Actually the best-and I mean very very best spots that I have caught rat after rat after rat for the whole season was the stinkiest rank water that you could imagine in a ditch next to a marsh.Like I am talking putrid smelling goo-that I dreading stepping into in waders each time I stopped and got out of the truck.went from a 2 position float to 2 -4 positions and a double position by the end of the season( ya 10 traps at one spot).On more than one occasion I had double catches in one trap-5 rats on a 4 position float-go figure.It went on like that for 14 days straight till it froze.sO i would say they love the stinky stuff up here too!!

I know a lot of you guys are doubters on the lure etc..and ya poop and muck works good too.But heres a story for you to wrap your head around;

Guy meets me a few years ago trapping the same area I am for rats.Comes over and introduces himself etc..nice guy.Asks me if i mind if he traps rats in the same areas as me.So I say no not at all-just don't steal my stuff and we'll be fine.Shook hands and went on our way.

Fast forward 5-6 years and he has become a very good hard working rat trapper-that never was before we met-like never.He has asked a lot of questions over the years and has thanked me many many times for helping him along the way.

He runs the same areas I do with about the same amount of traps.So this year at the NAFA open house he confronted me and asks why do I always catch so many more rats than he does? He and I both float trap.He also states that last spring his float would be 10 feet from mine-I would have 4 traps down and he would only have one.He pulls me aside and asks the question-"what are you doing different than what I am doing" "you always catch more rats than me each and every year spring and fall" I use a rat lure from Lennons-I replied.Now this is only me and my story so don't go chewing away at my head-just saying-this is a true story.

By the way guys I have only ever caught one raccoon on my floats over the years-go figure.

Its a quick smear and its good for the whole season-waterproof-easy peezy-it certainly does hurt my catch.

If your catching that many more with the lure, than what he is, why did ya tell him what your using?..LOL....Ida filled him to the brim with "good ideas" especially if he is trapping right on top of me......

If you doubt rat lure, you never used any Carman's Hudson Seal.

Rich- ya that DAKOTA water is wicked tough on any exposed steel. Here in Wisconsin we can go 2-3 years between dipping or painting traps but each year we trapped out there we needed to dip them or the darn traps would have probably dissolved in a couple weeks of use.

I don't use lure all of the time on floats but I have. After reading about MB coonguys story I'm thinking more tests need to be run!!

My off season fix is to open up one of my bottles of LENONS and take a big ars whiff. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

MB Coonguy - speaking of rancid water......

In ND one spring we notice a 4'-6'- wide x 1' deep ditch on both sides of the road flowing out of a small towns sewage treatment pond. NASTY HUMAN CRAP WATER!!!!

So we put in a row of 5-6 colony traps side by side on each side of the road.

This ditch flowed into a small river. Anyway - we named this spot the DEATH WALL.

EVERY day we we caught 15-20 rats on both sides of the road. One stop -5 minutes 30-40 rats.

Frigin awesome.

I have never used a lure for rats, but a piece of a rat carcass will catch as many rats as it will anything else, it's a heck of a lure .

I agree, it's a lot of skinning.

Traps could be the difference MB. I've watched rats walk all over traps on floats. Mine included and freshly tuned...or so I thought. (makes you change your tactics). And for those who've never seen it, they just won't believe it's happening to them. a lot of guys traps miss more rats than they catch.

I've used Hudson Seal, ADC. It is my favorite rat lure around here. I have a half bottle left... I doubt I'll ever use it. Well unless I move to WI

Good point Calvin. Especially with coils.
10 feet off may be another reason, some guys just got better “imaginations”
I don’t use lure either, even though I’m from Wi. We are forced to get creative.
Ill never say never tho. In near forty years of rat trapping my technique is constantly changing (if it wasn’t I’d probably got bored and quit)

Lol it’s always good to get a subordinate to test you’re theories the powers of persuasion

That and about any other one you wanna name....SSDD

Trapper les, research from Michigan showed the Raccoon as the most significant predator of muskrats in that state. Far exceeding the mink, owl, hawk etc. as so many folks think. That was a study in the marsh as creek rats or beaver colony rats that bank den may not be effected near as much. Coon will swim out to house and scare kits away-- then wait for them to return and catch them. This is why you will get one (usually a mature, big coon) on a house in the fall. Trappers don't think about the vulnerability of the kits and predation in April-May (when your 'rat crop is being made). Same with water levels in the July-August time frame when the 2nd litters are being born.

Coon are major here too, especially in the southern part of the state where you have more coon. It is becoming that way here, too. But not a big coon area to begin with.

Thanks to modern agriculture, we support more coon here now.

I think we all miss a lot of animals that "dance" around the trap but especially rats. I've seen them too - on floats not getting caught in finely tuned traps. I've even had rats take a dump on my trap pan and not have it fire. Then I fired the trap to test it and had it go off just fine. ??????? So what that means is rats must be messing with us or daring each other into doing those thing to make us try a little harder. Just a theory. (excuse)

I don't know If your traps have been pussified. I know once I heated the springs On my rat traps It made a big diffrence and Increased my catch rate. No matter how sensitive you adjust a trap with strong springs It's not going to be enough.

I found out a good trick for the dancers a couple of years ago by accident actually.Used to use baby carrots-that got to be pretty expensive so I switched to big carrots and then cut them into 1 inch long pieces and quartered them up.Well that was super time consuming when running 500 plus traps all fall.Seriously!

So one evening I grabbed our food processor-with the slicer blades in there-WOW-did that sucker slice up jumbo bilk carrots in no time at all.but this is where the fluke part came in,I too had rats leaving poop on my trap pans and the traps were hair triggered ta boot.1 1/2 Duke and Bridger Coils with Wild River trap pans on each.Well I decided to try something with the sliced carrots-slid them underneath the outer trap jaw-well guess what happened next check-lots and lots of head caught rats! Those little dancers aren't dancing anymore!!!

Meh-LOL-If I really wanted to kick his butt in trapping-I'd jump in the Jon Boat with the mud motor and run 5 times as many traps-for 3-4 bucks a rat-were just getting outside and having fun-enjoying it all ya know!

If I start taking down castles, those great big monster huts eyeball high, Ill intentionally set them with 2 bridgers, since you get so many head catches and they are DOA, requiring no excavation and mining operations to recover your rat....I was always wanting to weld a small screw to pan to anchor a carrot....no so sure you could get to a 80-90% DOA head catch ratio, for place where ya needed it......