I tried apple and it doesn't work out here. carrots and parsnip seem to be the go to bait

Yes, carrots work well too .

Looks like a oil slick on the water. That's a good thing.

Good luck to you.

anybody rub a little rat gland on their boards?

That would work just fine.

x10 what Calvin said....I like to build as narrow a possible with trap 90 degrees to whats shown for simple reason its easyer to skinny up the floats w/o having levers in the way.....another thing that will catch more rats on floats is using drywall screw up from bottom as it holds your carrot better than a finish nail head.......another advanced feature is to use small 1x2 spacers or custom cut spacer blocks that will allow stacking floats with set or locked open traps via a hog ring, so they can be stacked w/o firing traps settng on your board.....setting 2 traps per float is a huge time killer compared just slapping down pre set traps or even locked open hog rings.....i saw a fancy trap locking method once where a guy had a counterbored hole and offset to that hole bout 50% of dia off side of that hole, anothher hole c'bored but with washer in it held down a screw.....it was set up so crossframe pointy end of trap slide under washer and locked trap in place, even when your board was carried sideways, was real slick if guy could duplicate it......another speed float trick is using metal fence posts w/ triangle for stakes as allows you to carry 2 floats/1 stake each hand w/ float held up by triangle to the slew.....to be really effective id cut down the triangles so not as much tangle mess to store on board your outfit

I was in SD that spring and KNOW for a fact that fossil and sons catch was real deal, and havent ever seen anything but truth from any of Calvins or fossils posts, and ill add huntgod to that list also......some others I dont know whether part b.s. or truth.....but I do know some on here who do stretch the truth by a fair degree...LOL

use a good coon lure when rat trapping-the results will amaze you......just dont use on your floats....sawdust and fiberglass splinters galore!

Pennsylvania muskrat season only runs until January 7th. Not sure if floats would work if you could find anything that's not frozen over. Any recommendations?

Floats and stools seem like there a spring thing. Yes you can catch some rats on floats and stools at other times of the year but It's mostly a spring thing.

You need to catch your rats before you get Ice. Trapping dens and runs and setting on the huts. Look for fed beds and rat toilets and set them.

http://thebeav.us/stools.htm

In some situations a stool will work better then a float. When you have large cattail marshes and you don't have much If any water fluxions I prefer a stool to a float.

As odd as it sounds, a long pc of flagging tape is just as good as bait. The rats must chew on it for some reason. I have had the same success rates with lure/flagging as lure/bait.
I run the same float as Les, but prefer a lathe set. I disagree with Beav, floats work great in all seasons...you just have to move them a bit more in the fall, as the rats are territorial then, not looking.

Spruce

What do you mean Spruce ? Lathe set ?

Here On my line In WI you could set a float or a stool In the fall right next to a hut or next to the bank. And you would be checking empty sets for a long time.
I have tried It 100s of times since I have over 400 stools just sitting around when I'm In WI.
Now Out In the Dakotas It's a different story. Work fairly well In the fall but really shine In the spring.

Since we don't have areal spring season I'm not sure how they would work here.

I also used that florescent green flagging and It worked really good. It must be the eye appeal. Because once I caught a rat the other rats would come up and chew off the rest of It.
Last spring I actually had rats chew off the PVC pipe. They sure liked that Lennons rat all call.

I question the validity of floats. Think it a phase that started in an un-realworld like muskrat explosion. Cumbersome and mediocre effective.

They are a killer set In the spring In the Dakotas. I'm pretty sure that's all most trappers use out there.

Try not to complicate things, dab of Lenons, dump and go.

Good Idea.

I hate to ask a stupid question but what do you mean by a stool?