walleyed Picked Up Another Rat On The Flooded Pasture Float This Morning. Lower Black Pond Produced 3 Rats, and Stony Creek Produced A Zero.

We Journeyed South To Mud Brook, A Tributary Of North Sandy Creek, Which Meanders Down Into Lakeview Marsh.

It Is Usually A Pretty Good Place For Spring Rats With The Added Bonus Of Being Somewhat Sheltered From The Prevailing Northwest Winds.

walleyed Punched In 25 Rat Toilet And Feed-Bed Sets and Saw An Encouraging Amount Of Muskrat Sign.

We'll Let These New Sets Soak 2 Days Before Checking As Getting into This Spot Involves Some Canoe Dragging And Portaging Over Some Beaver Dams.

When We Return, We'll Be Hauling Another 50 #1.5 Victor Stoploss To Cover The Extra Sign We Scouted That We Had No Traps For Today.

Thanks For Looking.

Stay Tuned.

w

I enjoy your story line! You obviously bust your hump for your 'rats.

But after a couple years of reading it I have to ask. Is it common to deploy as many traps as you do with such small catch percentage? I understand that you cannot set within 5 feet of a hut, or use colony traps, but when you speak of 30 hot runs covered with single spring 160's, and the first check produced 7 rats, just baffles me. Maybe, those NY rats are more active than ours and make that much more active sign per rat.

No ill intentions, just curious.

Good luck man!

We Really Don't have A Lot Of rats Compared With The Acres Of Available Marsh Habitat, So Anything That Shows Some Rat Sign Is Set As I Have Way more traps than I Do Good Trap Spots So I carpet Bomb Everything And Stay Longer Than I Should At each Spot. We Have Hundreds OF Acres Of marsh without any Sign At all so When I See Some I set it All.

Didn't Use To Be that way.

we also have a lot Of deep Overhanging Cattail Mats where the exact Location Of a den Hole Or Run Is Just Guesswork and often I guess wrong. LoL

We also deal With flucuating water levels Where A set Is On Location When Set But Then The Wind switchs and the Lake seiche either Stands The Set On dry Land Or Inundates It Under Feet Of water. Again The Set Location Is A Guessing game.

Hope This Explains things Over Here In Northern New York

Checked 1/2 Of The Trapline This Morning And Picked Up Seven Rats And One Two Year Old Beaver.



w

Thank you sir Walleyed! I appreciate you taking the time to explain your trapping environment in greater detail. You are 7 rats richer than I this day! Our season closed with February's falling.

I couldn't help but notice that the great state of New York chooses not to discriminate against fellow trappers. Time will tell, however I hope to see you in Minnesota some day busting huts, the only viable winter method!

Good luck and stay afloat!

walleyed Wanted To Beat The Bad Weather Today From The Latest Approaching Nor-Easter So He Was On Stony Creek At Dawn Where Everything Was Pulled For A Three Rat Catch.

Went South To Lower Black Pond Once Again Pulling All Sets For Another Two Rats.

Finally, We Proceeded To Mud Brook, Dragged The Canoe In, Portaged Around The Beaver Dams, And Managed Another Eight Rats.

A Cold Wind Picked Up Out Of The Southeast Along With Spitting Snow Making For An Uncomfortable Paddle Back Up Stream.

Since This Was Only The 2nd Check At Mud Brook, We Left The Sets For One More Day.

Hopefully, We Won't Live To Regret This Decision as We Are Due For A String Of Night Time Lows In the 26* to 28* F Range.

Got Home And Found That The Mystery Fur Fairy Had Gifted Walleyed A 50 Pound Beaver Left On The Porch.

This Was Just What walleyed Wanted To Skin Today !!!

Thank God It Has Castors, A Tail, And A Skull So Walleyed Can Get Paid For His Trouble.

Thanks For Looking.

Stay Tuned.

w

Thanks for the update. I have been following.

Me too
Take some pics walleyed.
Some swamp selfies.

X 2

And do what Boco said, some swamp selfies!

x 2 3/4,when's the southern zone close,or has it??

New York State Southern Rat Zone Closed February 15th.

Northern Rat Zone Is Open Until April 15th.

Taking On-The-Trapline Pics Is No Problem.

But Posting Them Here Is Not Possible.

Something Is Wrong In The Process Of Uploading Them At My End And I Suspect That Something Is

ME As Well As An Outdated Computer. LoL

w

Just Returned From Lakeview Marsh At Lower Mud Brook Where walleyed Had 35 #1.5 Victor Stoploss Set On A Two Day Soak.

With The Weather Forecasting Two More Nor-Easters On The Way, walleyed Was Paranoid Of Getting Froze-In Without Any way To Check Traps.

As Such, We Elected To Pull And Reset Tommorrow, Weather Permitting In a New Location.


Today's Harvest Of Muskrat Was 10 Fat Rats Who Are Now Drying Before The Fans.

walleyed Was Chilled To The Bone Upon His Return Due To The Waves, Brisk Wind & Heavily

Falling, Wet Snow And Was Very Happy To Arrive at His Warm, Dry Compound.


We Are Now Over Half Way To 100 Spring Rats With 55 On The Stretchers

In 14 Days Of Trapping Or A Pitiful 3.93 Rats Per Day.

Thanks For Looking.

Stay Tuned.

w

there is spring rat trapping season in southern ny from about 81 to the thruway out to mass down to pa line check the map on nytrapper.com open till april 7. central and wetern ny closed feb 15

i have a pile of beaver across the border in NY that need catching.no NY tag for me this year but you bet that won't happen again next year.i'm only a mile from the border.

is it worth buying a out of state tag to catch beaver and muskrat at these price level been giving beaver away this year don't want to put the time into them. still have 2 move places to try to clean out before april 7 comes. I see lots of dead beaver and rats along rt 17 and rt 88 is there no one trapping along the border of pa and ny

that's why i didn't get it this year but wish i had.there is a pile of fur down here along the state line and i seldom see anyone else.very much worth the 275,i probably trap in NY as much or more than PA. most years.

yesterday saw 6 dead rats in like 50 yards by bigflats ny on 17 most of the bridgers that cross big rivers road kill rats beaver mink on most or near them

well have to go pick up another load of used traps today and a few furs hopfuly today

i know a few canine trappers across the border but not a single water trapper left that i know of in my area .used to be quite a few but not for quite a while now.

Yesterday, Saturday The 10th Of March Turned Out To Be A Non-Starter As A Setting Day. Cold At 34* F and A 15 To 18 MPH West Wind Was Not Something walleyed Wanted To Deal With While Placing Traps On FeedBeds, Logs, And Other Rat Toilet Locations While Fighting The Wind To Keep The Canoe Stationary & Under Control.

It Was A Good Day To Flip A Canoe Over-Loaded With Stakes & Traps So Good Judgement Being The Better Part Of Valor, walleyed Hunkered Down In His Compound To Await Better Weather.

This Morning Dawned Cold But Dead Calm So We Launched At Colwell Pond Which Was Open On The Western Half Shoreline But Still Ice-Bound On The Eastern Half.

We Loaded 35 #1.5 Victor Stoploss And 35 5' Foot Electrical Conduit Stakes With The Tops Splashed In Bright Orange.

Rat Sign Was Fair But This Pond Has Only Been Open For A Few Days. Within A Few Hours We Deployed All The Traps At Good Locations And Identified Spots For Another 25 Rat Sets Along With About A Dozen Beaver/Otter Locations.

Walleyed Was Stiff, Frozen, Ice Coated, And Cold Whan We Arrived Back At The Launch Site.

A Cursory Check Of The Other Traps Produced A Nice 45 Lb Beaver At The Otter Culvert and walleyed Is Now Warming Up Back At His Compound.

Thanks for Looking.

Stay Tuned.

w

good job,pa rat season closed jan 6,i will have my ny again next year.