Annual trapping show in Escanaba to have live demos & celebrities
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Annual trapping show in Escanaba to have live demos & celebrities
The U.P. Trappers Convention & Outdoor Expo is Friday and Saturday. It’s the 63rd year for the annual convention. Vendors have furs, traps and plenty of bait options for prey…and predator. It costs $10 for a two-day pass and kids ages 12 and under get in free. The video above will feature the TV6 livestream until staff can clip the corresponding story, if available, from broadcasts or other TV6 content. You can subscribe to our YouTube page or download TV6+ to stream the latest local news and weather.Copyright 2025 WLUC. All rights reserved.
It’s the U.P. Trappers Convention & Outdoor Expo at the U.P. State Fairgrounds in Escanaba. If you stop into the show, you could meet some of the biggest names in the business like Trapper Paul Antczak.
“I’m a character on the Mountain Men Show on the History Channel,” Antczak said. “I’ve trapped all my life from when I was 10 years old up until now.”
Antczak says he’s set his traps in 11 states.
“I start out trapping coyotes in October,” Antczak said. “By the time I’m done, I’ll have trapped wolves, I’ll have trapped pine marten, beaver, otter, muskrat, mink, everything.”
He’ll be demonstrating how to trap marten Saturday.
It’s the 63rd year for the annual convention. Vendors have furs, traps and plenty of bait options for prey…and predator.
“My specialty is calling predators, predominantly coyote,” World Champion Predator Caller Les Johnson said. He’ll be demonstrating “making sounds, whether you’re howling like a coyote, making coyote vocalizations or you’re using prey distress sounds.”
The demonstrators say trapping helps maintain a balanced ecosystem.
“We have a high predator population,” Antczak said. “We got to go ahead and knock some of them predators back to take pressure off the ungulates out by us.”
Ungulates are hoofed mammals like elk and deer. Convention demonstrators say trapping can also protect domestic animals.
“We’re getting phone calls like, ‘Hey, a fox came and killed a bunch of my chickens,’ or ‘A coyote came and killed my sheep or my lambs,’” Trapping & Skinning Demonstrator Laura Gidney said.
The convention is from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days. It costs $10 for a two-day pass and kids ages 12 and under get in free.
Click here for a schedule of events.
The video above will feature the TV6 livestream until staff can clip the corresponding story, if available, from broadcasts or other TV6 content. You can subscribe to our YouTube page or download TV6+ to stream the latest local news and weather.
Copyright 2025 WLUC. All rights reserved.