MONTANA DAN TRAPPING
Present Day Catch on the Helterline Barn . 112 coyotes , 8 wolves , 5 bobcats , 5 red fox caught by the father-daughter duo .
A Tale of Two Barns and A Perch Called Goliath By Dan Helterline
I ’ m reluctantly happy to say trapping season is finally over . I love it like crazy when it ' s going , but by the end I ’ m pretty wore out and glad it ’ s done for another season . I find it mildly ironic that the year Montanans voted to defeat I-177 to show their support for our rich rural heritage and lifestyle ; I had my career best trapping season to date . The conditions this year were the best I ’ ve seen and it made for a spectacular catch . I decided to hang my catch on a barn just up the road on Helterline Lane from my residence . The barn is owned by the Risland family , but was built by one of the first Helterlines to make his way to Wild Horse Plains , from present day Germany .
Joseph Helterline was my Great , Great Uncle . He was born in Busendorf , Bavaria in 1856 . He came to America in 1872 at the age of sixteen , and worked for his Uncle David in Stratford , New York before making his way west . Joseph Helterline arrived in Wild Horse Plains in May of 1882 by horseback , leading a single packhorse . He decided to remain in Wild Horse Plains , and homestead at the location of this photo on present day Helterline Lane where his barn still stands to this day . The catch displayed on this barn contains 112 coyotes , 8 wolves , 5 bobcats and 5 red fox caught by myself and my daughter , Alexis . Alexis is a 5th generation Helterline living on the road with the same family name .
Following the conclusion of the 2013-14 trapping season , myself and a couple friends hung our catch on the barn built by my Great , Great Grandfather , George F . Helterline who was born in Busendorf Bavaria in 1853 . He eventually followed three of his uncles to America arriving in 1871 . George also worked in New York for his Uncle David for a period of time . He also decided to head west and visit his two brothers , in Wild Horse Plains in 1891 . He purchased the farm homesteaded by Michael J . Brown . The barn that displays the 2013-14 catch was built in 1896 , two years prior to my Grandfather , John N . Helterlines birth , where he remained his entire life , inheriting half of the farm with the barn and house at the age of fifteen . This photo contains 109 coyotes , 30 red fox , 40 beavers , 12 bobcats , 12 racoons and 2 wolves caught by myself , Jeff Rude and Jay VonHeeder ( pictured left ). I grew up chasing cousins , helping milk cows , feeding pigs and a variety of childhood activities too numerous to mention , throughout this barn , that still stands at the end of Helterline Lane today .
With trapping season over , Alexis and I loaded up our ice fishing gear and headed to Cascade Lake in Central Idaho to fish for mammoth sized perch that the lake has become famous for . One of my retired smokejumper buddies lives in Donnelly , almost right on the lake . For the second year in a row , we dropped in for a visit and went ice fishing for trophy perch . The families of Knute Olson and Frank Castillo , also rendezvoused at Cascade to join in on the hunt for hawg perch . It was a very fun crowd of friends , and the weekend went by way too fast . With all the fancy gear brought along and tried ; the best tackle proved to be a plain hook , sinker , and small slip bobber that held a night crawler just up off the bottom . The best fisherman for the weekend weren ’ t men at all , but two of the young daughters that came along . Thankfully one was mine , and Alexis helped make up for my slower than normal catch rate .
The first morning started out kind of slow , while Knute and I were doing some reconnaissance in search of more fertile fishing grounds on our snowmobiles , Frank ’ s daughter Claire , reeled in a perch that weighed a pound and eight ounces-not bad for an eight year old ! The two Olson twins were trying their hardest , making their rounds amongst our impressive spread of rods , reeling everyone ’ s line in , only to show them the worm they had just caught . For two year olds , they are pretty darn good at handling a spinning outfit . I can only imagine what they will be like in a couple of years ! The second day the bite had improved but the size of fish left something to be desired . Alexis arrived mid-morning after deciding not to ride out on the snowmobile caravan , but rather cross country ski the two miles out to our ice fishing village with my smokejumper buddie , Chris . I don ’ t think she had been sitting in my chair two minutes when I looked over and she was pulling a good-sized perch through the ice . A short time later , I glanced over only to see her rod doubled over again and she calmly remarked , “ This one feels pretty-good sized dad .” By the time I made it over to her newly acquired spot , I could see the head of a VERY large perch coming up through the hole ! When the high fives and hollering finally subsided ; the fish pulled the scale down to two pounds two ounces , and a shade over 15 inches , biggest of the weekend !
Alexis Helterline Sporting her Perch Hawg , weighing in at 2.2lbs and 15 ”!
We had a sensational fish fry that night and everyone ate perch tacos until they were ready to pop . Like I mentioned earlier , the weekend went by way too fast , and so did the time to start packing up and head home . I can only hope the trapping will be as good next year and I can rendezvous on Cascade Lake at the end of the season with a bunch of my good friends and their families in the hunt for goliath perch . For more pictures of the ice fishing see page 19 .
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