Welcome to the Wild-About-Trapping.com Forums

I am from Northeast Illinois in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago and it seems like most of the land here is owned by the county forest preserve and conservation districts (i.e. McHenry County Conservation District) Now I was just wondering how I would go about trapping there, meaning is that land trappable, does it depend on the county, what is considered public land?

I've just started to get into trapping and took the trappers class only two weeks ago, but I figured it would be a good idea to get to know where to go before the season starts and if there is anything else you would like to share about this area that would be great considering the Illinois DNR website is not that great.

Welcome aboard!

_________________
Boomhawr

All time favorite:
Skunk 1 (in a bag)

West central Illinois here. Welcome to what could be a lifelong passion. Most of the ground up that way is probably closed to trapping as far as park districts etc. Ive been up thru there before and there is some good looking ground. What rivers are near by? Depending on where you are located there should be some agriculture ground that you may be able to obtain permission for. Some of the state ground/parks have ground open for trapping, a search on the DNR website should help. Our state parks near here have alot of rules and regulations that differ from the statewide regulations. They have drawings for trapping permits also, usually 1-5 per park. Jim Edgar doesnt allow footholds or conibears in dryland sets, egg/DP type traps only. They had talked about outlawing footholds in the water there too but Im not sure whether that passed? Thats one of the obstacles in the state parks etc. Some railroad right of ways are trapable, depends on the county and ownership. We trapped one near where I grew up and caught alot of possums, coons, skunks, few fox and a yote or 2. If your lucky enough to gain permission for a rail road and theres puddles, ditch's, creeks flowing under, by, beside it you can take 'rats and mink and possibly beaver. Invest in live/cage traps and do some nuisance work in the suburbs too. PM me if i can be of help. By the way, if you mess around the rail roads be very careful, those trains cant stop quickly and they do throw stuff from under the wheels.

_________________
Archery/Youth Deer Camp 2011- Everyone else in the group/camp-1 hen turkey, 1 coyote, 3 squirrel's, 1 groundhog, 1 single horn spike, 2 does, 1 button buck and 8 miss's. Youth gun deer season 2 adult does-2 doe fawns. Me-0-goose eggs-nada

Thanks a lot man for the ideas, it can get really frustrating trying to figure out what is what up here. Every time I ask someone what the rules and regulations are I always get a different answer. So thank you very much I will keep your ideas in mind.

DNR should be able to answer most of your regulation oriented questions. If theres alot of ponds and lakes around you might be able to get into those to trap muskrats. Use the damage approach, 'rats can be very destructive. I gained permission to some ponds and a municipal lake 29 ish east of me earlier this week to thin the 'rats. Im going to hitt'em hard right off the bat. The hunting/trapping guide and I think the fishing guide too has alot of regs for public water/land.

_________________
Archery/Youth Deer Camp 2011- Everyone else in the group/camp-1 hen turkey, 1 coyote, 3 squirrel's, 1 groundhog, 1 single horn spike, 2 does, 1 button buck and 8 miss's. Youth gun deer season 2 adult does-2 doe fawns. Me-0-goose eggs-nada

Did you ever find anything out Pkill? Another option for you might be the game preserve's that charge a daily fee etc for hunting birds. The DNR site has a list of game hunting preserve's/ daily fee hunting places. Theres one down here in Greene co that I use to trap during the week if they didnt have hunters in and I'd do a little predator hunting in the evening/night when their hunters were done for the day. Lots of critters come in trying to get a few of their dumb pen raised birds.

_________________
Archery/Youth Deer Camp 2011- Everyone else in the group/camp-1 hen turkey, 1 coyote, 3 squirrel's, 1 groundhog, 1 single horn spike, 2 does, 1 button buck and 8 miss's. Youth gun deer season 2 adult does-2 doe fawns. Me-0-goose eggs-nada