Nimzy-floats do work here in Wisconsin. Last year when we had that February thaw I got out 38 floats with 2 traps each plus 6 - 160s. I caught 70 something rats in 2 checks before it froze back up. This was on 1/2 mile of open marsh drainage that was trapped in the fall. This is what my floats look like- 1 x 8 with a 1" hole in the middle for a stake and a few 1/2" holes for bait-no nails. The triangle wedges on the corners was to help keep the trap in place in the waves in high wind DAKOTAS.

Spring trapping in Wisconsin would be AWSOME!!!!!

The reason-I believe- floats work so good in the spring is -1 FOOD -fresh green food-BAIT. 2- SEX-SEX-SEX. -LURE.-LENONS or a bunch of rat crap. 3 - HIGH WATER- there are very few established resting, eating, socializing places for rats to crawl up on that a easy access place especially on edges.

In ND My best day was 199 on the first check of the day and 167 on the second check of the day. My nephew skinned almost all day every day for many days. Thousands.

I still dream about it. Maybe some day it can happen here or there again.

It may be closer then you think. To my knowledge it is on the docket and left in the hands of biologists, our final threshold. Please correct me if I have misspoken.

That is one reason this thread is so interesting. Another is flushing out the men that dream muskrat.

It is a little farther away that you think Nimzy if you are talking about the Conservation Congress Resolution.

That resolution in on the ballot this year as a fur harvest committee question. Question 32
https://dnr.wi.gov/About/WCC/Documents/spring_hearing/2018/2018SpringQuestionnaire.pdf

If it passes, then it would head over to the department and into our biologists hands.

All that said, I have heard rumblings that legislators could pick up this topic next session. Stay tuned.

I stand corrected. Thanks Marshrat! Guess we need to vote AGAIN! It’s always a good idea to go to the hearing and testify for positive change.

Historically outdoors folks have given this support. Contrary to Our former fur czar who was instrumental in its stall. Good riddance lol.

fur czar! now thats funny - but true

I can tell where a guy float traps by how they are built , many of the floats I’ve seen that are the flat plank wouldn’t work here in the spring too much flowing water and current , soon as water drops here to where the rats are able to go back to the banks floats are low percentage again




Water is dropping in this pic , but still flowing very fast



This pic is what it looks like peaked out , that water you see is a field not a pond lol

are you guys using muskrat gland lures on your floats for the spring? Does it help?

Absolutely-use Lennons-the stuff is great!!!

Absoutey-it will catch more coon on your float-so bring some spares.......Myself I find a good glob of slew mud, or better yet slapping a big purple rat pile on your float does more good than any lure

You may catch a coon or 2 but It's worth using some type of lure on those floats.

Only thing lure did for me was take up my day chasing down coon. I didn't notice any catch increase with the lure side by side on floats in the spring, personally (and I tried several different brands side by side on non lured floats). There was a certain grass I found along the roadside (and certain baits) that increased my catch but lure didn't where I was at. Mud and poop did as well.

I quit using rat lure in the fall that same year...and glad I did. No decrease in rat numbers per set but I spend less time chasing coon (and beaver) around the marsh with a hunk of rebar. And that equates into more rats at the end of the day. It also takes time to lure sets. That time is better spent setting more rat traps.

But if lure works for you, go bananas. I was convinced it worked for me for years and years...until I quit using it.

I do think there are certain situations where a lure may be of benefit, but those situations are so few and far between, It never gets off my lure shelf anymore.

Do you have coon up there in Canada MB?

Isnt mud and poop an attractant, lure?

You can wrap green flagging material around your stabilizer and rats will go bananas over It.
Ask a few ND rat trappers what a little poplar bud oil will do at float.

There may be 1 pull out on rat hut so you set one trap. I will set at least 3 traps on a hut. And lure will get those rats to where I want them not where they might go.

popple bud oil, sweetflag oil, peppermint, spearmint, fennel, rat gland, even high dollar genuine carrot seed oi at $12/oz.....all will have ya chasing more coon around the marsh but the rat catch about same with or without....if ya gain in percentage points its a single digit increase at the very most.........

mud and purple piles have a visual going for them that no lure adds and i think thats the key.......

I hate to say it lure is more a security blanket for rat trappers and most all that use and swear by lure are just too scared to give up their Linus blanket....and if your too scared to give it up, how will ya even know that you can live just fine without it?

Even wonder why I never sold a rat lure while in the bait/lure buz?....couldnt sit there and b.s. everyone looking them straight in the eye......

Ive set 2-4 traps per hut 100 and 100s of times, and the one pull out on the hut dont do any better than a hole kicked in side of the hut, and ive seen the actual pullout go dead before my own set of my own making doz and doz of times....and all w/o a drop of lure

If I was to pick something that made a difference, it would be a fresh cracked open clam, and a squirt of shellfish....dont know what it would do on a marsh, and I aint lugging buckets of clams in to find out, but on a coon river line if youve got clams handy, start packing them back in pocket and see if you catch more rats or not......

Yup, it is .

A piece of parsnip in that hole kicked in the side of the hut, makes a difference. Coons will eat it though, beaver wont come to parsnip in the spring when they'll go nuts over popple, and not in the fall at all.

Must be a heck of pile of coon where you trap so maybe you have all these problems. I don't seem to have all these coon problems where I'm trapping. And you just can't go kicking holes In rat huts In WI.
I'm going to use lure It's just another tool In the box.

And I would much rather be putting some lure on my stools or floats then be running around looking for rat crap. If I find rat crap I leave It and make sets at that location.

Lure or not, never seen a difference. I feel like if a rat is using it as a convenient place to haul out, it doesnt care what it smells like.

Used anise, and a few commercial ones.