...for the landowner this season?

As I said on some other threads, I haven't muskrat trapped since 2011 because there were hardly any around here. But the water returned last year and this year there's a lot of hut building. I sent out 2 letters to a couple of landowners a week ago, not really expecting any replies (the one wetland I tried before a nunber of years ago). In my letter, I said I'd be willing "rent" his slough either by a certain fixed price up front or a certain amount per rat. I was surprised in that the guy with the easiest access just called me and wants to talk. Sounds like he had someone else ask as well but that guy probably didn't offer a cut on the "operation". The landowner did tell me that there was a 2nd slough over the hill that I can't see from the road that also has a good number of huts so the rat potential just went up. Sure beats doing the sunrise race to the huts on public land this Saturday. I don't mind paying for sole access to choice habitat...

I never have and never will pay to trap. I have enough land owners paying me that I don't have time to do them all.

I think this will be the trend in years to come. JMO

Amen -- I use trapping as a fringe benefit to my business (irrigation service work). I work with alot of the local farmers and have more land to trap than i can cover in our season, and the benefit of that is i can charge for removal in the peak season if i want to.

Wasn't that many years ago in SD that the rats were ruining roads and the pop. was in the millions. Land owners were begging people to kill them all, find it hard to believe one would have to pay for access. They must have short memories.

Trapping is a public service. Similar to hunting. I pray that it never gets sexy like hunting and we have to pay just to trap.

A lot of money got paid to trap the Horicon Marsh this year.

People pay money to do all kinds of things, don't mean it pencils out.

Never said it did. In this market I wouldn't pay to trap a slough in SD. Maybe give the landowner an apple pie. There is a lot of water out there.

Wait a second, are they trophy Ratos de Aquas?


Would any of them go 6lbs?

Yeah, different situations for different folks.

No irrigation here so no canals to wreck.

This guy lives off of a state highway, rats aren't going to wreck that one. About the easiest access for me to water trap I've had in years.

I agree with you Steve that there's a lot of water around but each place comes with variables. Not all of them pan out. I'd actually prefer hard water trap most of what I've seen the kast couple of weeks but I think we're going to get dumped on for snow this winter. Fiiled in snow pack sloughs pretty much suck...

Brilliant!

i guess the question is how much money are you willing to throw away to be able to trap rats on this place? I understand this because there are some places i trap because they are good customers and some places i trap because they ask me or i want to. Different scenarios. I usually figure that i get about 3$ a rat-- in my sector I certainly would not pay more than .50 per rat for the privelege of beating myself up. I look at it as yes they are doing me a favor -- but i am also doing them a favor, and anything that they get back to help mitigate their issues is a great value to them.

Prime habitat has value. Especially in terms of muskrats. It takes a special piece to be worth that consideration.

A willingness to pay for the privilege, even a token amount, insures serious interest and commitment which moves you to the front of the line

People pay trespass fees to hunt, camp and fish. I have never heard of it for trapping before but that doesn’t mean it isn’t going to be that way in the future. Having exclusive rights to prime private land should be worth something.

Just make sure the landowner is aware of what rats are bringing nowadays. If you offer 50 cents per rat, their perception will be different if they think rats are worth $10 each vs $3 each.

May be easier to just offer a flat rate so there's no question at the end of season that you may have shorted him. That way it's more like you're paying for access rather than a cut of each rat. But as you can see, most here don't and/or won't pay for trapping access (big marsh bidding aside) so you probably won't get much first-hand experience from others. Just comes down to finding a number that makes you both happy.

Yep. Agreed. Funny how I won't pay to hunt pheasants in this state whereas plenty of other people do but I'm willing to pay to catch some rats. Maybe its the magnitude difference between the two prices. Maybe I find trapping alone more fun then pushing a field with 18 other guys who turn into 3 when bird cleaning time starts. So it goes...

50 cents a rat in this market is likely the majority of the profit if there even is any.

If you're determined to pay for the sake of sewing up a piece of ground that is close and quality habitat, I'd offer $50 maybe a $100 if you think you can catch 500 rats out of it this winter.

right now, per rat, 10 cents per... The market is more about quality, fall rats are quantity.

unless you're looking to pay for the experience of trapping muskrats.