trail set. He knew how to make a dirt hole set but never showed me the details on how to make one. Even so, by making the sets he showed me and a few blind trail sets, I managed to catch seven fox the first year I trapped them. After the game warden filled out an affidavit for your fox, you sent them to Harrisburg and they in turn sent you your bounty money. If you wanted to have the pelts returned to sell, you had to send along the return postage. Early caught fox pelts were only worth about .50 cents in those days, so dad never paid the return postage to get the pelts back.
In the early days Fur Fish Game, the original Trappers World, and PA Game News left at the club by members were all I had to read about trapping in. Guys like Arnold, Butcher, Dailey, Griggs, Nelson, and Thorpe were trappers I looked up too, as they were the guys I read about. Little did I know them that I would be acquainted and even dear friends with many of them.
They are all gone now, and its left a void this industry will never see again. They put the romance in trapping as my friend Russ Carman says. In my opinion, writers today don’t do that.
I was born across the road from where I live right now. The house I live in was built by my grandfather as was most of the original homes on this block. I chased fur half was across this country and up and down the east coast. So far, I have run lines in Pennsylvania, New York, Maine, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wyoming, Texas, and Louisiana, and a state or two that remain nameless.
I long lined most states and Pennsylvania in my younger days, but I’m not kidding anyone, I couldn’t run the kind of lines I ran in my 20’s, 30’s and 40’s now. Especially some of the lines I ran in Virginia. Those lines would run from daylight to about 3pm. I would then put up fur, cut glands, and chop beaver meat until after midnight, five hours sleep and back at it again.
When I started the fur business I made more money trapping then I did selling lure. That was because no one knew of me or my label at the time, and also fur prices were starting to go through the roof in the last great fur boom. I had a factory job at the time I started the fur business and when the fur boom hit I knew I could make as much trapping as I did at the factory at the time and I did. I married my wife Cheryl in August of 1972 and she had our son in April of 1976. Since then, I have been lucky enough to have 3 grandchildren.
I have written seven books of which five are still in print and have been a staff writer for several trapping publications over the past 40 years. In 1974 I began making trapping and hunting lure and in 1978, I quit the factory job I had at the time to trap full time and build my lure business and ran until today. When I started making lure most formulas were trial and error ideas I had tested by some of the countries top trappers. Guys like Johnny Thorpe, Charlie Dobbins, Don Shumaker, Morris Fenner all gave me their honest test results and I still have their letters of results which made my formulas what they are today. Friends like Von Tingley, Walter Arnold, Johnny Thorpe, Paul Stubbs, Russ Carman, and Ardell Grawe would all share little lure tips back and forth in our conversations.
Some of my most memorable catches certainly had to include that first grey fox I caught in the weasel trap as a kid. My first fisher caught on purpose as well as my first coyote in a coyote set. Watching my son’s first catch was a thrill. I have had days of 16 foxes in a day, 9 coyotes in a day, and 7 cats in a day. The days that really stand out in my memory are days down south on the water line. Days of 20 plus beavers and 6 or 7 otters along with some incidental rats are hard to beat in my memories. I still enjoy trapping muskrats and always will and of course weasel though both are things of the past. I love blind setting for mink and really enjoy running an auto line for fox.
I have trapped most of my out of state lines with a partner, its just more fun for me with a partner and now a days it’s not just about the money its the memories as well. Guys like Gary Bussen, Morris Fenner, Don Shumaker, Bill Kindervater, Blackie, John Cipala Sr., Dennis Kirk, Bob Young, and Johnny Thorpe to name a few have been men I had the honor to spend time with and will never forget the times we had together.
I did 2 mink videos years ago, with my late friend Dennis Kirk called Straight Forward Mink Trapping Part 1 and Part 2. Keith Winkler and Tom Miller came and filmed stuff for their mink video, and Jim and Mary Conners came to film a spring hole set for the NTA Master Trappers videos. As for making my own videos, I never cared to do any for the same reason I stopped giving personal trapping instructions. That is that I trap as simple as I can. Put in a basic well made set and get down the road to the next location. That’s as honest as I can tell you how I trap. I never cared to write about lure making other than general stuff as I do now in Bob Noonan’s Trappers Post magazine. Bob offered me a job writing a column for him called Lure and Bait Workshop and I have really enjoyed writing for him.
Now that I have gotten older many call me a living legend, but that’s far from the truth. Luck and timing had a lot to do with any success I may have achieved. The last great fur boom of the late ’70’s and ’80’s hit right when I was growing my business. Don Shumaker and Chuck Spearman gave me a regular column in The Trapper, which gave me exposure to the industry. Ray Milligan gave me the opportunity to be an instructor with him and his Milligan Brand clinics. Then later, I had columns Chuck Spearman’s Turkey magazine, and when Don Shumaker brought back Trapper’s World, he again gave me a column that later Kyle Kaatz and now Tera Roach have allowed me to continue when I can and lately Bob Noonan gave me a regular column in his Trapper’s Post. All these people have become treasured friends over the years and have helped me more than they will ever know, I am grateful and honored to call them my friends….
An Interview With Mike Marsyada
By: Trap and Trail Staff
The Early Years:
T&T: Mike where did you learn to trap what year did you start your trapping career?
MM: Growing up we lived at the end of the township. At the end of our road was the local junkyard and dump. Rows of old cars that were stripped for parts and at the other end of the property was the place where locals brought their trash to dispose of on an open ridge. This resulted in an abundance of rats inhabiting the area. Naturally, it was the local hangout for every kid with a BB gun and later, a 22 to shoot rats every evening.
The overabundance of rats also filtered out through the neighborhood so there were always traps set for them in every back yard. Our street was the last street of four that bordered a wooded area that ran for miles. Brush fires in those days were common along any railroad track and those brush fires kept the woods well supplied with thick under growth. This in turn was a haven for small game in the form of cottontails and grouse.
This cover coupled with the abundance of rats and rabbits created a perfect habitat for weasel and fox. My father had a few #0 long spring traps hanging in the garage to use on the rats and in 1958 or 1959 he said I could set them out back of the house for rats. I did and couldn’t wait to check the traps, and did check them 4, 5 even 6 times a day! After checking the traps for about two weeks, and catching several rats, a possum or two, and a skunk, I came to see my first weasel in one of my rat traps. Dad told me I could sell the fur if I skinned it but I didn’t know how so he showed me how to case skin it. He then cut a stretcher from a wooden produce crate and stretched it. In those days, we had very little although we didn’t know it as everyone in the neighborhood was the same. Most of us living there came from hard coal miners and most of our grandparents were the first generation to come to America from Poland and Austria. So, finding a way to make an extra buck was always a priority. Trapping afforded us that opportunity.
T&T: Did you come from hunting and trapping family? Did you have a father or siblings that hunted and trapped?
MM: My father didn’t trap but he lived to hunt and hunting fed our family for as long back as I can remember. There was never a shortage of canned deer meat, plenty of pheasant and as many grouse as you could eat. Once I was old enough to carry a gun, my father never left the house without me in tow.
T&T: As a youngster, what sparked your interest to become a trapper?
MM: As stated earlier we had no money, so when I found you could make a few bucks selling fur I had to
see what I could do to catch some. I concentrated on weasel in those early days and got quite good at catching them. Of course, it helped having an overabundance of them in the area. I then found out one of the local gun clubs ran a youth contest every year to see what kid could catch the first 50 weasels every year, I was quick to sign up.
The rules were simple. The contest started Sept. 1st and ended when the first kid brought in a total of 50 weasels. You had to bring them in fresh every day, and they clipped the nose so you couldn’t register one more than once. The winner got 50 dollars, which was more money than I had ever seen! To make a long story short, I won that contest every year until I was 16 years old when I could no longer get in it, as 16 was the age limit for the contest.
T&T: Is there a special memory you have from when you were a youngster that really sticks out in your mind on the trapline?
MM: When I was trapping weasel, I came upon a grey fox that stumbled into one of my weasel sets. Once I saw that fox I had to learn how to catch more of them. Then as a bonus I found out the state payed a four-dollar bounty on fox so that made them even more sought after to me. I continued trapping weasel and trying to catch more fox those first few years until I was 12 years old. That was the year I decided to try water trapping along with setting for weasel and fox.
For two Christmas’ in a row there was a nice new shiny box of traps under the tree for me. So, counting the 9, #0’s I started off with from dad’s garage, and the 6 #2 Blake and Lamb under springs Lesty gave me for fox, I now had 2 dozen #1 Blake and Lamb long springs to set as well. After reading the market report in the Fur Fish Game Magazine at the gun club, it was clear to me that I had to try to catch a mink. Less than a mile behind our house ran Black Creek.
There were areas of slow moving water with grass covered banks that were well stocked with muskrats. It wasn’t hard to figure out where to set as feed beds, slides and dens were quite plentiful there. In no time, I had my traps set. Where I couldn’t locate a den of feed bed, I placed and apple on a stick on the bank and set a trap in front of it. I started catching a rat or two every night the first few nights and after Lesty showed me how to skin them, he lent me a couple old wooden rat stretchers he had, I was in the rat trapping business.
I quickly learned the rat meat was excellent bait for weasels, so I figured it must be good for mink as well. So, I began putting a chunk of rat meat on a stick placing a rat trap in front of it in the water with an inch or two of water over the pan. While I never caught a mink in those sets the first year, I was bound and determined to do so.
The following year, I managed to catch seven male mink that in muskrat dens and on muskrat feed beds. I couldn’t wait to sell those mink as Fur Fish Game Magazine said they were worth 40 bucks each. I was going to be rich! So, once again I consulted Fur Fish Game Magazine where I found an ad for Snowiss Fur Company out of Williamsport Pennsylvania. We packed a box with my mink and sent them on their way.
I kept a constant visual on our mailbox until one day my letter came. When I opened it, I couldn’t believe my eyes as enclosed was a grade sheet and a check for $2.45! The grade sheet said I sent seven cotton mink! They paid me 35 cents each. I have caught hundreds of mink since those first seven and you couldn’t catch seven out of seven cotton mink if your life depended on it. This was my first lesson selling fur to a fur buyer without a conscience.
Dad’s hunting buddy Lesty Magagna trapped some fox for bounty to supplement his meager miner’s wages. After some persistent begging by me, Lesty agreed to show me how to catch them. Lesty showed me how to make several sets including a blind trail set. He knew how to make a dirt hole set but never showed me the details on how to make one. Even so, by making these sets and a few blind trail sets, I managed to bounty seven fox the first year I trapped them. After the game warden filled out an affidavit for your fox, you sent them to Harrisburg and they in turn sent you your bounty money. If you wanted to have the pelts returned to sell, you had to send along the return postage. Early caught fox pelts were only worth about 50 cents in those days, so dad never paid the return postage to get the pelts back.
T&T: Who was your biggest influence in the trapping world growing up?
MM: As I said earlier my father took me everywhere with him, and every day after work and chores were done I followed the half a block from our house to the gun club. It was the local gathering place and it was where I got the best history lesson possible. All those men were hero’s in my eyes as they had all served honorably during WWII. Most like my father were in the first round of the draft and ended up serving until Japan surrendered and the war was over.
When the conversations would change from war stories to the more boring “to me” work stories I would grab old issues of Fur Fish Game, Trappers World, and PA Game News that members would leave there for people to read. Guys like Arnold, Butcher, Dailey, Griggs, Nelson, and Thorpe were trappers I looked up to, as they were the guys I read about. Little did I know then, that I would be acquainted and even dear friends with many of them!
They are all gone now and its left a void this industry will never see again. They put the romance in trapping as my friend Russ Carman says. In my opinion the writers today don’t do that. Now with the advent of Facebook, which in my opinion should have been called Narcissistbook everyone is a legend in their own mind.
The Middle Years:
T&T: Mike it’s a question everyone wants to know including myself. What year did you grow the signature mountain man beard?
MM: I don’t really remember, but I know I had it already in 1976 when my son was born. Before that I had long mutton chop side burns, enough said…
T&T: Have you always lived in Pennsylvania? Have you trapped any other states?
MM: Yes, I was born across the road form where I live right now. The house I live in was built by my grandfather as was most of the original homes on this block. I chased fur halfway across this country and up and down the east coast. So far, I have run lines in Pennsylvania, New York, Maine, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wyoming, Texas, and Louisiana, and a state or two that will remain nameless.
T&T: Are you a longliner?
MM: I long lined most states and Pennsylvania in my younger days but I’m not kidding anyone, I couldn’t run the kind of lines I ran in my 20’s, 30’s and 40’s. Especially some of the lines I ran in Virginia.
Those lines would run from daylight to about 3pm. I would then put fur up, cut glands and chop beaver meat until after midnight, five hours sleep and back at it again.
T&T: Has trapping ever been your sole source of income over the years or did you always have another job and just used trapping to supplement your income?
MM: When I first started the lure business I made more money trapping than I did selling lure. That was because no-one knew me or my label at that time and fur prices were starting to go through the roof in the last great fur boom. I had a factory job at the time I started the lure business and when the fur boom hit I knew I could make as much trapping as I did in the factory at the time and I did.
T&T: What year did you marry Cheryl and how many children and grandchildren do you have?
MM: I married Cheryl in August of 1972 and she had our son in April of 1976. Since then I have been lucky enough to have three grandchildren.
T&T: Mike I have all your books. My favorite is Trapping The Elusive Ones. What is your favorite book you’ve written and why?
MM: I really have no favorite book but will say, the original version “Water Trapping and Related Sets”, kinda has a special place in my memory because my dear friend Don Shumaker talked me into doing it when he was editor of Chuck Spearman’s “The Trapper” Magazine and Chuck was kind enough to back me on the printing of it until I sold the first wholesale lot to repay him.
T&T: Where did you learn to make lures? Were you self-taught or did you have a teacher?
MM: Mostly trial and error and a lot of testing. However, later, men like Von Tingley, Walter Arnold, Johnny Thorpe, Paul Stubbs, Russ Carman, and Ardell Grawe would all share little tips back and forth in our conversations.
T&T: I know you live close to Nick Wyshinski. Did you guys ever formulate lures together?
MM: No, Nick and I never worked on any formulas together. Nick was from the old school and even when I worked for him, labels were removed, lures were mixed, and products were bought when no-one was around to see. Nick was a great help to me getting started as he always trusted me to take what I needed and if I didn’t have all the money, he would say “Pay me when you get it”.
T&T: At what point in your career or at what age did you finally feel you were at the peak of your career?
MM: Never really know how to answer that question. I been in this business long enough to know that are ups and downs as the fur market goes up and down. I will say that it is easier to sell lure the longer you’re around. I guess it’s because more people had the chance to hear about you the longer you’re around?
T&T: Do you buy all your own lure ingredients or do you raise your own animals for glands, urine etc.?
MM: I buy most of my glands and urine. Most of my essential oils are purchased but some I make in house.
T&T: What was your most memorable catch? What was your biggest day on the trapline?
MM: Certainly, that first grey fox I caught in the weasel trap as a kid has to rank right up there. And my first fisher caught on purpose as well as my first coyote in a coyote set are all memorable, and watching my son’s first catch was a thrill. I have had days of 16 fox in a day, 9 coyote in a day, 7 cats in a day. But, the days that really stand out are days down south on the water line. Days of 20 plus beaver and 6 or 7 otter along with some incidental rats are hard to beat in my memory.
T&T: Mike there is a lot of people that never experienced trapping during the “golden age of fur”. Can you describe for us a typical day on the line for Mike Marsyada during the late 70’s and early 80’s.
MM: As I stated earlier your day would start before daylight, to be at the first set location at daylight. Run the land lines until dark then handle fur half the night, cut glands and load the truck for the next day and get right back at it after a few hours of sleep.
T&T: Is there any one animal that you really enjoyed trapping more than others over the years?
MM: I still enjoy trapping muskrats and always will and of course weasel though both are things of the past. I love to blind set mink and really enjoy running an auto line for fox.
T&T: Mike did you ever pay attention to what other trappers like Ray Milligan or Russ Carman were doing for numbers?
MM: I am honored to call both Ray Milligan and Russ Carman friends. I have driven Ray thousands of miles around this country on his Milligan Brand Clinics and when you spend that much time one on one with someone, you get to know them very well. That’s why I say it’s an honor to call him a friend, as he has done it all and did it his way. The same with Russ, though if I had one regret, it’s that I didn’t get to know him sooner.
T&T: Have you ever had a trapping partner?
MM: Yes, I have trapped more with partners than alone in my adult life, it’s just more fun for me and for me, it’s not just about the money, it’s the memories. Guys like Gary Bussen, Morris Fenner, Don Shumaker, Bill Kindervater, Blackie, John Cipala Sr., Bob Young, and Johnny Thorpe to name a few have been men I have had the honor to spend time with and will never forget the times we had together.
The Later Years:
T&T: Mike have you ever done any videos? Is there a reason you’ve never done any videos?
MM: Yes, I did two mink videos years ago, with my late friend Dennis Kirk called “Straight Forward Mink Trapping Part 1 and 2”. Keith Winkler and Tom Miller came and filmed stuff for their mink video, and Jim and Mary Conners came to film a spring hole set for the NTA Master Trappers videos. As for making my own videos, I never cared to do any for the same reason I quit giving personal instructions. That is that I trap as simple as I can. Put a basic well-made set in and get down the road to the next location. That’s as honest as I can tell you how I trap.
T&T: Mike have you always formulated and bottled all your own lures? Who bottles and makes all your lures now? Do you still formulate and bottle all of them or does a big company produce them? Do you still own the Marsyada Brand?
MM: Yes, I still do it all myself and own the brand. My oldest grandson has worked with me for the past five years and is getting to the point where if he had to he could take it over.
T&T: Many times over a trapper’s career their tactics and their attitudes of how do things change. Have you ever thought about writing another book to kind of bring things full circle from everything you’ve learned over the years? Have you ever thought about writing a book on lure making or teaching a class on that specific subject?
MM: I never cared to write about lure making other than general stuff as I do now in Bob Noonan’s Trappers Post Magazine. Bob offered me a job writing a column for him called “Lure and Bait Workshop” and I have really enjoyed writing for him. As for another book, I don’t see another “How To” book in my future, but I may do a book on all the great people I have known in this business over the years. True legends and hero’s one and all.
T&T: Mike your lures are very well known here in the Midwest and the shelves are always empty. In your mind, what is the most important thing to remember when making your own lures?
MM: Do your absolute best to keep them as consistent as possible. The best piece of advice I ever got from Russ Carman about lure was when he said, “Do you know how to make a great lure?” he then told me “To make a great lure it has to be made from products that will still be available fifty years down the road”.
T&T: Mike being a legend in the trapping world I’m sure has its upsides, but do you ever tire from people trying to continuously pick your brain on what it takes to be a good trapper?
MM: Being called a legend never suited me, I just never think of myself that way. One thing I always think about when someone calls me a legend, and that is many years ago, Ray Milligan told me a legend always lives 300 miles from you. How true that statement is! The world can call you a legend but in your home state I promise you, you’ll be referred to as a joke.
T&T: What do you think the biggest challenge we face as trappers today is Mike?
MM: Liberal bleeding hearts who try to make laws based on emotion rather than science without our ranks and apathy within our ranks, these “do gooders” have even infiltrated our game departments. There are game wardens out there today who have never owned a trapping license or set a trap, and they’re going to tell us how to do what we have to do. They are nothing more than bunny cops out there to write tickets. Our state and national associations are only interested in their own finances and officers. It’s a disgrace that year after year a committee cannot come to an agreement on an inductee into their halls of fame, and the only ones getting in them are those who in some cases don’t even trap, but are friends with the higher ups. What right do these kids have to judge a lifetime of giving time and money to further our way of life and in some cases voting down true military heroes. Its little more than a joke anymore.
T&T: If you could pass on one piece of advice to a trapper or lure maker just starting out in today’s world, what would it be?
MM: Do your own thing, be the best you can be and don’t worry about what someone else is doing. Treat those who have come before you with respect and spend more time getting hands on experience than you spend on social media.
T&T: What does the future hold for Mike Marsyada himself? What does the future hold for Marsyada Brand Lures? Are there any plans do anything big in the future?
MM: No-one knows what the future holds. Hopefully it will be more of the same only on a smaller scale
with more time to play. As stated earlier concerning the lure business, my son or grandson could step in tomorrow and do every bit as good a job as I can with it if they choose to do so. However, should my days be very numbered, I have lived a lifetime most will never know. I have seen more and done more while I was here than most can only imagine. I made life-long friendships that mean more to me than any other things I may have accomplished. And if I am remembered for anything I would hope it would be that I kept my word when I gave it and I always tried to give back more than I took. Finally, luck and timing had a lot to do with any success I may have achieved. The last great fur boom of the late 70’s and 80’s hit right when I was growing my business. Don Shumaker and Chuck Spearman gave me a regular column in “The Trapper” which gave me exposure to the industry.
Ray Milligan gave me the opportunity to be an instructor with him in his Milligan Brand Clinics. Then later, I had columns in Chuck Spearman’s “Turkey Magazine”, and when Don Shumaker brought back “Trappers World”, he again gave me a column that later Kyle Kaatz and now Tera Roach have allowed me to continue when I can and lately Bob Noonan gave me a regular column in his “Trappers Post”. All these people have become treasured friends over the years that have helped me more than they will ever know and I am grateful and honored to call them my friends.