He didn't catch one grey fox all season, you can't aways go by the FF&G prices, yes greys did very well last fall. You also have to take into consideration that last winter was a warm winter over seas. Therefore the fur market is soft right now and I doubt reds will bring that much in the SE PA area. They ware what is known as flats. But I have sent flats up to Canada during high prices and they were graded soft and paid well.
Phil has his own concrete business, after he takes all the loss of work and such to trap he's loosing money somtimes. When you into Long Lining like Phil that is all one thinks about. TO trap like that takes all year to prepare. He even made that catch with a hernia.
He'll head west for cats and coyotes then down south for beaver and otter this year. Trapping is either in your blood or you could careless about trapping. It's tough hard work with long days fighting the weather. A hunter can go duck hunting for a few hours and call it a day. An ethical trapper has to get up and check his line no matter what.
When I am mink trapping toss in dealing with water and you'll see grown men cry after a few hours of being wet, cold cracked hands, wet feet. Last winter I went full bore for Mink. After sitting down and figuring out what I lost from being away from my business each mink cost me 80 bucks to catch. It's a labor of love.
Look for the May Outdoor Life and you'll see they did a nice page on Phil. If you think the anti's are gaining ammo from that catch your dead wrong. They love to see outdoors men fight amungst themselves. We are out worse enemy when it comes to defending our rights even though we all eat from the same table.
