8-30 “Saturday Edition” Friday Report

One of the biggest changes I see in our industry revolves around conventions. In the late 90s as KBL was starting to grow, I attended conventions from Arizona to Idaho, New York to Alabama, and a lot of places in between. At that time, there was no face book or youtube, and trapping forums were in their infancy. If you wanted to talk trapping you went to a convention. There wasn’t any other way to get the trapping fix out of one’s system. As we evolve, technologically speaking, 15 years later, a whole lot has changed. There’s an abundance of trapping forums, and with social media, a trapper can literally drown a day away with trapping talk. There’s less of a need to travel to a convention when a virtual trapping world is at your finger tips. I see website sales continue to grow, while convention sales fall off. Most trappers work a “regular job” and it seems the trend is to use vacation time to actually trap, not going to conventions. The only aspect of trapping that can’t be had on the internet, is the actual experience of going out and running a trapline. Which brings me to my point, don’t get so addicted to talking trapping that it cuts into your actual trapline production. And definitely, no matter what, don’t believe everything you read on the internet! The animals on your trapline are the best teachers! - Kyle Kaatz