bout same as a stool, good ole rat board, piece of 1x6 bout 9" long, one hole drilled and 2 finish nails accomplished the same thing catch wise, w/o having to start a construction project, and uses fiberglass poles ya might have already anyways, and stores less space than stools too.....and Im about to give up on the boards altogether in favor of a a baited coni on a 1x2 or good stiff lathe, its just faster simpler quicker all around I think.....Ive found that a baited coni works anywhere ive trapped rats...marshes, ponds, creeks or rivers

Your about right nimzy, its a regional thing really, and pretty much only shines at "stupid time" in "fantazyland" of more common rat populations......but at that place/time works real slick as dumping in 2 traps per set, at as good of catch rate of 2 single traps, then it is worth dragging out a couple 3-400 board ft of lumber....but thruout most of country you can accomplish just as much without dragging a 1/2 pallet load of scrapwood out to the field.

Kinda akin to 220 boxes on coon, great up north 1/2 starving coons, not so much farther south in banana belt country(bout mid point of 1-80 and 1-90 interstates)....or baited 330s 1/2 in/out of water for beaver is bout same deal.

Well I built stools because of the 2" rule and floats had to be covered. So I think It was the best plan at the time.
Coot just love those suspended apples. LOl

Thanks Rich. I guess I worry that we generalize the use of “alternative” methods (which could be misleading) when perhaps we should focus more on “fundamentals”.
Just stating an opinion and looking for some serious critical review. Pros over cons I suppose

Beav, some folks believe bustin huts is the only alternative under ice. I have issues with that mindset as well.

You play the cards your dealt.

You have to remember that ND trappers are pretty new to open water trapping. It wasn't that long ago that their rat season was during the time when everything was froze up.

I never asked this question about bustin huts. If the trapped rat dosen't go down the plunge hole do the other rats gang up on that live rat?

i am not as experienced as most of y'all, but wouldn't a stool and float have value on open water like water behind a Beaver dam with little to no places for the rats to climb on, poop or rest. Add lure and eye appeal? Moving water fluctuates a lot so I can see that as a obstacle for a stool and float in moving current. I appreciate the flagging tape and Lennons rat all call ideas.

Floats worked awesome here last February on the open river. About the only sustaining method available at the time with so much water level change from melting snow and rain. I wanted to throw out a bunch the last week this year, but I didn't want to shovel an access point for my boat, plus I was busy pulling two rats at a time out of huts.

Beav, the majority of trapped, live rats inside huts, are treated like prisoners. The other rats will build a wall of vegetation around a held rat, almost to the point of burying it. I have seen minimal bites at best. Hate to say it, but any bite that may occur, is probably self imposed. Insuring downed mushrats is the goal!

Nimzy, what ya doing posting your thoughts in the middle of the day, during open mushrat season? Is the snow covered ice slowing you down a little bit?

Rich, my man, glad to see ya back talking trapping!

I can understand someone making the statement as this.BUT NO DISRESPECT INTENDED HERE because I have heard and seen from shots etc.. that you catch a pile of rats-but I am a float trapper-period when it come to rats.Ya I use some colonies etc.. and they certainly have their place on anyones line.but when it come to laying out rat traps and laying them out in fast efficient numbers-I find it hard to believe anyone could beat the numbers of traps I layout in the time frame I do it.RE; I can layout 750 set traps working in one day( mid October timeframe) from dawn til dusk-which I highly doubt someone can do setting body grips,leg holds on or in houses etc..

Now if I ran strictly 2 position floats I would certainly be a more difficult task,but with the combination of 2 and 4 position floats it becomes very possible as long as you are simple and efficient and organized.Same sets over and over and over again-simple and very effective for myself in my area.

Again floats work in my area and not in some of you other guys areas-but as far as being efficient and getting the steel out on the marsh-I would love to see a more efficient effective way to trap open water marsh etc..I am all ears.

Very well said MB Coonguy! Any shadow of a doubt stemming from your success, is blatant denial.

That pickup bed of scrap wood seems to most definitely have a place. Especially if filling freezers with muskrats is the goal.

Hey Jeromy, i see thru lurking once/month youve been sticking it out rat trapping thru thick and thin these last 2-3 years....my hat is off to ya bigtime!

I went out and ran a boat this fall on stuff with a boat ramp, then set a 2 boat rule to rat trapping....if its farther than 2 boat lenghts away I aint settting it....caught 700 some odd working night and trapping 3-4 hrs every morning, and at least one full day on weekends.......i screwed up the 2 boat lenght deal, shoulda made it a 1/2 a boat.....just saw my ave on one of the biggest strings of rats I ever caught, 16=18" ers galore, some loose and floppy end of stretcher and 19 w/o needing a closepin......all for a 3.33 whopping ave at nafa on 430......these couple 100 left not sure what to do besides freeze em, or split down the back and staple to the floor, carpet about shot...... decisions decisions.

I think you guys in WI really need to see hut cracking for what it really is.....it doesnt waste a resource by any means really, is effective and humane...ya get to certain point and they just pretty much go to the banks, i have my doubts you can freeze out a rat cracking huts....get cold enough and the catching pretty much comes to an end, and believe it or not the rats will thaw out a frozen hut when they have to packing dead veg back underneath it....big marshes ya aint going to get them all, or kill them off by freezing out huts......now having more impact on population by a viable harvest over a longer time period, Ill give ya that, and also allows viable longer harvest where it can be sustained, well whats the problem with that really?

Id say your damage hut trapping is about akin, but no heavyer than colony trapping....a little heavyer than open water fall trapping but not to any huge degree....but at least it allows one keep harvesting rats regardless of snow and/or ice conditions for most part

Mother nature pretty much takes care of winter hut trapping pressure, as takes a little more gumption than open water trapping to go out in the cold every day and swing an ice chisle all day, imagine setting up your bowflex exorsire machine in back yard in january and climbing on it every day..LOL...it aint quite as easy as climbing in a ice fishing hut, popping on the mr heater and cracking open a 6 pack.

Rich I think you need to build a wedge shaped spear and fasten It to the front end of the ATV. Ram the hut back out set trap close hole move on. Or make some PVC plugs to jam In the hole.
I know we talked about other Ideas but I won't give away all those schemes you have. LOL

Jeremy during rotten weather sometimes im further ahead in the shed.

MB thanks for the response. I would never set 700+ traps in one day. My lines take time to build for sure. I would also admit It is cool when you double on a float, ya. It just didn’t seem to happen enough for me. Coupled with the fact of hauling all that added gear. Mine must be too big and heavy, how on earth do you carry 300 around? As muskrat trapping goes there must to some technique to get better percentages?

Don’t disagree. Only Think it’s a bit invasive and inefficient.

Chris 300 traps In a short day Is nothing. Most of the trapping I do In the Dakotas Is called 2 step trapping. I step out of the truck and one step Into the water. 4 stools over your shoulder place them about 8 feet apart and get back down the road another 100 yards or so.
There was the time I set 40 some traps and by time I turned around I had something like 20 some rats. There was the time where I took a rat out of the trap, reset tossed the rat Into the truck. And stood and watched a rat swim up to the stool climb on and get caught. I was 4 feet away.
Nothing like trapping spring rats In the Dakotas.

I'm to old to even consider busting huts. Seems like a lot of work to me.LOL

It's pretty effieneint when ya fire the huskquarna up, not tooterrible tough to sustain a 50/day ave and better than 50 % catch rate as long as your moving enough......guy wanted to really roll my A TV ramrod be the ticket that I got dreamed up....
I got even better ideas that involve a 4wd (as in chevy), a snowplow blade, a 1/2 do jadgterriers and 1/2 pi upload of neighborhood kids and bagfullof hammers, but that's another story....just remember where ya heard first when down the line beav tries to claim it for his own

That’s my point it’s misleading! How many places have those types of populations and conditions?
In the past I tested floats next to feedbeds next to poles and even topside conibears. Floats and conis under performed. At the end on the experiment I walked off that marsh with a boat about sunk full of wood and half the rats I should of caught. Below 50% counting traps. Poor catch rate for springtime imo.

Rich now we are getting somewhere. 50 a day with 50-%! That’s ok but in winter I’m looking for 80/ 80 day after day. Imo the only traps that count are the ones with something in them. The rest are a waste of time and effort. I should stop stirring the pot😀

Rich we asked the warden about smacking runner rats here In WI. Can't do It. LOL

Question? So I have about 40 floats and I normally run a river with a john boat lots of rats in it. Once I set the floats should I move them after catching a few or am I waisting time. From what I heard they travel distances anyways in the spring

At your age, I thought you was smarter than that.....you should know by now its better to beg forgiveness, than ask permission when it comes to grey areas...



Nimzy, sign me up for lessons! I need to see this 80 rats/day thru 20" cloudy ice with a ft of snow on top of it, with a tubfull of rusty 110;s Boy scout hatchet or a dull jiffy ice chisle?