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ITT: Trapping with people who are inexperienced, or just plain idiotic.
>In grocery store
>See kid I went to high school with
>Make conversation; ask what he's been up to
>Tells me that he's started trapping the last few years
>Surprised, ask him where he traps, what he traps, etc.
>Beaver, mink, rats; the same shit I do
>Tells me about this great swamp he traps for beaver, asks if I want to go with him
>Go with him a few days later
>He's walking across ice that is less than half an inch thick
>Don't worry about it at first, just a few inches of water
>Water starts getting deeper and deeper
>End up in a hole that is a little past my knee
I'm 6'1", by the way; he's about 5'11
>Tell him that I'm not going any further, water is getting too deep
>He says it's fine, keeps walking
>Insist that I'm not walking any further in that direction, tell him it's way too sketchy
>Tells me to wait where I am, he's going to put a set in and he'll be back
>Try to advise him not to go any further
>Ignores me, keeps walking
>15 yards in, goes through the ice into about 4.5 feet of water
>I carefully walk toward him in a different path that he walked
>Extend my safety pole out towards him
>He grabs it, pull him back onto the ice
>It starts cracking around me, book it back to the thicker patch of ice I was originally standing on
>He proceeds to tell me to lead the way the rest of the time we were out setting traps
Some people just refuse to listen. If that kid had been there by himself, who knows what would have happened to him. I mean, it was only about 4.5 feet of water, but swamps have extremely muddy bottoms and I was getting my boots stuck in mere inches of water.