keets-That'a a nice one! If it were mine I'd have it tanned.

Moosetrot

Nice Fisher keets!
Great catches as well Fossil! How do you like the baited sets vs. hut busting? We dont have that opportunity here. Pretty cool too 3 generations on the ice. I enjoy taking my daughters too, partially the reason for getting into under ice rats. It made it alot easier for them to come with and have fun at the same time. I checked some traps tonight. Cold nights the last few has been making ice. Also picked up an otter in the baited bodygrips. As I approached the last set in the darkness I was thinking to myself how nice it is to end a check with a critter in the trap. Otter tag filled! A pic ive posted before but one ill always enjoy!

Nice action deerfly!! I hope your young ladies can keep the idea of wildlife as a natural resource use in their heads through adulthood. We need more people who can think past their fancy coffee drink and their Twitter feed... The critter in your 3rd pix, is that just a mrat? It seems so big. I bet you pulling that otter out was a surprise! That's part of fun of trapping, sometimes you never know what your going to catch, especially when you can't see the trap until you bring it up!

Keets- Cool moves with the fisher!! Its one critter that's on my bucket list before I kick off from this piece of rock. I won't know if you've home tanned anything but with fisher being a fairly rare critter compared to more common ones, I think even a rough tanned one could be sold for more than an Andy Jackson on ebay. The cleaned up skull is probably worth more than a Hamilton as well. Check with your state regs about doing these things. Rules are different across the country. Good luck on your decision on how to market your fisher.

deerfly,,,,good job on the rats, and filling that otter tag too. was the otter in a rat set, with a carrot, and a single spring trap?

we like setting the push ups and feeder huts but we never mess with the larger huts, and always just skipped those. with the baited sets, we can set the ones we used to skip. some sloughs seem to have mostly big huts and few feeders, so we now have more opportunities on these same sloughs. looking forward to getting back out on a new slough soon. we haven't set baited conis near any smaller feeder type huts, only the biggest ones. anxious to try them on the feeder huts next. keep after 'em.

Fossil, otter was in a carrot baited 159!
Cable nice opposum too!

deerfly,,,no wonder that otter was such a surprise. not many trappers can say they've caught a vegan otter in a muskrat trap. haha. years back, I walked past someones rat set. they drove a steel rod fence post down through the trap ring, and impaled an apple on top of the fence post. just shook my head as I walked past, as there were feed beds and huts everywhere the other trapper could've set instead. a couple days later there was an otter in that apple set. back then, you couldn't take otter in that zone, and I wondered how the other guy released that thing. catches like your otter really make things interesting.

finally got something to post first fox of the season and got some under ice rat gear out yesterday for number 920 haha

nice rats to deerfly this is the first time since my first season im really trying to get some under the ice got to get some footholds out tomorrow in the small feeders

Just a few critters on my mixed line but got to get a buddy and his boys out today. The skunk was a surprise and really got the littlest one fired up. I am thinking of having it tanned for him.

Got a nice mink Thanksgiving day.

My biggest beaver so far this year is this 53 pounder that I snared

nice job guys!! pretty skunk

Nice pics guys! That skunk is a beauty...

12 more got some huts sleeved herd a rat jump at a few of them feeling pretty good about them got alot more to set who knows maybe this winter trapping thing isnt to bad...

nice critters guys!

I have to give a shout out thanking Muskrat for his great demos at the WTA events. Most notably, I've implemented his advice on bottom edge sets. Wow. The results are great. It's safe to say I'm a huge B&E set fan. I've trapped 23 muskrats on 1 farm this season...mostly all on bottom edge sets. I see very little rat sign at this farm, and haven't found any dens/huts/runs there, but I'm nailing them on the B&E set. It's been fun. Got that mink in a B&E set there, too, with a carrot on a 110.

another 12 looks like its gonna warm up quite a bit might have to set coon traps out again haha

never tried the bottom edge set but i dont mess around rivers very much

This, to me, is the most exciting attribute of the bottom edge set. No sign, no tracks, no scat, no huts, no bank dens, no chewings, no diggings . . . and yet the bottom edge set will take muskrats.

Reminds me of the title of a book on muskrat trapping written back in the 80s by Gerry Barcella entitled: THE MUSKRAT: MARSHLAND WANDERER. Indeed, the muskrat may be more of a wanderer than most of us realize.

I am setting one small stream with some bottom edge sets. Not doing real well with about 6 in 5 sets over a week. I put out 5 colonies two days before we got the 1.75 inches of rain!!! Took a while to get the water down enough to wade in and pull them. Sure glad I secured them well. 3 of them were chuck full of wet leaves and debris.
Have been doing some sloughs and marshes the last week. Sign is down in most areas. We got 36 in two checks with 45 sets. I got 4 off a small slough next to my house.


Bryce

23 more and another fox

getting some at least eh bryce

I set no BE colonies or bodygrips 'til winter sets in. That usually translates into stable water conditions, little or no debris flowing downstream, and, IMO, the 'rats and mink are more on the move underwater than prior to cold weather and ice up. Plus . . the kits have had another month or two to grow.