BETHEL – Saturday’s 32nd annual New England Trappers Weekend at Neil Olson and Olson Fur’s spacious yard on East Bethel Road offered hundreds of people of all ages insight into a way of life for many New Englanders.

It also served up something unique for 41 young contestants and some adults: eel racing.

That involved either grabbing two live eels out of a bucket or dumping the bucket onto a large, watered-down tarp and picking up the critters. The trick was to hold the eels long enough during the timed event to carry them to and dump into a large plastic tote half filled with water.

“It was really hard and it was fun,” 9-year-old Melanie Grant of Prospect said after participating in the race. “You have to try to pick them up from underneath instead of from over the top.”

“I liked touching the eels and putting them in a bucket, because I’d never done it before,” 7-year-old contestant Sierra Stowell of St. Johnsbury, Vt., said. “It was really fun.”

The convention, which began Friday and ends on Sunday, offered many trapping and skinning demonstrations by trapping specialists.

Under a large canopy lit by hanging lanterns, Brian Cogill matter-of-factly skinned a large beaver in front of a big crowd ranging from awed children to rapt adults, though mostly men. While carefully separating fur from muscle and meat, Cogill explained how to properly produce a fine pelt.

He was followed by Wes Matten, who demonstrated how to mount Conibear traps on a downed tree to catch fisher.

Dana “Creature Catcher” Johnson explained how to use several types of traps to catch nuisance critters, producing laughs while talking about the pros and cons of live trapping skunks.

“A skunk won’t spray 95 percent of the time … but the other 5 percent, well, those are the bad days,” Johnson said.

Longtime trapper and tree service business owner Billy Guess, 40, of Trenton, brought his 2-year-old son Caleb Guess to one day share in his passion.

“I’ve been coming here off and on for 20 years,” Billy Guess said. “There’s this feeling of being like a kid at Christmastime. The smells alone just bring back memories. It’s unbelievable. I’ve been trapping since I was 12. I mostly water trap for muskrat, mink and otter, but I have trapped a couple of coyotes and foxes.”

He and his son, who, like many trapping enthusiasts, wore rubber boots, raptly watched chain saw artist Steve Stone work on a sculpture of a bear holding a large fish in its mouth.

Regarding trapping, Billy Guess said, “Some people look down on this, but, No. 1, it’s about conservation. It’s a shame that so many people have an opinion and force it on us. I’m willing to be open-minded (about trapping), but everyone else should, too. It’s our heritage.”

Like Guess, another trapper starting out young was Dakota Herrick of Oxford. The 7-year-old attended with four-year trapper, dad Chad Herrick, and grandfather, Charlie Herrick, both of Oxford.

When asked what he liked best about trapping, the bespectacled youngster simply grinned, and said, “Traps!”

He’s trapped trapped fisher, fox, bobcat and beaver in the past year and a half.

“It’s quite fascinating how they set everything up,” Charlie Herrick said of his son’s and grandson’s trapping expertise. “We come out today to see what they’ve got and to see if they have anything different.”

Several others shared the same outlook, judging by packed vendor booths during the morning.