walleyed waited until Noon when The Sun Was at It's Apex In The Sky And Had Warmed The Air

Temperature and Mostly Melted The Ice That Had Formed Overnight At The Colwell Ponds.

Loaded Up The Canoe With Eight 330 Conibears, 48" Coni-Stands, Stakes , A Half Dozen #160's and Another 15 #1.5 Vic Stoploss walleyed.

Broke Ice And Checked Traps Until We Reached The Beaver Channel Between The Two Colwell Ponds.

There, walleyed Deployed The Eight 330's For Otter & Beaver and Then Continued Checking Rat Traps.

We Arrived Back At The Launch Site with 15 Plump Muskrat.

Snow Fall & Bad Weather Is Forecast For Tonight and Tomorrow So We Will Plan On a Two Day Soak.

Meanwhile, We Have Rats To Skin And Beaver To Flesh.

Thanks For Looking.

Stay Tuned.

w

It was cold this morning 11 degrees here, good luck

Have until end of month walleyed?

Hey Mud,

Our Northern Zone Beaver & Otter Season Runs Until April 7TH.

Our Northern Zone Muskrat & Mink Season Runs Until April 15TH.

Every Thing Else But Coyote Closed On Feburuary 15TH.

Coyote Closed On March 28TH.

w

Wow thats late. Always loved going over to Pa after our season ended here and spring beaver trapping. Just a nice way to take in the seasons changing. We're done here Thursday.

Not to hijack walleyed's thread but why do some norther states close their mrat seasons so early? South Dakota's rat (and beaver) seasons go through April 30 although I've never seen anyone trap rats that late. We can't be in the houses after sometime in March (haven't looked that up for a while because we don't have rat huts around here anymore). Our mink season does close Jan 31 which seems early but not muskrats.

Misguided biologists here think that you can actually over trap muskrats, and that you need to leave seed.

They are a cyclic aquatic vole, closely related to other "voles and lemmings". It would be like trying to kill off house mice in old houses and granaries of the old fashioned kind .

PA closed Jan.7

SShhhhhhh! lol

walleyed Checked The Few Roadside Traps Not Requiring A Canoe To Visit This Morning And Discovered A Scene Of Devastation At One Of His Beaver/Otter Sets In Upper Black Pond.

The 330 And 48" Conibear Stand Guarding A Castor Mound Were NoWhere In Sight So walleyed Deployed His 10' Foot Boat-Hook and Fished Out His Coni-Stand Sans 330.

walleyed Left The Scene And Soon Returned With A 10' Section Of Furring Strip Which Was Lashed To The Boathook Pole With Duct Tape Effectively Doubling The Range & Reach Of walleyed's Searching Device And Soon a Nice 40Lb Beaver Was Brought To Justice.

We Spent The Rest Of The Day Today Fleshing & Boarding Some Nasty Beavers.

Tonight We Will Flesh And Stretch Muskrats.

Thanks For Looking.

Stay Tuned.

w

walleyed Payed The Price Today For Skipping The Trap Check Yesterday Due To The High Wind.

We Have A 48 Hour Trap Check For Water Trapping Here In New York's Northern Zone So We Can Play The Weather If Things Look Dicey On Any Given Day.

Problem Being That There Is No Guarantee That The Next Day's Weather Will Be Any Better, And Such Was The Case Today. LOL

It Was Cold, Snowing Hard, and A Nasty Northwest Wind Was Blowing At A 25 MPH Clip.

We Decided To Pull All Our Rat Sets Until This Snow And Cold Has Subsided and We Stowed The Traps, Stakes, And Rats As We Made Our Way Up Wind.

Freezing Hands, and Gradual Chilling Down Of Body Core Temperature Made This Excercise An Unpleasant Experience.

At One Point, There Was a Wild Rodeo When Walleyed Came Upon A Live Beaver Secured In A #1.5 Vic Stoploss Who Soaked Walleyed To The Skin With Freezing Water Before Finally Being Subdued.

When We Finally Arrived Back At The Launch Site, We Had Garnered 16 Muskrat Plus The Gnarly, Renegade Beaver For Our Cold Weather Pain & Suffering.

We're Still Cold & Shivering as We Type This Account Of Today's Events.

Thanks For Looking.

Stay Tuned.

w

I pulled my rat sets last weekend due to damage pushing 40%, how are yours holding up?

thx for the update

walleyed Finally Was Able To Get Some Rat Sets In The Water In Locations That Have Been Froze Up. Many Areas Where We Are Normally Trapping By Now Are Still Beneath A Polar Ice Cap.

My Beaver/Otter Sets Have Been Mostly Iced Over and No Sign Of Travel Or Activity.

Put Out 9 #160 Den Hole Sets At Colwell Pond, And Four Floats and 31 #1.5 Victor Stoploss Sets At The South End Of North Sandy Pond. Also Spotted A Couple Dozen Den Hole Opportunities While Stringing Steel But Did Not Have Only One #160 In The Boat. That will Be Rectified In the Morning. Also Spotted A Feed Channel Into The Cattails Being Used By Beaver That Will Get A Trifecta Of Duke 330's Strategically Placed In It In The Morning.

We Should Have Some Fur In The Traps In The AM.

Thanks For Looking. Stay Tuned.

w

It's Like The Movie "Groundhog Day" Here In New York's Southern Jefferson County The Last Couple Weeks.

About 10 To 15* F, Steady 20 MPH Northeast Wind, Ponds And Still Water Icing Over Every Night, And Very Limited Animal Movement.

We had 31 Feedbed/Toliet Sets, 10 #160 Den Hole Sets, and Five Beaver Sets Deployed Last Night and Today's Catch Was ZERO Beaver and 11 Rats.

We Added 15 More Bank Den Hole Sets Guarded with #160's To the Mix.

The Weather Pattern Is Supposed To Change With The Arrival Of Rain Tomorrow.

That Should Get The Beaver And Scrats Moving Finally.

We Shall See.

Thanks For Looking.

Stay Tuned.

w

wind has made it feel cold here all day.wish you were closer,no beaver trappers to be found down here.landowner up the road stopped with a permit for me to kill some beaver on his property.4 active houses in a 200 yd stretch and beaver swimmin around me about the whole time i was there.usually can jump across this creek but the gentleman and his wife liked to watch them till it got this bad.

Wally when you say "we" who you trapping with if you don't mind me asking?

There's Three Of Us Trapping Together......ME, MYSELF, AND I.

It's The Royal "WE".

w

I figured it was Austin lol

*****WE*****Picked Up 12 Rats Today, And One Yearling Beaver In The Cattail Feed Channel.

Added Another 20 Traps At South End Of North Sandy Pond.

It Started Out At 30* F This Morning At Dawn And Warmed Up Comsiderably As The Day Went On.

Seeing More Rat Sign In The Form Of Feed Beds, and Toilets as The Shoreline Ice Melts Away And The Temperature Rises.

If It Rains Tonight, The Skrats Should Start Moving A Little Better.

Thanks For looking.

Stay Tuned.

w