Don’s passion for the outdoors started early, growing up in the rugged woods of Ishpeming in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. What began with old-school wooden box traps for squirrels quickly evolved into a deep-rooted trapping lifestyle—including fox, coyotes, fisher, mink, marten, and more. At one point, his mother’s garage was so full of pelts, it looked like onecmassive fur coat. A visiting uncle from Seattle once joked, “We better call the DNR,” stunned by what he saw.

At age 20, Don completed trade school and moved to Maine, where he worked welding Aegis battleships. But his real education came in the wilderness—flying into remote lakes, trapping the Allagash region, and
camping and fishing in over 100 wild lakes. Meeting legendary trapper Oscar Cronk of Cronk’s Lure and Trap Supply left a lasting impression and helped shape Don’s knowledge of lure crafting and woodsman skills.

After five years, Don headed to Seattle to work with family but soon found himself back out in the wild—this time in the foothills of Mt. Rainier, trapping bobcats and coyotes. Ten years later, he moved to the Rocky Mountains of Idaho, living in a log home for several years before finally returning to his roots in the U.P., where he continues to live and trap.

Don started developing his now well-known Digger Lure at age 16, experimenting with Siberian deer musk and other natural ingredients. Over 30 years later, that passion has evolved into a deep knowledge of lure-making, fur handling, tanning, and all-around woodsman skills.

Today, Don shares his experience through live demonstrations, including bobcat trapping techniques, scent post strategies, and how to effectively lure your sets just once per season.

Jeff Hagerty is the owner of J3 Outdoorz and Inventor of HAGz Trapping Products. He grew up hunting and fishing as far back as he can remember. Always an outdoorsman, he was never introduced to trapping nor got excited about it until after he returned from the Marine Corps in the late 90’s.

He started noticing more coyote tracks than deer tracks on late season hunts. In 2002 he tried his hand at trapping coyotes and after 2 seasons caught his first coyote.  In that same time period he tallied up numerous mink, muskrats and raccoons – it soon became clear that he was hooked on trapping!

A few seasons later he was already breaking 50 Michigan coyotes a season and now generally averages around 75 coyotes a year while working a full-time job, running their trapping business, and doing as much state hopping as he can.

In 2012 he began proto-typing a device that would allow the use of 3/8” rods and a “set anywhere mentality.” The same bracket also incorporated a stake swivel and drowner lock for various water line sets. One major hurdle was this bracket needed to stay attached to prevent looking around for miscellaneous devices on the line, increasing efficiency. That prototype is now their patented HAGz® Bracket.

Soon after he invented and was issued patents for the HAGz® Spring Clip and Spring Clip XL for body-grip trap stabilization on rods. Since then he has developed several other products and continues to proto-type new trapping products to this day. He has utilized his engineering and technical skillsets to develop American made products in an industry he is extremely passionate about. It has been said countless times that the HAGz Brackets and Spring Clips have revolutionized water trapping – and Jeff is happy to provide quality, American made products benefitting trappers. Jeff not only supports trappers and trapping by inventing simple, effective tools trappers can use but also believes that he (and all trappers) should belong to their local and national associations. Jeff is a proud member of both the Michigan Trapper and Predator Callers Association and is now a Lifetime member of the National Trappers Association.

Jeff has trapped 11 different states so far. Although he enjoys his local muskrat or coyote lines in Southern Michigan, he really loves the adventure of a remote, wilderness line for a change of pace. Some of my favorite traplines have been Fox trapping on Kodiak Island AK; High Elevation Bobcat Trapping in NM; beaver, otter and marten trapping in the Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan;  Predator trapping in the mountains of NV and UT or large plantation tracts in GA.

In his spare time, he is either furthering the development of even more useful, time saving trapping products or traveling to various trapping conventions throughout the off season.

Not that Jeff isn’t busy enough as it is, he and his wife Jessica started Trapline Coffee Co. – The Official Coffee of the NTA – and they pride themselves on supporting fair and ethical trade practices abroad, providing great small batch coffee — and giving back to the trapping community — through portions of product sales & change roll-up and donation programs.

Laura is the current Treasurer for Fur Takers of America, a Master Trapping Instructor for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the first woman in the state of New York to win the Wayne Jones Award for Excellence in Teaching. She is also the Secretary for the Orange County Trappers Association.

Zac is a Junior Trapping Instructor for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

They both belong to several State and National Trapping Associations.

Laura and her husband John grew up loving the outdoors and have instilled that love in their children Maggie, Johnny, and Zac. Today, they all have a shared love and respect for nature and the outdoors. They ironically just happened to stumble across trapping when they went to an outdoor show in 2012 when Zac was 5 years old. The local trappers club had a booth and called them over to give their kids a safety whistle and a rabbit’s foot keychain. After an interesting trapping conversation, the Gidney’s decided to sign up for the trapper education class they were holding in a few weeks. Later that year when the season came around, they started trapping as a family but more recently, due to work obligations, Laura and Zac run the trapline together.

Laura and Zac teach a couple of trapper education classes each year, set up educational booths at outdoor shows, have given trapping and fur handling demos for the Boy Scouts,  local gun clubs & trapping conventions, and have given the trapper education class at the NYSDEC Summer Camps. They continue to keep relationships with their former students where they send photos, ask questions, and even come to their fur shed for help with fur handling.

The Gidney’s live in Orange County, NY, about an hour slightly northwest of New York City. In a 10-minute drive, they can also be in New Jersey which allows them to trap both states. They run what most would consider a small, multi-species trapline, with 23 total private properties ranging from 1 to 50 acres each. Their trapline is a mix of suburban neighborhoods and farms. They drive a 60-mile loop to those properties around their home.

In their first season, they managed to catch a handful of mostly foxes and raccoons, and in each year since, they’ve tried to grow and improve. They have always trapped a little bit of everything with fox and bobcats being their favorites. With no family history of trappers and not anyone nearby having the time to go out and help them, they decided in 2015 to start attending some of the trapping schools. With a few years of trapping experience on their own and the added knowledge from the schools, in 2021, their 10^th season of trapping, they broke 100 canines and 50 beavers for the first time. In 2023, their land season total on canines was 244 with 117 raccoons, 22 bobcats, and 33 skunks.

Laura and Zac are looking forward to what they can accomplish together in the years to come. They also enjoy sharing their experiences and knowledge with anyone wanting to learn more about trapping, about the necessity for trapping as a wildlife management tool; or those wanting to start trapping themselves or improve their skills.

Jeff Dunlap is an accomplished professional trapper and lure maker from Michigan. He grew up in the trapping and fur industry. Jeff owns and operates Dunlap Lures. He took over the business from his father who started it in 1970. Jeff takes great pride in providing quality baits and lures to trappers, just as his father did before him.

Jeff has trapped all over the lower 48 states and Alaska for all types of furbearers with success. He promotes trapping and techniques to new trappers on a variety of social media platforms. You can follow him on Facebook through Dunlap Lures Facebook page (with 100,000 + followers) or join the Facebook group “Trapping Talk” which has over 70,000 trappers in the group. Jeff and Sarah bought “Predator Control Group” from Clint Locklear, and he also runs “Trapping Radio 2” (https://www.trappingradio2.com/tag/jeff-dunlap/) and on all streaming platforms.

Last season Jeff trapped Michigan, Iowa, Arkansas and North Dakota putting up large numbers of furbearers in all three states.

Jeff doesn’t talk “numbers” much anymore because his in-state and out-of-state adventures produce incredible amounts of fur of all kinds. Here are some examples from the past – and Jeff continues to break many of these old records: In the 2011-2012 season he caught 1105 rats, 495 coon, 76 otter, 326 beaver, 25 grey fox, 21 bobcats, 3 red fox, and 18 mink.  In the following year he caught 53 otter, 703 raccoons, 97 grey fox, 5 red fox, 54 coyotes, 404 muskrats, 32 bobcats, 18 mink, and 243 beaver.  In the 2013-2014 season he concentrated on bobcats, grey fox, and coyotes for a portion of the season, catching bobcats in three different states on a three-month multi-state trip.  The remainder of the season was spent in his home state of Michigan trapping mink and muskrats. During the few months when he isn’t trapping, he concentrates on Dunlap Lures, traveling the country to various trapping conventions – selling his proven and personally tested lures and baits and other trapping products and doing demos at many of those conventions. And of course, he uses some of his “extra time” to get ready for the next grueling season.

Dave Radandt began trapping out of necessity. When he was twelve years old, he raised pigeons with his friends. Something was killing the pigeons. No one in his family trapped, so his best friend’s father, who hunted and trapped, gave Dave a trap, explained how to set it and what to look for. He suspected a weasel. Dave set the trap and after two days was astonished to find out that it was a mink killing the pigeons. The pigeons started to die again, so Dave reset the trap and caught a weasel. Dave explained this to his friends in school, who all found it fascinating. At the
school library book sale, he bought his first trapping book in 1976, Trapping North American Furbearers. Dave learned almost everything from this book since he had no other trappers in Kenosha County Wisconsin to learn from.

Dave’s favorite animals to trap are bobcats, otters, martins, and fishers. He likes to concentrate all his efforts on one species at a time, singling out the skills needed to become proficient at that animal before moving on to the next, learning their tracks, signs, and habitats. He doesn’t consider himself to have a “best season’s catch” because of this, but he would say
this year when he spent six weeks in Montana was his most memorable because he only caught one animal, a wolf, and it took two weeks of scouting/preparing, and nineteen days to catch it.

Aside from Michigan, Dave trapped in Wisconsin before moving to the UP in 1995. In Wisconsin he trapped mink, raccoon, muskrat, fox, and coyotes. Due to his limited travel ability because of his work schedule, his only other out of state trapping trip was to Montana in December 2024/January 2025 for his wolf.

Dave is active in UP Trappers District Three, the NTA, and is a life member of the NRA. He volunteers at youth events and the annual convention, as well as the national convention when it takes place in the UP.
Dave traps with his partner and mentor, Bob Guntle. Dave has also become a mentor to new trappers and enjoys sharing his knowledge with them.

Dave resides in Cedarville Township. He traps largely near his home, but also travels to the Baraga area to trap martins and fishers yearly.

Dave has learned many new skills from what has been shared by other trappers on YouTube and from print books (many of which are out of print but can still be found). He also feels that it’s extremely important for
anyone interested in trapping to seek the mentorship of an experienced trapper. Experience can also be gained by joining local and national trapping organizations, going to conventions, and talking to experienced trappers, who are some of the friendliest people on the planet. When it comes right down to it, Dave feels that the most important thing is to spend as much time in the woods as possible, learning the ways of God’s animals.

Les, a Nebraska native spent his young life growing up on a farm.  While learning to trap at a very young age, his passion quickly turned towards trapping predators.  Red Fox around the small farm towns and coyotes in the more rural settings. 

His craving for outsmarting the wily coyote only grew each year and he began to call coyotes at about the age of 16, or 1986.  Several years later he began to enter what would be known as Coyote Calling Competitions.   The bigger western calling Competitions then turned into what is known as the World Championship (Nevada, Arizona and Colorado), National Championship (Wyoming) and Midwest Championship (Kansas).  Les won these Championships many times mostly with his brother Jeff and he also was the only predator caller to ever win all 3 of them during the same year which would be known as the Triple Crown Champion.  He was winner of the National, World and Midwest Championships during the same season.  42 coyotes, 4 ½ days total – in 3 different states.

After accomplishing this, Les still had a passion of wanting to teach new hunters how to call predators, so he started filming a Television Show named Predator Quest.  Predator Quest was the first ever Coyote Calling television show and quickly gained views and popularity with the hunting crowd.  After 14 years of airing his show, over 280 original Television Episodes and many awards, Les decided to retire from television.

Les is a very accomplished trapper, archery hunter, outfitter/guide and marksman.  Now his time is spent enjoying God’s beautiful creation and passing on knowledge through demonstrations at Trapping Conventions. 

The slogan that has garnished a lot of attention from Les’s show; Predator Quest was “Let’s Get To Callin!!!”

Paul Antczak started trapping in 1977 in Sussex Wisconsin. He trapped rabbits and other critters till he found out from a neighbor that there still was a fur trade, and that he could get paid for doing something he loved! He then began trapping muskrat and raccoon. His first fur check was $34.50 and he was off and running!

From there he left Sussex and moved in with his sister and her husband for a short period of time in Pembine Wisconsin. He was there for only one season, and it was there he caught his first mink. Then he found his way to Tomahawk Wisconsin where he graduated from high school. After graduating he got a job at a mink ranch and worked there for 5 years. In Tomahawk he really began to expand his trapping and it was there that he caught his first otter, first beaver, first fox and racked up a few more “firsts.”

At the age of 26 he needed to spread his wings and decided to fly south. He began his Southern adventure trapping East Tennessee from Chattanooga to beyond Gatlinburg.

In 2004 he was the superintendent on a remodeling in Carbondale. In the evenings he would drive around the countryside and could see the land was rich with fur. He also guessed that many other places probably had even more fur than Tennessee, so Paul decided to start state hopping to expand his adventure. First it was Illinois and then it was on to Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky and more. As Paul’s reputation as a trapper grew, he was asked to do a Trappers Education Demo during a Hunters Ed Class in Tennessee. After class a man approached him about doing contract trapping in Alabama. That started a whole lot of other work offers for Paul. He has now trapped 9 states and that probably won’t be the end of his state hopping!

In 2008 when the economy crashed, he lost his construction job and decided to start his “Predators And Prey” wildlife control in the smoky mountains. Within 3 years they were already the #1 wildlife control business in the smokies. They did everything from bats to urban coyotes.

After a long painful divorce, Paul sold his business in 2014. He spent some “quiet time” building boarding stables for a wealthy man and did a little hobby trapping.

By 2017 Paul had enough of the crowded mountains of east Tennessee and headed west to NW Montana and the wide-open spaces he longed for. He bought property and built a homestead that was totally of the grid. When the market was right Paul sold this property for an even more desired location. He bought land 13 miles due north of Happys Inn Montana where he lives off the grid and is completely self-sustained. Wolves were a big part of why Paul had moved to Montana in the first place, so he put his “student cap” back on and started learning everything he could about wolves – their habits, preferred habitat, quirks, inconsistencies, preferred foods, needs, and wants – until he could almost think like a wolf. And he loves to trap wolves! His trapline is approximately 80 miles on snowmachine during the wolf season. He traps for one of the biggest landowners in Montana on his private 15,000-acre ranch. Paul lives about as remote as a man can live in the lower 48 states and enjoys every minute of it. He describes himself as “a blessed man.”

In December 2021 he met Tom Oar when he was needing some wolf snares. They had never met before but became instant friends.

Tom thought Paul would be a good candidate for the show “Mountain Men” on the History Channel. Paul agreed to give it a shot and the audition process began in March of 2022. In August of 2022 he received news that he was approved to be on the show! Paul’s description of his character on the show: “It is who I am. I’m a trapper. I was excited about the opportunity to educate the non-trapping public about what we do, the importance of trapping and how trappers are a key ingredient to the conservation of furbearers and predators. I take my role on the show seriously and work with field producers to keep it as factual as we can. I’m not much for the big city and the income from the show allows me to live off grid and to retain my self-reliant lifestyle. I just finished filming season 13 and I’ve now done 20 episodes between season 12 and 13. I am truly blessed to be able to enjoy my chosen lifestyle.”

My name is Jim Churchill. I live in Florence, Wisconsin and have lived there
for 50 plus years. Some of you may have heard of my dad, Jim Churchill
Senior. He was a freelance outdoor writer for many magazines including
Outdoor Life, Field and Stream, Fur Fish and Game, The Trapper, and many
others. People may assume it was dad who taught me how to trap, but it
was actually my grandfather. I have many fond memories of those early
years of trapping with him.
Although I trap all furbearers in my area, mink, beaver, and coyotes are my
favorite. I have had a fascination for mink ever since the first time I saw
one hanging in my grandfather’s shed. I believe I was 8 years old at the
time. I was 11 when I caught my first mink and still remember it like it
was yesterday. It was a set I placed in a spring-run that flowed into a
small creek. I was so proud of that mink – I ran all the way home to show
my parents and grandparents. Hundreds of mink later, that first mink is
still one of the largest I have ever caught.
Ninety-nine percent of the mink I have trapped have been on purpose.
Over the years I have learned a lot about mink and their habits. Some of it
was through various instructions and demos, but most of it is through
personal observation and experience. Early on I used mostly bait sets.
Then, as my experience grew and I learned mink habits, I switched to
nearly all blind sets. Now I use a combination of blind sets, bait sets, and
bottom edge sets to get the job done. I have found that I make bigger
catches because of it. I am not locked into a one- dimensional trapping
system and I like the variety. I basically let the stream tell me what kind of
sets to make.
In my demo I will talk about stream assessment, what to look for, and how
a mink will work a stream. I’ll cover how to make pocket sets and the best
location for them. I’ll talk about some typical blind sets and trap placement
that take advantage of the mink’s travel habits. I’ll also cover some of my
favorite bottom edge set locations. Throughout the demo I will intertwine a
few little tricks that will up the odds in your favor. Lastly, I’d like to talk

about what I consider to be the best traps to use and how I anchor those
traps to practically eliminate losses.
I hope to see you at my demo and good luck trapping this coming fall.
Please remember to support our local and national trapper