I've been trying to catch these little guys, but have had no luck. I"ve found their feeding beds and set coni's but still have come up with nothing. I can't find any runs in the marsh at all, I just see where they have been feeding, I need Help!

Have you been able to locate their houses? ... I am assuming they have houses scattered throughout the marsh. If it is a tidal marsh then there must be tidal fluctuations in the water level. Check the area at low tide and see if they don't have runs to use at these times. If you can find houses and runs, you can set your conis in and at them or even better would be to use colony traps and get multiple catches. .... Garry-

Garry I've looked over and over with no luck. I've found them before in creeks, but in this marsh its a maze of trails that go in every direction, all i can find is the dang feeding beds.

Hey TJ if you can,t find dens or houses I have used cages and 110 conis on runs/trails and used colony traps built on floats

a colony trap used to take 15-20 rats in one night
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2/Jonathan64/Ketch3-07.jpg

a cage trap used to take 4-6 rats in one night
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b349/Crittercatcher/100_0876.jpg

they both work good.
behind Kmart on mercury looked good to me last time I was over the the manager is a pretty nice lady probably let you clean it out for them good luck

you should be seeing bank dens at low tide if there are no house up high.

I've been looking in the banks, but there's so many turns and twist its hard to find them

I trapped just a little tidal marsh rats for a short time.Let me tell you,it takes some learning.I haven't enough knowledge on it to even begin to help you.Best find somebody that has done it a good bit.Its a whole different ballgame than trapping inland rats.

TJA, most of my rat trapping is done in tidal marshes.

I go in at low tide and set 110s/120s in all of the bank holes, on trails and slides as well as in any little trickles

Traps are checked on the low tide.

Set that maze of trails and you will get 'em.

TJA..are you looking at low tide ? Are you sure they are feed beds and not houses ? If so, they are getting to them somehow. Probably leads thru the marsh to them. All the muskrats I catch are tidewater and I have been doing it all my life. Like they said...bank holes are the easiest place to start but you got to go on low tide.

i'm trapping the same type of area, everywhere the maze pinches down set a 110 or a cage, after a few days you'll see a pattern, and zero in on them.
also when a 110 catch is made in the small streams look at the direction they were heading will give you an idea of where they are coming from..

Muskrats in a marsh or swamp? Leave the 110's at home. Feedbed sets are the most productive rat sets ever. Footholds on the feedbeds staked in the water with a 2 or 3 foot piece of wire extending from the chain ring to the stake. Overall, 75 to 80% of my rats are caught in footholds, and probably 90% in marshy areas. It's a good idea to mark the set locations with flagging, as they often destroy the smaller feedbeds when caught. The spot that looked "so good" when you made the set may not even exist after a catch.

Note: I have no idea how the changing water levels will affect this type of trapping, so maybe I have an advantage in the "Illinois swamps".

"Tidal" marsh Ron, big difference around here. 110's are probably used 90% of the time. I'd say your info is on the money for non-tidal marsh, IMO.

That's what I figured..... too much fluctuation in water depths would prevent the footholds from working "around the clock" like they do here. However, I seem to notice a LOT of posts on this forum from trappers in NON-TIDAL marshes that waste countless hours trying to use 110's where they could be piling up rats by the boat-loads if they used the basic foothold sets used for decades... long before conis were invented......

Curious.... how much variation in water depth occurs during a normal tidal cycle in a typical marsh you would trap?

Yea, not unusual to have 4,5,6' tide rise and fall, sometimes more in N'Easters where I'm at. I don' trap tidal marsh but am familiar with it and how it's done. Bad Karma would be the "go-to" guy on here for tidal trapping I would say, he grew up in marsh mud...
We did got to Alaska fishing a couple of times and they has 20' tideal drops sometimes. High and low looked like 2 different places altogether.

Ron..we run flags on all our traps here. Footholds in tidewater are very limited but have their place certain times of the year and situations. New kids should stick to bodygrips till they learn the ropes. That means the rat must be swimming.
The amount of tide varies with how directly the marsh connects with the ocean. Some places here are 4-6 ft. where Coop and Newt are...some where I am here up the Chesapeake are 4 inches if you go up far enough. And even that depends on the speed and direction of the wind. Every pc. of marsh is a little different.
I am old enough to remember when bodygrips first came into general use here for rats late '50s ....you couldn't give away a stoploss and thousands were sold for scrap metal or tossed into the woods.

Comming soon MASTER TIDE WATER TRAPPING/SNARING

Are you in NC now Newt?

Footholds in tidewater are very limited but have their place certain times of the year and situations.

here in tidewater at culverts in marshes right in front of the culvert there is usually a hole 1-3 ft deep even at low tide.


where he is at there is approximately 2-3 ft drop in the tide unless we have high winds I have never trapped the tidal water where he is at only the ditches and culverts on the side of the bay i,m on I trap marsh more then ditches I,m on the south side of the chesapeake i.e. Portsmouth


hey T J I have narrowed down how they get to the feed bed and then blocked their access with 110


I am old enough to remember when bodygrips first came into general use here for rats late '50s ....you couldn't give away a stoploss and thousands were sold for scrap metal or tossed into the woods.

I did,nt start trapping till 1969-70 we still used stop loss and foot traps but mostly at culverts foot traps became much cheaper when everyone start using conis

Yea, just got down yesterday afternoon

I just wanted to thank everyone for the Info. I'm going to try to put it to use this weekend when i run my next line, I'll keep you guys posted. Thanks again.

TJ

Well, in my area footholds are the way to go in open water, deeper marshes early in the season. This is when I may take only a few conibears with me. Get in a shallow marsh and you have to utilze the 110's as it's impractical to to use footholds in most situations.

Now in under ice marsh trapping when I was younger, I was misled that footholds were the trap of choice. I used them for several years with decent results. I now no longer take a single foothold with me regardless of water depth when trapping under the ice. I now use 110's exclusively under ice trapping.This has taken some time to develop and learn but my success has been much ,much better. Last week, for example, I connected on 25 muskrats out of 38 traps along with 7 snaps. This is in water anywhere from knee to waist deep. No baited triggers or any gimmick. Just setting the conibear where the animal goes, that simple...

Too many active muskrat houses need to be passed up or set less effectively with footholds compared to 110's. A lot of marshes don't have many feedbeds or the houses are too big with overhanging sides to reach in with footholds (I don't like wet arms in 10 degree temps). I have also seen many entrances to houses with too deep or wide of a tunnel for effective use of footholds. The muskrats DO NOT always enter traveling along the bottom of the entrance and this is where you are limited in setting a foothold. The result is too many empty traps. Not something I want to have when chopping 40-50 sets a day.

I guess my point is both trap styles need to be utilized Mr. Scheller, depending on the situation. In open water, I agree that footholds can be VERY effective. Almost to the point of it being rediculous as to the ratio of traps per catch. Marsh trapping under ice in any water depth, I leave the footholds in the truck and go catch 'rats.

I guess my point is both trap styles need to be utilized Mr. Scheller, depending on the situation. In open water, I agree that footholds can be VERY effective. Almost to the point of it being rediculous as to the ratio of traps per catch.


Marsh trapping under ice in any water depth, I leave the footholds in the truck and go catch 'rats.

thats just it we don,t have Ice here I saw a thin crust one morning it was gone the next tide change.I,m not but 50 yo one year it got really cold we had ice in the marsh for 3-4 days but usually when the water falls away from the Ice , tide change the ice breaks up and floats away the next tide change I have cousin that have ponds we get a little bit of ice on them maybe 2 weeks in feb I live beside a power plant with a hot water discharge Ice just don,t happen that often here think pepper plants growing for 2 years in a row no frost