Woke Up at 4:00AM To Pouring Down Rain. It's 8:20AM and It's still Raining Hard. I bet an Inch has fallen which If It keeps Up, things will be sporty on The Marshes, Rivers and Creeks For The Muskrat Opener In The Morning.

Don't Mind the Wet, But Stained Or muddy water makes it difficult to find denholes and Runs visually.

Farmers Will Be Hard Pressed to Get The Rest Of The Corn Out, but It will be Good for the just planted Winter Wheat.

Here's hoping the rain lets off and stops before too long or opening day may be a washout.

Glad I'm Not Land Trapper & Playing in The Dirt (MUD).

Good Luck On Opening Day New York Trappers.

walleyed

about a half inch here just across the border but the winds were crazy last night.go get em Walleyed and all you others.

Mr. Walleyed,

I'm as anxious as you to get trapping, but just do not understand why everyone is bent on catching blue fur.I'm a mink a trapper, but I hold off at least until Nov.1 because of blue pelts taken now. Also, I hold off until November 15 to trap fisher for the same reason. I know, if I hold off someone else may catch them before me, but I prefer to have better quality. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking you, each to their own.

Well AL,

I trap The Eastern Lake Ontario Marshes Where West Wind Storm Surges (Lake seiche)typically Raise water levels Two to Three Feet on A 20 MPH West Wind.

The Wind Blows Unbated Across The 193 Mile Length Of Lake Ontario and Hits The Low Lying Marshes & Barrier Beaches Like A Cannon Shot.

I Trap From A 16 Foot Heavily Laden Canoe at Least A Two Mile Paddle Down In The Marsh from most access points and It's A Very Dicey Situation in Windy Conditions in Warm Weather.

It Is Also a Very Physically Difficult Exercise In Fair weather.

Add In Cold Weather 30*F or Lower Temperatures, along With The High Winds, and It Is usually a Near Impossibility to Effectively Trap My Marshes In Mid To Late November.

If We get A Sudden Cold Snap and Get Iced In Like Happened in Last November with 100's of Traps Out, It's A Living (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) Risking Your Life Getting To Iced In, Stranded Sets to Either Check Or Pull.

The Lake Seiches Make Safe Ice An Iffy Proposition due to multiple Ice layers and constantly Changing water levels so Winter Trapping is out.

Also, A Huge Percentage Of Our Fall Rat population Typically fall victim to Winter Kill Due to Our unique, adverse conditions so It is a Use 'Em Or Lose 'Em Proposition.

If you Came out Here and spent a week trapping Our marshes, you would Quickly realize it is NOT Your Typical, Inland, Stable Water Level Rat trapping conditions.

It's A Totally Different World Out There In An Unprotected, Open Marsh Environment.

Nothing Like an Inland Adirondack pond, lake, Or Small Marsh Setup.

There are a Half Dozen, Experienced, 30 to 60 Years Of Experience Rat Trappers who have The option of waiting farther into Novenber to start trapping These Marshes and NONE of them do because they have only to experience 1 Season Holding Off To trap once, and they all Never Did it Again.

I'm Sure there are Some Other Upper Great Lakes Rat Trappers trapping places like Saginaw Bay Could relate to Similar Conditions like I experience here.

So That's Why I Trap Blue October Rats.

w

Do you have any of those over 20" Jumbo rats there that New York is known for on your line?

Three Or Four Every Year.

Usually All Scarred Up And Beat to Heck & Back, Though.

w

Good luck Walleyed! No water trapping here until the 10th so going to get some land sets in to scratch the itch.

Thank you for the explanation. I live near Lake George on eastern side of Adirondacks and we do not have enough rats to say so. Years ago trappers rented marshes along Lake Champlain, but those rats are now long gone.Certainly we do not have the wind and water conditions that you describe. I wish you good luck with your trapping.

Is it really some mad rush out in those marshes Walleyed??Just wondering what prices has done to competing out there.Plus the diehards must be getting old.Sounds like a nice workout to go trap rats,but have fun.Hope the weather improves for you

good luck bob and stay safe out there

I will be 50 miles north east of you in a week. Stay safe and keep us informed. We all like your posts......jk

And the The Great Northern New York Trap Thread 2017-2018 has begun! Woot!

I am looking forward to reading about your adventures this season Walleyed.

Good luck to all trapping.

Most Years Yes, Last Year No, But The Bad Weather with Ice, Cold, & Wind Made Up For It.

I Have No Idea how Many Trappers I'll Run Into Tomorrow.

All The Creeks flowing into The Marsh Are High & Muddy Right Now From This Morning's Heavy Rain.

It's Going To Be An Almost Total Marsh Pond Set tomorrow Till The Creeks Drop & Clear.

w

Well. Sounds a lot like tidewater rat trapping, welcome to my world.

Well,

The Answer To That Question This Morning Was YES !!!!

I Arrived At Salmon River Estuary At 6:00AM and loaded up The Canoe, Launched, and slowly paddled my Way

Upstream To where I'd planned To start.

Since The 7:00AM Season Opening Time means a Half Hour Of Setting In darkness, I decided

To Prestake the Heaviest Clusters Of Rat Dens To Make Things go quicker Once Legal Time commenced.


I had quickly marked around 30 Dens by 7:01AM when I spotted The Lights Of Two Kyacks paddling up The

North And South Shorelines toward My Position, Quite Obviously the Trapping Competition.

I Quickly started Back Downstream to The One Island where I Had Prestaked when suddenly The Southern Kyack

veered offshore to My Prestaked Island actually beating Me To My First stake. The Guy Hesitated, and then

pulled out one of Those 110 Conibear stands, and Jammed It Into position beside My stake. I paddled past

him To my Next Stake and Dropped A #160 down on to It and Squirted Ahead To The Next Stake and repeated my

#160 Slam dunk while He cut ahead to my next Stake.

As He Was Attempting To Deploy his Rig at My Stake, He Snapped The 110 attached to The Stand Onto His Hand,

and while He was fumbling with It, walleyed passed Him Exclaiming: "Don't You Hate When That Happens" ?

and Then once again, walleyed Squirted ahead and performed his #160 Slam Dunk, and so On Down The Island.

At This Point, The Competition finally Conceded Defeat, and Paddled Off In A Huff.

Walleyed then Finished The Pre-staked Island, and reversed Course, and headed downstream, and then Up The North Channel.

Dawn Had finally Broke and walleyed quickly over-took the other Trapper #2 Who was the cousin to The First

Trapper, exchanged Pleasantries with Him, and continued upstream to another Island which had a Heavy cluster

Of Denhole activity quickly plastering it with #160 Steel and stakes, and then crossing To The Southern

Shore Of The North Channel, Reversed course, and started working my way back down stream toward trapper #2.

Just As walleyed completed setting the distance between himslf and trapper #2, Trapper #1 appeared from

Upstream, and began powerpaddling Toward trapper #2.


Walleyed surged downstream, passed trapper #2, and continued Down-stream to his First Island of Prestaked

Clusters of Denholes, and then Strung-Steel Heading west until He Ran Out Of Rat Habitat and Den Holes.


At That Point, With 79 Den Holes set out of 150 prescouted Locations identified, walleyed conceded the

remainder To The trapping competition, Loaded His Canoe, and Headed Out To Colwell Pond On Lakeview Marsh

for the next adventure. The Time was Now 10:00AM.



Colwell Pond was Deserted and Empty Of Competition, and though The wind had come up considerably, walleyed

another 38 sets were added to the day's total.

At That Point, It Was 2:00PM and Walleyed's Back Pain called A Halt to Further Trap setting after nearly

eight continuous hours on My Knees In The Canoe.

Total Traps Set: 117

Day One Is In The Books.

Thanks For Looking.

Stay Tuned

walleyed Out

Wow! That really stinks having to trap under those conditions; sure takes a lot of the fun out of it. I spent the day enjoying being out of doors in the mountains.I did claim some trap sites because of my competition by placing unset traps there, but I respect particular sites that I know others set every year. I don't plan to set the traps until Nov.1. Enjoyed the read,please keep us informed and good luck.

AL,

How Would That Work As Far As That Trap Being Un-Set: "Shall Not Disturb A Legally Set Trap"

Would The ECON POLICE Consider That to Be A Set Trap, And Thus Stake Your Claim To That Site ?

Or Does The Trap Have To Be Set To Claim Legally Set Status.

My Pre-stake Trap Stake with No Trap On It Claims Exactly Nothing As I Am Well Aware.

Just wondering What Your opinion Is.

w

Here no one is allow to pre stake DNR land .
Any other land that is pre staked does not legally reserve the site for the person that staked or marked it .

Only my opinion, but I believe it is illegal to claim a trap site prior to the season. I believe that I have done nothing wrong; the traps were placed after the season had opened.If I look at them within 48 hours I believe I am legal and frankly since the traps are not set I think it is not necessary. It would be very hard to prove wheter I checked or not.
Frankly I raised my eyebrows when I read that you had staked dens prior to the season opening.Of course there were no traps attached, but isn't that claiming the site prior to the season? If I was another trapper and I saw those stakes I would avoid the site, believing it was already was taken, however I would be pretty mad if I knew the claims were made prior to the season.
Years ago beaver trappers in my area would visit beaver ponds, put in a stake, attach their name to it and claim the site, prior to the season. The next guy would come along, see the stakes, and would figure the first guy had it.Consequently some ponds never did get trapped and I believe was reason for the pre claim reg.
A question for you; every year I shut down my trapping and go the southern tier for 3 or 4 days deer hunting. All traps are sprung, but left in place, incapable of catching an animal. I do leave the fisher baits and know which traps have been hit when I get back. Is that breaking the law?I always thought that I was staying within the law. What say you? Some interesting points here.
One year I sat in my truck, in the dark, at one of my favorite mink streams. When 7:00 came I entered the stream only to find numerous traps already set. Ticked me off, but I did not turn him in.That was when mink were bringing a lot better money.