[Reprinted from original]

HERMANSVILLE — District 3 of the U.P. Trappers Association is holding its regular meeting on Thursday, Feb. 21, at 6 p.m. Central Time (7 p.m. Eastern) at the Anderson Sportsman’s Club in Hermansville. Presently, District 3 is dipping into the hundreds of years of experience in its association and asking their members to do “how to” demonstrations at most of their meetings – so this wealth of knowledge can be passed on to other trappers and future generations.

“Prepare to be amazed and come to the meeting expecting to learn the fastest and best way to skin, flesh, and stretch beaver. I have put up many hundreds of beaver myself but believe that Ken Luedtke can probably put up more beaver in a single day than I can in a week,” said Bob Steinmetz, a charter member of District 3.

Ken Luedtke began trapping at 10 years old and now has 45 years of trapping experience to share with his fellow trappers. He caught his first beaver at the ripe old age of 13 and from then on he was hooked on trapping — especially water trapping. Beaver became his passion and he wanted to spend more time on the trapline and less time in the fur shed and putting up beavers was very time consuming. He wanted time to catch more animals and hopefully get larger fur checks at the same time. He decided to do whatever it took to become one of the best fur handlers out there. Mostly self-taught, Luedtke suddenly began receiving top lot awards from North American Fur Auctions in the early 90s for his furs — but even then his self-improvement goals were only getting started. His excellent fur-handling caught the eye of legendary NAFA fur agent Fred Salczenko and soon he was working for Fred putting up many thousands of mink, muskrats, beaver, otter, raccoons, fox, coyotes and various other animals.

Anyone who wishes to improve their beaver handling skills — or anyone who wants to learn to properly put up beaver pelts should attend this meeting, organizers said.