Im gona collect rat droppings from the rats I catch and place them on a few of my floats, just to see if it makes a difference.

Well It must have some effect since I have had pvc stakes chewed off that were wiped with some rat lure. While the ones not wiped with lure didn't get chewed off. Same goes for the wood stakes.

We use lure for every thing else we trap why not rats. I'm going to keep using lure when trapping rats.

I agree, worst case senario is that it doesn't work

On a float - rat crap and a green stick. everything else is just to make you feel good.

Remember this confidence fills more streachers. And confidence Is pretty much how one feels about a situation. So If I feel good about using lure I'm building my confidence. Using lure or bait will not lessen your catch.

Depends beav, I'll say by the time you fiddle around with a piece of whatever, and/or uncap your lure bottle I will have another trap or 2 set. We all know, in the rat game, it's about sheer numbers of traps out.

BUT, IF I were in WI with the goofy rules I might go with some bait or something on rare occasion.... Maybe.

I dont know if i'd bother with that....the purpie pancakes that cover the bank in the spring that have rat musk squirted all over them, that are real pastey, is what you want. In the dakotas they are handy all over the bank and you really dont have to go out of your way much for them.......they will really perk up your float along with a carrot like right now as you are saying they arent hitting them real hard yet....once they get going hard they usually cover up your float for you. Ill keep a small riggers bag in back of truck and when I see 3-4-5 all in a row ill throw in the bag for later, or ill just make it a point to grab one going back to truck and slap it on a new board in the truck thats still bare. some floats get covered so heavy they start sinking floats nearly...

Funny thing, in SD most of the local boys dont put a thing on their floats, and these guys have been float trapping for years and years....they kinda just ride out that first week after ice when they havent started climbing on them good and just wait it out or a few would bait with carrots.

It was in ND Ive had my highest coon incedentals on rat huts in the fall, think 8 in one day.

Les, I noticed this fall nearly every time on my notch or or pocket (I dont dig any huge hole as some on here are ASSuming I do) or boot tip hole, I was sticking a carrot into the notch.......ya know how they will fill your notch back in? nearly every time id find my carrot packed back in the notch, and not hardly ever a single bite out of them, so i stopped using bait on the side of the hut. Now 30-40 ft away on catttail edgeline, have 2 baited conis 3 ft apart with carrots and catch doubles.....saw this patttern over and over....My guess that in the fall, they are worried or wired to build huts as fast they can, and any incursion into the hut immediatly gets packed back in and repaired. they are more worried with fixing the house than tending the garden I guess. Just a little boottip notch is all it takes, and the notch itself becomes the attraction....and just this notch alone zeros in the coon if they are hunting huts......add lure to this and youve got about a good of coon pocket as one on the bank baited with fish......I had just read somewhere recently, that the biggest predator or muskrats is actually raccoons....kinda explains why guy catches coon on rat huts commonplace if they are out there hunting rats on the huts......and ive caught plenty on huts 50 yards from bank..always wondered what the (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) is a coon doing this far out away from bank...all kinda adds up really...not so sure many of the eaten caught rats a guy gets are the work of coon as much as mink really.

So if you cant even dig a notch or shelf into a hut in WI, how the heck to do even trap a hut in open water....lay your trap down however it happens to lay there at a 45 degree angle ready to slide off into the water?....no wonder you never catch a coon on a rat hut!

Pulled a little spring rat line on a small lake the other day last day our season, and got me my personal best record that day!.....18 1/2" largemouth bass....measured him by the squares on the cage........I imagine the self proclaimed greatest colony trap trapper on here will have some great advice for me to avoid bass catches, just like catching coons in rat sets..........LOL

It is just a boot tip notch for me too, and I have also caught coons out in a reed bed of rat houses a ways from the shore or sandbar shore of the lake. I didn't notice the rats filling in the hut notch, but I did discover that it was coon, not mink as the greatest rat predator up here in the later years. In the fall of "14" I lost about 10 rats per day, until I started making rat carcass pocket sets and started hammering coon. I hadn't seen ret predation to that degree ever by coons, and started out thinking it was mink doing that.

If that rat house has the look of an otter landing to it....that's what you'll catch, and a duke 1 1/2 isn't enough trap. Might as well set a 165 or a #2 . And stake for it too, as the rat house landing wont be there after you catch an otter, lol.

And that Is coming from the best self proclaimed spring rat trapper on this forum. LOL

Nebr has had a spring rat season since around 1980, and I started spring trapping around 81......never said I was the greatest, but I have done it more than 3 times....LMAO!

I trap mostly from the truck/road for rats. More sloughs than you could wish for. Floats work well here in spring and in fall. I would say 70% of the rats where I trap use bank dens. I've used lure on floats and have never noticed a difference in catch ratio lured verses non lured.

When you have a high population of rats they are going to be all over your floats. Less rats and less action on your floats. Rat season is usually a full out set and run season. Messing with lure in my opinion is a waste of time. I found with our smelly slough mud the easiest thing to do was to grab a handful off the bottom of the slough and throw it on the float. Smelly and a visual attractant.

All that being said I have not used floats for a few years. I strictly use coloneys now because it's flat out the best system for catching multiple rats, and way quicker to set and go. I can probably set 40 round coloneys in half an hour or less,and catch more rats then someone running 100 floats with two traps on each one. If you can't use coloneys than I understand why you use floats.

My floats are made out of 3/4 plywood with a 2x2 on each side. 9 inches wide. No styrofoam and they float just fine. Cut a hole in the centre 2 inches round and use fibreglass poles to anchor for water fluctuations. Don't remember who said you miss a lot of rats but everybody should sit for a few hours watching your own floats. You'll learn more about rats than you can ever imagine.

We had a very dry year here last year and most of the rats have disappeared. Sloughs where I could catch 100 rats every year are now bone dry. The big lakes still have rats but not sure what kind of numbers. Was blessed the last ten years with incredible rat numbers.

Will probably test the spring season if it ever warms up here. Was ice fishing the other day and had to drill through 27 inches of ice. Open water is a ways off but if it warms quick the ice could disappear real quick.

My two cents!

Purple? Must have bulrush. Most of our "beans" are tan, pink or green

It is possible that tan is purple, to Rich. He just might see in a different color spectrum.

ok lavender then....lol

I noticed the purplish colored crap in the Dakotas when we trapped out there. The water is very different too. Much more acidic and has a totally different smell than our usual
sweet smelling swamp water smell.

That nasty slew juice does a number on traps too don't it.
First turn green then almost black to bright orange red rusty color in weeks time...
If you have any nicks or cuts on your hands it will do a number on them too

Opening winter huts out there about knocked my socks off the first couple times, too.

I stepped into a pond in the spring in SD that was as white and thick as milk. I was too scared to set a trap for fear what I might catch.

I was skinning rats on my tailgate one day and fed my dog 2 chunks of rat about the size of dimes. She was deathly sick for about a week. Barely moved at all.

I had a rat swim up to the bank, then onto the road where I stood. Then up my pant leg to about my beltline before I swatted him off. Zombie rats.

Something in the water out there...I didn't drink it.

I was giving you the business Rich. Ive been fascinated by the rainbow of color in rat turds from one place to the next, always related it to what they are eating. Here cattail dominates and tan is the predominant color in the fall and winter months. Trapped a river once that was cattail lined but loaded with seaweed, few huts with many rats. There they preferred the seaweed and pooped a crazy green. Man that seaweed grows a good rat. Sawgrass is pink and the poorest rats in the swamp. Purple is the color of Spring. Maybe there’s more to it?
What’s in a rat turd?

What’s in a rat turd?.....I'll take a crack at it.....rat sheeet? LOL

Cavin, Im standing in water taking a rat off float at night, and rat cruises by about 2 ft out. im looking for something the thunk him with and he pulls a hard left, swims straight into float climbs up and gets caught in other trap while i got 1st trap in my hand, with the float right between my legs......I kinda wondered too what horrible death would await a guy if he took a singe gulp of that water.......I set a small flowage that was blue-ish green-ish, more trailer trash turquise to be exact....couple colonies....walking back up ditch I thought "why the (*&^ did you even set that for"......look down from truck and think surely there cant be a rat alive in that stuff.....come back next day and 3-4 rats in the 2 traps, and they got this green-blue flim on them that wont wash off, couple miles down road and they are still in the traps and i look and them and looks like a worm farm all the leaches are crawling off them....wemt down to a weed patch in ditch, and heaved traps rats and all in the weeds....

those freshwater shrimp are kinda scarey too if ya never seen them before.